23 May 2025

The delightful MacRoberston Fountain behind the Shrine was unveiled in 1934. It was designed by Phillip Hudson, one of the architects of the Shrine, using the sane granite, and very neoclassical too, but also a bit Art Deco. The sculptures are by Paul Montford who also worked on the Shrine, here providing a boy with a dolphin, tortoises and seahorses, and frogs up top, and there’s supposed to be platypi as well but I can’t see them.

It was paid for by chocolate king #MacPherson Robertson, as one of may gifts to the state for it’s Centenary, and you know, to distract from the depression. It’s a bit out of the way though, up the hill with trees/shrubs around, should have been closer to road I think, but now there’s also Anzac station entrances distracting as well.

There’s some great pics from the @library_vic and one from the @historyvictoria of a model made in sugar ! Presumably by MacRob, and before it was built. Old pics via Facebook.

Oh and in 2020 Dr John Court revealed he was the model for the figure when he was 5; his parents were friends with Montford, so they offered him up.

From 2017, with Anzac station hoarding in the background.

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