C. Y. O’Connor Statue

Statement of Significance

C. Y. O’Connor Statue, commemorating his suicide at South Beach, has aesthetic, historic, representative, social and rarity cultural heritage significance. The bronze statue is a moving, fine and rare example of public art that is an important reminder of O’Connor’s tragic last moments.
C. Y. O’Connor Statue is associated with C. Y. O’Connor, who made a significant contribution to engineering in Western Australia.
C. Y. O’Connor Statue is associated with the long-standing practice of horse training in Cockburn.

Physical Description

A bronze statue, depicting a man on a horse, in the ocean approximately 30 metres from the beach.

History

The memorial to C. Y. O’Connor off shore at South Beach is a monument to an influential personality in Western Australia’s history. O’Connor was closely associated with South Beach as he often rode his horse along this stretch of beach. O’Connor was appointed Engineer-in-Chief of Western Australia becoming leader and initiator of a large government works program. O’Connor’s biographer indicated that the economic stability of Western Australia in the 1890s when the Eastern States suffered a recession, was partly owing to ‘the appointment of O’Connor as Engineer-In-Chief and his insistence that the principles of efficiency and economy be observed’. O’Connor was known for two major projects in Western Australia the Fremantle Harbour and the Mundaring to Kalgoorlie water pipeline.
The harbour at Fremantle was an important project to Western Australia as the absence of safe anchorages had led to Fremantle becoming a secondary port to Albany. After long discussions, O’Connor’s plan of removing the rock bar from the mouth of the Swan River and constructing wharves along the river banks was adopted. Work commenced in 1892 and continued until 1900 when the first steamer entered and berthed at the new port.
The second major engineering feat of O’Connor saw the construction of a reservoir at Mundaring in the hills outside Perth and a pipeline to the goldfields through which water was pumped at a number of stations.
On 10 March 1902 O’Connor, aged 59, tragically rode his horse into the water off South Beach and shot himself. The monument to O’Connor was sculpted by Tony Jones and put in place at an unveiling ceremony in 2001. About 30 descendents of O’Connor gathered at the unveiling of the bronze statue. The location of the statue recognises not just the scene of his suicide but his close association with the horse training that still occurs on South Beach in 2002. At the time of the unveiling a temporary plaque was placed on the beach however, owing to its fragility it has since been washed away. A number of people have requested that interpretative material for this monument be placed nearby to benefit the many visitors to the beach.

Integrity/Authenticity

INTEGRITY: High
AUTHENTICITY: High

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

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