Lions with pride

BERWICK’S lions could be worth many thousands of dollars.
I received a call from Mrs Janice Digby-Beste who lives in Queensland and has a close connection with and fond memories of the lions.
Her family brought the pair of lions from New Zealand to take pride of place in front of their home at 181 Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park.
Ms Digby-Beste said her husband John’s great grandmother, Ellen Trestrail, paid £5000 to have them made in New Zealand during the 1880s.
She then had them shipped to Melbourne.
She said they were carved from a New Zealand stone but wasn’t sure of which stone and said the lions were originally coloured yellow.
Berwick RSL historian Noel Sealy, who made inquiries with contacts in New Zealand, said they believed the stone would be oamaru.
He said the oamaru stone was a yellow colour.
We are making inquiries through Monash University about having the stone identified.
Mrs Digby – Beste said the statues were painted white after being moved to Berwick.
“The lions were at our family home, 181 Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park until 1961.
“My mother and father – in – law then bought a home at Glen Iris and the lions were placed at the new house,” she said.
They were the pride of the family.
Ms Digby-Beste said her mother and father – in – law went shopping one day and a gentleman called at the house with a truck and crane when her mother – in – law’s elderly mother, Gertrude Trestrail was home alone.
“He offered her £100 for the lion statues.
“She had no idea of their value so took the money,” she said.
She did not get a name from the man and the family had no way of recovering the statues.
The lions were later placed at the gates of Brentwood Farm on Clyde Road, Berwick by the then owner Mr Bowden CBE, who is reported to have paid $400 for the treasures.
He possibly bought them from the person who first acquired them from Mrs Trestrail.
Ms Digby-Beste said she saw the lions at the property during a visit to her sister many years later and the next she knew of them was when they turned up at the Berwick Cenotaph.
“They are not concrete.
“Television personality Graham Kennedy once asked to buy them.
“When they were at Middle Park children would come from the beach to sit on them and be photographed.
“I still have a photo of my daughter, Elizabeth Smith, sitting on one of the statues taken when she was two,” she said.
I asked if the family expected to have the lions returned.
Mrs Digby – Beste said they now had a good home and it was better to leave them in Berwick.
“I think it would be nice to have a plaque made to tell of their history,” she said.