Statue of Former Premier Vandalized: Ankles Sawn Off and Spraypainted
The Aboriginal community objected to the statue of William Crowther being taken down because of a stolen skull incident.
A former Tasmanian state premier’s statue was vandalized by being sawn off at the ankles and sprayed with graffiti, a part of the movement to topple statues of figures associated with colonization.
William Crowther’s statue was discovered face-down in Franklin Square in Hobart CBD after being sawn off at the ankles and defaced with phrases like “What goes around” and “decolonize.”
An earlier attempt in May was left incomplete when vandals stopped sawing two-thirds of the way through.
Despite the vandalism, the decision to remove Crowther’s statue had already been made by the council in August 2023.
This removal was considered unique, as it would be the first colonial statue removed in Australia with council endorsement.
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Although the decision passed 8-2, it faced an appeal in the Tasmanian Tribunal of Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT).
The argument that removing the statue would diminish the site’s heritage value, made by objectors, was rejected.
When approving the decision, TASCAT President Malcolm Schyvens stated that the environment would not suffer adverse effects.
“The understanding of this change will be promoted through appropriately located temporary signage, which will eventually be replaced by permanent signage.”
William Crowther
Crowther (1817-1885) was a medical doctor interested in phrenology, a discredited field suggesting that skull bumps indicated intelligence levels and character traits.
His theory posited that Aboriginal Australians were less intelligent than Caucasians.
In 1869, Crowther broke into a Hobart hospital and removed the skull of an Aboriginal man named William Lanne.
After the removal decision in 2023, Ms. Reynolds explained, “The statue of the former doctor and Premier had been troubling for Tasmania’s First Nations people for generations due to his involvement in William Lanne’s head removal.”
She added, “Crowther was not the only one engaging in this discredited ‘racial science,’ but he is the only one with a prominent statue in Hobart’s main square. Moving this statue does not alter history; the associated records, books, articles, dates, and stories will remain the same.”
Other Defacements
Several councils in Australia have opted not to remove vandalized statues of historical figures despite ongoing defacements.
In April 2023, a statue of Lachlan Macquarie in Windsor’s McQuade Park was splattered with red handprints and spray-painted with “murderer” before an ANZAC Day service.
