Fitzroy Gardens c.1905

This is a colour postcard of the Fitzroy Gardens c.1905. It was printed in Prussia as part of the Victoria Stamp Market (VSM) Series.

Australia introduced the divided back on postcards in 1905.  This allowed a message and the address to be written side by side.

The image shows the path leading diagonally down the hill from the Grey Street entrance to the park to the bridge across the creek at the bottom. 

The elm trees each side of the path were planted about 1859 and so are about 45 years old. At the very left of the image the Temple of the Winds (1873) can be seen through the trees.  Between the temple and the path a statue is partly hidden.  This is Dorothea, a character in Cervantes Don Qixote. In the story, at the time Don Quixote came across her, she was dressed as a boy and gazing into a pond.  Here she sits on a small rockery cum fountain.

At the junction of the paths is a statue of 'Athlete Bearing a Discus', or Discophoros.  The Argus of 8 July 1925 described it as 'a plaster cast of a dejected athlete aiming his discus at a Greek temple.' Beyond at the bottom of the path is the goddess of the hunt, Diana with Stag.