A memorial for high profile barrister Clive Andreas Evatt will be held in Sydney on August 16 but for Blue Mountains residents his legacy will live on at the Leuralla Toy and Railway Museum.
Evatt and his wife Elizabeth launched the museum in 1983 at the home of his grandfather Harry Andreas in Olympian Parade, Leura.
Evatt spent much of his childhood and youth at Leuralla and he wanted to see it preserved and open to the public.
The council gave him three options – garden, house or museum.
He chose ‘museum’ and cast about for ideas. The antique toy market had begun to take off so it was toys.
As with everything, he embraced the job and went on to assemble one of the most significant collections of 20th century toys.
“Clive went in for it in a big way. Nothing was small; any challenge was met,” his widow Elizabeth told the Gazette.
Within the house he put together a collection of photographs, published works and paraphernalia dedicated to his uncle Doc Evatt and his father Clive Evatt senior.
Evatt also commissioned giant statues of the comic book characters, Boofhead and Olive Oyl, to stand majestically in Leuralla’s ampitheatre overlooking the Jamison Valley.
“Those statues are there because of Clive’s profound sense of the ridiculous, really,” said Elizabeth.
“Who wants to see old, bronzed statues of kings on horseback? He wanted people to see something that was amusing.”
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Only last year, a new statue took its place in the ampitheatre – The Phantom, as embodied by Sydney artist and Phantom aficionado, Peter Kingston.
The labour of love was undertaken by local craftsman Russell Hunt, assisted in the final stages by Kingston – one of the artists Evatt, also a gallery owner, had championed.
Elizabeth Evatt said Kingston now sees The Phantom statue as Clive, “forever at Leuralla, overlooking the valley”.
Evatt died on August 3, aged 87.