Bronze bust statues of former prime ministers vandalised in Ballarat

Police in Victoria are investigating a vandalism spree in Ballarat which has left new sculptures of former prime ministers damaged and decapitated.

Transcript

00:00Every Prime Minister since Federation up to Malcolm Turnbull has been honoured with a

00:06profile here on this pathway 90 minutes west of Melbourne. But this morning, none of the

00:11statues got to see the sunrise. The damage done to these creations has been hidden from

00:16public view as Victoria Police continues a criminal investigation. At some point between

00:212 and 5am yesterday, an unknown number of vandals came and removed the heads of two

00:26of the busts and spray painted on 18 others. It amounts to tens of thousands of dollars

00:32worth of damage and it's left the sculptor, the people that look after these gardens and

00:36many others in Ballarat devastated. Police are looking for help to track down the culprits.

00:41We have some CCTV that we're still working through at the moment that hopefully we'll

00:44be releasing soon. We're keen to talk to the occupants of a white ute that was seen in

00:50the area around about that time Thursday morning, white ute with a canopy and there

00:56was a number of people in that ute that we came to speak to. This week's vandalism comes

01:02nearly five years after the busts of Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott were

01:07also defaced. At this stage police say they don't believe the two incidents are related

01:12but they are working with the local council to determine whether additional security measures

01:16are necessary.