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. 1 2 3 "Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority – Pioneer Womens Memorial". www.bgpa.wa.gov.au. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  2. 1 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. 1 2 "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°57′46″S 115°50′20″E / 31.9627°S 115.8389°E / -31.9627; 115.8389

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