The Riverview Tea Gardens were established in 1910 by Daniel Hicks on his property overlooking the Maribyrnong River, on Canning Street, Maribyrnong (the area is now known as Avondale Heights). The gardens were popular with picnic parties who arrived by boat. One of the attractions was the White Lady statue - a woman standing on a plinth with a kangaroo, half her height, beside her.
The Riverview Tea Gardens. You can see the White Lady statue to the left of the Tea Rooms.
Maribyrnong River, Maribyrnong, c. 1910-1930. Photographer: Robert Macedon O'Brien.
Detail of the image above, with the statue in the bottom left.
Daniel Hicks owned the Tea Gardens until the 1940s. The statue remained there until 1976 when it was moved to the grounds of Flemington High School, in Epsom Road. Around 1980, Leanne White wrote an article on the statue for the
Flemington Express -
An Historic Statue
Staff and students at Flemington High School erected an historic statue at the school recently. Although the monument has now turned a pale green with age it has a fascinating history.
The statue was originally situated in the Tea Gardens next to Canning Reserve. In 1910, a boatman named Hicks brought 112 acres and transformed it into an enjoyable area for residents. He established the famous Tea Rooms, tennis courts, a dining hall and also a miniature zoo. In 1934 the Hicks family built a large paddle steamer to carry 209 passengers form Princes Bridge and Studley Park.
The War put an end to these beautiful Gardens and for years the buildings have been a target for vandals. Students from Flemington found the statue in 1976 lying headless in the undergrowth and the teachers supervised bringing it back to school. Weeks late the head was found and years later Mr. Gerald Tighe decided that this unique statue which had once played a large role in the history of Essendon should stand once more. (1)
An Historic Statue by Leanne White, c. 1980
Image: Leanne White, from Lost Melbourne Facebook page.
Flemington High School closed at the end of 1992 and the site was sold to Harness Racing Victoria, the buildings are now the headquarters of the Victorian Racing Club. Leanne said that the statue was still there for a number of years but apparently, it ended up out the back of the building (lying as rubble) for a while. (2)
A report in the Mail of September 18, 2002 noted that the damaged, headless statue was taken to the former Keilor Council depot in Keilor Road to await restoration funds, but disappeared before anything was done. (3) It is thought that the last time the statue was seen was the mid-1990s, after the Council amalgamations in 1994. (4) If so, it is only one of many historic records or artefacts which disappeared during those times.
In 2002, the Moonee Valley Council commissioned a replica of the statue. The sculptor, Weining Ling, created the statue based on photographs supplied by the Hicks family. It was unveiled in Canning Reserve, Avondale Heights in November 2002. (5)
The photograph of the Riverview Tea Gardens, as seen at the top of the page, was posted on the Lost Melbourne Facebook page on January 21, 2020. In response to the image, Leanne White posted a number of comments and newspaper articles on the White Lady statue, including the one above from the Flemington Express. Some of Leanne's other material has also been used in this post.
When contacted by Vanished Victoria, some years ago, Moonee Valley Council officer Russell Beer, Coordinator Horticulture & Public Space, supplied us with copies of seven articles on the White Lady statue, dating from 2002, which were used for this post.
Footnotes
(1) White, Leanne An Historic Statue, published in the Flemington Express, c. 1980.
(2) White, Leanne - comment on Lost Melbourne Facebook page, January 21, 2020.
(3) O'Toole, Lara White Lady Reborn from the Mail, September 18, 2002
(4) Taylor, Peter After 20 years, welcome the White Lady from the Monee Valley Leader, November 11, 2002.
(5) O'Toole, Lara White Lady Reborn from the Mail, September 18, 2002
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