Big Frog Mural, Murrumbeena

The Big Frog mural in Murrumbeena  by artist Anthony Breslin was installed on the side of the building, located on the corner of Murrumbeena Road and Railway Parade, and officially 'unveiled' on June 5, 2021. It is 50 metres long.  On July 29, 2024 the mural was removed.

The mural is based on The Story of Big Frog  from Anthony's book Brezania, and represents the confluence between Big Frog, a character who follows his dreams from growing up in a little pond to performing all around the world, and Murrumbeena’s Indigenous roots and historically swampy landscape. (1)

Murrumbeena Big Frog Mural, posted by Alpha on Flickr

   https://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/53253137448/

The project was organised  by the Rotary Club of Caulfield to celebrate 100 years of Rotary and was funded by the City of Glen Eira and community donations.

The building has recently changed hands and the mural removed.  The tenant of the building is reported as saying that the new owner wanted the mural removed, however this was disputed by a spokesman for the owner who said  We had no knowledge of the arrangements with council, the artist and with anyone, this came as a big surprise. The owner is happy for the mural to go back to its original position, we are happy to play ball in every possible way. (2)

The empty wall after Big Frog was removed.

Photographer: Gemma Scerri, Moorabbin Kingston Leader, August 5, 2024

This happy mural which brought much joy to the community has still not been re-installed. Murals are popular expressions of public art, but this case does raise the question of what protection they have if they are painted on a  private building and ownership of the building changes hands.

We will update this story when Big Frog has returned.

Footnotes and Sources

(1) Anthony Breslin Mural Launch https://www.murrumbeenavillage.com.au/breslin-mural-launch/

(2)  Devastated locals want answers after Murrumbeena mural ‘Big Frog’ disappears by Gemma Scerri

Moorabbin Kingston Leader,  August 5, 2024 (see here)

The Murrumbeena Art Wall - A Gift of Inspiration  https://www.rotarydistrict9800.org.au/stories/the-murrumbeena-art-wall%E2%80%93a-gift-of-inspiration

The theft of Garry the Gorilla

Whilst not exactly 'high art' this is a good news tale of a well-loved sculpture that was stolen from a retirement community in St Helena, which is north of Eltham, but was found and has now been reinstalled.  The story is from The Guardian of July 3, 2024. 

Mysterious disappearance of Garry the gorilla leads police helicopter to Melbourne back yard
A month after it was allegedly stolen, Victoria police will return a beloved gorilla statue to its rightful home at a Melbourne retirement village after using its air wing to find “Garry” in a back yard. Garry, a 1.5-metre statue, was reported stolen from the Leith Park retirement village – north-east of the Melbourne CBD – on 6 June. Police said in a statement they were not willing to “cop this kind of monkey business” when the statue was reported stolen, so investigators “threw their all” into locating Garry.

After “extensive investigations”, police narrowed in on a residence in Reservoir, roughly a 20-minute drive from the retirement village. The force’s air wing was called in for the task, and helicopter pilots spotted the statue in a back yard. A search warrant was executed at the residence on Monday, and police were set to return Garry to the entrance of Leith Park on Wednesday afternoon.

Tim Nelson, the executive manager of marketing for Abound Communities, which owns the retirement village, said residents were excited about Garry’s return, with one woman even baking cookies. “One of our residents bakes cookies with her grandson and takes the cookies over to Garry, so I spoke with Robyn this morning and Robyn’s already baking cookies ready to take back when Garry arrives this afternoon,” he told Guardian Australia.

Nelson said it was a resident who first noticed Garry was missing last month. They said “G’day” to him in the morning, but when they returned in the afternoon, Garry was not there. Police said that investigations into the alleged theft remain ongoing, and anyone who witnessed anything suspicious or who has CCTV footage is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

Garry, who is 1.5 metres high was donated to the retirement village, along with two other African animals, by Northcote Pottery.  

Garry the Gorilla

Image: Victoria Police

Update: The Herald -Sun reported on July 6, 2024 that a man has been charged with the theft of the gorilla and a number of other offences and will face the Heidelberg Magistrates Court on  August 30.

References

Mysterious disappearance of Garry the gorilla leads police helicopter to Melbourne back yard from The Guardian,  July 3, 2024, read here. 

Police recover and return Garry the stolen gorilla, Victoria Police website July 3, 2024 read here.

