Midget Farrelly: Push for $150k to fund beachside statue of surfing legend is back on
A push has kicked off again to raise $150,000 to recognise Australian surfing icon Midget Farrelly with a statue next to his home town beach.
Manly
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Summer’s here, the beaches are getting busier and the campaign to honour one of Australia’s greatest sporting icons with a beachside statue in Sydney is back on.
Organisers of a high-powered push to erect a statue of Midget Farrelly — the first surfing world champion — at Palm Beach are reigniting their push to raise up to $150,000 for the project.
Surfing heavyweights including Layne Beachley, Kelly Slater and Barton Lynch along with surfing industry and surf life saving leaders have thrown their support behind the project.
It also has the support of Farrelly’s wife and family.
But since the Manly Daily reported, in July 2021, on the beginning of the bid to raise the money for the statue, about $65,000 has been pledged.
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.
The statue would depict 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 Midget Farrelly Recognition Committee, formed by Gordon Lang, who founded surf retailer Surfection, and the ex-CEO of Quicksilver, Bruce Raymond, is now keen to reinvigorate the fundraising campaign.
Last year the committee said it wanted to raise at least $150,000 and donate the money to Northern Beaches Council to include the statue in its Public Art Working Group program.
Mr Lang, a long time friend of Farrelly’s, said on Monday that due to Covid and other commitments the fundraising had “gone off the boil a bit”, but the committee was now getting back into harness.
“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback, but we haven’t got enough money as yet,” he said.
“We are still keen to receive donations from the community.”
Mr Lang and Mr Raymond are meeting with the council on Wednesday to discuss options if the cash target is not reached.
“But there is definitely going to be a recognition for Midget. That’s been committed to.”
The original suggestion was to place Midget’s statue, facing the ocean, where the bus terminates at Palm Beach, at the corner of Ocean Rd and Ocean Pl.
Mr Lang said he expected that the council would commission a local artist to create the work.
He also reminded locals that donations of $1000 or more could be made via the Manly Art Gallery, which provides a full tax deduction. People can also donate via a GoFundMe page.
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.”
To see how you can donate click here.
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