Selflessness in Stone: The Memorialisation of Percy Brookfield as Socialist Martyr

Percy Brookfield was a radical Broken Hill politician. His short, spectacular career ended when he was shot dead in 1921. A year later his memorial was unveiled. The monument has local, state and national significance. It testifies to some of the most fraught events in Australia's political and industrial history. The Brookfield memorial is discussed in order to recall those events and to explicate contemporary political and aesthetic ideas manifest in the commemorative construction. After recounting Brookfield's public actions as context for his death and memorialisation, this paper analyses facets of the memorial itself.