1934 - 2020

Local sculptor Diana Webber created the bronze surf lifesaver monument and bronze dolphin that stand beside the Pavilion. Originally from Dee Why, Diana moved to North Bondi after marrying John Webber, a descendant of the Levey family. She studied briefly art at East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School), specialising in bronze sculpture under the tutelage of New York sculptor, John Gardner. Her wide ranging body of work includes bronzes, paintings, appliques, illustrations and assemblages. Diana’s brothers, Dick and Greg Weight, were part of the renowned Yellow House art community in Darlinghurst.

Diana was actively involved in surf culture, through her six sons, particularly Benjamin, who became Australian Junior Champion, in 1987. Diana’s creative spirit lives on in her boys, who are well known in the surfing world for shaping boards, making films and writing novels. Her bronze casting studio and foundry was located behind the ‘Britannic Mansions’, where her sons lived on Campbell Parade. However, the size of the surf lifesaver monument required larger premises, so it was poured at the foundry of her colleague Victor Cusack on the North Shore. While Diana was visiting Manly Aquarium to research the dolphin sculpture, a mother dolphin nudged her calf towards Diana, providing a joyous opportunity to study its anatomy.

Diana’s many commissions included trophies for amateur and professional surfing contests, the National Rugby League’s Dally M Award, and the Australia France Bicentennial Rugby trophy, as well as statues at the Monument of Remembrance at Grafton, and the Moura mine disaster memorial, in Queensland. The commission for the surf lifesaver monument included the bronze dolphin sculpture, which is now the centrepiece of an area of the Promenade used for important community events and festivals. In 1989, she made a statue of Duke Kahanamoku, the pioneering board rider from Hawaii, for a local surf shop. She remained a keen artist and sculptor, holding many exhibitions across multiple media.

Courtesy of the Waverley Library Local Studies Collection and the Webber family.