Dean of Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral Wangaratta, Ken Goodger, confirmed Cave offered to fund repairs to the baby Jesus while he was in town for the ​sold-out Conversation with Nick Cave show.

Fr Goodger said the nativity scene was vandalised sometime on January 3.

The cathedral is fitted with CCTV but the offender has not yet been identified.

“Someone has obviously tried to pull the Christ child’s head off but haven’t managed to,” he said.

“The figure is made of epoxy resin so it’s fairly tough but there’s a very disturbing crack across the neckline.

“It’s a bit annoying but unfortunately that is the way of things nowadays.”

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Fr Goodger said he ran into the Wangaratta-raised musician on January 4, the day after the baby Jesus figurine was attacked. 

“It was quite fortuitous,” he said. 

“I was over there doing some work and Nick and a couple of his entourage showed up and I was able to open up the cathedral and show them through.

“He hadn’t been in a good number of years.”

Fr Goodger said they were still determining the best way to repair the baby Jesus or whether a new figure would need to be purchased. 

“Nick suggested whatever we do he’d be willing to make a donation,” he said. 

Answering a question posed by former Indigo mayor Jenny O’Connor, Cave confirmed he would contribute to “help restore the infant Jesus’ head to his body”.

“It seems the very least I can do, all things considered,” he wrote. 

Cave said Wangaratta and the cathedral had shaped him – calling his previous comments about the town ‘foolish’, ‘unfortunate’ and an affront to the town and his younger self.

“When I visited the cathedral, where I had spent every Sunday morning and Tuesday night yawning my way through morning mass and evensong as a chorister, I was overwhelmed – this holy place had, without me even knowing it, forged so many of my ideas about the world that remain true to me to this day,” he wrote.

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