Pioneer Women of VictoriaPrint Page

The garden was established by Victorian women to commemorate the pioneering women of the State. Two plaques are set one on each side. One commemorates the pioneer women of Victoria at the 100th anniversary of Victoria from 1834 to 1934.  The garden was dedicated by the Women`s Centenary Council, and unveiled June 1935.

The second plaque indicates the garden was erected to the pioneer women on 24 November 1934 by Premier, Sir Stanley Seymour Argyle. The plaque was unveiled by Lady Huntingfield on 8 June 1935. There is a tree planted by the Quota Club of Melbourne in 1960 and a casket containing sheets of remembrance to the pioneer women also buried here.

Hugh Linaker’s garden is set in a circular depression, with a high wall of rough masonry covering the cutting at its southern end. This formal, symmetrical garden is traversed by a watercourse in the shape of a cross, which flows into a grotto carved into the cutting. Built into the grotto is a half-cupola lined with blue tiles, under which stands the small bronze statue of a woman by the sculptor Charles Web Gilbert.

In 1933, The Women’s Centenary Council was formed in an attempt to give the women of the state an influential role in the celebrations. At its first meeting, this council pledged to erect a suitable memorial to Victoria’s pioneer women, and fundraising initiatives were established with the aim of developing a garden of remembrance in Kings Domain.

The council’s initiatives included the sale of a commemorative book and ‘sheets of remembrance’ onto which anyone, for one shilling, could inscribe their own name, or that of an ancestor. This was very successful and thousands of names were gathered and then buried beneath the sundial in the garden. The work was carried out under the auspices of the Unemployment Relief Program during the Depression.

Memorial Garden 1934

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Dedication