Windsor Macquarie statue defaced at Anzac Day protest

The statue has been the target of protests before. In 2017, the statue was spray-painted with the words “murderer” as part of an Australia Day protest.

Monument Australia, an organization that records monuments across Australia, states on its website that the statue was commissioned during celebrations of the 200th anniversary of European settlement in Hawkesbury in 1994.

“There is controversy surrounding Macquarie’s dealings with tribal peoples,” the website reads.

“In April 1816, Macquarie ordered soldiers under his command to kill or capture any Aboriginal people they encountered during a military operation designed to create a sense of terror. At least 14 men, women and children were brutally killed, some shot, others thrown over a cliff.”