Local solves lion mystery

FORMER Berwick councillor Jim Alexander may have solved our problem with the history of the lion statues now standing guard at the High Street Cenotaph in Berwick Village.
Old timers will remember seeing the lions at the front gate of Brentwood Estate where they sat for many years.
A Western Suburbs organisation made a gambit claim to Berwick RSL historian Noel Sealey that they may have been given to Lord Casey of Berwick during the early part of last century.
And that they were originally connected with the HV Mackay machinery company.
But it seems this may not be so.
My view called on memories and received a few responses.
Marguerite Allan and Cyril Molyneux said the Berwick lions were not presented to Lord Casey.
Marguerite said she believed the original Berwick owners were Mr and Mrs Bowden who lived for a time at Brentwood Farm on Clyde Road just south of the village.
Mr Alexander has found Gazette clippings in his files from 1974 that record the fate of the lions.
They were imported from New Zealand and for a time placed on a property at Beaconsfield Parade, Elwood.
Mr Bowden CBE paid $400 for the pair and brought them to Brentwood.
He donated the statues to the Shire of Berwick in November 1972 and they were passed on to the City of Berwick.
Berwick chief executive Pat Northeast presented a report to the council in December 1974 and this resulted in a decision to place them at the cenotaph.
Mr Sealey hopes to glean more information from that report.
Whatever their history the lions are now an integral part of Berwick and the Berwick RSL.