DISCOVERY OF GOLD MONUMENT

PALL MALL BENDIGO, GREATER BENDIGO CITY

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Victorian Heritage Register

DISCOVERY OF GOLD MONUMENT SOHE 2008

Statement of Significance

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  • History

    DISCOVERY OF GOLD MONUMENT - History

    Contextual History:History of Place:
    The Discovery of Gold Monument was erected in 1906 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of gold in Bendigo. The sculpture was designed by Australian artist Charles Douglas Richardson and is considered one of his best known works.
    
    The construction of the monument celebrated the successful Gold Jubilee Exhibition, held in Bendigo in November 1901 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of gold in Bendigo. The exhibition was opened by the Governor General, the Earl of Hopetoun and Prime Minister was the patron and was the largest of the many exhibits the city had staged. The town hall was converted to an art gallery and music salon, and exhibits from all over Australia were housed in four acres in Market Square. The exhibition ran for six months and with the proceeds the exhibition committee commissioned C. Douglas Richardson to execute a memorial to the discovery of gold and the gold pioneers . The resultant memorial is a group featuring a figural Victoria resting her left hand on a rock of quartz and extending in her right hand a gold nugget to the gold seeker crouching below her.
    
    In an interview, Richardson described the design of the memorial describing the process
    
    Having got your idea...you make a rough sketch-model in wax for the proposed group, giving arrangements if composition and grouping. Then follows a ‘clay sketch’ model, giving all the details if outline required for the statue, and for this a suitable pedestal is drawn or modelled...you proceed to build a strong framework to support the mass of clay used in modelling the work...Now we come to the supreme work, modelling the statue in clay. This is the actual sculpturing itself...The principal tools of the sculptor ..are his hands, by the sensitive touch of which an artist’s ideas are brought into tangible form, through the medium of clay. The carving of marble, which comes later, is more a less a mechanical process, which can be mainly carried out by artisans specially trained for the work.
    
    Following the design phase of the construction of the monument, a plaster mould was constructed by Messrs CI Wardrop and WC Scurry, architectural modellers of Melbourne. Mr Charles F Summers was commissioned to secure and cut the marble, the unwrought piece of which was the largest ever imported to Victoria. The marble was imported from the renowned Carrara quarries in Italy and was purchased for £272.
    
    After being carved in Melbourne, the Discovery of Gold Monument was delivered to Bendigo and unveiled by the Premier of Victoria, Sir Thomas Bent on 29 June 1906.
    
    
    Charles Douglas Richardson
    
    Richardson, a prominent Australian sculpture was born in 1853 in Islington, Great Britain and arrived in Portland, Australia in 1858. On leaving school Richardson was apprenticed to a firm of lithographic printers, De Gruchy and Leigh, following which he attended the Artisans School of Design and then the National Gallery School in the 1870s. He continued studies at the Royal Academy in England during the 1880s after which he returned to Melbourne and continued his career as a professional painter; teaching classes and exhibiting works.
    
    Richardson completed many public sculpture works including war memorials at Strathalbyn, South Australia (1920-1); for the Commercial Travellers Association in Melbourne (1922); for All Saints Church of England, East St Kilda (1922) and the Darnley Memorial a the Flinders Naval Base (1927).
    
    A report of a memorial exhibition of C. Douglas Richardson held after his death summarises the artist’s career.
    
    The exhibits show the versatility of their author. Sculpture in the round and in bas relief, oil colour portraits, figure subjects and landscapes, and water colour landscapes testify to the artist’s wide interest. His long life is suggested also. Many of the exhibits represent an attitude of many years ago and these do not suffer by the fact of their age...Sculpture was the artist’s main preoccupation, and some of the smaller works are on view.

    Permit Exemptions

    DISCOVERY OF GOLD MONUMENT - Permit Exemptions

    General Exemptions:

    General exemptions apply to all places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR). General exemptions have been designed to allow everyday activities, maintenance and changes to your property, which don’t harm its cultural heritage significance, to proceed without the need to obtain approvals under the Heritage Act 2017.

    Places of worship: In some circumstances, you can alter a place of worship to accommodate religious practices without a permit, but you must notify the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria before you start the works or activities at least 20 business days before the works or activities are to commence.

    Subdivision/consolidation: Permit exemptions exist for some subdivisions and consolidations. If the subdivision or consolidation is in accordance with a planning permit granted under Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the application for the planning permit was referred to the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria as a determining referral authority, a permit is not required.

    Specific exemptions may also apply to your registered place or object. If applicable, these are listed below. Specific exemptions are tailored to the conservation and management needs of an individual registered place or object and set out works and activities that are exempt from the requirements of a permit. Specific exemptions prevail if they conflict with general exemptions.

    Find out more about heritage permit exemptions here.

    Specific Exemptions:

    Nil

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