Multimedia Content
Boy On A Turtle, c. 1850, by Artist unknown, courtesy of City of Melbourne.
Details
Boy On A Turtle
Artist unknown
Bronze statue
c. 1850
Fitzroy Gardens
(Melway ref. 2G B4)
This bronze sculpture of a cherub-like boy astride the back of a turtle has led a long and eventful life. Boy on a Turtle was erected in Carlton Gardens during the 1850s, where it first stood in a prominent position on the corner of Victoria and Rathdowne streets, before being relocated in 1937 to the Nicholson Street side of the gardens. Some years later the statue was moved to its present home in Fitzroy Gardens; appropriately, Boy on a Turtle sits in the lower lake of the gardens. In March 1977, this popular statue was stolen from the gardens - a remarkable feat considering the great weight of the bronze. It was also the fate suffered by Larry La Trobe nearly 20 years later. Two and a half years after the sculpture's disappearance, police found it in an abandoned Richmond car park.
