THE iconic statue depicting prime ministers Ben Chifley and John Curtin has been vandalised with Chifley’s pipe sawn off at the mouth. 

The $200,000 Peter Corlett bronze scupture, on Walpole Cresent in Barton, was commissioned by the ACT government in 2010. It recreates a photograph taken by Don Stephens in 1945 of Curtin and Chifley, then Treasurer, on a walk they often took from Kurrajong Hotel to the Old Parliament House.

Corlett says work is underway to replace the pipe and he expects it to be completed soon.

John Curtin was Australia’s 14th prime minister (1941-45) and Ben Chifley was to become its 16th (1945-49).  Both of them strongly encouraged Canberra as the new capital of the nation.

Curtin and Chifley routinely walked this route to the Provisional (Old) Parliament House from the nearby Kurrajong Hotel, where Labor MPs generally stayed, while Parliament was sitting.

The then chief minister Jon Stanhope said at the time the work was commissioned: “It reflects an important era in Canberra’s social history when politicians would stay at the Kurrajong Hotel and walk to work at Parliament House.”

It was unveiled by then prime minister Julia Gillard on September 16, 2011.

Corlett is a leading Australian figurative sculptor, best known for his full-figure portrait sculptures cast in bronze, including the Australian War Memorial’s sculpture of Simpson and his donkey.