Macpherson Robertson Fountain, Designer Philip Hudson; sculptor Paul Montford, Granite, bronze and concrete fountain, 1934, Shrine Gardens, cnr Domain & St Kilda Rds, Victorian Centenary
Summary
Location: Shrine Gardens, cnr Domain and St Kilda Rds
The fountain consists of two pools, one within the other, and a central column. The walls and floors of the pools are tiled and the perimeter walls are capped with granite blocks, as is the central column. The bronze figure of a boy catching a dolphin stands atop. Around the fountain are bronze frogs, sea horses and platypi, which spray water into the pools. Jets of water spout out and up. Base - gryphons spurting water out and down.
Robertson was a successful businessman and a philanthropist, making his money and name in confectionery; he was responsible for introducing chewing gum and fairy floss into Australia. Robertson gave to many causes and expeditions, Sir Douglas Mawson even naming Mac Robertson Land in Antarctica in his honour. In celebration of Victoria’s centenary, Robertson donated £15,000 as first prize in the Centenary Air Race from London to Melbourne and £100,000 for works to be undertaken around the city. The fountain, unveiled in 1934, is one result of this donation.
Montford migrated to Australia in 1921 and taught at the Gordon Institute, Geelong. He was also president of the Victorian Artists from 1930 to 1931. He was responsible for a number of sculptural commissions throughout Melbourne, including Justice George Higinbotham, Adam Lindsay Gordon, John Wesley and a series of granite buttress groups for the Shrine of Remembrance. In 1934 Montford was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of British Sculptors for his depiction of a poet and horseman, Adam Lindsay Gordon.
Philip Hudson (1887-1951) was an architect who specialised in designing schools. Among his works are Geelong Grammar, Ivanhoe Grammar and Brighton Grammar as well as the Union House at Melbourne University and the Shrine of Remembrance
