The Fairy Tree

After I did yesterdays post, and talked about the mortally wounded Gnome who has spent the last decade dying on my front steps, I remembered the Fairy Tree in Melbourne and thought I would search for an article about it.

This wonderful bit of Melbourne’s history remains in the Fitzroy Gardens today and is still adorned with the colorful carvings done by Ola Cohn in 1932. We visited there a few years ago but I can’t find any of my photos! Darn it…

If you look closely at the photo in this article you can see some of the creatures Miss Cohn was carving. My favourite is the dingo face looking out near the bottom.

It is in a good little historical corner of the Fitzroy gardens, as Captain Cook’s Cottage is just nearby. (In case your Aussie history is a little vague, Captain James Cook, in 1770, was the first white person to set foot in Australia)

This cottage was reported to have been the home of James Cook in his youth and was bought over from England and rebuilt in the gardens here in Melbourne in 1934.

The caption reads;

THE FAIRY TREE.

Birds, beasts, and sprites have been carved on the trunk of a giant redgum tree in the Fitzroy Gardens by Miss Ola Cohn, who is seen at work. She began her task last year. On several occasions the carvings have been damaged, and it has been suggested that measures should be taken to protect them.