Did you know that some of the world’s top surfers like Kelly Slater, Layne Beachley, and Barton Lynch are pooling $150,000 to build a statue of the first world champion in surfing, Midget Farrelly, in Palm Beach?
With the backing of Mr Farrelly’s wife, Beverlie, the surfers are working together with the Midget Farrelly Recognition Committee formed by Surfection retailer, Gordon Lang, and former Quicksilver boss, Bruce Raymond.
Mr Lang, a close friend of the Farrelly family, said that they hope to raise the funds to be added to the Public Art Working Group program of the Northern Beaches Council, which will approve the statue’s construction.
They plan to put the statue at the bus terminal along Ocean Rd and Ocean Pl to be in full view of the community if Council approves. According to Beverlie, her husband has always called Palm Beach his home although he earned his surfing titles in Manly.
Highlights
- Friends and family of Midget Farrelly pitched as statue for the surfer in Palm Beach.
- The group has been trying to raise $150,000 for the statue, which will be turned over to the Northern Beaches Council’s Public Art Working Group.
- Mr Farrelly was hailed as the first surfing world champion in 1964, who died in 2016.
One of the statue’s design ideas features Mr Farrelly’s most popular photo taken by Jack Eden of his world championship win in 1964. However, Mr Lang has pitched a proposal to Council to launch a competition for a local artist to conceptualise the design.
Mr Farrelly died in 2016 at 71 years old due to a lingering illness. Aside from becoming the first world champion in surfing, he was also the inaugural president of the Dee Why Surfing Fraternity, one of the country’s oldest and still active surfboard riders clubs.
The legendary surfer also had a TV series in the 1960s and was inducted to the Hall of Fame of Sport Australia (1985) and World Surf League in Huntington Beach, California (2007).
He received a posthumous honour from Queen Elizabeth in 2017 as a Member of the Order of Australia.
