Adam Lindsay GordonPrint Page

The horse hitching post at the Marine Hotel, preserved by the United Licensed Victuallers Association, commemorates Adam Lindsay Gordon.  The hitching post was used by Gordon when he lived at Brighton. 

Adam Lindsay Gordon (19 October 1833 – 24 June 1870) was an Australian poet, jockey and politician.  On 24 June 1870, just after the publication of his most famous verse collection Bush Ballads and Galloping Rhymes, Adam Lindsay Gordon committed suicide.

After his death, Gordon's reputation as a poet continued to grow, and in the early twentieth century he was widely regarded as Australia's ‘national poet’. While Gordon wrote in a range of poetic forms, he is best remembered for his ballads, which often used horse riding – whether on the racetrack or in the Australian bush – as their main narrative action.

Gordon Memorial Unveiled.  Admirers of the Australian poet Adam Lindsay Gordon gathered at the corner of New and Park streets, Middle Brighton, on Saturday morning, when the Director of the National Gallery unveiled a hltching-post which was frequently used by Gordon. Those present included Mr. George Mackay, member of the Bread and Cheese Club, Brighton councillors, the former town clerk of Brighton (Mr. J. H. Taylor), who is a leading Gordon historian, and Mr. Julius Grant. Mr. Lindsay said that he had been a lifelong admirer of Gordon. He believed the poet came to the hitching-post on the morning of his death. It was to be the last of the Gordon memorials. and Brighton should be proud of it. The post is embedded in concrete at the spot where a bush shanty, the Marine Hotel, stood in the late 60's. It is surrounded by steel pickets, and bears a commemorative plaque on which is engraved Henry Kendall's tribute to Gordon: "A shining soul with syllables of fire, who sang the first great songs these lands can claim."
Age (Melbourne), 22 October 1945.

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