William Light's statue in Victoria Square, Adelaide city, from 1906, moved to lookout on Montefiore Hill, 1938
William Light's statue at the busy King William, Flinders and Franklin streets intersection at the northern end of Victoria Square, Adelaide city, in 1932.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
A bronze statue of Adelaide city’s founder William Light was unveiled in central Victoria Square in 1906 by South Australian governor George Le Hunte in front of a big crowd.
The statue was financed by funds left over from that raised, through a special committee, from the state government, Adelaide City Council and private subscribers for the new 1905 monument to Light where he was buried in Light Square, Adelaide city.
A statue design by Scottish sculptor William Bernie Rhind was selected from 13 entries in a competition. Edinburgh-born Rhind, mainly known for his architectural sculptures, depicted Colonel Light in the uniform of the British Royal Engineers. He is holding a map in his left hand while pointing with his extended right arm. The bronze statue was placed on a pedestal of textured and polished grey granite and Murray Bridge red granite. The pedestal was designed by Adelaide architects Garlick, Sibley & Wooldridge.
The inscription on the front of the pedestal acknowledges Light’s role in locating and planning Adelaide. On the back of the pedestal was a wreath added by the first Australian town planning conference in Adelaide in 1917. An extract from A brief journal of the proceedings of William Light, where Light thanked his enemies for giving him the sole responsibility of choosing the site of Adelaide, was reproduced below the wreath: “The reasons that led me to fix Adelaide where it is I do not expect to be generally understood or calmly judged of at present … I leave it to posterity … to decide whether I am entitled to praise or blame”.
Light’s statue, at the increasingly busy intersection of King William, Flinders and Franklin streets, was facing requests for its removal from Victoria Square as soon as 1908. But this wasn’t seriously considered until South Australia’s 1936 colonial centenary when a lookout project on Montefiore Hill at North Adelaide honoured the pioneers.
In 1938, Henry Newland, Adelaide surgeon and president of the Pioneers Association of South Australia, suggested redesigning and expanding the area, shifting the statue there and renaming the precinct as Light’s Vision in time for the centenary of Light’s death in 1839. Although this grand plan was rejected by the council, it accepted the name and moved the statue in 1938 to Montefiore Hill as the centrepiece of the balustraded garden lookout.
Until 2013, Light stood with his right index finger pointing to the city but the redeveloped Adelaide Oval partly obscured the view.
