On a visit to Townsville Public Hospital to see if he had grown any new barnacles on his well sunned, rusting body , our S(h)ipping Reporter , the only one north of Lord Howe Island , recently discovered both parts of the fountain , below , were not working .
It was good, however, to see that most of the rubbish had been removed from within the fountain and the broken glass which had been there for weeks removed from behind the brickwork. The suggestion by our S(h)ipping Reporter that the nearby bus shelter needed a rubbish bin bore results . A bin appeared nearby and was soon filled to overflow. Like the fountain, it requires daily attention.The fountain should be treated as a national, international and local shrine -especially as Townsville is a garrison town .
The Townsville Bulletin runs a regular Defenders supplement but seems oblivious to the state of the Victory in the Pacific fountain , just down the road from its office , as well as other wartime memorials in the city which this blog has highlighted .
Not far from the badly neglected fountain is the fine old railway building , the roof of which was replaced at great cost, the old ticket office part open to the public with its roll of honour for railway staff who served during war.
On the day the fountain was not working the interesting ticket office area , below , needed a sweep, many leaves visible , a cloth standing out .
