Alleged Sydney Captain Cook statue angle grinder vandals revealed

Protesters who allegedly took an angle grinder to a 145-year-old statue of Captain Cook in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Sunday have been identified as climate activists.

Protesters who allegedly took an angle grinder to a 145-year-old statue of Captain Cook in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Sunday have been identified as environmentalist Emily Starr and Sydney man Matthew Elliott Clark.

Ms Starr, who is from Melbourne was arrested, along with Mr Clark, who lives in Roseville, on Sunday morning after allegedly attempting to cut the statue off at the ankles.

The couple allegedly erected a rudimentary pulley and rope system to allow one of the two to climb to the top of the nearly five metre high statue and attempt to slice through its ankles with an angle grinder.

Emily Starr was one of two activists arrested on Sunday for allegedly taking an angle grinder to the statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park.

They only allegedly managed to get halfway through Captain Cook’s right ankle before they were apprehended by police around 1am.

The pair were charged with malicious damage, possess article with intent to damage property, armed with intent to commit an indictable offence and wilfully damage or deface a protected place. No pleas have been entered.

Both Ms Starr and Mr Clark were granted conditional bail and will appear at Sydney Downing Centre on July 22.

A friend of Ms Starr and fellow protester who had not been present on Sunday morning told The Daily Telegraph that her phone had been taken by police at the time of her arrest.

Ms Starr is known as a professional protester who more recently has been associated with the Extinction Rebellion and other climate change-related protests.

Anti-Adani protester Emily Starr at a protest blocking access to the Abbot Point coal port. Picture: Frontline Action on Coal

Ms Starr was one of two activists who were arrested in Queensland in July 2019 in a separate incident, protesting the construction of Adani’s Carmichael coal mine. Ms Starr and another activist locked themselves onto a 44-gallon drum full of concrete on the Abbot Point railway line near Bowen preventing the use of the railway crossing for six hours.

The Bowen Magistrates Court heard the pair had placed their arms inside a concrete pipe and locked on to the drum.

A close up of where the statue was cut, The Captain Cook Statue was vandalised on Sunday. Picture: Damian Shaw

The court was told police had to use power tools to break open the barrel to release the pair after they refused requests to self-release from the drum.

At the time, the pair each separately pleaded guilty to trespassing on a railway, obstructing a railway and contravening a direction of police and were given a 12-month good behaviour bond.

It is not suggested Mr Clark was involved in this earlier incident.

The Captain Cook statue in Hyde Park was vandalised on Sunday. Picture: Newswire / Gaye Gerard

At the time of the Queensland incident in 2019, Ms Starr also wrote a submission to the Queensland government in opposition of a bill outlawing protesters who lock themselves on to sites in order to interfere with trains and transport infrastructure.

In her submission Ms Starr said she believed “locking on” is part of the human right to protest.

“I am a student from Melbourne, I have put my studies on the back burner because I believe

there is no point in getting my degree while we plummet into a climate crisis,” she wrote at the time.

“My future is on the line no matter what decision I make at the moment because of the inadequate support of my leaders and I am severely disappointed.

“I believe locking on is a part of the human right to protest. We are at the point where we

have no choice but to make measures even more disruptive because we are not being

heard. It is our democratic right to be listened to.”

The Daily Telegraph attempted to contact Ms Starr for comment.