With the ebb and flow of time, a little of Victoria's jettisoned past has washed up upon my desk: a discarded photo, a worn postcard, or a fading newspaper. Their long forgotten characters now retell their stories in a digital sampling, post by post. Their voices are my blog's vignettes. Researched and written by Heather Arnold.
Friday, May 12, 2023
St Kilda Park State School Great War Honour Board designed by George Dancey
Saturday, October 16, 2021
St Kilda's Wax Museum
On Monday, November 23, 1970 the London Wax Museum was officially opened by the Mayor of St Kilda, Cr G. Manning, in the South Pacific Building, Lower Esplanade (now Jacka Boulevard) (1). The South Pacific was the old St Kilda Baths, completely renovated and re-opened in 1956 (2).The 45 (3) figures on display - replicas of the famous and infamous (4) - had been sculptured and modelled by Jack Armytage, of Interwax Ltd, at the time the only company in the Southern Hemisphere producing wax models. Jack also designed the display, the costumes and provided the display bodies - it was only the head and the hands which were created in wax (5).
In an interview in The Age newspaper of November 20, 1970 Jack explained his entry into the Wax Model world -
It started 15 months ago when I was helping to lay out the wax museum at Surfers' Paradise. They had some trouble with the wax models brought from London and I thought that they could have been made here.I had a trip around the world looking at wax museums and that convinced me. I hadn't done any sculpture before, or sculpted from life, but I think being in television for years helped me. Jack had previously been the art director of a Brisbane Television station.
Each figure, estimated to be worth $1,000 each, took over 200 hours to create, with each hair being individually implanted (6).
The Museum, owned by New Zealand Company London Wax Museums Ltd was managed by John and Joy Pittman (8). They had no previous experience in the Wax Museum World - Neither of us had any experience in the world of wax. I worked for an electrical company and Joy had a background in dress making," Mr Pittman said (9).
After 18 months (10) the Museum, also known as the World in Wax, moved to 32 The Esplanade on the corner of Acland Street to the building erected in 1917, by the Prahran and Malvern Tramway Trust at the terminus of its line. The building had a long history of use as a cafe - initially the Empire Cafe, then the Green Knoll, and from mid-1940s to 1970 as the function centre known as both Katharina and Catherina (11).
The Riverine Herald article from 2002, was written because the Pittmans were retiring and their manager, John Walton, was taking over the business. At the time of their retirement the Wax Museum displayed 59 models and each figurine can cost anywhere between $8,000 and $10,000 because of the time it takes to make them (16). An interesting increase in value from the $1,000 per model that Jack Armytage said they were worth in 1970.
The Wax Museum in St Kilda was a short-lived part of St Kilda's rich history as Australia's premier pleasure resort (17).
AcknowledgmentI had not heard of the Wax Museum at St Kilda until I was told of it by my fellow historian, Isaac Hermann, when he purchased the souvenir postcards of the Museum, which I have reproduced here. Some of this research was done by or in conjunction with Isaac. Thanks, Isaac.
Footnotes
(1) The Age, November 20, 1970, p. 21. Available on newspapers.com
(10) The Age January 28, 1975, p. 12. Available on newspapers.com
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
The St Kilda War Trophy - a long range German Gun
In late 1919 the Commonwealth War Trophies Committee was established and its role was to distribute 'war trophies' which had been captured during the Great War. A War Trophy Committee was established in each State and they determined how the guns would be distributed. In Victoria, some of the trophies were retained by the Government for a State War Museum and trophies were also allocated to each Citizen Force Light Horse and Infantry Unit. The remaining trophies were allotted to towns; Melbourne and inner suburbs, such as St Kilda were regarded as one unit of allocation (1) The Lord Mayor of Melbourne convenened a meeting of mayors of suburbs within the metropolitan area and the allocations were decided (2).
St Kilda was first offered in August 1921 a Trench Mortar (3), which they were not happy with. Correspondence between the local member, William Watt, M.P., and an unnamed staff member in Home & Territories stated that St Kilda feels that its undoubtedly fine war record has not been suitably recognised (4). There was some sympathy for this position within the Victorian Committee who thought that St Kilda had special claims by reason of its population and its position as a leading metropolitan seaside resort (5).
