FITZROY GARDENS at 60-64 Macleay Street, Potts Point, was originally part of the 1841 subdivision of Colonial Secretary, Alexander Macleay’s 54 acre Elizabeth Bay Estate.

The current park was once partly occupied by a grand home, Osterley at 62 Macleay Street, built in the 1870s but demolished in 1927. It was resumed by Sydney Council and landscaped in 1939 and was originally intended to be named after Civic Reform Alderman, Ernest Tresidder. Political considerations intervened and the name was changed to Fitzroy Gardens after the Fitzroy Ward of the City of Sydney, itself named after NSW Governor, Sir Charles FitzRoy (1846-1855).

The park was enlarged with the purchase of Maramanah, a grand villa, in 1943. This house was built in the 1860s and for many years had been the home of the Hollander family, immortalised in Robin Eakin’s 1965 memoir, “Aunts up the Cross”. Maramanah was demolished in 1954 at the same time as the council also resumed Tenilba at 60 Macleay Street.
In 1959 the Sulman Award-winning Florence Bartley Library was built on the site of Tenilba. And in 1961 the El Alamein Fountain was installed in the park with its distinctive globular shape, soon to become a symbol of Kings Cross. Further work in 1971 included the paving of the park to eliminate the ‘dustbowl’ effect created by its large trees. The most prominent specimens are a Chinese Elm and Canary Island Palm both dating from around 1920, and a majestic, central, Port Jackson Fig and a Hill’s Weeping Fig.

In 1970 Ilma Berzins (1921-1993), said to be the first professionally qualified landscape architect to be employed by a council, designed the current layout.

In 1975 Elizabeth Bay Road was closed to traffic and, along with the former sites of 1-13 Elizabeth Bay Road, the road was absorbed into Fitzroy Gardens, increasing its size by one-third. However, part of this extra space was soon taken up by the anachronistic 1979 Kings Cross Police Station.

Kings Cross was the favoured site for Sydney’s New Year’s Eve revellers from 1936 until 1976 until the first Harbour fireworks drew crowds away to The Rocks and Circular Quay.

Fitzroy Gardens has always had two faces. By day it is popular with locals, particularly the elderly, mothers with children and dog owners. On week-ends its provides spaces for both the Saturday Farmers’ Markets and Sunday stalls.
The whole park is heritage-listed for its historical, social and environmental significance and contains a wall of archaeological remnants from the 1830s Elizabeth Bay House gardens
Locals enjoy its year-round, shady ambience, which acts a welcome respite from the hum and thrum of busy inner-city living. It is peoples’ backyards.
This oasis is the navel of the area.

Wheels of fortune

The substantial bronze sculpture ‘Angled Wheels of Fortune’ was designed and donated by property developer Dennis Wolanski. It was unveiled on 26 April 1988 by the Council’s Chief Commissioner, Sir Eric Neal.

El Alamein Fountain

Designed by Bankstown architects, Robert Woodward and Phil Taranto, who won the main prize of £500 in the City Council fountains prize, this vivacious liquid sculpture is a war memorial. It commemorates the deeds of the “magnificent ninth”, the AIF Ninth Division, during World War II. It was opened by Lord Mayor, Harry Jensen, on 18 November 1961.

It is the world’s largest dandelion.

Its 1961 design was inspired by diggers’ diaries recounting springtime dandelions floating towards their western front muddy trenches. He also served in the war. It commemorates pivotal battles in 1942 near El Alamein, a minor railway siding, involving 300,000 personnel where ordinary Aussies fought: 60 POWs were captured by German Kommandant Rommel (as he then was), nick-named “desert fox”.
38,000 died on both sides.

Allies blunted a pounding German panzer tank attack at El Alamein, then forcing their absolute retreat. Church bells rang throughout Britain. Churchill proclaimed “Now, this is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat.”

Rommel, noting the “rivers of blood” in his own diary, also observed: “60 Australian prisoners were marched off; immensely big and powerful men, who without question were an elite formation of the British Empire, a fact evident in battle.”
They were our ordinary diggers.
“We couldn’t have won without the magnificent 9th Australian Division” said Montgomery.
“My God, I wish we had the 9th Aust. Div. with us this morning,” said Maj-Gen. de Guingand, Allied Chief of Staff at 6:30am on D-Day, 6th June 1944, when Allied forces landed in France to free Europe.

This spritely fountain pumps 2,200 litres of water a minute from its ponds through water wands, or stamen, and was restored after leaking badly after 50 years.
Woodward preferred to be called a water sculptor he told this author in 2005. He ‘tuned’ each water wand in the fountain, musically. “It sings,” he said, giving it visual, historical and aural excitement. After his 2010 death, conservation works were assisted by his family. His daughter, Jane van Hagen said, “This fountain was the major turning point in my father’s career, making him world-famous”.

By Andrew Woodhouse, Director, Heritage Solutions

Image: There is beauty in poignancy. What is it? A dandelion, a fountain or a war memorial?
Answer: all of the above.