"A Palace for Horses" - Conservatorium of Music

As we approached the end of our public art walk we viewed the building that was originally designed to be the stables for the new Government House that Governor Macquarie had planned to build in the Government Domain. It is the Conservatorium of Music formally the Government Stables.

In 1816 Governor Macquarie commissioned Francis Greenway to design an impressive  residence and stables in the castellated style.

Due to his penchant for building and what was termed his extravagance in his term of office Governor Macquarie's vision was only partially completed, that being the stables we see now.

 
                                         View from the Old Mill Garden in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

The positioning of the stables at the time determined the style and site of the second Government House.

In recent times the Governor of NSW has again taken residence in Government House.

 

Allan Cunningham Obelisk

The next part of our public art walk took us past The Allan Cunningham Obelisk set in a pond near the Botanic Garden Restaurant.

It is in honour of Allan Cunningham who was an explorer and botanist. He worked for sir Joseph Banks in London and travelled with Phillip Parker King on four journeys to survey the Australian coastline. He was also a Superintendent of the Botanic Garden for a short time "resigning when, as a newspaper put it he 'would no longer consent to be a mere cultivator of cabbages and turnips'.

 

He died in 1839 and was buried in the Devonshire Street Cemetery but his remains were moved in 1901 to the memorial obelisk above. His tombstone is mounted on the wall of the National Herbarium of NSW.

 

The plants in the garden beds around the obelisk pond are examples of plants collected by Allan Cunningham from the Illawarra between 1818 and 1822.

 

This monument is difficult to photograph because it is always in shade. 

 

Magnolia Seed and Palm

These two sculptures are two of the more modern ones in the Royal Botanic Gardens.

They are a pair of metal structures by Bronwyn Oliver in two locations placed under a magnolia and a palm tree representing the site of the First Farm in Sydney Cove. This area of the Gardens was originally a mud flat that had any manner of organic debris washed up onto the shore which could take root and grow. These sculptures symbolise "the potential for transformation and new life" (taken from the plaque beside the sculpture).

                                                                       Magnolia Seed

 

Palm

 

 Another sculpture "Vine" is located in the foyer of the Sydney Hilton. Most Australian galleries have sculptures by this sculptor who passed away in 2006

Seasons 2

The other two statues in this series of four are of course Autumn and Winter.

Three of the four statues are represented by nubile young woman, but in the Winter statue it is represented by an old man. By the looks of that statue it is in need of some TLC because as winter has us cloaked up in coats he has a cloak of green covering him.

                                                                              Autumn

 

Winter

 

The statues have been restored by the carving skills of Polish- born master mason Jacek Luszcyk. They were unveiled in their original positions after restoration in 2010.

Seasons

Throughout the Royal Botanic Gardens there are many wonderful statues that adorn the steps and

paths.

As it is Spring in Sydney at the moment I thought I would start with my two favourites seasons, Spring and Summer.

 These two statues are part of a group of eight statues imported from Italy in 1883 and include Seasons, Boy Extracting Thorn, La Ballarina, Sweep Boy and  a young girl with a scarf, clogs and musical instrument from the Donizetti opera ‘Linda di Chamonix’.  

 

Sir Henry Parkes promoted the use of public sculpture to beautify the colony and for the so-called "uplifting of the lower orders" and used classical statuary in gardens to educate those who could not afford the "grand tour" and see sculpture like this for themselves.

 

Over time the statues at various times were removed and kept at the gardens in a shed known by staff as the Graveyard, as they had become subject to vandalism, decapitation and deterioration.

Governor Phillip Fountain

As we continued on our public art walk with Dr Nicholas Hardwick we viewed this spectacular fountain in honour of our first Governor, Captain Arthur Phillip.

The fountain was commissioned by Sir Henry Parkes as part of the 1888 Centennial celebrations but it wasn't finished until nearly a decade later. Originally expected to be completed in 4 years by sculptor Achille Simonetti, it was plagued with issues from interfering politicians, not only changing what it should look like but Governor Dibbs putting a halt to entire project for a year.

It consists of a Carrara marble pedestal upon which a bronze statue of  Governor Phillip stands with  3 relief panels representing Justice, Patriotism and Education.

Around the pedestal are 4 reclining figures made of bronze of Neptune, Cyclops, Agriculture and Commerce. Between these 4 figures are giant clam shells featuring four bronze prows of ships which feed the water into the white marble basins.

                                                  
                                                                                  Commerce

                 
                                                                      Agriculture

                                                                       Cyclops - representing Mining

                                                              Neptune - representing Navigation

The fountain was unveiled by Lord Hampden on the 22nd June 1897 on the celebration of the 60th year of the reign of Queen Victoria. A truly magnificent tribute to a great man.

Garden Palace Gates

The gates to the Royal Botanic Gardens from Macquarie St, known as The Palace Garden Gates, are the only remaining signs of a contentious building that was built to show the world that the colony had come a long way from it's humble beginnings.

The Garden Palace was a purpose built exhibition building in Sydney to house The Sydney International Exhibition in 1879. It was designed by colonial architect James Barnet and built in just 8 months. This was largely due to the importing of electric light from England allowing work to be done 24 hours a day.

After the exhibition was finished the building was used as office space for a number of government departments. It also held the records of the 1881 census, railways surveys and land titles. The building was made of wood and in 1882 fire destroyed the palace along with all it's contents.



Another interesting fact connected to the staging of this International Exhibition was that Aboriginal people were still living on the harbour near where the Museum of Contemporary Art is now and the government didn't think that this presented a good image of Sydney so they encouraged them to move out of the city with many moving to La Perouse where there was a large Aboriginal community.