A quiet memorial garden in Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance Reserve commemorates 70,000 Australian ex-servicewomen.
Designed by landscape architect Katherine Rekaris, the memorial garden creates a gentle, considered space to honour the courage and dedication of all Australian servicewomen who served Australia in the Navy, Army, Air Force and Auxilliary Services in every war and peacekeeping endeavour from the Boer War through to 1985.
An inscribed cairn stands at the centre of the garden, surrounded by flowering jacaranda trees and free-form, abstract garden beds planted with 350 custom-made concrete violets in repetitive lines of succession. Each concrete violet honours 200 servicewomen, united in a dedicated memorial space.
Made to show perpetual bloom, the concrete violets signify modesty, sweetness and faithfulness, juxtaposing fragility with the bravery of Australia’s 70,000 servicewomen.
