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Paul Montford - Adam Lindsay Gordon Memorial

Location Gordon Reserve (Fermerly known as Fountain Reserve or Spring Street Gardens),, EAST MELBOURNE VIC 3002 - Property No B7261 File Number B7261 Level National

[1/1] B7261 Adam Lindsay Gordon

Statement of Significance

What is significant? This is a statue of Adam Lindsay Gordon, an eminent and colourful poet and horseman who had made Australia his home. The work is by Paul Montford, a respected sculptor who also had settled in Australia. It was created in 1930?1931, some 60 years after Gordon's death, the money being raised by public subscription. The statue was placed on the site previously occupied by the Eight Hour Monument and was unveiled in 1932.
How is it significant? The statue of Adam Lindsay Gordon is significant for aesthetic and historic reasons at National level.
Why is it significant? The statue of Adam Lindsay Gordon is significant for aesthetic reasons, being Paul Montford's finest portrait. A model for the work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and won the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1934. The work is placed to advantage in a small garden with the State's two most important civic buildings on either side, being Parliament House and the Old Treasury Building.
The statue of Adam Lindsay Gordon is significant for historic reasons, representing one of Australia's finest poets and most colourful characters, and (to date) Australia's only poet to have a memorial in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey (by Kathleen Hilton Young). Sturgeon describes Gordon as 'the paramount representative of that brief efflorescence in Australian literature of a genuinely national ethos' [Sturgeon, p.88]. Gordon's writing displays local colour and an independent outlook. Although Australia is a country that commemorates very few writers in sculpture, Gordon is also the subject of a bronze bust outside the cottage in Ballarat in which he lived; this was made by Wallace Anderson in 1940 and unveiled 26 October 1941. The cottage was moved to the Wendouree Gardens, Ballarat in 1934 and classified by the National Trust (Victoria) at Local level [B1359]; it is open to the public. Gordon's house, Dingley Dell, near Port MacDonald in South Australia, is also open to the public as a museum.
Classified:08/09/2004