Statue of British Monarch Beheaded During King’s Birthday Public Holiday

The video shows a person covering the statue’s plinth with red paint and spraying the phrase ’the colony will fall,' while also citing pro-Palestine slogans. 

A beheaded statue of King George V is seen in Kings Domain, Melbourne, Australia on June 10, 2024. AAP Image/Rachael Ward

Activists have vandalised a statue of King George V in Melbourne’s CBD amid an ongoing campaign targeting the effigies of Australian colonial-era figures.

Footage on social media showed a person wearing a green high-vis jacket cutting off the head of the former British monarch’s statue in Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue, near the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.