Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden — Attraction in Melbourne

The Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden is located in Kings Domain, Melbourne, Australia and honours the contribution of women settlers to the development of the state of Victoria.

In 1933, plans for the celebrations for the 1934 Centenary of Melbourne began to be made, and a Women's Centenary Council was formed to ensure women's opinions were included. At the first meeting, it was agreed that a memorial garden of remembrance would be created in Kings Domain. A variety of fundraising ventures followed, including producing and selling a commemorative book, and receiving public subscriptions to have a particular woman's name inscribed on a "sheet of remembrance". These sheets were later buried underneath the sundial in the garden.

The garden was designed by Hugh Linaker and is a formal, symmetrical garden traversed by a watercourse. This flows into a grotto which contains a bronze statue of a woman by the sculptor Charles Web Gilbert.

Two plaques in the garden were unveiled at a ceremony on Saturday 8 June 1935 by Lady Huntingfield, the wife of the Governor of Victoria, and Mrs I.H. Moss, the president of the Women's Centenary Council. In 1960, the Quota Club of Melbourne planted a tree in the garden.

The garden is today a popular venue for...

The Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden in Kings Domain, is a memorial that honours the contribution of the pioneer women settlers to the development of the state of Victoria. The garden was designed by Hugh Linaker as part of Victoria’s centenary celebrations.

It's a sunken garden cut into the side of a hill and features a cross-shaped watercourse and a small tranquil pond leading to a blue-tiled grotto cut into the side of the hill. In the centre of the grotto there's a small bronze statue of a woman by sculptor Charles Web-Gilbert.

There's a high wall built from rough masonry covering the cutting with a plaque set on each side of the wall and also one on the sundial which is inscribed with the words "This base holds the casket containing the sheets of remembrance to the pioneer women of Victoria 1834 - 1934"

As well as water lilies that grow in the canal, the Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden features well maintained flower beds and is a popular venue for garden weddings.

Public toilets are located nearby on the gravel pathway towards Government House and roadside parking is available a short walk away along Alexandra Avenue near the Swan...

A beautiful and calm garden retreat - lush, colourful and peaceful, and the blue grotto is a lovely touch. More people need to be aware of this delightful Memorial to the pioneer women of Australia who strove to overcome so many entrenched, and stubborn, male attitudes of the day. Situated within Kings Domain, this garden was funded in 1935 by the Women's Centenary Council and by public donations as part of Melbourne's centenary celebrations. Hugh Linaker's sunken garden features a canal terminating in a blue-tiled grotto containing Charles Web Gilbert's small bronze figure of a...