1970
23 January 1970
$1500 Cook grant to be spent on fountain
The $1500 Local Government grant which was to have gone to Mudgee’s new library has been diverted to the Robertson Park fountain.
The action has been taken to allow the establishment this year of a tangible memento of the Captain Cook Bi-Centenary.
The Grants Commission asked the council to re-allocate the money to a project which, unlike the library, would be completed in 1970.
Town Clerk (Mr. B. R. Sengelman) said the fountain, more than any other item in the council’s budget, lent itself to the purpose.
An amount of $800 towards the fountain had already been allocated.
A total of $2300 would now be available.
The council, however, still has no concrete plans for the structure which was originally built from Floral Festival funds in 1967 but has never been a success.
The last motion on its books, adopted at its December meeting and reaffirmed on Monday, was that no further action be taken until the recommendation of Mr. A. Zarro, a local stonemason, had been considered.
Mr. Sengelman said Mr. Zarro had not been available when the council officers attempted to contact him but further efforts would be made.
He told Monday’s council meeting it was intended to complete the fountain project “in the first half of this year.”
A letter from Mrs. I. M. Walter, tabled at the meeting, suggested that before the council proceeded with improvement works to the fountain it request members of the Fine Arts Society to submit suggestions and ideas for its re-design.
Mrs. Walter enclosed a rough sketch of a possible re-design.
Ald. Mrs. C. M. Croan: “We might have to make the most of what we’ve got.”
Ald. Croan said fountains could run into sums of $70,000 or $80,000.
“We were on a limited budget when we built that one.
“I still think we will be on a fairly limited budget.
“But I think quite a lot can be done with rockeries and greeneries.
“I am quite happy about a competition, but it is only wasting our time and the contestants’ time if it is not within our means.
The Municipal Engineer (Mr. A. R. Brown) had said he favoured a competition for a fountain design possibly to be run in conjunction with the Mudgee Show.
He said he did not “particularly like” the present fountain, mostly because it suffered from a lack of any background.
“The fountain when operating as it is supposed to be is not visible because there is no real background,” he said.
He said a new design could incorporate the present base facilities1
.