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/

Anne Graham Fountain at the Southern Cross Hotel

One of the features of the Plaza at the Southern Cross Hotel in Melbourne was a fountain designed by Anne Graham.  The Age interviewed the artist in May 1962 and reported that the fountain was in the shape of two spiral boomerangs,  50 square yards in area and covered by 1/16th of an inch mosaic tiles in blues and greens. The fountain was constructed by a party of 40 artists, art teachers and students, under the supervision of Anne Graham.  The article also noted that she had studied the art of mosaics at workshops in Italy in 1960, under an Italian Government art scholarship. On her return, Anne had created two mosaics - one in High Street, Malvern of birds in flight and the other in Geelong of the Madonna and Child. 

Anne Marie Graham was born in Austria in 1925 and arrived in Australia with her family as a 13 year old. She studied at the National Gallery of Victoria and the George Bell School  and in the early 1960s lectured in Architecture at Melbourne University. In 2016, when she was 91, a retrospective of her paintings, Anne Marie Graham: A Survey 1956-2016, was held at the Without Pier Gallery in Melbourne.

The Southern Cross Hotel was opened on August 24, 1962 by the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies. It was built on the site of the old Eastern Market, on the corner of Bourke and Exhibition Streets. The Hotel was closed in April 1995 and completely demolished by 2003. 

What happened to the fountain? Presumably turned to rubble like the rest of the Hotel.

Anne Graham's fountain at the Southern Cross Hotel.

Southern Cross Hotel and Fountain at Dusk. Image: Melbourne in Full Color postcard booklet by Nucolorvue.

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Sources
Melbourne Artist is responsible for Mosaic in New Hotel - The Age, 1 May, 1962, p.8.

Art here is Individual - The Age, 1 December 1960, p.14.

People are Artist's Speciality by Maureen Bang - Australian Women's Weekly, May 14, 1969, p. 12, online here.
At 91, Melbourne artist Anne Marie Graham opens a retrospective by Hannah Francis - Sydney Morning Herald 5 August, 2016, online here 
Anne Marie Graham entry - Australian and New Zealand Art Sales Digest, here 

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.