Pioneer Women's Memorial (Perth)

{{Short description|Memorial in Kings Park, Western Australia}}

{{Use Australian English|date=April 2016}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}

The Pioneer Women's Memorial is located in the Western Australian Botanic Garden, within Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/about-us/conservation/wa-botanic-garden/pioneer-womens-memorial|title=Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority – Pioneer Womens Memorial|website=www.bgpa.wa.gov.au|access-date=11 April 2016}} 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.

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In the early 1960s there were moves to establish the memorial,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article202728881 |title=Fountain to Commemorate Pioneer Women |newspaper=The Beverley Times |volume=60 |issue=3 |location=Western Australia |date=29 January 1965 |accessdate=13 September 2018 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}} {{Citation | title=Pioneer Women's Memorial Fountain collection | date=1890 | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35633572 | accessdate=11 April 2016 }}{{Citation | author1=Wilson, W. E. Mrs | title=Pioneer Women's Memorial Fountain collection, 1965–1966 | date=1965 | publisher=1965–1966 | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35648717 | accessdate=11 April 2016 }} with planning beginning in 1963. The centrepiece, a {{convert|9|ft|m|order=flip|adj=mid|-tall}} bronze statue designed by Margaret Priest, stands on a stepping stone in an ornamental lake and is surrounded by five other stones and fountains. The statue was unveiled, and the fountain in the lake was officially started, by the Governor of Western Australia on 14 January 1968.{{Cite web|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35633572?selectedversion=NBD21661475|title=Pioneer Women's Memorial Fountain collection [manuscript]. – Version details|website=Trove|access-date=11 April 2016}} 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".{{cite book |last1=Davidson |first1=Dianne |title=Women on the warpath : feminists of the first wave |date=1997 |publisher=University of Western Australia Press |location=Nedlands |isbn=1875560912 |page=259}}

The area around the memorial was upgraded in 1999, and the Centenary of Western Australian Women's Suffrage Memorial was added nearby.{{cite web |url=http://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/cabinet/mediast/dg99-06/parpio.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20040614140000/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/23604/20040615-0000/www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/cabinet/mediast/dg99-06/parpio.html |archive-date=14 June 2004 |title=Pioneer Women's Memorial in Kings Park redevelopment |date=7 February 1999 |access-date=4 May 2022 }}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} At that time the large waterfall was removed.{{clarify |date=November 2022 |reason=Which large waterfall, and where was it in relation to a, presumably, small waterfall?}}