Phar Lap at the Melbourne Museum
Anyone who has worked at the Melbourne Museum will tell you that the most popular exhibit is Phar Lap. In fact the most asked question from visitors is ‘where is Phar Lap?’
After Phar Lap died in 1932 his owners made arrangements for his hide to be mounted and commissioned the Jonas brothers of New York, noted animal taxidermists, to undertake the job. For nearly five months they replicated his form using wire, steel and plaster. Sculptor’s clay was used to model the tendons and muscles and rope was stuck on to reproduce the veins. Then the hide was carefully placed over this restructured statue of Phar Lap to create what was described at the time as ‘one of the outstanding feats of modern taxidermy’.
The mounted specimen of Phar Lap was then shipped to Melbourne and put on permanent display at the museum in Swanston Street. Here it was an instant hit, already acclaimed as a national hero and champion by the Depression era public, he soon became the museum’s chief drawcard and has remained that way ever since to the generations that followed. It is a common sight to see visitors standing in front of him in reverence, awe struck to be able to look a legend in the face.
For seventy years Phar Lap remained at the museum in Swanston Street until August 2000, when he was removed from the building in the middle of the night in a major museum operation and moved to the brand new Melbourne Museum in Carlton Gardens. Here he was placed in a special art deco styled display case made of timber fashioned from one hundred year old planks of Queensland maple and five thousand year old fossilised Murray River red gum.
So come and see him, he is waiting to see you in the Melbourne Story gallery with his head proudly held high and in all his glory, surrounded by objects and films that highlight his life and legend.
