The fountains of Machattie Park, Bathurst
Several of the postcards featured in our current library display depict Machattie Park in Bathurst. Postcard collector Vera Bell lived in Bathurst between 1905 and 1908 while her father, John, acted as the police superintendent.
Machattie Park was officially opened to the public in 1890. Built on the site of the old Bathurst jail, the park was named in honour of local physician Richard Machattie (1813–1876). The creation of the park was a visible display of Bathurst’s civic pride and ambition. Parks were places of respite, and acted as ‘breathing spaces where residents can spend a quiet, pleasant hour or two away from the rush and turmoil of everyday life’.1 They were also sites of public memorialisation, used to commemorate historic events, and evolved into meaningful places of remembrance for the local community.
In 1891, two fountains were installed in Machattie Park – the grand fountain, sometimes called the Crago fountain, and the Monro drinking fountain. The designs for both fountains appear in 19th-century trade catalogues held in the Caroline Simpson Library.
… no town is complete without its public gardens.
The grand fountain as manufactured by English iron company Coalbrookdale, and the design is illustrated in their trade catalogue dated around 1875. The design was selected by the Progress Association of Bathurst, who had raised the funds to improve Machattie Park, so recently the site of the demolished jail. There was much interest in the arrival and delivery of the fountain, reportedly the largest in Australia at the time, including some concern that the base would be too wide to transport over the Blue Mountains by train.
However, the fountain was safely delivered and was officially opened on 23 December 1891 at an evening event attended by the leading figures of Bathurst, including the photographer of the postcard above, Mr H C Beavis. The water was turned on by Mrs Crago, wife of the mayor, to much applause.
Another of Vera’s postcards of Machattie Park depicts an Edwardian family under parasols stopping on an avenue to enjoy the Monro drinking fountain. Scribbled on the back of the postcard is the message: ‘This is a very windy place, today – looks like rain’.
The Monro drinking fountain, also erected in 1891, was named in honour of Mrs Annie Cameron Monro, President of the Poor Society of Bathurst and an instrumental figure in the creation of the park. The fountain was manufactured by the Scottish iron foundry Walter Macfarlane & Co and appears in their trade catalogue of around 1876.
The drinking fountain selected for Machattie Park would have been familiar to many Sydneysiders. In 1870, eight fountains of the same design had been erected in different wards of the city to provide easily accessible drinking water.
They had been ordered from Macfarlane’s Saracen foundry in Scotland by the mayor of Sydney, Walter Renny, and arrived aboard the Duncraig. The ornamental cast-iron canopy fountains were considered an elegant addition to the city, and were also touted as a weapon in the fight against excessive alcoholic consumption:
Water ought to be as easily obtained as beer or spirituous liquors; but that is not the case at present. A man can obtain intoxicating liquors at almost every street corner, but he may have to walk a mile before he can get a draught of water … Our drinking fountains may be a priceless boon to many whose tastes are depraved …
Today, both of these elegant fountains continue to beautify Bathurst’s public park.
Notes
1. Australian Town & Country Journal, 5 July 1911, p23.
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Mel Flyte
Collections Discovery Assistant, Caroline Simpson Library
Growing up in rural NSW, Mel’s childhood was spent undertaking her own archaeological excavations in the creek bed on her family’s property. Old bottles, cow bones, and the occasional piece of rusty farm equipment were all considered exciting discoveries. School holidays were punctuated with long car trips with her mum to see blockbuster exhibitions in Canberra and Sydney, so galleries and museums always felt familiar. Studies in archaeology and art history have inspired a passion for objects and their ability to elicit emotions and tell stories. Mel curated the exhibtion On The Move and relishes the opportunity to get hands-on with the treasures in our collections.
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