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

Not without Chomley sculpture at Gasworks Art Park

The City of Port Phillip issued this report on their Facebook page on November 27, 2023 -
Someone has stolen part of the bronze sculpture ‘Not Without Chomley’, by artist Anne Ross from the grounds at Gasworks Arts Park. The sculpture is part of the City of Port Phillip Collection, purchased as a gift to the people of South Melbourne in 1991. We are asking for any information on the whereabouts of the single standing dog, in the hope that it is returned.  The contact details for the City of Port Phillip can be found here 

The complete 'Not without Chomley' sculpture

Image: City of Port Phillip Facebook page

'Not without Chomley' sculpture, November 2023

Image: City of Port Phillip Facebook page

The Gasworks Arts Park was established on the site of the old South Melbourne (later the Metropolitan) Gas Company works. During May and June 1991 the GAS Outdoor sculpture exhibition was held at the park and 'Not without Chomley' was one of the sculptures created for this exhibition. 

A report in The Age in May 1991 noted the risk of potential vandalism -  showing sculpture in a public place has its difficulties - the artists have been rostered on site 24 house a day not to offer guided tours but to protect the works from vandals. The City of South Melbourne purchased 'Not without Chomley' in July 1991 and it was the first permanent installation in the Sculpture Park. 

Sadly a few months later Anne Ross' sculpture fell victim to vandals. The original sculpture was of cement fondu, which was all the artist could afford at the time; this was a fragile material and it was smashed with a sledge hammer. The City of South Melbourne had it recast in bronze and it has been on display and enjoyed by many for the past thirty years.

'Not without Chomley' is  now incomplete as the little dog has been stolen. If you have any information contact the City of Port Phillip, details here.

Sources

• City of Port Phillip Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/cityofportphillip
• Grogan, Robert Gasworks to Gasworks: from an industrial complex to an Arts Park - https://www.gasworks.org.au/about-us/history
• Lancashire, Rebecca Sculptors out in the open -  The Age 22 May, 1991, p. 13
• https://www.gasworks.org.au/visit-us/public-sculptures/not-without-chomley

The theft of the Pride of Australia nugget in 1991

 An interesting Vanished Victoria story has been published on the State Library of Victoria (SLV) blog - The unsolved mystery of the ‘Pride of Australia’ written by Sarah Matthews - 

Found near Wedderburn in 1981, the ‘Pride of Australia‘ was the largest Victorian gold nugget on display in Australia. Its name was a tribute to its malformed shape, which was said to resemble the continent of Australia (albeit without Tasmania). In 1985, the State Bank Victoria forked out $250,000 to purchase the nugget to stop it falling into the hands of overseas collectors. The nugget was displayed at the bank’s Bourke Street headquarters until it was borrowed by the Museum of Victoria for a bicentennial exhibition....Once the exhibition finished, the bank agreed the museum could have the nugget on permanent loan. It was moved to the Stawell Gallery (now the Library’s Cowen Gallery) to form part of an exhibition called ‘The Story of Victoria’....The nugget remained on display in the gallery for several years until one winter’s night in 1991, a daring raid was conducted on the museum and the Pride of Australia gold nugget was stolen on Friday August 30, 1991 and has not been seen since.  Read the full story here.

The ‘Pride of Australia’ gold nugget. 

Photographer: Frank Coffa

Courtesy of Museums Victoria and the SLV blog

The Age had the following report on September 1, 1991 -

The theft of the nugget

The Age, Sunday September 1, 1991, p. 5 newspapers.com

How the nugget was stolen

The Age, Sunday September 1, 1991, p. 5, newspapers.com

Reward sought for the stolen nugget

The Age, September 7, 1991 p. 19, newspapers.com

Historic Melbourne glass negatives rediscovered

The Age newspaper published this good news story on October 14, 2023, written by Cara Waters. 

A  Mystery told through lens of History: A collection of forgotten photos found in a garage uncovered stories of the Melbourne of another time.

Louise McKenzie was cleaning out the garage after her husband died when she found a collection of glass plate negatives. The negatives turned out to be old photographs of Melbourne dating back from the 1930s. McKenzie has spent the last three years uncovering the stories behind them. The 240 negatives depict a range of moments from Melbourne’s history, from St Kilda swimmers on Christmas morning in 1933 to a fire at the Cathedral Hotel on Swanston Street in 1936.

