Graves at the Hall Cemetery were desecrated in an Anzac Day attack described by authorities as the "lowest of the low".
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Thieves took 46 plaques from the old grave site, an inexplicable crime, given they were worth just a few hundred dollars.
A large eagle statue, roughly one and a half metres high, was also taken.
The theft has shocked cemetery staff, who say that replacing the plaques will cost between $15,000 and $20,000.
But that money is nothing compared to the hurt and pain caused to families of those that lay in the graves, ACT Public Cemeteries Authority chief executive officer Hamish Horne said.
Mr Horne described the act as "despicable".
"This is the lowest of the low, this is as bad as it gets," he said.
Mr Horne has warned scrap metal merchants about the theft, in case the offenders try and sell the bronze plaques.
Friends and relatives of those laid at the cemetery were at the site today, and were visibly distressed by the desecration.
