Prime Minister's Avenue

The Prime Ministers Avenue is a collection of busts of the prime ministers of Australia, located at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens in Ballarat, Victoria. The busts are displayed as bronze portraits mounted on polished granite pedestals. It attracts thousands of visitors annually.

The 28th Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, was the most recent Prime Minister to be added to the Avenue. He attended the unveiling on 5 June 2017.

History

Richard Crouch, the original donor of the first six busts, was born in Ballarat in 1868. He was MP for Corio, representing the Protectionist Party from 1901 to 1909 and the Commonwealth Liberal Party from 1909 to 1910, and was at the time the youngest member of the House of Representatives. He was also a Labor Party MP for Corangamite from 1929 to 1931.

The first six busts were unveiled on 2 March 1940 by the Governor of Victoria, Winston Dugan. Crouch also bequeathed funds for maintaining the project. It is claimed that Crouch's motivation for starting the collection was "his patronage and love of fine arts, which he supported and endowed in many other ways, and the influence of two parliamentary terms under the statesmen Barton, Deakin, Watson, Fisher and Scullin prompted him to return to Ballarat something of what it had given him".

Sculptors

* The busts of Barton, Deakin, Watson, Reid, Fisher, Cook, Hughes, Bruce, Scullin, Lyons, Page, Menzies, Fadden and Curtin were created by Wallace Anderson (1888–1975), born at Dean near Ballarat. He is best known for his work "Simpson and His Donkey" located at the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance.
* The creator of Forde's bust is unknown.
* The bust of Chifley was created during Chifley's election campaign in 1946 by Ken Palmer, born in 1925 at Ballarat.
* The busts of Holt, McEwen, Gorton, McMahon and Whitlam were created by Victor Greenhalgh (1900–1983), born at Ballarat. He is best known for his large statue of King George V which dominates the Sturt Street plantation in Ballarat. Greenhalgh was commissioned to create eight of the busts.
* The busts of Fraser, Hawke, Keating, Howard, Rudd and Gillard were created by Peter Nicholson, born in 1946 in Melbourne. He is best known for his cartoons in the ''Nation Review'', ''Financial Review'' and ''The Age''. Nicholson's works have followed his philosophy that the busts should impart an expression of the character of the individual.
* The bust of Abbott was created by Linda Klarfeld, born in 1976 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. In creating the bust she attempted to impart a sense of Abbott's perspective, including the "stamina to cope with day to day criticism".
*The bust of Malcolm Turnbull was created by Linda Klarfeld and was commissioned using funding from the City of Ballarat's Public Art Program.

Criticisms

Fraser's bust was originally created by Victor Greenhalgh. However, Greenhalgh and others were critical of the final casting. Following Greenhalgh's death in 1983, Peter Nicholson was asked to create a new bust for Fraser, which was completed after the bust of Fraser's successor Hawke had been installed.

Nicholson believes that John Howard was dissatisfied with the size of his lower lip, and it is said that Paul Keating was unhappy with his bust's weak chin and pointy nose.

Future

With the cost of each bust ranging from $45,000 to $65,000, historic bequeathed funds for the construction of busts for future Prime Ministers ran out after Julia Gillard's bust. The bust of Tony Abbott, the most recent addition, was funded by the Ballarat council in 2017. The project is a part of the City of Ballarat's Arts & Culture Public Art Program and work has substantially advanced on the bust of Malcolm Turnbull.

The Ballarat council has repeatedly and unsuccessfully lobbied the federal government for funding in perpetuity, and has also called for expressions of interest from sculptors.

Busts

Image:Edmund Barton bust.jpg, 1st Edmund Barton
Image:Alfred Deakin Ballarat.jpg, 2nd Alfred Deakin
Image:Chris Watson bust.jpg, 3rd Chris Watson
Image:George Reid bust.jpg, 4th George Reid
Image:Andrew Fisher bust.jpg, 5th Andrew Fisher
Image:Joseph Cook bust.jpg, 6th Joseph Cook
Image:Billy Hughes bust.jpg, 7th Billy Hughes
Image:Stanley Bruce bust.jpg, 8th Stanley Bruce
Image:James Scullin bust.jpg, 9th James Scullin
Image:Joseph Lyons bust.jpg, 10th Joseph Lyons
Image:Earle Page bust.jpg, 11th Earle Page
Image:Robert Menzies bust.jpg, 12th Robert Menzies
Image:Arthur Fadden bust.jpg, 13th Arthur Fadden
Image:John Curtin bust.jpg, 14th John Curtin
Image:Forde.jpg, 15th Frank Forde
Image:Ben Chifley bust.jpg, 16th Ben Chifley
Image:Harold Holt bust.jpg, 17th Harold Holt
Image:John McEwen bust.jpg, 18th John McEwen
Image:John Gorton bust.jpg, 19th John Gorton
Image:William McMahon bust.jpg, 20th William McMahon
Image:Gough Whitlam bust.jpg, 21st Gough Whitlam
Image:Malcolm Fraser bust.jpg, 22nd Malcolm Fraser
Image:Bob Hawke bust.jpg, 23rd Bob Hawke
Image:Paul Keating bust.jpg, 24th Paul Keating
Image:John Howard bust.jpg, 25th John Howard
File:Kevin rudd pm bust.jpg, 26th Kevin Rudd
Image:Bronze bust of PM Julia Gillard.png, 27th Julia Gillard
File:Tony abbott bust.jpg, 28th Tony Abbott

See also

* Prime Ministers' Corridor of Oaks – Faulconbridge, New South Wales

References

External links

Prime Ministers Avenue Brochure
Ballarat Botanical Gardens
Prime Ministers Avenue
Monument Australia
*
Prime Ministers Avenue, Ballarat, 1958
victorianplaces.com.au

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Buildings and structures in Ballarat
Monuments and memorials in Victoria (Australia)
Outdoor sculptures in Australia
Prime Minister of Australia