Edmund Fitzgibbon Memorial
| Address | 204 St Kilda Rd, Southbank VIC, Australia |
| Phone | +61 3 9658 9658 |
| Hours | 00:00-24:00 |
| Website | www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/Pages/home.aspx |
| Categories | Memorial |
| Rating | 5 1 review |
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Edmund Fitzgibbon Memorial reviews
1 When you walk, ride or drive around Melbourne you will often come across a memorial or sculpture and I don't know about you but when I do I ask myself what's its significance. This was the case when a couple of months ago I was near the Arts Centre and saw this some 12 foot high statue located in the south-eastern median strip at the intersection of St Kilda Road and Linlithgow Avenue, in Southbank. It's a 1908 memorial to some guy named Edmund Gerald FitzGibbon. I took a couple of photos but only today, some 3 months later, I decided to findout who was this Edmund Gerald FitzGibbon?
Well he was born in Cork, Ireland in 1825 and aftrer working as a clerk in London, he migrated to Victoria in 1852 and by 1856 become the town clerk of Melbourne. While maintaining his duties as town clerk he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1860. Then in 1891 he became the first chairman of the former Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works. Apparently he was a champion for the preservation of parks in Melbourne and secured several parks and gardens for the city and was instrumental in introducing tram tracks.
The 9 foot high bronze statue, on a 12 foot high pedestal of Harcourt granite, depicts FitzGibbon dressed in barrister`s gown and wig and knee breeches. The right hand is extended towards the CBD, and the left, resting on the pedestal, holds a scroll. At the base of the statue lies a representation of a pile of books.