Abraham Lincoln is in Australia! Well, maybe. It’s complicated.
The June photo in David Wiegers’s calendar is of a statue of Lincoln that supposedly stood in Melbourne, Australia. He adds a parenthetical notation – (Missing). And missing it is. Very missing. What little I’ve been able to find suggests the statue was built of white marble and installed about the time Centennial Park opened in 1888. The photo matches David’s photo. Except for one detail – Centennial Park is in Sydney, not Melbourne, Australia.
Lincoln was joined by about thirty other statues, all commissioned by New South Wales Premier Sir Henry Parkes, who some liken to Lincoln in style and ability. Among the statues was “British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, US President James Garfield, and figures representing the four seasons, commerce, science, the arts and architecture.” Then in the 1970s all the statues were removed for restoration. Neglected for decades, many of the statues were in poor condition. Poor Lincoln was missing a nose, thumb, and part of his coat. Unfortunately, most of the statues, including Lincoln, never made it back into the park and no one seems to know what happened to them. Only about ten have been accounted for, although apparently none of them was reinstalled in the park.
In 2017 I had the good fortune to visit both Sydney and Melbourne (as well as Cairns and Uluru). The closest thing to a Lincoln memorial in Melbourne is The Lincoln, a hotel and pub that may or may not be as missing as the Lincoln statue (its website link doesn’t seem to be working). I did, however, get to see the Melbourne Sea Life Aquarium and tour out of town to gaze upon the famous “12 Apostles” rock formations on the southern coast. The scientist in me noted that there was nearby FitzRoy Gardens (named after the captain of the Beagle, the ship that carried Darwin around the world) and the Cook’s Cottage, named after world traveler Captain Cook. Lincoln may be lost, but science is everywhere.
In Sydney I was able to visit all the famous landmarks: Sydney Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach, and much more. I didn’t visit Centennial Park (there’s no Lincoln statue there anymore, remember), but did experience aboriginal culture and ventured out into the Blue Mountains. Of course, I also visited Sydney’s Aquarium. Absolutely beautiful.
Abraham Lincoln may be missing from Australia, but at least I got to experience much of the nation-continent. I also visited New Zealand. Given the distance and time necessary to make the trip, I may not get there again. That is, unless they find the Lincoln statue. Then I’m hopping a plane to see it.
David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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