Former State Premier’s Statue Sawn Off at Ankles, Toppled Over

The statue of William Crowther had been scheduled to be taken down after objections from the Aboriginal community due to an incident of a stolen skull.

The statue of former Tasmanian premier William Crowther is seen after it was cut down by vandals at Franklin Square in Hobart, Australia, on May 15, 2024. AAP Image/Ethan James

A statue of a former Tasmanian state premier has been sawn off at the ankles and vandalised with graffiti in what appears to be the latest incident in a wider movement aimed at toppling effigies of prominent people linked with colonisation.

The statue of William Crowther was found face-down on the ground in Franklin Square, located in Hobart CBD, after it had been sawn off at the ankles. The plinth on which it stood, had been spraypainted with the phrases “What goes around” and “decolonize.”

An earlier attempt on May 14 was left unfinished when vandals stopped sawing around two-thirds of the way through.

Despite the vandalism, Crowther’s statue was already scheduled to be removed after a council decision in August 2023.

“The City of Hobart’s standing as a welcoming and inclusive city has been further advanced with the Hobart City Council’s Planning Committee approving the removal of the William Crowther statue from Franklin Square,” the council said in a statement.

The decision was trumpeted as unique by the city, which said the council-endorsed removal of the colonial statue would be the first of its kind in Australia.

While it passed 8-2, the decision was appealed in the Tasmanian Tribunal of Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT).

An argument from the objectors, that the statue’s removal would detract from the site’s heritage value, was denied.

When ratifying, TASCAT President Malcolm Schyvens said the environment would not be negatively affected.

“The proposal will change the monument and its appearance by removal of the statue and placement of an adjacent sign,” he said.

“That may be regarded as having some negative outcome historically, visually and aesthetically, but there are also positive resulting impacts.

“An understanding of the change will be fostered through the appropriately sited and scale temporary signage, which is intended to be replaced in time with permanent signage.”

William Crowther

Crowther (1817-1885) was a medical doctor with an interest in the now-discredited field of phrenology which suggested that bumps on a skull could indicate intelligence levels and character traits.

His working hypothesis was that Australian Aboriginals were of lower intelligence than Caucasians.

Crowther broke into a Hobart hospital in 1869 and removed the skull of a deceased Aboriginal man named William Lanne.

Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said the trigger for the removal of Crowther came from discussions with Tasmania’s Aboriginal leaders who had approached the council about removing the statue.

“During discussions for our Reconciliation Action Plan a few years ago we became aware that the statue of the former doctor and Premier had been troubling for Tasmania’s First Nations people for generations because of the role he played in removing William Lanne’s head,” Ms. Reynolds said after the decision in 2023.

“Crowther was certainly not the only person making transactions in this discredited field of ‘racial science.’”

“But he’s the only person with hands-on involvement that has a prominent celebratory statue in Hobart’s main civic square. Deciding to relocate this statue doesn’t change history. The records, books, articles, dates and stories associated with the statue will all remain unchanged.”

Other Defacements

Meanwhile, other councils around Australia have not followed suit in removing any historical figures despite some being constantly vandalised.

In April 2023, a statue of Lachlan Macquarie located in Windsor’s McQuade Park in Sydney’s northwest, was covered in red hand prints and spray painted with the word “murderer” before an ANZAC Day service.

In March, Randwick Council in Sydney’s eastern suburbs announced it would not remove a statue of Captain James Cook that was vandalised with red graffiti and will instead undertake repair work.