Pioneer Women's Memorial (Perth)

The Pioneer Women's Memorial is located in the Western Australian Botanic Garden, within Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia.[1] It comprises a lake, sculpture and fountain and was built to honour the contributions of pioneering women to the development of the city and state.[1][2]

In the early 1960s there were moves to establish the memorial,[2][3][4] with planning beginning in 1963.[5] The centrepiece, a 2.7-metre-tall (9 ft) bronze statue designed by Margaret Priest, stands on a stepping stone in an ornamental lake and is surrounded by five other stones and fountains.[1] The statue was unveiled, and the fountain in the lake was officially started, by the Governor of Western Australia on 14 January 1968.[5] The opening ceremony was hosted by the King's Park Board members and chairman, and a large group of attendees heard a speech by Geoffrey Summerhayes, the architect, which described his plan for the memorial as, "the figure of a woman apparently mounting a stream by stepping stones … stepping stones of progress".[6]

The area around the memorial was upgraded in 1999, and the Centenary of Western Australian Women's Suffrage Memorial was added nearby.[7] At that time the large waterfall was removed.

References
  1. "Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority – Pioneer Womens Memorial". www.bgpa.wa.gov.au. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  2. "Fountain to Commemorate Pioneer Women". The Beverley Times. Vol. 60, no. 3. Western Australia. 29 January 1965. p. 10. Retrieved 13 September 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. Pioneer Women's Memorial Fountain collection, 1890, retrieved 11 April 2016
  4. Wilson, W. E. Mrs (1965), Pioneer Women's Memorial Fountain collection, 1965–1966, 1965–1966, retrieved 11 April 2016
  5. "Pioneer Women's Memorial Fountain collection [manuscript]. – Version details". Trove. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  6. Davidson, Dianne (1997). Women on the warpath : feminists of the first wave. Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press. p. 259. ISBN 1875560912.
  7. "Pioneer Women's Memorial in Kings Park redevelopment". 7 February 1999. Archived from the original on 14 June 2004. Retrieved 4 May 2022.

Further reading
  • "Margaret Kennedy Mackenzie (Priest)". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951. University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII. 2011. Retrieved 18 November 2022.


31.9627°S 115.8389°E / -31.9627; 115.8389

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