By EMMA SUN
LESS than a month after arriving in Emerald, the town’s newest icon Mali the elephant statue has already been badly damaged.
The work of art was unveiled at the PAVE festival on 13 April and was purchased by Emerald for Sustainability (EmFSus) for $5000 using money collected through the community for animal conservation programs.
The statue was initially placed outside the Emerald Library, and after talks with Cardinia Shire Council about ownership and insurance problems, it will now be relocated to the garden area beside the library.
Treasurer Sarah Cole said the new location was the best possible outcome.
“This really works for us, it’s a positive move which eliminates some of the sticking points we had with ownership – we can retain ownership and still have her on council property, which is the best outcome,” she said.
“We’ll keep her in an area where she can still be enjoyed by everybody and has security, such as CCTV.”
However, Ms Cole expressed her disappointment on the incident, which happened over the Mother’s Day weekend.
A sharp object was used to scratch into the statue over the top of the artwork on the side of the elephant, spanning about 60 centimetres in diameter.
“I’m furious – it’s been a huge slog to get her here and it’s been a real community effort, so it’s an attack on the community,” she said.
“It’s something that we’ve done for the community too and to have someone in the community turn around and do that is very disappointing.”
Ms Cole said the group was in the process of identifying the perpetrator and had also contacted the artist to have the statue repaired.
“We’ve got CCTV footage to see if we can identify who it was and we will be calling the police to discuss this with them,” she said.
“We’ve contacted the artist and he has offered to come back and fix it, so it will definitely be fixed.”