‘‘My husband [Ian McKenzie] was a bit of a magpie,’’ McKenzie says. ‘‘He was an architectural photographer and he must have picked these up in the ’90s at a garage sale or the Camberwell Market.’’ The negatives had sat untouched in an old box in the garage for more than 20 years, and when McKenzie found them in the clean-out,  she knew she was onto something special. ‘‘They were obviously wonderful moments of Melbourne and Victoria,’’ she says. ‘‘ The photographer had scratched details on the back so I could tell where each photo was from.’’

McKenzie took the negatives into the East Melbourne Library to start the process of digitising, scanning and printing the photographs and trying to discover who had taken them. McKenzie, along with history lovers Ernie Ward and Fiona Collyer, signed up as City of Melbourne volunteers and joined forces with the council’s libraries’ community heritage team leader Linda Longley and local history librarian Fiona Campbell. They spent more than three years trying to unlock the mysteries of the negative collection.

‘‘I wanted to be involved as I didn’t want them to end up in the tip,’’ McKenzie says. ‘‘ When we started to do the scans it was just so exciting because they were of an era that I could still relate to.’’ The first negative they scanned was of the RMS Orford ship leaving Station Pier in Port Melbourne with streamers flying from the deck and crowds lining the shore to wave goodbye.

‘‘It was a fascinating time because it was the Melbourne Centenary in 1934 and 1935 and it was also the Depression and between the wars,’’ McKenzie says. ‘‘In the pictures that show children there are often some with shoes and some with bare feet. Contrast that with the marvellous electric lights put up in Melbourne for the Centenary, which were spectacular.’’

Many of the photographs have interesting stories behind them, which the team uncovered by going through newspaper archives, including those of The Age. ‘‘ The Orford was carrying our Test cricket and Davis Cup tennis teams to the UK, including Sir Donald Bradman,’’ McKenzie says. ‘‘The press were on board and radioed reports daily of the various activities including who got seasick. Joan Hartigan, the Australian Open winner, was reported as discarding her bright blue shorts for bright blue bathers and being first into the swimming pool.’’

A photograph of the dedication of the Shrine of Remembrance stands out because of the few women standing at the back of a sea of men in suits. ‘‘They are facing away from the Shrine and are holding up their powder compacts like a periscope so they can see over the backs of the men,’’ McKenzie says.

A photograph of a women’s golf match at the Royal Melbourne Golf Course in 1934 between Australia and Great Britain sheds light on a ‘‘huge controversy’’ at the time about women wanting to play golf without wearing stockings. ‘ One of them developed liquid makeup for legs so they looked nice and brown but it contained titanium so they had to abandon it in the war effort,’’ McKenzie says. Eventually, women were able to play golf wearing socks rather than stockings.

One of the newly discovered images

Source: https://whatson.melbourne.vic.gov.au/things-to-do/newsworthy-melbourne-in-photographs-1933-1936

An ongoing mystery was who had taken the photographs. ‘‘It took a couple of years but we finally tracked down the photographer,’’ McKenzie says. ‘‘I always thought he would have to be someone involved with the media or the press because of the number of significant events captured.’’ McKenzie and her team got in touch with The Age’s librarian, Michelle Stillman, who found one old page of the newspaper that featured three photos from McKenzie’s collection. They found more and more of the photographs in The Age’s archives and realised the photographer was the masthead’s first full-time photographer, Hugh Bull.

‘‘He had a job on Fleet Street [in London] but the company folded, so he came out to Australia with his wife, children and his camera, and within three days, he got a job at The Age,’’ McKenzie says. Bull arrived in 1927 and was initially put on probation at The Age for three months, but his status changed to full-time after he demonstrated his worth during a day at the races. Bull and the other photographers assigned to cover the meeting had limited visibility because the ‘‘foul’’ Melbourne weather made it difficult to photograph. While the others aimed their cameras and tried to take shots, he panned his camera in time with the horses passing by.

Bull was the only photographer to return with usable images of the winning horses that day. He ended up working as a photographer for The Age for 31 years. He produced a dynasty of press photographers – sons Dennis, Peter and Geoff all work in the trade and grandson Colin followed in their footsteps. Son Ken worked as a photo engraver. Bull passed away in his late ’90s.

