What did women ever do for Melbourne? Walk with me while I explain...

If you walked through Melbourne today, you’d be forgiven for thinking that women haven’t played a central role in shaping the city. Only one in 10 place names and just 3 per cent of public art in Victoria commemorate women. And while things are slowly changing – 2024 marks the first year in which more commemorative places in Victoria were named after women than men – there’s still a lingering assumption: if women had done something worth remembering, surely we’d already know about it.

After writing a travel guide covering more than 250 places where women shaped history across 31 Australian towns and cities, I can confidently tell you: that belief doesn’t hold up. Women did the work. They built businesses, led movements, shaped our culture, designed our cities, and established many schools, hospitals, and community services we still rely on today. But for far too long, the people deciding who gets commemorated and whose stories are told haven’t recognised their contributions.

Sita Sargeant’s Badass Women of Melbourne Walking Tour is part of this year’s Melbourne Writers Festival.Credit: Fernanda Pedroso Photography

Everything we love about Melbourne, from its music and cafe culture to its politics, activists, theatre scene, architecture, and even its trams, has women’s stories woven through it. Let’s take a walk, and I’ll introduce you to a handful of the women who helped shape this city.

The trams

Credit: Regine Abos

Melbourne’s iconic tram network might not exist without Isabelle Clapp. In the 1850s, she and her husband Francis began running horse-drawn coaches from the Donkey Wheel House on Bourke Street, ferrying people around the city and out to the goldfields. But their real ambition was to build a rail-based system. In 1883, the Government of Victoria awarded their company a 30-year exclusive contract to build and operate the city’s first tram network. Two years later, it was up and running.

Parliament House and the ‘Monster Petition’ sculpture

Top: The Great Petition sculpture. Bottom, from left, Joan Kirner, Vida Goldstein, Lady Millie Peacock.

Few places hold more layers of women’s history than Parliament House. It’s the site of many historic firsts: Lady Millie Peacock, Victoria’s first female MP; Joan Kirner, its first female premier; Pauline Toner, its first female cabinet minister — and more protests than I could fit into one article. Yet fewer than 2 per cent of Melbourne’s 580 statues celebrate women. Fortunately, that number will (slightly) rise soon, as Vida Goldstein joins their ranks.

Goldstein moved to Melbourne in the 1870s as a child. The daughter of two socially progressive reformers, she grew up determined to make Australia a fairer country. In 1891, she helped her mother, Isabella, collect signatures for what became known as the Monster Petition — a 260-metre-long document signed by 30,000 women, declaring that a government “of the People, by the People and for the People” should include all the people, not just half. While the petition was rejected, it helped build momentum that eventually led to the passage of the Adult Suffrage Bill in Victoria in 1910.

Outside parliament, you’ll find that key moment in the fight for women’s rights commemorated in The Great Petition sculpture by Susan Hewitt and Penelope Lee – a 20-metre scroll that folds into the ground and re-emerges on the other side of the path.

In 1903, just after women gained the right to vote and stand for federal parliament, Goldstein became one of the first women in the British Empire to run for office. She ran four more times — always independently, and always unsuccessfully. Still, she never stopped campaigning for equal pay, workers’ rights, and public ownership of essential services. Through speeches, newspaper articles, and international advocacy, she spent decades pushing Australia forward on issues we’re still talking about today.

Parliament Gardens

Sir Douglas and Lady Gladys Nicholls in 1972.Credit: Associated Press Cablephoto

Step outside into the gardens and you’ll find a rare statue honouring a woman: Gladys Nicholls, of Baraparapa, Dja Dja Wurrung and Punjabi Indian descent, alongside her husband Douglas Nicholls. Even rarer, it commemorates a partnership. While Douglas, a pastor, footballer and Australia’s first Aboriginal state governor, was out front (and is positioned slightly in front of the pair), Gladys spent decades fundraising, running food vans and opportunity shops, and opening a hostel for Aboriginal girls.

She co-founded the Women’s Auxiliary of the Aborigines Advancement League and helped establish the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Council. Together, they campaigned for the 1967 referendum to amend the Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Their statue honours two leaders who helped shape a more equitable Victoria and the partnership that got them there.

Princess Theatre

The Princess Theatre and one of its early stars, Nellie Stewart.

