Midget Farrelly: Go-ahead given for statue of surfing icon to be erected at Palm Beach
The creation of a statue on the northern beaches to honour Australian surfing icon Midget Farrelly’s contribution to the sport has been given the go ahead — but more money is needed.
Manly
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Authorities have given the go-head for a life-size statue of “Midget” Farrelly — one of Australia’s greatest sporting icons — to be erected at a Sydney beach.
A high-powered group, made up of surfing greats and surf industry leaders, has convinced Northern Beaches Council to include the bronze work on its official list of future artworks.
Surfing giants including Layne Beachley, Kelly Slater, Tom Carroll and Barton Lynch, along with surfing industry heavyweights, are on the Midget Farrelly Recognition Committee campaigning to honour Farrelly — the first surfing world champion — at Palm Beach.
Now the committee is working to raise at least $160,000 to donate to the council’s Public Art Working Group program to have the statue created.
Farrelly, who died in 2016 and lived with his family at Palm Beach for 54 years, was also a leading figure in local surf life saving clubs as well as a renowned surfboard designer and maker.
He was the inaugural world surfing champion in 1964. Farrelly was honoured posthumously by being made a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to surfing as a competitor and industry pioneer and to surf lifesaving.
His wife, Beverlie, who is the patron of the committee, has given the statue her backing.
It will feature Farrelly as a young surfer — around the time he won the world crown — with his arms thrown up in one of his classic surfing stances.
The committee, formed by Gordon Lang, who founded surf retailer Surfection, and the ex-CEO of Quicksilver, Bruce Raymond, has already started raising money towards the statue.
Mr Lang, a long time friend of Farrelly’s, said the committee wanted to raise at least $160,000.
“There is a statue of Duke Kahanamokuh (the father of modern surfing) at Waikiki Beach in Hawaii and a statue of Kelly Slater (11 times world champion) in Coco Beach Florida, so let’s have a statue of Midget at Palm Beach,” he said.
The committee wants to erect it on he beach reserve close to where public buses terminate at Palm Beach, at the corner of Ocean Rd and Ocean Pl.
The Public Art Working Group will commission a local artist to create the work.
“We’ve already had donation pledges totalling more than $25,000, “ Mr Raymond said, “There have been donations ranging from $20 to $5000 and we are obviously keen for more donations from the community.”
In a letter to the council Mrs Farrelly said her husband would “probably be embarrassed” by the recognition.
“Midget and our family have spent many years at Palm Beach and this is the place Midget called home, so it is a fitting position for such a statue,” she wrote.
“It will complement the plaque in Manly and the small plinth in the Pacific Club, Palm Beach.
“I fully support the design and erection of such a statue at Palm Beach and believe our friends, along with the surfing, surf life saving and local community are also strongly supporting of this campaign,” Mrs Farrelly wrote.
If you want to donate towards the statute click here.
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