ANOTHER NEGLECTED FOUNTAIN

 Shipping   Reporter continues  investigation  into  the  treatment   of  important  Townsville  memorials.   

In  the Anzac Memorial Park , not  far  from the  Heroes'  Walk , where  the   plinths of  men  awarded  the  Victoria Cross  in  WWll  show signs of being  splattered  by  bird / bat droppings ,  is   another  neglected  memorial . It  is the  non - operating  drinking  fountain (above)  going  back  to  1908 , in memory of   prominent  citizen  William  Joseph  Castling , who first arrived in town  in 1876,  a  butcher  and  a   former  mayor, who drowned  in  Ross Creek in 1906.

Details  on  the  fountain  are  obscured by  the ravages of time and what appears to  be  roots  growing  up  through the structure, see  following close up . 

The  Wikipedia  description of  it  makes interesting  reading :

The W. J. Castling memorial drinking fountain is an exercise in the use of classical elements, based on a simple square form plan with an attic storey raised on Ionic  columns .

The structure derives from the Roman triumphal arch, with its four columns standing on pedestals  and rising to an  entablature , above which is the attic storey with a  semicircular decorative motif. The arches have been displaced by the  capitals , and occur within the structure as a shallow dome above the central urn on its octagonal base.

The curves of a basilica  roof are reduced to a convex pyramidal form, topped with a decorative carved finial.

Carved of yellow sandstone, the columns, roof and urn are supported on a plinth  and attached column  bases of white marble. A basin has been formed in marble on  each side of  the  drinking  fountain.

The  fountain was moved  to  its  present  position  in 1924 .