Stillman says when The Age moved from its building in Collins Street to Spencer Street in 1969, any negatives from before the 1950s, which included Bull’s glass plate negatives, were discarded. ‘‘The new building at 250 Spencer Street was purpose built, and supposed to be the dawn of a modern age, where we didn’t need bulky old glass plate negatives cluttering up our new-beaut building,’’ she says. ‘‘The decision makers didn’t consider the history the collection represented, just the space they took up. It’s heartbreaking to think of the lost history on those glass plates.’’

Stillman says she was astonished to find out about McKenzie’s collection of negatives. ‘‘Considering people chuck out photo albums of their own family history, to have ... heavy but fragile glass plate negatives of unidentified images survive is amazing,’’ she says. McKenzie says the process has been a labour of love and is a great example of the joy of volunteering. ‘‘Whenever we showed anyone these photographs they got so excited about it so we thought we’d do an exhibition,’’ she says.

The exhibition, which has been named the McKenzie Collection, is being held at the East Melbourne Library and includes 50 photographs with some printed in silver gelatin, which was a commonly used process at the time. McKenzie says subsequent garage clean-outs have uncovered an old grandfather clock, but not much else. ‘‘I doubt I will find more,’’ she says. ‘‘But I will keep looking.’’

The exhibition, Newsworthy: Melbourne in Photographs 1933-1936, is on at the East Melbourne Library, 122 George Street and runs until December 10, 2023.  https://whatson.melbourne.vic.gov.au/things-to-do/newsworthy-melbourne-in-photographs-1933-1936

Vanished and Neglected in St Kilda

The St Kilda Botanical Gardens, also known as the Blessington Street Gardens, were once graced with a lily pond. This had been completed in August 1913. (1)  Adjacent to the pond is a drinking fountain, faced with bluestone. Historian, Patricia Convery, noted that the lily pond was dis-established in 1930, after a child drowned in it, and finally demolished in 1945. The death of the child is unverified. (2)  However, generations of oral transmission by local council gardeners posited the drowning death of a child in the pond as the precursor to its demise, which for the most part is supported by this divergent version of chronology is evidenced by The Herald of 11 December 1941 where the body of a baby, apparently murdered, was found in a fishpond in the Gardens (3).  The fountain remains in a neglected condition.

 Lily pond, St Kilda Botanical Gardens

St Kilda Historical collection 

https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/603efb1a092fbbe37f3e9644

St Kilda is also the home to another neglected bluestone drinking fountain, by Pier Road near to the Cowderoy Street Drain outlet. A photograph taken just over a year ago, shows it blocked and full of stagnant water and rubbish.

One of the issues with public infrastructure which is neglected by local councils or government departments, is that it encourages vandalism, and the attitude that these historic structures do not matter. We are unlikely to see the Blessington Street Gardens lily pond re-established, but couldn't the 110 year old drinking fountain and its Pier Road companion, be restored to working order? 

Pier Road neglected drinking fountain, July 2022

Image: © VanishedVictoria

Pier Road neglected drinking fountain, July 2022

Image: © VanishedVictoria

Acknowledgement

This posting was inspired by local gardener, Vu : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhKeYnvsycU&t=29s

Footnotes

(1) Prahran Telegraph, August 9, 1913, here.

(2) St Kilda Botanical Gardens: a social snapshot of its first hundred years by Patricia Convery 

(St Kilda Botanical Gardens, 2014)

(3) The Herald, December 11, 1941, here.

Lost or missing sculptures of Glen Eira

 Lost or missing sculptures of Glen Eira by Carol Stals 

Originally published in the Glen Eira Historical Society Newsletter Number 11, November 2016  and used with permission.

Glen Eira seems to have mystery surrounding some of their sculptures.

One sculpture was the work Kore by Karl Duldig which was unfortunately stolen from its base in the Elsternwick Shopping Centre in 2013 [from outside the Post Office in Staniland Grove]. It was quite a few days before the disappearance was noticed.  The police have not been able to trace it. [A duplicate sculpture was commissioned by the neighbouring City of Stonnington and installed in Central Park, Malvern East in 2016.]

Kore by Karl Duldig

https://www.duldig.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Karl-Duldig-Public-Works-of-Art.pdf

Another work, Isabella, was created in memory of Isabella Webb, the 19 year old daughter of Judge George Webb of Crotonhurst.  She died in India in 1876 while on a trip with her father. 

