Statue of Bessie Mabel Rischbieth

Bessie Mabel Rischbieth stands in bronze near the water, her gaze fixed toward the parliament house across the river. She carries a handbag and wears a sensible hat, the same attire she wore while lobbying politicians for women’s rights for over fifty years. In nineteen sixty-seven, at age ninety-three, Rischbieth waded into the construction site of the Narrows Bridge to protest the destruction of the river foreshore. She stood in the mud until police removed her, fighting to protect the view she saw today.