Hobart City Council committee votes unanimously to remove William Crowther statue

A Hobart City Council committee has made a unanimous decision on the future of a controversial statue of former premier William Crowther in Franklin Square.

A Hobart City Council committee has unanimously voted to remove a controversial statue of former Tasmanian premier William Crowther from Franklin Square, with Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds saying the monument symbolised an “appalling period of our history”.

Crowther, who died in 1885, decapitated the corpse of Tasmanian Aboriginal man William Lanne and sent the skull to the Royal College of Surgeons in London.

For his mutilation of Lanne’s corpse, Crowther was suspended from his role as an honorary medical officer at the Hobart General Hospital.

Statues

The council’s Community, Culture and Events Committee voted to remove the bronze statue and commission a new interpretation and/or sculpture costing a total of $70,000, with the plinth to be retained and a new permanent home to be found for the statue.

It comes after a report from council officers recommended the Crowther statue’s removal.

The matter will be brought to a final vote at the next ordinary meeting of the council on Monday, August 15.

At a meeting of the committee on Thursday night, Ms Reynolds, who is not herself a member of the committee but supports the removal of the statue, said the monument was the only one of its kind in Tasmania to depict someone “so closely involved with a terrible scientific tradition that was racially based”.

“He’s the only (statue) … that does represent and symbolise that really appalling period of our history in Tasmania,” she said.

Lord Mayor of Hobart Anna Reynolds. Picture: Chris Kidd

The committee heard six deputations from the public, including from Nala Mansell, the campaign co-ordinator of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, who urged the council to “start righting the wrongs of the past” by removing the statue.

Isla MacGregor presented a deputation on behalf of historian Ian McFarlane, who specialises in the history of Tasmanian Aboriginal people from the state’s north-west.

Dr McFarlane argued that the “attacks made on Crowther’s reputation” were “spurious and defamatory”.

Alderman Will Coates said he believed the “bar” for the removal of the statue should be “pretty high” and noted that not all Aboriginal community groups supported its removal.

‘Extremely sad’: Crowther family want divisive statue to stay

A descendant of William Crowther says it would be “extremely sad” if his statue was removed from Hobart’s Franklin Square saying he was not a “cruel or evil man”.

Hayden Windsor, who is Crowther’s great, great, great, grandson says his family agree that a plaque recalling an incident in which he stole the skull of Tasmanian Aborigine William Lanne should be included “but the removal of the statue is inappropriate”.

The Hobart City Council’s community, culture and events committee will meet on Thursday night to consider a report recommending the partial removal of the bronze statue and commissioning of a new interpretation and/or sculpture costing $70,000.

Mr Windsor, a New Norfolk real estate agent, said the statue was erected in recognition of Crowther’s lifetime of service and achievements and was funded through public donations.

He said Crowther was a scientist, surgeon, early anthropologist, and leading political voice of his time who was an obsessive collector as shown by his collections donated to the State Library and Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

“His statue should remain as a reminder and point of learning for us all.

“It would be extremely sad to see this monument further desecrated or removed.

“He was not a cruel or evil man, just a person of his profession- in what was an incredible period in our history.

“Tasmania was a vastly different place in the 1800s, a savage and precarious frontier. Science, medicine and basic human rights were barely recognisable from what we enjoy today.”

Mr Windsor understood the Crowther story was “intertwined with the tragic fate of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people but said the statue’s removal “simply detracts from that history”.

He said his great, great, great grandfather was “publicly ridiculed and punished by the relevant authorities” for the Lanne incident.

“It has always been my opinion that a significant public memorial should be created in Hobart, dedicated to the story of not just William Lanne, but the tragedy that was the final days of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.

Statues

“I would ask that the Hobart City Council leave the statue in place for further generations to be able to look back at our shared history, to appreciate our present achievements and strive for a better future.”

Mr Windsor said his family would be happy to take possession of the statue to secure its safety.

Committee chair Councillor Zelinda Sherlock said if the committee and council supported the statue’s removal it was still to be decided where it would be housed.

“It will be a staged process and the council may decide not to remove the statue,” Dr Sherlock said.