The site of Franklin Square was initially a parade ground and convict muster area, close to the first governor's residence. When a new Government House was built on Queens Domain in the 1850s the area was designated a public park and planted with European trees.

The statue by the fountain is of Sir John Franklin, Governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1837 to 1843 - a polar explorer who died in the late 1840s while exploring the Canadian Arctic. The Norwegian Carsten Borchgrevink knew of Franklin's historical significance when he posed with his men on their return from Antarctica in late 1898, for a photograph by J.W. Beattie. Borchgrevink placed a wreath of remembrance on Franklin's statue.

The other statue in the square is of Dr William Lodewyk Crowther (1817-1885), politician, surgeon and owner of the Southern Ocean whaling ships Isabella, Sapphire, Velocity and Offley.