SYDNEY (Reuters) - Two statues of colonial figures were vandalised overnight in the Australian city of Melbourne, ahead of a contentious national holiday on Friday marking the arrival of the British fleet that colonised the country more than 200 years ago.
A statue of British explorer James Cook, who mapped the east coast of Australia and claimed it for Britain, was cut at the ankles and defaced in St Kilda in south Melbourne. A second statute of the British Queen Victoria was also daubed in paint.
