Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01306:reg:52
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2021L01306
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 52
Character Range: 95322–97453

52   Clements, 'Australian Institute of Anatomy', April 1949; and minute, Hipsley, to Director-General of Health, 'Description of Building',
   5 December 1949, CRS A2644, item 70; architectural drawing, 'Institute of Anatomy: entrance to museums', 10 January 1929, CRS A2505, item AF129.

  Figure 17: Proposed Art Deco design features to surround the doors leading to the museums and courtyard, January 1929 (National Archives of Australia)

  The decorative skylight over the foyer features the figure of a platypus in stained Luxfer glass. The reason that this animal was given such prominence in the Institute's scheme of interior decoration was that, in MacKenzie's scheme of things, the platypus was the link between mammal, bird and reptile. Displayed on the walls of foyer are twelve face masks of distinguished medical scientists, including interestingly one of the French biologist Jean Lamarck, the foremost proponent of the by-then largely discredited theory of the inheritance

  of acquired characteristics. The face masks were erected at MacKenzie's instigation during the 1930s.53

  The double entrance doors to the museums and courtyard were supposed to have been surrounded by elaborate Art Deco designs including, above the door, a large stylised representation of what appears to be a grey-headed flying fox (or bat). But these decorative details were never proceeded with, probably for reasons of economy. Other interior decorative features that were carried through include,

  on the walls of the two museum blocks, plaques carrying moulded figures of the wombat, tree kangaroo, koala, kookaburra and platypus. Attached to the walls facing onto the courtyard are additional plaques featuring the face of the wombat. Around the front door appears a repeated motif carved in stone of a frilled lizard with its mouth open. Also carved in stone at the top of the columns at the entrance to the building are goannas among ferns and waratahs.54

Figure 18: Proposed Art Deco design features to surround the doors leading to the museums and courtyard, January 1929 (National Archives of Australia)