The vandalism of the Captain Cook statue, St Kilda

The statue of Captain James Cook, in the Catani Gardens St Kilda, was the victim of  Australia Day vandalism in the early hours of January 25, 2024. The statue was sawn off at the ankles, discarded on the grass and the plinth was graffitied. The Police are investigating. 

The statue was made in England by John Tweed, from the same cast as the statue installed in the town of Whitby in England, where Yorkshire born Cook lived for nine years from the age of seventeen. The pedestal and the bronze plaques were made in Victoria. Andrew Stenhouse, a local businessman who lived just opposite the Gardens on Beaconsfield Parade, donated  £500 towards the cost of the statue and this was supplemented by other donations. The statue was unveiled on December 1, 1914. 

The vandalism was a disrespectful act towards the statue of a man who came from a humble background and became one of the greatest explorers in history, though had never set foot on what would become Victoria, and whose life ended in 1779 in a brutal Hawaiian altercation, where he was buried at sea.

 The Premier of Victoria, Jacinta Allen, has been quoted as saying We'll be working with council to repair and reinstate the statue in St Kilda.

Two days after the  statue was vandalised, a monument to Captain Cook in the Edinburgh Gardens in North Fitzroy was also toppled and  graffitied. The Police are also investigating this incident.

UPDATE - In February 2025 the Captain Cook Statue was restored.

The Captain Cook statue, St Kilda foreshore.

State Library of Victoria Cyril Stainer collection of glass lantern slides, Image H2013.223/36

The plinth of the statue, with boots still attached. 

Image: © VanishedVictoria, taken January 26, 2024.

The plinth of the statue

Image: © VanishedVictoria, taken January 26, 2024.

The Captain Cook Society website notes that there are 124 monuments or memorials to Captain James Cook world-wide. In Australia there are 41: 7 statues, 3 obelisks, 5 cairns, 9 plaques, 1 marker and 16 other memorials

Sources

• Melbourne Statues of Queen Victoria and Captain Cook vandalised on Australia Day eve https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-25/melbourne-captain-cook-queen-victoria-statues-vandalised/103386996
• Patrols ramp up across Melbourne after Captain Cook statue desecrated https://www.9news.com.au/national/st-kilda-vandals-cut-captain-cook-statue-from-base-in-melbourne/e3ff8847-c7ba-4fe1-9106-6bbe1e78bf3b
• Carlo Catani, Andrew Stenhouse and Captain Cook's statue in St Kilda https://carlocatani.blogspot.com/2019/09/carlo-catani-andrew-stenhouse-and.html
• Captain Cook Society https://www.captaincooksociety.com/
• Captain Cook monument toppled in Edinburgh Gardens https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-28/captain-cook-monument-toppled-edinburgh-garden/103398688

Ornamental fountain, Catani Gardens, St Kilda

The St Kilda Fore Shore Committee was established in 1906 and oversaw the on-going reclamation works on the St Kilda foreshore and the commissioning of the gardens which would be named in honour of Public Works Department engineer, Carlo Catani, in 1927. Catani was also an inaugural member of the Fore Shore Committee. In addition to the lawns and gardens, landscape cultural beauties, and other means of adornment (1) were added. One of these adornments was this fountain, which has vanished.

The fountain was on the site of the English Pierrots pavilion and it was unveiled in September, 1929 (2).  

St Kilda's new ornamental fountain

The Herald September 6, 1929 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/244006597

The fountain in the Catani gardens.

Image: Cooper, John Butler The History of St Kilda from its first settlement to a city and after 1840 - 1930, v. 2

 (St Kilda City Council, 1931), between pages 210 & 211.

The fountain, surrounded by palm trees.

The Fountain and Gardens, St Kilda. Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. 

Image dated c. 1925-1954

State Library of Victoria Image H32492/7274

It was an elaborate fountain, with some delightful features,  which was surrounded by a circular pond built of stone work, which in turn was surrounded by a circular garden bed. The statuary consisted of five pedestals – the central tallest one was surmounted by a light and decorated with four kookaburras.  On the other four pedestals  stood a statue of a boy, described as a Peter Pan figure, each holding a bowl. At the base of the statue, between each outer pedestal, was a frog (3). You can see these details in the photo below.

The fountain, showing the kookaburras and the frogs.

Detail  of the Fountain and Gardens, St Kilda. Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. 

Image dated c. 1925-1954

State Library of Victoria Image H32492/7274

Another view of the fountain, which is partially hidden by the light pole in the centre, but it gives a good indication of where it was located in the gardens.

View in Gardens, St Kilda. Photographer: Rose Stereograph Co. 

Image dated c. 1925-1954, I would estimate late 1940s. 

State Library of Victoria Image H32492/6580

The fountain is at the centre top of the gardens.

St Kilda. Victorian Railways photographer. Image dated c. 1945 - c. 1954.

State Library of Victoria Image H91.50/841. 

This photograph has been cropped, see original here http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/450624

When did the fountain vanish? It was still there in the 1950s, as you can see from the photographs. The State Library of Victoria has a later aerial photograph dated c.1950-c.1960, which shows the fountain. The photo is still under copyright, but you can see it here.

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Footnotes

(1) Cooper, John Butler The History of St Kilda from its first settlement to a city and after 1840 - 1930, v. 2 (St Kilda City Council, 1931), p. 209.

(2) The new fountain was reported on in The Herald, September 6, 1929, see here; The Herald, May 15, 1929, see here; 

(3) Prahran Telegraph, October 4, 1929, see here.