As we leave Parliament, we pass the Princess Theatre, one of Melbourne’s oldest and most iconic theatres. Nellie Stewart starred in its first production, The Mikado, in 1886, and was so convincing as Yum Yum that audiences believed she was genuinely Japanese. Over the years, the theatre has hosted some of the world’s most celebrated actresses. ​But perhaps my favourite moment in its history (as someone who loves a musical) is the 1933 professional premiere of the musical comedy Collits’ Inn, with music composed by Varney Monk. It is considered Australia’s first commercially successful musical, and I can’t help but love that a woman was behind it. ​

Amphlett Lane

A Melbourne laneway has become a lasting tribute to Chrissy Amphlett.

Just around the corner is Amphlett Lane, named after Divinyls frontwoman and Australia’s queen of rock, Chrissy Amphlett. In the 1980s and ’90s, she was known for her raw vocals, emotional lyrics, and signature schoolgirl-in-fishnets look. That look, inspired after seeing AC/DC perform in 1975, became her way of overcoming stage fright and reclaiming power from audiences (particularly men) who thought they could objectify her. Her 1991 hit I Touch Myself topped charts around the world, and her fearless performances left a lasting mark on Australian music. The lane isn’t far from the now-closed Palace Theatre, where the Divinyls often played to packed, sweaty crowds. More than 7000 fans petitioned to name the laneway after her. Venues get demolished. Music tastes change. Posters fade. But place names stick.

Little Lon

Little Lon was once Melbourne’s notorious red-light district and, in the late 1800s, the domain of Caroline Hodgson, better known as Madame Brussels.

A few blocks west is Little Lon, once Melbourne’s notorious red-light district and, in the late 1800s, the domain of Caroline Hodgson, better known as Madame Brussels. Her brothels catered to Melbourne’s elite, including judges, politicians and lawyers, and by 1874, she was one of the city’s most successful businesswomen.

Hodgson was respected by the women she employed and known for running clean, safe establishments at a time when sex work was heavily stigmatised but widely relied upon. She helped shape Little Lon into a place where working-class women, many of them single mothers or recent migrants, could earn an income, support their families and exercise more control over their lives than society typically allowed. In 1907, growing moral panic and legal pressure forced her to shut down, but her legacy lives on in Madame Brussels Lane and the rooftop bar that once bore her name.

Liberal Party HQ

Dame Elizabeth Couchman, a founding vice-president of the Liberal Party, in 1960.Credit: Fairfax Media

One woman who rarely gets the credit she deserves in Australia’s political history is Elizabeth Couchman. In 1944, she negotiated a deal with Robert Menzies to merge the powerful Australian Women’s National League with his proposed Liberal Party. In doing so, she became a cofounder of the Liberal Party of Australia. Couchman had led the influential league for 18 years, and Menzies needed their support to build a broad base and win the federal election in 1949. She used that leverage to shape the party’s platform around equality of opportunity and secured women’s representation in its structure. The party remained in power for the next 23 years, the longest of any government in Australian history.

Scots’ Church

Dame Nellie Melba; the crowd at her Scots’ Church funeral; her face on the $100 note.

If anyone captured the spirit of late 19th and early 20th century Melbourne, it was Nellie Melba. Born Helen Porter Mitchell in 1861, she took the stage name “Melba” as a nod to her hometown. She sang in the choir at Scots’ Church as a child, and when she died in 1931, her funeral was held there.

She showed talent early but had to push through her father’s disapproval to pursue opera. After studying at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, she launched her career with a concert at Melbourne Town Hall in 1884. From there, it was Paris, London, New York and Milan. She was dazzling, dramatic and unforgettable. Her legacy lives on in Melba toast, Peach Melba, Melba Hall and our $100 note. I don’t think the diva would have settled for anything less.

Val’s Coffee Lounge

Val Eastwood in her coffee lounge in Swanston Street circa 1950s.Credit: Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives

In 1951, long before Melbourne was famous for its cafe culture, a lesbian in her mid-20s named Val Eastwood opened Val’s Coffee Lounge across from Melbourne Town Hall. She wore tailored suits and red lipstick and carried a silver-topped cane. Val’s became one of the first places in Melbourne where gay women and “camp men” could gather without fear. It was a haven for misfits, bohemians and theatre kids. Melbourne’s nightlife thrived in coffee shops: live music, big feelings, chosen family. Running it was, in Eastwood’s words, “bloody hard work” but she kept going – opening more cafes in St Kilda, South Yarra and Hawthorn. Today, a plaque marks the site of her first cafe – a tribute to a woman who created one of the city’s first safe spaces.

