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Councillor Andrew Bond, who voted against the motion, said the statue’s reinstatement had the support of the Boonwurrung Land & Sea Council, the Traditional Owners of the area.
Bond read from a letter he said the council had received from Jason Briggs who represented the Boonwurrung council.
“The statue should be repaired and replaced back in Catani gardens. To not reinstate the 110-year-old statue of Captain Cook would not only undermine the wider communities’ heritage but our first nation’s heritage as well,” he said.
Bond said the fact that the resurrection of the statue was even being debated was a reflection of the demise of the Victorian education system.
“Captain Cook is one of the great historical figures of our time and the fact that we are here tonight to discuss the destruction of a stature dedicated to his many great historical achievements says so much about the decline of the education system in this state,” he said.
The council was advised the $15,000 estimated cost of repairing and reinstating the statue would likely be covered by insurance, excluding a $5000 excess. Community consultation on its future was expected to cost about $12,500.
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Port Phillip chief executive officer Chris Carroll said the statue’s resurrection would still be dependent on council’s budget, despite the majority support from councillors.
The recent vandalism was not the first time the Captain Cook statue has been targeted, with memorials for Cook becoming a focal point of Australia Day protests recently amid growing concern over what January 26 represents.
The sculpture was doused in paint during a protest in 2022 and vandals poured paint over the statue’s head on January 25, 2018.
Victorian Liberal MP Georgie Crozier called on Premier Jacinta Allan to honour an earlier commitment to “repair and reinstate the statue” in parliament this week.
“There are so many people who are ignorant about the history of Captain Cook and the extraordinary discoveries that during his time, and I would ask that the Premier follow through with her commitment and speak with er ALP councillor counterpart to have him withdraw his motion and that this statue be reinstated as promised.”
A spokeswoman for Allan said the state would work with the council if it decided to reinstate the statue, but ultimately the decision to reinstate was one for council.
Last week The Age revealed the City of Yarra is considering permanently removing a granite memorial to Captain Cook from Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North and scrapping it from its collection after the memorial was vandalised in the days after Australia Day.
The granite monument at the entrance to the gardens was broken from its base and spray-painted in red with the words “cook the colony” on January 28, and had been repeatedly vandalised in the past.