After the initial allocation to Victoria another four or five guns became available from a shipment presented to Australia from the French Government and after passionate advocacy on Mr Watt's part on behalf of the St Kilda Council they were allocated a 8-inch Howitzer (6). However, in June 1922 Mr Watt received a letter from the Director of the Australian War Museum offering the City a 6-inch gun, though the gun is of smaller calibre than the howitzer, it is considerably larger, and in fact is the largest gun available for distribution in the metropolitan area (7). The gun itself was the largest type conveyed by the Germans with road traction, it weighed 11½ tons, was 30 feet long and it could reportedly throw a 120 pound shell from St Kilda to Mordialloc (8).
In August 1922, the St Kilda Town Clerk formally accepted this offer of the 6-inch gun. The appointed Trustees were Cr Joseph Hewison, Cr George Renfrey and Cr Burnett Gray (9). The gun was placed on display in Alfred Square, the same park where the St Kilda Boer War Memorial was unveiled on March 12, 1905 (10). It wasn't the only gun at Alfred Square there was also this gun, pictured below. I do not know the fate of this gun.
On June 23, 1923 this 150 mm Long Range High Angle Gun, No. 103 (as the gun was officially named) was formally handed over to the City of St Kilda by William Watt, M.P., in a ceremony in Albert Square. Mr Watt was reported as saying it was doubtful if any city in Australia had such a fine record for war efforts or for the number of its citizens who had enlisted as St Kilda. The gun was captured on 8th August, 1918, at one of the most dramatic and decisive moments of the war, three months before the final overthrow of the Germans. At this time the Australians were the spearhead of the Allied forces (11).
It is interesting that he gives the date of capture, because in October 1922 the Director of the Australian War Museum wrote to the St Kilda Town Clerk that owing to the unit failing to record the place and date of capture it is regretted that a full history cannot be furnished other than it was captured by the Australian Corps on the Western Front during the final offensive in 1918 (12).
The Prahran Telegraph later reported on the 'handing over' ceremony, under the headline Gun Gush - One speaker said the gun would serve to remind those who had relatives killed in the war that those honoured ones were not forgotten. We fail to understand what that apparently intendened pious observation means. If the gun reminds the relatives of the fallen, or anything, it reminds them that they have lost loved ones in a war, the true inwardness yet of which is not yet understood by the masses. Another speaker looked at the gun differently. He said the gun would serve as a perpetual reminder of the horror and hatefulness of war. How it will do that, we do not know. There is no evidence of the horror and hatefulness of the war in the gun itself. It is simply a rusting piece of steel disfiguring Alfred Place, and quite out of place with the amenties of St Kilda's beautiful sea front.......Possibly after seeing miles of wooden white crosses in Picardy, recording the deaths of gallant Australian boys, we have less stomach to digest these flag-waving ceremonies, and less patience to hear jingoistic talk about war trophies far too often placed in the wrong places by men who talk, but who do not realise the hatefulness of war implements in abodes of peace (15).
The gun remained at Alfred Square on display and formed a background to family photos and postcards and then it was back in the news in 1942 - St. Kilda council is in a quandary as to what to do with the German 9.5 gun, a relic of the last war, which has been a conspicuous object in Alfred-square on the Esplanade for many years. It was recently offered to the defence authorities, who declined it "with thanks," and an offer of it to a firm for sale as scrap metal was not accepted. It was stated that it would cost £30 to remove it from its concrete emplacement. It was pointed out by one councillor that the presence of the gun in the square might constitute a grave menace to the neighborhood as hostile aircraft might regard it was part of the anti-aircraft defence. Moreover, it constituted an obstacle to the approach to slit trenches in the event of a raid (16).
A report two weeks later said When the gun was offered a fortnight ago to the Minister for Munitions (Mr Makin) by the St. Kilda Council, the Minister suggested that the gun would be of more value to the war effort if it was used for training purposes instead of being used as scrap. It was reported at last night's meeting of the council that the Commanding-Officer of the 1/2 Medium Training Regiment at Puckapunyal had asked for the gun to train the troops, and it will be given to him (17)
Caribbean Gardens closed down in 2020. We do not know what the owners of Caribbean Gardens plan to do with the gun.
