A statue of Governor Lachlan Macquarie has been defaced in Windsor, NSW.
The statue, which stands in McQuade Park, was doused in red paint with red hand prints spotted across it.
“Here stands the mass murderer who ordered the genocide” and “no pride in genocide” were written in black spray paint across its base.
“Lest we forget the frontier wars” was written in red paint on the pavement next to the statue.
It’s believed the statue was vandalised between 6am and 7am.
The Anzac Day dawn ceremony took place in the park at 5:50am.
The statue of Lachlan Macquarie that stands in Windsor was vandalised in the early hours of ANZAC Day. Source: Twitter / @5NewsAustralia
When Ms McMahon saw the statue, the paint was still “significantly wet”.
“To me, it had been done quite recently,” she said.
“I am really saddened there are members of our community out there that think this an appropriate way to get their message across.”
The vandalised statue in Windsor. Source: Twitter / @5NewsAustralia
“To have this done on a day of such national and local significance to me is appalling,” she said.
Police were called to the scene at 7:55am and have since launched an investigation.
It isn’t the first time statues of Governor Macquarie have been targeted.
In 2017, the same statue was vandalised with the word “murderer” on January 26, in protest of Australia Day.
In the same year, Macquarie’s statue in Hyde Park Sydney was also defaced.
In 2020, a Sydney man was charged after onto the statue’s base.
The quote comes from a passage in Macquarie’s diary, in which he states his intent to punish “hostile natives” by “clearing the country of them entirely”.
A week after the entry, the former governor ordered what is now known as the Appin Massacre.
On April 17, 1816 a military reprisal raid killed 14 Dharawal and Gundungurra women, children and men. Some were killed by bullets, the others driven off a cliff at Appin, into the gorge of the Cataract River.
A commemorative plaque at the approximate site of the Appin Massacre Credit: Panoramio
