Wentworth Falls sculptor Terrance Plowright (centre) and Businesses Supporting Bicentenary members Philip Hammon and Tom Colless at Hyde Park last Thursday, next to Mr Plowright's designs for bronze busts of the three explorers.
Terrance Plowright's sculpture of Lachlan Macquarie.
Wentworth Falls sculptor Terrance Plowright was applauded at Sydney’s Hyde Park last Thursday as his latest work depicting Governor Lachlan Macquarie was unveiled.
Currently in a rich vein of creative form that has earned him selection in the next Florence Biennale in Italy, the maker of the Road Builders’ Memorial in Katoomba’s Lilianfels Park shared some of the secrets behind the bronze statue commissioned by the NSW Government at the behest of NSW Governor Marie Bashir.
“Except for the casting, everything was produced in my Wentworth Falls studio,” Mr Plowright said.
“I based it on a painting of Macquarie by Senator Richard Reed, but I also made sure I had my own input into the face, as just (carving) one millimetre here and there can change the character immensely.
“Governor Macquarie was an incredibly dignified man, he had a strength of character and a face of humility and he was a man of great intelligence — I wanted to show that in the face.”
The statue holds a scroll in its left hand that symbolically contains plans of Sydney Town and from its elevated aspect gazes towards Macquarie Street.
Governor Bashir described the sculpture as outstanding and said “we commend you (Mr Plowright) warmly on your work”.
Revealing it was Governor Macquarie’s birthday that day, she said “the Australia of today I think would have been a source of great pride to Lachlan Macquarie”.
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell said “we see in him (Macquarie) that sense of fair go that we see in this land today” while Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said Macquarie was “perhaps the first champion of Sydney” who had the welfare of everyone in the colony at heart, including the local indigenous population.
Mr Plowright also unveiled three models he described as “roughies” of busts of explorers Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth.
Commissioned and funded by Businesses Supporting Bicentenary (BSB) member Tom Colless, it is hoped local fundraising over coming months will ensure finished bronze busts of each explorer will be installed in the Blue Mountains towns named after them.
Mr Colless said he hopes to make the busts part of a lasting legacy from the upcoming Blue Mountains Crossings Bicentenary events between May 2013 and December 2015. People who donate to the project can have their names engraved on plaques.
The great-great-great-great-grandaughter of Gregory Blaxland, Wendy Blaxland, also attended the Hyde Park launch and was impressed with the designs.
“He has made him (Blaxland) look very handsome, even more than Wentworth and Lawson I think,” she said.
To find out more about the project, visit www.bluemountainscrossings.com.au.