I can never drive past the above P & O wall sculpture in Sydney without recalling the related Oz obscenity trial and the photograph which gave rise to it. I guarantee that after reading the following, the wall sculpture will never be the same for you either.
The wall fountain had been completed in 1963, a time when Australian society was vastly different from today. Censorship was in force and quite restrictive. The NSW Obscene and Indecent Publications Act 1901 vested censorship in the hands of the police, who had wide powers of entry, seizure and arrest. One therefore regularly read of court cases wherein a police sergeant or detective gave evidence that works such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover was obscene and with no artistic merit. It is also said that one particular judge determined obscenity by whether or not the publication gave him an erection, and that as he became older, the test became more and more liberal.