Historian Dr Geulah Solomon notes: “The marble sculpture of Isabella, which Webb subsequently had cast by Charles Summers, the sculptor of the famous statue of Burke and Wills, now stands in the Caulfield City Hall" (1)  

In 1981, the Caulfield Historical Society had a brass plaque made and placed on the statue in Caulfield Town Hall (2). 

A third piece of sculpture was the bronze statue of a small child kneeling.  It was a drinking fountain made for the Railway Reserve beside Elsternwick Station then shifted to Greenmeadows Gardens.  This was designed and executed by Paul Montford, creator of the Adam Lindsay Gordon piece, plus major works on the Shrine of Remembrance.  It seems to have disappeared many years ago

What a strange history of three valuable sculptures disappearing.  Does anybody remember Isabella or the Kneeling Child?  Do you know the answer?

Footnotes -
1. G Solomon, Caulfield's heritage, volume 1 Caulfield's building heritage, City of Caulfield 1989, page 36.
2.  Caulfield Historical Society Newsletter 18, August 1981, page 64.

..........................................................................................................................

More information:

Kore - https://www.stonnington.vic.gov.au/Community/Arts-and-culture/Public-art-collection/Kor%C3%A9 

Crotonhurst - https://victoriaspast.blogspot.com/2021/01/mr-justice-george-webb-of-croton-hurst.html

Should you have any information about this item's history or location, please leave a comment below or see 'Contact us' tab for anonymous emailing.

Should you actually possess the item and wish to return it its rightful owners or custodians, please contact us.

Melbourne Centenary Birthday Silver Cake Clock rediscovered

In good news, a silver clock, made in the shape of a birthday cake, to celebrate Melbourne's Centenary in 1934 has been  rediscovered on a farm in Queensland. 

Samuel Fricker, from Gibson’s Auctions, with the Melbourne Centenary Clock

Photographer: Penny Stephens / The Age

Najma Sambul, reported in The Age on 20 June 2023,  that -

It was found stashed away in a tin shed in coastal Queensland, dismantled and beginning to tarnish. But Cathy and Phillip Harth didn’t throw away the pieces of the old silver clock, which they would soon discover was a rare Melbourne artefact.

"I thought, ‘Oh, this is pretty nice to use as a pot plant’,” says Phillip of finding the clock on his farm in the rural town of Cawarral.

The clock is believed to be a second and larger version of the Melbourne Centenary Birthday Silver Cake Clock that is currently owned by the National Gallery of Victoria. True to its name, the Harths’ piece is solid silver and in the shape of a five-tier birthday cake and originally included 100 candles.

Both clocks were crafted by renowned Melbourne silversmiths James Steeth and Son, the makers of the Melbourne Cup, to celebrate Melbourne’s centenary in 1934-35. The smaller version, which is held in the NGV, was the grand prize of a competition during the centenary celebrations, but was never claimed by the competition winner.

The newly discovered clock was most likely the display version used during the celebrations. Nobody knows why it disappeared or how it arrived in Queensland. The Harths, who are from Queensland and have never lived in Melbourne, bought the 11-acre property in Cawarral last year.

After realising the clock was a birthday cake and had the nameplate of Melbourne’s centenary emblazoned on it, the couple spent six months trying to uncover its origins. “For the first two months, no one believed we had it,” Phillip says. “People were coming back saying, ‘It’s not the one in the museum [National Gallery of Victoria] and that there isn’t a second one’.” 

It took dozens of calls to museums, valuers, auctioneers and even the granddaughter of James Steeth to receive confirmation that they were in possession of the original clock. “The curator of NGV was the missing link,” Phillip says. “The NGV told us a clock was missing.”

Melbourne Centenary Clock

Photographer: Penny Stephens / The Age

The clock was restored by Gibson's Auctions of High Street, Armadale and was very nearly complete, just missing eight candles. It was estimated that it would reach between $30,000 and $50,000 when it went to auction in July 2023, and it sold for $48,000*.

