The park was established in 1854, extending the Domain Parklands further north-west, it covers an area of 36 hectares of lawns and pathways set among non-native andnative Australian mature trees, a mixture of deciduous and evergreens. In the 19th century the Kings Domain was managed by the Director of the Botanic Gardens, so many of the trees were planted by BaronFerdinand von Mueller and later byWilliam Guilfoyle. Around the Domain are scattered memorial statues and sculptures, each with their own story.
Kings Domain is part of a larger group of parklands directly south-east of the city, between St. Kilda Road and theYarra River known as theDomain Parklands, which includes;
TheSidney Myer Music Bowl - a world standard,architecturally significant,tensile structure and outdoor performance venue. It was officially opened by Prime MinisterRobert Menzies on 12 February 1959 with an audience of some 30,000 people, and has remained a popular location for Melburnians.
TheShrine of Remembrance is one of the largestwar memorials in Australia. It was built as a memorial to the men and women of Victoria who died inWorld War I, but soon came to be seen as Australia's major memorial to all the 60,000 Australians who served in that war.
GovernorLa Trobe's Cottage is an historic cottage built in 1839 for the first superintendent of thePort Phillip District ofNew South Wales,Charles La Trobe, and his family. The cottage was constructed out of prefabricated materials imported from England on five hectares of land atJolimont. It is one of the few surviving examples still standing of prefabricated houses from this period of history and gives an insight into early colonial domestic architecture and living arrangements. In 1963 the cottage was relocated to the Kings Domain as an historical landmark, and is now located backing on to Dallas Brooks Drive.
Government House, Melbourne is the office and official residence of thegovernor of Victoria. It has also been used as the official residence of theGovernor-General of Australia from 1901 to 1930 and from 1934 has been used continuously as the residence of the governor of Victoria. Built between 1871 and 1876 in the Victorian PeriodItalianate style, it reflects the extravagant style of the period arising from a booming economy due to theVictorian gold rushes.
ThePioneer Women's Memorial Garden was designed byHugh Linaker in tribute to the European pioneer women of the colony. It features a sunken garden area, with a blue-tiled grotto, which contains a small bronze figure of a woman. The garden was opened in 1935 during the centenary year of the founding of Melbourne.
Statue of Lord Hopetoun, the Marquess of Linlithgow
Tilly Aston Bell
A memorial to SirJohn Monash, as Commander in Chief of the Australian Forces duringWorld War I, is commemorated in a bronze equestrian statue created byWilliam Leslie Bowles. It was unveiled by the Governor-General,William McKell, on 12 November 1950.
An interactive sculpture consisting of three bronze bells commemorates the life ofTilly Aston, a blinddisability activist who founded theVictorian Association of Braille Writers, and later went on to establish theAssociation for the Advancement of the Blind. On the sculpture there is an embedded image of Tilly Aston with text in embossed lettering and inbraille. The memorial was created by Anton Hasell in 1999.
A memorial statue ofSirThomas Blamey stands on the corner of Government House Drive and Birdwood Avenue. It was sculptured from granite and bronze byRaymond B. Ewers and presented to the city in February 1960. It recognises Australia's first Field Marshal and his insistence to the British command that Australian forces remain as cohesive units under Australian command.[1]
South African War Memorial (Memorial to Fallen Soldiers). A central obelisk with a lion on each of four corners is the memorial for the Australians who died in the South African War of 1899–1902 (Boer War) Sculptored by J. Hamilton and erected in 1904 with members of the fifth Victorian Contingent Victorian Mounted Rifles.
TheWalker Fountain was donated byRon Walker, Lord Mayor of Melbourne in 1981. It is located on Linlithgow Avenue and consists of a small lake with hundreds of streams of water, including underwater lights.
A statue of SirEdward "Weary" Dunlop is made from bronze, granite and metal spikes from theBurma-Thailand Railway in 1995 byPeter Corlett. Weary Dunlop was known as a courageous leader and compassionate doctor and showed great leadership while serving as prisoner of war inChangi Prison and on theBurma-Thailand Railway duringWorld War 2. On the steps leading to the sculpture are the names of other doctors who were also POWs at Changi.
English NurseEdith Cavell is remembered in Melbourne witha marble bust erected by public subscription. Cavell helped English and French prisoners escape from Belgium duringWorld War I, and was tried by the Germans and executed on 12 October 1915. The bust was sculpted by Margaret Baskerville and unveiled in 1926.
TheKing George V Memorial was created by William Leslie Bowles after a public meeting on 6 February 1937 decided to erect a memorial for the late King and launched a public appeal. Construction of the bronze, granite and sandstone sculpture was delayed byWorld War 2 and was completed in 1951.
A plaque to commemorateEdward George Honey, located on Birdwood Avenue. Honey was a Melbourne-born journalist who campaigned for, and was one of those instrumental in, the adoption of theTwo-minute silence onArmistice Day to pause and reflect on those who have lost their lives in war.[3]
Native Animals: Many native animals live in and visit King's Domain - Brush-tailed and Ring-tailed possums, Tawny Frogmouths, Magpies, Gould's wattled bats, Eastern Freetailed bats and Grey headed flying foxes, Native water rats (Rakali), Kookaburras and several varieties of waterbirds.
.jpg)
