Original post 30 April 2020
Today is the anniversary the landing of #CaptainCook at Botany Bay, and there’s actually a statue of him on the #StKildaForeshore, though it’s a bit lost between the yacht club and the sea baths – which I now see wasnt it’s original location (where the palm tree is in the old photo). It was paid for by local businessman Andrew Stenhouse, and unveiled in 1914 by the Governor of Victoria. It’s a copy (or probably a second casting) of one in #Whitby, the English port where Cook lived for a while and hadhis start as a seaman, and near where he grew up. That statue was paid for by the local MP, who commissioned it from artist #SirJohnTweed, who had already designed it for a competition for a site on The Mall in London, won by another artist. And in 2018, ours got splashed by pink protest paint – the only time in recent years anyone’s taken any notice !
Storey of Melbourne 