Read the full report, Centenary cake a slice of Melbourne’s history found on Queensland farm by Najma Sambul, in The Age, here. Gibson's Auctions https://www.gibsonsauctions.com.au/

* https://www.gibsonsauctions.com.au/auction-lot/the-sterling-silver-centenary-of-melbourne-birthd_52D4511BF4

Parliament House Cenotaph in Spring Street

In April 1926, The Age reported that Added impressiveness will be given to the Anzac day commemoration ceremony on Sunday, 25th April, by the erection of a cenotaph on the drive in front of Federal Parliament House. The cenotaph was suggested by the commemoration council of the State branch of the Returned Soldiers' League (1).

Building the temporary Cenotaph

The Argus, April 21, 1926 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3746659

The Cenotaph, modelled on the Whitehall Cenotaph in London, was a temporary structure made of wood. It was re-erected each year until 1934 when a new one was constructed as the old one fell to pieces and this new one was given a  special waterproof treatment to save it from the fate of its predecessor. (2). In between Anzac Days the Cenotaph was stored at the Exhibition Building site reportedly either on a waste piece of land or behind the grandstand at the Exhibition Oval (3).

The temporary cenotaph on the steps of Parliament House, 1926.

The building across the street is the Windsor Hotel.

Image: Private collection

ANZAC Day in Melbourne, 1926.

General view of the scene at the Cenotaph, outside Federal Parliament Houses.

The Australasian, May 1, 1926 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article141412907

1935 was the last Anzac Day the Cenotaph was installed on the steps of Parliament House, however it was also placed there in January 1936 for the Memorial service held to commemorate the death of King George V. The Anzac Day march in 1936 finished at the Shrine, not the Exhibition Building as in the past, and that year the Cenotaph was installed on the south-east corner of Princes Bridge. This was the last time it was on public display. Another temporary cenotaph was also constructed after the death of King George VI in 1952, and placed on the Parliament House steps.

Placing wreaths on the Cenotaph, 1929

The Argus, 25 April, 1929

What happened the temporary Cenotaph? As The Argus noted - Although it was made only of wood and paint the Cenotaph, which was erected annually for the occasion, symbolised the spirit of Anzac commemoration in Melbourne (4).  Another part of our history, vanished.

Footnotes
(1) The Age, March 31, 1926, read
(2) The Herald, April 23, 1934, read
(3) The Herald, November 10, 1927, read; The Herald, April 21, 1936, read; 
(4) The Argus, April 22, 1938, read.

Anzac Soccer Ashes Trophy rediscovered

Some good news, as reported by the Guardian newspaper in April 2023 -
After vanishing 69 years ago an Australian sporting treasure has been discovered in mint condition in a suburban garage.

The small wooden trophy – housing a silver-plated razor case carried at Gallipoli – was contested by the Socceroos and New Zealand’s All Whites until it mysteriously disappeared in 1954. Inside it are ashes of cigars smoked by the Socceroos captain Alex Gibb and the All Whites skipper George Campbell after the first trans-Tasman match on Australian soil in June 1923.

The Soccer 'Ashes' Trophy

Image: Football Australia 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-25/anzac-soccer-ashes-rediscovered-after-almost-70-years/102263154

The razor case belonged to Private William Fisher, who later became the Secretary of the Queensland Football Association. The trophy was discovered when family members were sorting through the belongings of the late Sydney Storey, who was involved as an administrator in Australian Soccer at a national level from 1922 until 1966.The trophy, made of New Zealand Honeysuckle and Australian Maple, is in perfect condition. 

This good news story gives hope that other important and interesting items that vanished  years ago may one day be rediscovered. 

References

ANZAC Soccer Ashes Trophy recovered. Football Australia, 24 April, 2023, read.
Anzac ‘Soccer Ashes’ trophy found after vanishing for 69 years. The Guardian, 25 April 2023, read.

‘Soccer’s Ashes’: How a suburban garage clean-out solved a 69-year Anzac mystery by Vince Rugari. The Age, April 25, 2023, read. (may be behind a pay-wall)

ANZAC Soccer Ashes trophy rediscovered in suburban garage after almost 70 years by Samantha Lewis. ABC News 25 April, 2023, read

Boer War Soldiers plaque, Peace Memorial Library, Colac

On September 12, 1901 the Peace Memorial Library was opened in Colac, as a permanent memorial when peace is declared in South Africa (1). The War, known as the Second Boer War or the South African War, ended on May 31, 1902.

