The Phoenix

The Phoenix 

Yrsa Von Leister 

Bronze and sheet copper statue, 1973 

Queen Victoria Gardens

Baroness Yrsa Von Leister's winged figure reaches some three metres above the waters of a pond in Queen Victoria Gardens. Originally associated with ancient Egyptians' longings for immortality, the phoenix in Christianity has long been linked to resurrection and everlasting life. Von Leister sculpted the symbolic figure for the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Melbourne following the 40th International Eucharistic Congress, held here in 1973. Archbishop Cardinal Knox then donated the work to the Melbourne City Council for the support it had shown during the congress. 

Von Leister flew to Australia to complete finishing touches to the rough-hewn sculpture prior to its unveiling. In March 1976, the Most Reverend T.F. Little gifted the sculpture to the citizens of Melbourne on behalf of the Melbourne Diocesan Historical Commission. He said, 'The ... phoenix is accepted throughout the world as symbolising everlasting life. It glorifies Him who is truth and eternal life.'

Skywatch Friday

Memorial in Queen Victoria Garden

This is one of two memorials of Queen Victoria Memorial ; the other is in Ballarat. Scultured by James White. Born in Edinburgh in 1862, James White trained as a sculptor in London before immigrating to Sydney in 1884. In the early 1900s he was much in demand as a portraitist, and was the leading bronze caster in Australia. His work can be found in many cities around the country.

Victoria was crowned Queen on 28 June 1838, when she was just 18 years of age. Lord Melbourne served as her first prime minister, educating her in politics and government. During her reign the British Empire reached its apogee, with vast colonies abroad and great industrial expansion and reforms at home. Notably, it was Victoria that changed the role of the monarchy to a symbolic one, the business of government being left to parliament.

News of the Queen's death in 1901 saw a wave of public mourning through Australia. In Melbourne, a proposal for a memorial was raised with some urgency; Melbourne was thought to have been the only large city in the Empire without a statue honouring the monarch. It was apparently not enough that the state was named after her and the city after her first prime minister. More than £7000 was raised for the memorial through public subscription, and James White was to undertake the commission. There was controversy over the conduct of the committee in selecting White and over his insistence that the marble be sculpted in Italy, rather than in Australia. But on Empire Day 1907 the memorial was unveiled on a raised mound near Linlithgow Avenue in the Queen Victoria Gardens. The lieutenant governor of Victoria, John Madden, unveiled it.