page_title: Queen's Park, Maryborough
section_title: Melville Fountain
hierarchical_section_title: Queen's Park, Maryborough / History / Melville Fountain
caption_attribution_description: English: Band Rotunda in Queen's Park, Maryborough, ca. 1930. Image shows the band rotunda nestled amongst the trees of the park. A fountain appears in the foreground.
context_page_description: Queen's Park is a heritage-listed botanic garden at Sussex Street, Maryborough, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. A reserve for the botanical gardens was gazetted in October 1873. It contains the Maryborough War Memorial. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
context_section_description: In 1890, the Melville or Fairy Fountain was unveiled under the rotunda. This was bequeathed by Miss Janet Melville to the City of Maryborough in memory of her brother, Andrew Wedderburn Melville. On his death in 1882 Janet inherited most of his fortune which she distributed locally. On her death she left £500 for the erection of a fountain and bandstand in the gardens.
  The fountain chosen was exhibited at the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888 and arrived in Maryborough in December and was erected early the following year. Although band concerts were held in the pavilion there were some difficulties encountered viewing the members of the band as the structure sat on ground level, not elevated as is normally the case of bandstands. Early in the twentieth century the bandstand was moved 18 metres (59 ft) and re-erected on a concrete plinth.
  The rotunda was imported from Glasgow, from the William MacFarlane & Co, Saracen in Scotland. The Hon Andrew Wilson MLC had chosen the structure in Glasgow after visiting the area. As constructed the rotunda was surrounded by a cast iron pilastered fence bed in a stone plinth.
  At some time the fountain was shifted to allow the rotunda to be used as a bandstand. The fountain was a gift to the city from Miss Janet Melville who gave large sums of money to various Maryborough institutions including the hospital. The trustees of Janet's will authorised the Hon A.H. Wilson, to investigate suitable fountains during a Scotland holiday. Wilson selected the fairy fountain at the Glasgow International Exhibition and it arrived in Maryborough on 31 December 1889.
  Janet Melville was one of the most generous benefactors in Maryborough, she came to Australia from Scotland with her brother Andrew Wedderburn Melville and his wife Maria in 1849. Andrew wrote for the Maryborough Chronicle and served a term as Mayor in 1863. He died 5 November 1882 and his wife died 23 October 1890.
  
  A report in the Maryborough Chronicle detailed the unveiling of the fountain:
  The Melville Memorial Fountain is now erected under the ornamental pavilion in the Botanic Gardens and is at least an attractive object. From the centre of a large basin rises a column with griffin heads around the cap, which will spout water form their mouths. On the top of the column are three cranes in various attitudes and from the centre rises a funnel shaped tier out of which springs another of a similar design but smaller and in the centre of this is a golden cherub clasping a horn of plenty from which a jet of water is thrown upwards...
  In the 19th century, Walter MacFarlane's Saracen foundry was the largest in the world of its day covering ten acres with its own railway station and satellite suburb of Possilpark. The company exported their castings all over the world.
caption: Band rotunda, circa 1930
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