Tony Jones is widely recognised for his statue of Eliza, the swimmer in Perth’s Crawley Bay, and for a sculpture of engineer CY O’Connor riding a horse into the ocean at North Coogee. But the 81-year-old sculptor says his work is more accurately defined by a lifelong connection to boats and sailing.
Jones began sailing at Chidley Point on the Swan River as a boy. That experience has shaped the subjects and materials in his art, with boat parts, navigational markers and other maritime motifs incorporated into sculptures. “You sit down with a piece of paper, what am I going to draw? I’d better draw a boat,” he told ABC News.
His workshop near Fremantle contains sculptures, unfinished projects, old timber and sailing equipment. Wooden beams salvaged from dismantled jetties sit alongside historic Swan River sailing dinghies, which Jones has collected over about 30 years. Some boats are suspended from the roof, while others are stacked, covered or undergoing restoration.
Among the collection are two Sharpies once used by Western Australian sailor Rolly Tasker before and during the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Tasker and Malcolm “Huck” Scott won silver at the Games, securing Australia’s first Olympic sailing medal. The boats, known as Falcon 3 and Falcon 4, are being restored by Matt Dickmann, a long-time collaborator of Jones.
Dickmann told ABC News he wanted to complete the restoration so people could appreciate the boat’s original appearance. He also described timber in one vessel as spruce salvaged by Tasker from an aircraft that flew to Rottnest and back.
Jones and fellow sailors, artists, neighbours and volunteers have formed the Swan River Sailing Dinghy Heritage Association. The group is seeking a permanent home, preferably a traditional boat shed near the river, in cooperation with a local government, yacht club or the WA Maritime Museum. Lotterywest has funded restoration of the Sharpies and said making them accessible to the public was important.