Ben Chifley and John Curtin strolling is a statue many Canberrans walk past every day, yet since April the pipe of former prime minister Chifley has been missing.
All that remains is the small tip of a pipe, barely visible from Mr Chifley's stoic grimace as he stares ahead while Mr Curtin appears to be mid conversation on Walpole Crescent in Barton.
The National Capital Authority referred the matter to ACT police with little indication a perpetrator will be found, however the ACT government made contact with the artist, Peter Corlett, to arrange for a new pipe to be sculpted.
"The new pipe will be installed in coming days," an ACT government spokesperson said, leaving hope the statue would be restored to historical accuracy.
While it's a small matter, Chifley's pipe was a "trademark" of the prime minister, said Australian National University historian Professor Frank Bongiorno.
It raised the question on what the significance is of a statue many barely glance at each day?
"[Chifley was] always sucking on his pipe, smoking his pipe, stroking his pipe and that was very much a part of his self image as a working class man in politics," he said.
The broader statue depicts Chifley and Curtin walking together, as the two "were very close" when Curtin was prime minister and Chifley treasurer.
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"Both of them at different times lived at the Kurrajong Hotel, Chifley even as prime minister lived there so I presume it's kind of reenacting the walk between home and Old Parliament House," Professor Bongiorno said.
The two shared a similar fate, as Curtin died while in office as prime minister in 1945 and Chifley passed away when he was the Labor leader in 1949.
"I suppose some of the kind of mystique around them probably is partly related to that sense that they both died perhaps prematurely and while still effectively active politicians," Professor Bongiorno said.
"Interestingly, they are very different temperaments ... Curtin was kind of a nervy, sometimes irritable worrying type of person and Chifley looked like nothing in the world would ever worry him."
Professor Bongiorno concluded the vandal simply may have been "anti-smoking" and that it was "as good explanation as any other" as it was unlikely to be activists against historical statues.
"That movement to the extent that it had any effect in Australia has tended to focus on colonial figures ... I don't think Chifley has emerged as a target in that sort of way," he said.
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