Generosity was lapped up
LITTLE remains today of what was once an extensive network of drinking troughs for animals around the Geelong region.
The exceptions are William Stitt Jenkins’ Dog Fountain in Johnstone Park and a horse trough in Fitzroy St.
Jenkins was something of a public benefactor and poet who died in 1878.
His dog fountain was originally built in 1860 and was located at the corner of Railway Tce and Mercer St.
Jenkins was the founder of a local movement to provide drinking fountains and water troughs at strategic locations in Geelong for animals.
The Johnstone Park fountain comprises semicircular troughs and was modelled on classical prototypes by the architects Backhouse and Reynolds.
Jenkins’ home was in Noble St, to the west of Shannon Ave. He bought a newsagency in Melbourne and moved there in 1876 but is buried at Eastern Cemetery in Geelong.
Other fountains included one at the corner of Moorabool and Malop streets and one in Lara at the corner of McLelland Ave and Rennie St which was donated by Annis and George Billis.
George Billis, who died in 1927, bequeathed a sum of 70,000 pounds to the RSPCA — a huge sum in those days. Billis also left a family trust that provided funds for the erection of horse troughs.
Billis was born in Brighton, Sussex, in 1859, and his love of animals was inspired by the activities of his father, Richard, who was a bird catcher.
Richard was involved with the Acclimatisation Society, a 19th century British institution that set out to introduce the mother country’s flora and fauna to the empire’s outposts.
When George was a boy the family migrated to New Zealand, and in 1873 the family moved to Geelong, occupying a house in Upper Skene St, Newtown.
George moved to Sydney in 1880 and later moved to Brisbane. Contact: peterjohnbegg@gmail.com