A statue of Captain Cook was vandalised in Australia amid growing debate about whether to change the date of the annual Australia Day holiday from January 26, which marks the arrival of British settlers in 1788 but is known as "invasion day" by the nation's Aborigines.

In an incident that follows controversies elsewhere over monuments to British colonialist Cecil Rhodes and to Confederate leaders in the United States, vandals poured pink paint over a 104-year-old Melbourne statue of Captain Cook, the eighteenth century British explorer.

The words “No pride” and an Aboriginal flag were painted beneath the explorer’s feet.

Separately, the word “stolen” was painted on a statue that commemorates the ill-fated 1860 "Burke and Wills" expedition led by Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills, who died on a trip from the south of Australia to the north.

The incidents come amid a growing push to change the date of the national holiday from January 26.

Aborigines have protested against the celebrations for decades, saying the arrival of the British settlers should be marked as a day of mourning - but the protest has attracted growing public support in recent years.

Some have proposed moving the date to January 1, when Australia’s colonies broke away from Britain to form an independent state in 1901.