General Sir John Monash was born on June 27, 1865 (1). General Monash was a civil engineer, a soldier, chairman of the Shrine of Remembrance construction body and in 1921 was appointed the General Manager of the newly formed State Electricity Commission, which established the power stations at Yallourn using the coal deposits. In the 1920s Monash was well respected and viewed as one of the greatest living Australians. (2). Shortly, after his death on October 8, 1931, the Monash Memorial Committee was established to oversee the construction of a suitable memorial to him. It was chaired by Major-General, Sir Thomas Blamey (3).
On January 26, 1932 The Herald published an article by Russell Grimwade (4) on the proposed memorial to General Monash.
The Monash Memorial Committee is confronted with a problem that has many solutions and one right one. The task is to perpetuate the memory of a rare citizen, whose gifts and abilities benefited his country in various ways. The choice of the particular benefit that is to serve as the theme of the memorial is narrowed by the early decision of the committee to make the memorial a State movement and not a Federal one.
Surely that debars his military achievements from being the underlying theme for the monument now being conceived. His military talent was a gift to the whole of Australia, and is eternally recorded in the history of the Commonwealth in a manner of endurance that stone and bronze cannot surpass. According to the expressions of his friends, his success in war was accidental to his trained scientific thinking and his educated vocation of construction. Ethically-minded persons may consider it a needless perversion of right to choose a theme of destruction for a man of constructive mind when a unique opportunity for the latter is at hand.
A Great Opportunity
The choice of memorial is to be appropriate to the thoughts and acts of the hero. It is also desirable that it should reflect credit for all time on the discernment of its executors. The apparent predilection of the committee for an equestrian statue close to the Shrine is alarming in its orthodoxy, its commonplaceness and its failure to grasp the opportunity of recording in an original manner the constructive genius which our hero represents. Further, it does not strictly comply with the decision that this memorial should mark the appreciation of the people of Victoria of one of their outstanding sons.
The world is dotted with equestrian statues of crusaders, monarchs and generals - crowded in their squares or palace yards, in different garb, but apparently on the same horse - until the passing stream of humanity accepts them with the apathy accorded to the lamp-posts or the fountains that support them.
But who passes through the Suez Canal without thrilling to the welcome of Dr. Lesseps (5) and grasping his invitation to make use of his great work, and that without reading the lettering on the base?
The Master Brain
Sir John Monash may not have conceived the brown coal scheme. That may be to the credit of modest men who prefer to have others ask why a statue was not put up to them rather than why it was. But Sir John Monash's was the brain that carried the conception into effect against untold difficulties, that mastered them by choosing the men to master them, so that for all time the citizens of Victoria can live happier, cleaner, and less arduous lives.
The Contrast
Contrast this with the impossibility, of raising an equestrian statue above the standard of many that already exist, and picture it set beside the stupefying mass of masonry that is the Shrine, and then
consider which would better perpetuate the memory of a great citizen.
Mr Grimwade's idea was supported by the artist, Daryl Lindsay (8) Daryl Lindsay was an artist and the husband of Joan Lindsay (9), perhaps best known for her book, Picnic at Hanging Rock. This is Daryl Lindsay's letter published in The Herald, on January 28, 1932,
Letter to the Editor - Monash Memorial: Mr Daryl Lindsay's ViewsSir, - Mr Russell Grimwade's thoughtful article on the proposed Monash memorial should stir the imagination of all thinking people in this State. His unconventional suggestion to place a memorial column at Berwick, or some other conspicuous point between Melbourne and Yallourn, is full of significance.
The idea contains an clement of greatness, lifting it right away from the usual commonplace conception of the corporate mind. Public committees, however well-intentioned, are not usually blessed with Mr Grimwade's ability to visualise exactly what the memorial is going to mean to Victoria in the future. The aesthetic value of an equestrian statue, even of artistic merit, would be automatically negatived by the clumsy bulk of the Shrine in close proximity.
In a few years the inconspicuous horseman would go to join the ranks or Melbourne's forgotten statuary. Imagine a hilltop clearly visible from the Prince's Highway, carrying a memorial such as the Nelson Column in Trafalgar Square, built up on a simple base and topped by a dignified and symbolic figure of Monash against the skyline, surveying the vast tracts of country so materially assisted by him towards prosperity - such a landmark would be noticed and inquired into by every passer-by.
Apart from any personal bias in favor of a civil rather than a military memorial, I feel very strongly as an artist the need to decentralise such public work of art as we possess. In Europe one is continually charmed by the variety of silhouette - a ruined castle, a statue, or a village spire breaking the monotony of nature's outline unrelieved by man.
Australian landscape is sadly lacking in such points of interest. Let us at least consider the suitability and beauty of Mr Grimwade's conception before deciding on an irrevocable plunge into mediocrity.
Yours, etc...
Daryl Lindsay, Frankston, Jan 27.
The Monash Memorial was not built at Berwick, it was built in Kings Domain and the memorial took the form of a statue and was finally unveiled on November 12, 1950, by the Governor General, Mr W.J. McKell. It was designed by William Leslie Bowles (10) and cast in England. The statue was well under way in 1939, but the Second World War caused the understandable delay in the completion of the statue. (11). General Sir John Monash is also remembered with Monash University, Monash Freeway and the Monash Medical Centre. As a matter of interest one suggestion to honour General Monash was to rename Yallourn after him, which was a reasonable suggestion; another suggestion made in October 1931 was to dig up his body from his grave at the Brighton General Cemetery and have it reinterred at the Shrine of Remembrance. (12) Given that the Shrine was not officially opened until November 11, 1934, this was a long-term plan. Thankfully this never happened and his eternal rest was not disturbed.
Footnotes
(1) June 27, which is why I am posting this on June 27, 2026, 161 years after his birth. I have written about Lady Monash (nee Hannah Moss) and her two sisters here - https://victoriaspast.blogspot.com/2025/06/daughters-of-convict-sarah-simonson.html
(2) General Sir John Monash (1865-1931). Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry here,
(3) Monash Memorial Committee - The Argus, December 23, 1931, see here; Sir Thomas Blamey (1884-1951). Read his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry here,
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