Acknowledgments
I was made aware of the St Kilda War Trophy Gun by my research colleague, Isaac Hermann. His friend, David Clerehan, had informed him of Caribbean Gardens' closure and the pending situation with the gun and this led to this research, some of which was also done by or in conjunction with Isaac. Thank you, David and Isaac. It was Kay Rowan, Local History Librarian at the City of Port Phillip who made us aware that the gun was not moved to Puckpunyal in 1942. Kay supplied the article Retrieving the Cultural Biography of a Gun by David Pearson and Graham Connah. Thank you, Kay.
Trove list
I have created a list of articles connected to the St Kilda War Trophy Gun, access it here.
Footnotes
(1) National Archives of Australia Series AWM 194 - Allotment of 1914-1918 War trophies St Kilda.
This is a 26 page file containing various correspondence from the St Kilda Council, William Watt the local Member of Parliament, copies of correspondence to and from the Victorian Committee to the Director of the Australian War Museum regarding St Kilda's request for a War Trophy and similar. You can see the file here https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2798268
(2) Ibid
(3) Ibid
(4) Ibid
(5) Ibid
(6) Ibid
(7) Ibid
(8) The Age June 25, 1923, see here and The Argus June 25, 1923, see here.
(9) National Archives of Australia Series AWM 194 - Allotment of 1914-1918 War trophies St Kilda.
(10) I have written about the St Kilda Boer War Memorial here http://carlocatani.blogspot.com/2020/01/fathers-and-sons-mateship-and-monuments.html
(11) The Age, June 25, 1923, see here.
(12) National Archives of Australia Series AWM 194 - Allotment of 1914-1918 War trophies St Kilda.
(13) The Age, June 25, 1923, see here.
(14) Prahran Telegraph, June 1, 1923, see here.
(15) Prahran Telegraph, June 29, 1923, see here.
(16) The Age, April 9, 1942, see here.
(17) The Herald, April 21, 1942, see here.
(18) Retrieving the Cultural Biography of a Gun by David Pearson and Graham Connah in Journal of Conflict Archaelogy V.8, No. 1, Janaury 2013, pp 41-73. The quote is from page 65. This is the full quote, with their sources listed - The treatment of Gun 135 was also much superior to that of the only other surviving gun of this type in Australia (Gun 103) which is now in a deteriorated condition. This was initially presented to the municipality of St Kilda, in Melbourne, but some time after July 1968 it was disposed of by the council and was rescued by a private purchaser whilst on its way to the scrap yard (AWM194 Melbourne 29; AWM262 103 St Kilda; City of Port Phillip Archives, St Kilda trophy gun 06/012/0011; The Argus, 25 June 1923: 12; Prahran Telegraph, 29 June 1923: 6; St Kilda Municipal Council Minutes, 15 and 29 July 1968; Billet, 1999: 56, 58–59, 85; Caribbean Gardens, 2011). It is now at the Caribbean Gardens and Market at Scoresby, in Melbourne.
Monday, March 1, 2021
Brighton Road State School, St Kilda, Boer War memorial
The Boer War was fought between British forces against the Boers, or Dutch-Afrikaner settlers in South Africa from 1899 until 1902. The War was also called the South African War and referred to as the Second Boer War. The First Boer War, fought between the Boers and the British, took place in 1880-1881, but no Australian troops were officially involved.
Australians who served in the War were all volunteers. The Australian War Memorial website explains - Australians served in contingents raised by the six colonies or, from 1901, by the new Australian Commonwealth. For a variety of reasons many Australians also joined British or South African colonial units in South Africa: some were already in South Africa when the war broke out; others either made their own way or joined local units after their enlistment in an Australian contingent ended. Recruiting was also done in Australia for units which already existed in South Africa, such as the Scottish Horse. You can read more about Boer War on the Australian War Memorial website, here.
This is a later image, possibly early 1960s and all that remains of the memorial is the bluestone base and plaque.