Children rotate Mary Poppins statue in Australian ritual
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Each spring in Bowral, New South Wales, Australia, year 6 students turn a 5-metre bronze statue of Mary Poppins 180 degrees.
The ceremony marks both the changing of the seasons and the students’ transition from primary to high school. The tradition stems from the town’s connection to PL Travers, the author of the Mary Poppins books, who spent her childhood in Bowral and drew inspiration from the area for her stories.
Allana Winn, president of the Southern Highlands Youth Art Council, led the most recent ceremony, reminding the students that change is inevitable and encouraging them to embrace the transition. PL Travers was born in Queensland but moved to Bowral with her family in 1907, and biographers believe her experiences there shaped the Mary Poppins series. Paul McShane initiated the idea of a Mary Poppins statue to honour the author’s link to the town.
He and friends secretly turned a smaller statue each equinox for five years before the council built a turntable for the current, larger statue in 2016. The current statue was based on a sketch Travers intended for a statue in New York’s Central Park, but which was never realised.
