It depicts one of the defining events in Ballarat’s – and the nation’s – history. So how did Sidney Nolan’s mural, Eureka Stockade, end up in the Australia National University in Canberra, rather than in the city it portrays?
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For the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) looking to re-house the artwork after its Collins St office was put on the market, it was literally a monumental challenge. At 20m by 3.6m, the mural stretches almost the length of two double-decker buses, and rises more than twice the height of the average man.
Conservatively valued at around $1.8m, this is not the sort of artwork you can just re-shuffle a few displays to fit around it. The RBA’s curator John Murphy said they were looking for an “accessible public venue where there was suitable viewing distance and where it would be well preserved.” It was too big to be publicly accessible in the RBA’s new headquarters. Could anywhere in Ballarat have coped?
For Mr Murphy, the city where the Eureka Stockade took place was a natural place to look at, and he confirmed that both the Eureka Centre and the Art Gallery of Gallery were considered.
But when the bank’s Collins Street office went to market in April last year, the Eureka Centre was hardly enjoying a good run. There had been a break-in that month. The name had been changed from The Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka (MADE) and the Council had taken over control amid widespread controversy. Whether a more successful centre would have had the size and curatorial capacity to display the mural is a moot point.
One of the most monumental achievements of his [Nolan’s] career
- Fine art auction house Deutscher and Hackett
The Art Gallery of Ballarat was also ultimately not approached. “My reading of it was that the work was intended for permanent display in a public building which most galleries would be unable to agree to,” the gallery’s director Louise Tegart told The Courier.
And given the urgency – Mr Murphy said each of the mural's 66 individual panels of enamel on heavy gauge copper could only spend a short time unsupported – other potential options such as the Civic Hall would not even have been on the table.
There were several other high-profile galleries and museums weighed up then dismissed by a special committee formed to decide the artwork’s destination. The National Gallery of Victoria, Parliament House in Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia and the National Museum of Australia were all considered.
Ultimately, the piece of work described as “one of the most monumental achievements of his [Nolan’s] career” by the Australian fine art auction house Deutscher and Hackett, became the centrepiece of the cultural centre of the ANU's new Kambri Precinct. The university’s strong historical links with Dr H.C. Coombs, the RBA governor who commissioned the work by Nolan back in 1962, were cited as the reason for its selection for the RBA gift.
Being in the nation’s capital city is a good thing. It gives some promotion to the significance of Eureka as Australia’s iconic founding story
- Ron Egeberg, former director of The Eureka Centre
It concluded the latest leg in the mural’s travels. Following its commission, Nolan had worked on it in London with two technical collaborators, Robin Banks and Patrick Furse, before it was transferred for display in the huge foyer of the Collins Street building.
For Ron Egeberg, a director of The Eureka Centre from 2002 to 2008 and a Eureka descendant, the placement was a positive thing.
“Ballarat can’t own everything in relation to Eureka,” he said. “What we want to do is ensure we encourage the telling of the story.
“Being in the nation’s capital city is a good thing. It gives some promotion to the significance of Eureka as Australia’s iconic founding story.”
