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The monument is notable for deliberately writing Aboriginal people out of Melbourne’s history, as its original inscription refers to the city in the mid-1830s as “land then unoccupied”, according to the council.
A plaque was added to the monument in 1992 acknowledging Aboriginal people as the traditional occupiers of the land, and then replaced with another, more strongly worded plaque recognising Aboriginal people in 2004.
More than two dozen locations around Melbourne are named after Batman, including multiple parks, streets, avenues, a hill and a railway station.
But many have begun to look less than kindly on Batman’s role as colonist, including his involvement in the murder of Aboriginal people in Tasmania in the early 1800s.
Victoria Police was also investigating after a stage intended for an Australia Day citizenship ceremony at Ringwood was vandalised about 2am on Saturday, and two ceremonial flags were stolen.
Paint reading “the colony will fall”, “you are on stolen land”, “abolish Australia”, and “f—” the colony” coated the walls of marquees, where dozens of chairs were set up.
Member for Deakin Michael Sukkar said he was “disgusted and disappointed” by the vandalism, which Maroondah City Council staff were cleaning ahead of Sunday’s ceremony.
The Batman memorial’s toppling came after police launched an investigation into the beheading of the statues of two former prime ministers, Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd, at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens in the early hours of Thursday.
The name plates of another 18 former Australian prime ministers’ bronze busts were damaged, with police still hunting for the culprits as of Friday.
Police estimated the damage to be more than $140,000, with each of the stolen heads valued at about $50,000.
One of the prime ministers’ statues covered up after it was vandalised at Ballarat.Credit: Justin McManus
Port Phillip Council, meanwhile, has invested about $15,000 in security measures to protect its oft-defaced Captain Cook statue at Catani Gardens in St Kilda in the days surrounding Sunday’s Australia Day.
The statue, which was sawn off at the ankles on January 25 last year, is under 24/7 guard and the council’s mobile CCTV trailer is stationed nearby streaming to St Kilda Police Station.
The council has also paid $4000 for a 3D digital scan to be kept as a template of the Captain Cook statue.
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