Know Your Park Lands Art: Light’s Vision
by Claudia San Miguel
Our series of stories, Know Your Park Lands Art, guides you through various creative displays within your Adelaide Park Lands. This time, we’re focusing on an iconic statue, where many joggers pause to take a breath and drink in the view.
Located in Tarntanya Wama (Park 26), on the top of Montefiore Hill, the statue: Light’s Vision by William Birnie Rhind, commemorates the famed founding Surveyor-General of South Australia Colonel William Light.
It’s one of the most popular Park Lands spots for photographers, both Adelaide residents and visitors.
Light’s Vision was commissioned in 1904 and unveiled by Governor Le Hunte on 27 November 1906 at the intersection of Flinders and Franklin Streets at the northern end of Victoria Square / Tarntanyangga.
The life-size bronze statue was relocated, in 1938, soon after the centenary of South Australia, to Montefiore Hill, where it remains.
The statue in about 1940, soon after its relocation. Pic: City of Adelaide archives.
The commission for the statue, 2.7 metres high, was awarded to Scottish sculptor William Birnie Rhind of Edinburgh for a tender of 1,000 pounds.
Architects, Garlick, Sibley and Woolbridge made the pedestal at a cost of 510 pounds. The inscription on the pedestal reads, “Colonel William Light, first surveyor general fixed the site and laid out the city of Adelaide in 1836.”
Joggers taking a break near Light’s Vision in Park 26. Photo: The Spare Minute Runner. (Main photo, top: Adelaide Park Lands Association.)
As part of his position as Surveyor-General, Light had the responsibility of deciding on the site for the capital of the new British colony of South Australia.
The result was Light’s famous City Plan of 1837.
EXTRACT FROM COLONEL LIGHT’S JOURNAL, 1839:
“The reasons that led me to fix Adelaide where it is I do not expect to be generally understood or calmly judged of at present. My enemies, however, by disputing their validity in every particular, have done me the good service of fixing the whole of the responsibility upon me. I am perfectly willing to bear it; and I leave it to posterity, and not to them, to decide whether I am entitled to praise or to blame”
Light’s statue stands upon a tall, beige, granite pedestal and overlooks the city of Adelaide with a poised stance. His right arm is extended, pointing towards Adelaide’s city centre.
Light is displayed in his military uniform and holding a mapped plan in his left hand. Local legend suggests Light’s depicted stance mimics when he stood upon Montefiore Hill in 1837, pointed below, and declared: “This is the place for a city.”
Rhind’s ability to encapsulate a colossal moment in Adelaide’s history through a recreation of Light’s lightbulb moment makes Light’s Vision a transformative work of art.
Its grand display and primary focus on storytelling invites those who view it to fully immerse themselves in the narrative of the city’s history.
Keith Conlon’s “Ride with Keith” cycling group at Light’s Vision in 2021.
About the artist
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, William Birnie Rhind (1853-1933) became one of the leading architectural sculptors of his generation, best known for his design of war memorials.
Portrait of William Birnie Rhind, attributed to Charles K. Robertson. Pic: lyonandturnbull.com
Rhind’s father, John Rhind, was also a sculptor who guided and trained his son for years. Following this training, the younger Rhind studied at Scotland’s Government School of Art, and at the Life School of the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh for five years.
Light’s Vision overlooking Adelaide Oval. Photo: NatsLife72.
Thanks to his unique approach to capturing historical figures and moments with such detail, Rhind exhibited eight times at the British Royal Academy and a prodigious 54 times at the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition.
Light’s Vision is at Montefiore Hill, at the corner of Montefiore Road and Pennington Terrace in Tantanya Wama (Park 26), overlooking Adelaide Oval.
For more articles in our Know Your Park Lands Art series, head to this page:
https://www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/know-your-park-lands-art
Banner photo at top by Richie Webb