Maitland Brown Memorial, Memorial sculpture in Esplanade Park, Fremantle, Australia
The Maitland Brown Memorial is a roughly 6-metre brown stone monument on a stepped base in Esplanade Park. Above the base, a rectangular block holds a recessed bronze plaque and a smaller bronze panel; two columns with carved capitals carry an entablature and a tapering top crowned by a small urn. The head-and-shoulders statue of Maitland Brown was sculpted by Pietro Porcelli, and the granite base is inset with five plaques, one depicting explorers Frederick Panter, James Harding and William Goldwyer.
The memorial was established in 1913 to commemorate three explorers who died during an 1864 expedition in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. This period reflected the era of early exploration missions into remote Australian territories.
The monument carries two plaques added 81 years apart. The 1913 plaque by G. J. Brockman calls Panter, Harding and Goldwyer "treacherous natives"' victims and Brown leader of the "punitive party"; the 1994 plaque, erected by people who found the monument offensive, states that around twenty Aboriginal people died at La Grange and ends "Lest we forget Mapa jarriya-nyalaku."
The monument stands in Esplanade Park, close to Fremantle's waterfront and within walking distance of the city centre and Fremantle railway station. It is about 6 metres tall, so the bronze plaques set into the granite base sit near eye level and can be read on foot. The stepped base and lawn around it are open to visitors at any hour.
The monument represents a rare case of public memorial modification, where additional plaques were added over time to present multiple historical perspectives. This approach allows visitors to compare colonial narratives with their more recent reexamination in a single location.
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