In June 1902, a brass plaque was installed in the front porch of the Library. It had the following inscription This tablet commemorates the death, in the cause of the Empire, of four young men of this district - Edgar Quartus Robertson, Noel Leonard Calvert and Arthur Edward Murphy, who were killed whilst lighting in South Africa, and of Thomas Yates, who died immediately upon his return to Victoria, 1901 (2). The plaque was 27 inches by 21 inches.

The plaque was stolen at the end of July in 1953 (3). The stealing of the plaque commemorating local soldiers is bad enough and shows a lack of respect to the men and their families, but this act contributed to the demolition of the Peace Memorial Library in 1970.  Members of the Colac and District Historical Society petitioned the Council to save the building and although the building was known to be a Peace Memorial, documentation to substantiate this was incomplete. The details of its true identity were preserved in a large brass plaque which, complete with the names of Boer War veterans, was attached to the south wall. Without this evidence the Shire of Colac committed an act of official vandalism and demolished the Peace Memorial Library. (4).

The Peace Memorial Library, Colac, c. 1908.

Photographer: T.R.G. Williams.

State Library of Victoria Image H96.200/1533

Should you have any information about the plaque's history or location,  please leave a comment below or see 'Contact us' tab for anonymous emailing.
Should you actually possess the item and wish to return it its rightful owners or custodians, please contact us.

Footnotes
(1) The Age, 13 September 1901, read.
(2) The Age, 17 June, 1902, read.

(3) The Argus, 3 August, 1953, read.
(4) Mcintosh, Ida Forest, Lake and Plain: the history of Colac 1888-1988. City of Colac, 1988, p. 35.

Theft of the Besharin Boy Bronze

On the 29th of May in 1945 The Argus published this report under the headline - Besharin Boy Bronze Stolen from Gallery.
Police are inquiring into the theft of the bronze head of a Besharin Boy,  taken from the textiles room of the National Gallery on Sunday afternoon. The head, which is about 7in high and weighs approximately 8lb, was purchased early last year by the Felton Bequest at a good price for a statuette of this size. The thief could easily have slipped the bronze under his coat while the attendant was out of the room temporarily accommodating the smaller exhibits, said Mr E. N. Dewar, acting secretary, National Gallery, last night...The Besharin Boy bronze (described by Mr G. Allen, head of the sculpture school, Melbourne Technical College, as "a sensitive work of excellent form, showing a deep sculptural sense and a keen appreciation of the East") is the work of Mrs Tina Wentscher, of Milfay av, Kew. Mrs Wentscher, who has been in Australia for five years, studied in Paris, Athens, and Berlin, and spent 10 years in the Far East - in Malaya, China, Indo-China, and Java. She was responsible for the Keith Truscott plaque at the Children's Hospital, and is at present working on a bronze plaque of the late Miss Jessie Webb for the library at the University of Melbourne.

The Besharin Boy

Image: Adelaide News, 7 June 1945

Tina Wentscher (also spelt as Wentcher) was born in Constantinople in 1887 to David and Rebecca Haim. The family later moved to Vienna and later still to Berlin, where in 1914 she married Julius Wentscher. As the article notes, the Wentschers travelled widely and from 1936 until 1940 they lived in Malaya. It was from there that they were sent to Australia as enemy aliens and interned at Tatura from 1940 until 1942. After their release, they settled in Melbourne. 

Mrs Wentcher died in 1974 and her work is represented in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, the McClelland Gallery in  Langwarrin and other major collections. 

Ken Scarlett records in his book Australian Sculptors that Tina Wentscher replaced the work at her cost with a pewter version in 1946. Where is the original Besharin Boy Bronze, which was stolen nearly 80 years ago?

Should you have any information about the Besharin Boy Bronze, please leave a comment below or see 'Contact us' tab for anonymous emailing.

Should you actually possess the item and wish to return it its rightful owners or custodians, please contact us.

References

• Art Success in Many Lands. The Herald, 7 March 1944, read.
• Besharin Boy Bronze Stolen from Gallery. The Argus, 29 May 1945, read
• S.A.Hunt for Stauette: Stolen in Victoria. Adelaide News, 7 June 1945, read.
• Scarlett, Ken Australian Sculptors. Nelson, 1980.
• Peers Juliet, Wentcher, Tina (1887–1974), Australian Dictionary of Biography. First published in 2002, on-line https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wentcher-tina-11998