The eco-anarchists of Extinction Rebellion have a new activity planned for Saturday morning, threatening to invade Melbourne’s Lincoln Square.

So what, you ask? Doesn’t it make a pleasant change from their blocking of CBD intersections and key public transport routes?

Yes, but Lincoln Square is home to Victoria’s memorial to the victims the 2002 Bali bombing. The Melbourne City Council website explains:

This fountain and landscaped site memorialises those who lost their lives or were injured by the bomb blasts that devastated Kuta, Bali, on 12 October 2002, and honours those who helped in the aftermath. It has been conceived as a place of comfort, the seating offering a place for quiet contemplation.

The memorial’s centrepiece is a low concrete platform in which two rectangular pools are sunk. These house 91 jets, representing the Australians who perished in the bombing; the names of the 22 Victorians killed are recorded on the sides of the fountain. The fountain’s 202 lights represent all who died that night. A plaque on the eastern side of the memorial lists the names of the Australians who lost their lives. On each anniversary of the bombing, the fountain recedes to become a reflection pool.

Melbourne City Council has already been forced to redevelop Lincoln Square following complaints from visitors and local residents about skateboarders damaging the memorial and leaving litter, including empty and broker liquor containers and homemade bottle bongs, behind. During the works, designed to make the memorial less conducive to skateboarding, riders allegedly tore down fences surrounding the building works, vandalised the memorial and smeared faeces on a shed, causing damages estimated by the then lord mayor Robert Doyle as costing “tens of thousands of dollars”.

And come Saturday, this “place of comfort” and “quiet contemplation” faces invasion by noisy extremists.

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.