Skip to main content

The Dictionary of Sydney
Multimedia
Life's Tragedy: announcement in Smith's Weekly ...

Life's Tragedy: announcement in Smith's Weekly of Joe Lynch's death, 1927

Contributed By

National Library of Australia

[Smiths Weekly 21 May 1927 p3, via Trove]

Search

Browse

Browse
- Artefacts
- Buildings
- Events
- Natural Features
- Organisations
- People
- Places
- Structures
- Entries
- Multimedia
- Subjects
- Roles
- Contributors

Connections

Appears in

The Life and Death of Joe Lynch

Subjects

Accidents and disasters Death and Dying Media Visual Arts

People

Lynch, Joe

Artefacts

Kiandra Smith's Weekly

Footer

Home
About
Copyright
Contact

Footer Secondary

Contribute
Donate

National Library of Australia

The Life and Death of Joe Lynch

Had it not been for Kenneth Slessor's poem 'Five Bells', the death of Joe Lynch might have been just another drowning in Port Jackson, not the first, and regrettably not the last. Slessor's poem inspired John Olsen's 1963 painting, Five Bells, on permanent display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and his 1973 mural, Salute to Five Bells, installed in the northern foyer of the main concert hall at the Sydney Opera House. In the Royal Botanic Gardens near the Opera House gate, Guy Lynch's Satyr, modelled on Joe, looks out to sea to where his brother drowned and where the Manly Ferry passes on its daily route.

Visual Arts

Media

Accidents and disasters

Death and Dying

Lynch, Joe

Cartoonist and black & white artist for Smith's Weekly and Melbourne Punch, whose death in Sydney Harbour in 1927 at the age of 29 inspired Kenneth Slessor's poem 'Five Bells'. He was the model for his brother Guy (Frank) Lynch's sculpture 'The Satyr', a bronze casting of which is in the Royal Botanic Gardens in his memory. He was also the model for his brother's statue of a New Zealand digger for the World War I memorial in Devonport, New Zealand, that is known colloquially as 'the untidy soldier'.

full record »

Smith's Weekly

Independent tabloid newspaper which mixed sensationalism, satire and controversial opinions with sporting and finance news.

full record »

Kiandra

full record »

Ferry which plied Sydney Harbour from 1911 unti the early 1950s. She was sold and broken up in 1953.