Unveiling of the Vahland Drinking Fountain

Sunday, 2 October 2016

Official ribbon cutting of Vahland's lost fountain
by Chairman of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Robert Johanson,
and Vahland’s great grandson, John McInnes.

Transcript of the full speech by Robert Johanson,
Co-Chairman of the Vahland Drinking Fountain Restoration Committee:

Mr Mayor, ladies and gentlemen.

Welcome to this wonderful occasion, the opening of the restored and reinstalled fountain in this newly named William Vahland Place.

This fountain is the third of the great civic fountains that William Vahland designed for the city of Bendigo and which were installed in the 1870s and 1880s. There’s the iconic Alexandra Fountain down in Charing Cross. And then there are the Cascades in Rosalind Park, running down from Camp Hill and ending at the fountain in the gardens. The Cascades were recovered and restored about 20 years ago, which I remember well because my father was involved in that project.

And now there is this drinking fountain.

It was originally installed in 1881, just over there (pointing), where Pall Mall breaks into McCrae Street and Park Road. But it was dismantled in 1906 and replaced with the Gold Discovery Monument.

So in Vahland’s vision, these three fountains framed the city, this new, prosperous, vibrant city; by then constructing great, proud, beautiful buildings, many designed by Vahland; where the deepest mines in the world disgorged extraordinary wealth; where operas were performed and one of the busiest stock exchanges in the world hummed; where maybe 50,000 people had come from all over the world – from all parts of the British Isles, from all over Europe and from the newly United States of America; Muslim drivers from Afghanistan, Hindu hawkers from the Punjab, Chinese miners from Guangzhou, Jewish entrepreneurs from Kiev. English was the most spoken language, German was second and Chinese third.

They had got sick of living in tents and now were building houses. The first Bendigo Building Society was founded in 1858. William Vahland was one of the founders and he was a director and then chairman for over 50 years. It was a locally funded cooperative where people pooled their savings and took it in turns to finance housing for each other. The original house and land package gave working people a simple house, designed by Vahland and financed by the building society. People of the town who had no access to the banking system of the day, got to own houses. Both my grandparents got their houses this way.

All this in a dry valley where for maybe 40,000 years the first Australians had lived and hunted and conducted their ceremonies.

I’m here today representing the committee that took on the task of this great project. The other committee members are here today – Bob Schulz from the German Society whose donation of funds was crucial to getting the project under way, and Paul Rosner from the National Trust who were a great help. My co-chair was Cr Peter Cox who is here but cannot be heard because of the proprieties of the forth coming council elections. Thanks to all of you and especially to Peter. But special thanks to those who really did the work: from the Council Danielle Orr, Trevor Budge, Terry Karamanlidis, lots of people form the engineer’s office – thank you all and I’m sure you feel as pleased and proud as I do. Over a quarter of a million dollars was raised to finance the project. Council contributed a lot; local businesses helped. Can I thank especially Keech and Co who cast the lights of top of the fountain? The original lights were lost and the design and casting of the replacement lights became the most difficult part of the project, so many thanks to them.

We launched the project and the appeal for funds in July 2015, on the centenary of the death of William Charles Vahland. He was when he died 87 years old and had lived in Bendigo for over 60 years. No one had made a greater contribution to the development of the city and its civic, social and commercial institutions. In this celebration of the city and of Vahland’s extraordinary contribution, there’s no need to emphasis the bad bits or to wallow in guilt feelings, but nor should we forget or gloss over them. By 1915, the economy of the city and the country had shrunk; the mines are mostly closed. The financial crisis and depression of the 1890s had robbed many people of their savings – over half the banks had shut their doors – and the population had shrunk. The city was closing in on itself. The first action of the new Federal Parliament had been to shut immigration to anyone who wasn’t white. And in 1915 in Europe young men from all over the world were being killed in the industrial slaughterhouse of World War I.

Vahland, who had left Hanover before Germany even existed, was declared an enemy alien. They were difficult times for anyone with a German heritage in Australia and in Bendigo. My grandmother was a girl of 15 in 1915. With a name like Alva Amelia Theresa Junck, her German heritage was obvious. She told me how hard it was with police visiting and your mail being opened. Her father had arrived in the 1870s as a boy, with his family, my great great grandparents. They were stonemasons and bricklayers and they worked on many of Vahland’s buildings around Bendigo. It’s them that my mother and our family especially remember and celebrate in our contribution to this project.

For all of us, and I know I speak for the people at Bendigo Bank who have helped, this is not just about erecting a monument to another dead white European male, no matter how worthy. For us, it’s about remembering what it takes to build a city and create a community. For us, Bendigo Bank and the role it plays in the life of the modern city, in financially empowering and enfranchising communities and individuals all over Australia, they are as great a memorial to William Charles Vahland as any of the buildings he built or this fountain.

We - and I mean all the committee, everyone who worked on the project and all of us at the Bank he founded, we hope you share our pride in this city and our confidence in its future as we commemorate the extraordinary contribution of William Charles Vahland.

Thank you.

Robert Johanson
Co-chair Vahland Fountain Committee
Chair Bendigo and Adelaide Bank