Southgate Fountain by Robin Boyd

The Southgate Fountain, designed by Robin Boyd. was officially 'turned on' by the Governor of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks, on 1 November 1959. The fountain, reported to have cost £23,000 was given to the City of Melbourne by an anonymous donor, described as a man who has a great love of Melbourne and desires to see its advancement. 

Southgate Fountain. Photographer: Peter Wille.

State Library of Victoria Image H91.244/2775

The Age newspaper noted that - 

The water jets are automatically controlled. On a still day, time clock mechanisms cause the water to rise and fall in accordance with a regular, slow rhythm. As the wind rises, the higher jets are cut off until, in a gale, the curtains are reduced to a waterfall. The water falls into three cone-shaped bowls - the largest 60 feet in diameter, one below the other, on the sloping laws of Snowden Gardens.

Snowden Gardens were on the west side of Princes Bridge, on the south side of the Yarra River. The unveiling of  the fountain prompted the Chairman of the City Development Association, Mr R.F.G Fogarty to state that he hoped Melbourne would develop into  a 'City of Fountains'. Sadly, this fountain barely survived 25 years. In 1974, the City of Melbourne presented the Snowden Gardens to the State Government to build the Arts Centre Concert Hall (Hamer Hall). 

In December 1975, The Age  reported that the existing fountain in Snowden Gardens would be removed to the other side of the new plateau, beside the concert-hall complex of the centre. The three acre garden 'plateau' was to provide a pedestrian link from the Snowden Gardens to the Arts Centre. This work was expected to commence in March 1976 and this is the likely date that the fountain was dismantled and put into storage, awaiting re-erection on the new site, which never happened. Another Melbourne fountain - vanished. 

Southgate Fountain, c. 1960-1964. Photographer: Mark Strizic.

State Library of Victoria Image H2011.55/1880

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Sources

Council names City Fountain - The Age, 13 August 1959, p.5
Fountain turned on - The Age, 2 November 1959, p. 3.
Land for the People - The Age, 14 March, 1974, p. 14
Arts Centre will get Garden link by Richard Goodwin - The Age, 24 December, 1975, p. 3.
City of Melbourne City Collection has 12 photographs of the construction of Southgate Fountain https://citycollection.melbourne.vic.gov.au/