Decision not to return Burke and Wills monument back to Melbourne’s CBD prompts outrage

A decision to banish a monument to two of Australia’s most well-known colonial explorers from the centre of Melbourne has sparked outrage in Victoria.

The Burke and Wills monument, sculpted by Charles Summers and unveiled in 1865, had previously been located on the corner of Swanston and Collins streets until 2017 — when it was removed to make way for the Metro Tunnel Project.

Since then it has gathered dust in storage.

But instead of being returned to the spot where it has resided for more than 150 years, the monument is now slated to be sent to the Royal Society of Victoria on LaTrobe Street.

The society is yet to decide what it will do with it.

The two explorers famously set out to map the interior of Australia from Victoria up to the Gulf of Carpenteria in 1860, but a series of unfortunate events meant their ill-fated mission ended in tragedy.

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett blasted the decision, according to The Australian, saying it was “fundamentally wrong” not to return it to its previous home.

“It’s not only absurd, it’s wrong and it’s a reflection that sadly this government is not respectful of our history,’’ he said.

RSV president Rob Gell said local Indigenous groups would be consulted about what happened next.

One of the options is understood to be a First Nations sculpture depicting the role of the Yandruwandha people of South Australia who helped save John King, the only one of the 19 explorers to survive the expedition.

Liberal MP David Davis said the monument should have pride of place in Melbourne’s CBD.

“Our British and European heritage … is a part of the State’s history that can’t be airbrushed out or willed away by a politically correct focus by Labor,” he said.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece said the RSV would be a “fitting home” for the monument, saying Burke and Wills were “heroes of Melbourne in the 1860s”.