3 months ago
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A trailblazing female mechanic will be honoured with a new statue in Kew after a council-backed local initiative that will help tackle the dearth of women memorialised across Melbourne.
The Alice Anderson Memorial Project won Boroondara Council’s support on Monday night for a life-size bronze artwork of the founder of Australia’s first all-women garage.
Alice Anderson Memorial Project members Stella Loong, Tina Russo, Samantha Loverich, and Susan Reddrop at Petrie Square in Kew, where a new statue is proposed.Credit: Justin McManus
Boroondara will spend $100,000 for the statue, including $60,000 for landscaping to install a plinth on council land, likely at Petrie Square on Cotham Road near Anderson’s old workshop.
The community group that approached council aims to raise a further $120,000.
Alice Anderson opened the first all-female garage aged just 20.Credit: University of Melbourne Archives
Samantha Lovrich, co-founder of the Alice Anderson Memorial Project, said a statue would better recognise Anderson’s barrier-breaking achievements before her life was cut short in 1926.
Anderson died aged 29 from a gunshot wound, which a coroner ruled an accident as she was cleaning a gun, although a more recent biography by historian Loretta Smith cast doubt upon this, citing inconsistent testimony.
Before her death, Anderson was a celebrity of Melbourne’s Roaring ’20s, employing and training dozens of women at her Kew garage from 1919, when they were all-too-often confined to their homes.
Anderson has also been credited with inventing a trolley to roll under cars, similar to the garage creepers now standard for mechanics across the world.
She had just returned from an audacious outback adventure to Alice Springs in a rickety 1920s car when she died.
“Probably no woman in Melbourne was better known,” The Herald newspaper reported upon her death. “She pioneered the way to motor garages for women, and made a greater success of it than most men could.”
“This woman was an absolute trailblazer for her time,” Lovrich said. “She was known nationally, internationally, and then her story was lost.”
Lovrich, who lives in Kew and founded a technology business, only learnt about Anderson’s life in 2021 when she applied for a Launch Victoria grant named after the late inventor.
She developed an affinity for Anderson’s pioneering work in a male-dominated field, and soon found other women – including memorial project co-founder Tina Russo – who felt it was unfair that her story seemed forgotten.
“Younger women need those role models as well,” Lovrich said. “Alice’s story resonates across generations, and will continue to do so.”
Alice Anderson’s old garage on Cotham Road in Kew.
A 2021 survey by lobby group A Monument of One’s Own of Melbourne’s 580 statues found that only nine are of real women – as opposed to fictional or mythical characters – despite the state government and local councils pushing for better female representation.
A report presented at Boroondara’s meeting on Monday found the municipality had eight statues featuring a female as the primary figure, but none are dedicated to a specific woman.
The municipality has two works commemorating specific men: architect and businessman Raoul Wallenberg and former prime minister Sir Robert Menzies.
The former Liberal Party leader’s bust sits in Petrie Square, where Anderson’s statue may reside.
Tina Russo, Stella Loong, Samatha Loverich and Susan Reddrop at Petrie Square in Kew.Credit: Justin McManus
While the Alice Anderson Memorial Project are hoping to raise the full $120,000 needed for a life-size monument of the former local, they say they will try to generate at least $80,000, which would allow for a bust.
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