Mooney Memorial Fountain is a heritage-listed

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

at 118 Eagle Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane,

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. It was designed by William Holloway Chambers and built from 1878 to 1880 by William Webster. It is also known as Eagle Street Fountain. It was added to the

Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As a ...

on 21 October 1992.

History

Queensland State Archives 2 Brisbane central business district looking south from the corner of Queen and Eagle Streets Brisbane October 1926

This fountain, erected between 1878 and 1880, was designed by the City Engineer, William Holloway Chambers. It was built at a cost of as part of measures to enhance the visual character of that part of the city. The fountain was funded by the Brisbane Municipal Council and public subscriptions. The fountain incorporated local porphyry ( Brisbane tuff),

Murphys Creek Murphys Creek is a rural town and locality in the Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Murphys Creek had a population of 629 people. Geography The locality is located at the foot of the Great Dividing Range. H ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

, and imported

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

. Inscribed on the fountain were the names of the Aldermen in the 1879

Brisbane Town Council The Town of Brisbane was a local government area for Brisbane in Queensland, Australia from 1859 to 1903. History The Municipality of Brisbane was gazetted on 25 May 1859 and proclaimed by the Governor of New South Wales on 7 September 1859. ...

, the City Engineer, the Town Clerk, and William Webster, the sculptor. The fountain popularly became known as the Mooney Memorial Fountain. This name arose through donations given at the time towards a memorial to James Mooney, a volunteer fireman who had lost his life while fighting a fire in Queen Street in March 1877. The official Mooney Memorial, however, was erected above Mooney's grave at Toowong Cemetery using funds raised publicly by his friends and fire-fighter colleagues. In the 1970s, the Mooney Memorial Fountain was depicted in an oil painting by Simone Azzopardi. When the Eagle Street fountain was restored in 1988, a special tablet was inscribed as a dedication to James Mooney and to other firemen who had lost their lives in the line of duty.

Description

This highly decorative drinking fountain stands on a triangular piece of land at the junction of

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

and Eagle Streets. The foundation and steps are square and built of porphyry (Brisbane tuff). The base is square and built of granite from

Mount Alexander Mount Alexander is a mountain located approximately 125 km north-west of Melbourne, near the town of Harcourt. It rises 350 metres above the surrounding area to a level of 744 metres above sea level. Being a prominent local landmark, ...

in Victoria. It has four corner columns on its granite base, with richly foliated

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

and raised pedestals, surmounted by four

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

arches which support a foliated and ribbed

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

. The spire, which was originally topped by an ornate

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

, rises to above the ground. The portion between the columns and below the arches is of sandstone

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

, and this is where the plaques are located. Three lions heads above ornate basins, all of white Sicilian marble are located between the base of the piers on three sides of the fountain. The water supply through the heads was regulated by a system easily accessible by the removal of a single stone. Although the fountain originally dominated the Eagle Street corner, the scale of recent adjacent high-rise buildings has lessened its visual impact. However, a large fig nearby supports its present claim as a landmark.

Heritage listing

Eagle Street Fountain was listed on the

on 21 October 1992 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history. The Eagle Street Fountain is significant as an excellent example of a

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

public monument and amenity of careful and ornate design and fine materials and workmanship. Situated at the intersection of Queen and Eagle Streets, the Eagle Street Fountain is significant for its landmark value. The Eagle Street Fountain is significant for its association with James Mooney, a volunteer fireman who had lost his life while fighting a fire in Queen Street in March 1877.

References

Attribution

External links