Historical information

Edmund 'Toby' Barton, Australian politician and judge, served as the first Prime Minister of Australia after the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed on 1 January 1901, in office from 1901 to 1903. The Prime Ministers Avenue is a collection of bronze bust portraits of the Prime Ministers of Australia, located at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens in Ballarat, Victoria. The Prime Ministers' portraits are commissioned after the incumbent term of each Prime Minister by the City of Ballarat. The City of Ballarat has taken responsibility for commissioning the busts after funds set aside by politician Richard Armstrong Crouch were exhausted in 2014. Crouch originally donate money to pay for six busts, the first of which was unveiled in 1940. The collection of prime ministers' busts are unique in Australia, representing the only sculptural portrait collection of all past Australian Prime Ministers. The different styles used reflect the unique artistic practices of the selected artists; textures, sizes and features and proportions are used by the artists to interpret the characteristics of each of the subjects.

Significance

The artwork is of historic and aesthetic significance to the people of Ballarat

Physical description

Bronze bust cast on granite plinth

Inscriptions & markings

Edmund Barton
Prime Minister
1901-03