The Capitol

The Capitol Theatre designed by Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin.

​On the way to Chinatown, we pass The Capitol. Designed by architects Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin, it opened in 1924. The ceiling alone, illuminated by thousands of coloured lights resembling a crystalline cave, is worth the stop. ​I was in my 20s when I discovered that Canberra, the city I grew up in, was designed significantly by Marion.

She not only illustrated their design submission, but also conducted extensive research into the landscape to ensure it fit within the Australian context. However, her name was left off the 1911 submission to ensure it would be taken seriously by the Australian government. ​Walter later acknowledged her contributions, saying: “My wife is the genius, I am only the businessman.”

Australia is unique in having a capital city designed by a woman, a fact that is now part of Canberra’s push for UNESCO City of Design status. Learning this at 23 absolutely blew my mind. It made me wonder just how many women’s contributions had been erased from Australian history, and set me on a quest to find and share them.​

Golden Dragon restaurant

Alma Quon and her Joy Belles.Credit: Hardie Grant

Not every musician makes it big in Melbourne. Some just keep going for the love of the music. In the 1930s, Alma Quon started playing piano at the Golden Dragon restaurant. She later formed Alma Quon and her Joy Belles, Australia’s first multi-racial, all-female swing band. Inspired by wartime swing groups in the US and UK, they brought jazz to clubs and servicemen across the city. They barely made enough to cover the cost of their sheet music, but kept going. Quon played for more than 60 years, performing well into her 90s.

Little Bourke Street

Chinatown stalwart Elizabeth Chong.

It’s hard to imagine Melbourne without Chinatown, but it took people like Elizabeth Chong to help shift Chinese food from novelty to national staple. Raised near Queen Victoria Market, she came from a food legacy. Her father founded Australia’s first Chinese food factory, which created the now-iconic dim sim. By the 1950s, Chinese takeaway was a weekly treat in many homes, but Chong noticed that while Australians loved eating Chinese food, they didn’t really understand or appreciate it. So in 1961, she opened a cooking school. Over the next 57 years, more than 37,000 Australians learned the art of Chinese cooking in her classes. With engaging demonstrations, cultural insights and charming anecdotes, Chong became a household name. She appeared regularly on Australian TV, wrote several cookbooks, and played a key role in reshaping how this country understood Chinese food.

Queen Victoria Hospital

The Queen Victoria Hospital​ was founded in 1896 by Australia’s first registered female doctor, Constance Stone.

​Founded in 1896 by Australia’s first registered female doctor, Constance Stone, the Queen Victoria Hospital was among the first hospitals in the world to be established, managed and staffed entirely by women. It began as a small outpatient clinic because women doctors weren’t allowed to practice elsewhere, so they built their own. ​

Every woman in Victoria was asked to donate a shilling (equivalent to about $40 today) to fund the hospital – “to do honour to their Queen”. By 1899, it had eight beds, an operating theatre, and an outpatient clinic. Further appeals funded expansions; by 1951, it was the largest women-run hospital in the Commonwealth. The hospital supported women often excluded elsewhere – such as sex workers and single mothers – and trained generations of women doctors.​

The hospital closed in 1987, but its mission lives on through the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre. Like so many movements, it began with a handful of women gathered in someone’s home, determined to build a better tomorrow. And they did.

Where to next?

Melbourne’s story is still missing a lot of its chapters, but we’re slowly filling them in – one plaque, one statue, one laneway, and one walking tour at a time. Women shaped this city. They played a central role in establishing its trams, transforming its relationship with food, reimagining its politics, creating its soundtrack, designing its buildings, and doing all the things in between that I haven’t had the chance to show you.

But once you start looking, you’ll see them everywhere.

Sita Sargeant is the author of She Shapes History, published this week by Hardie Grant Explore, $34.99. She runs Badass Women of Melbourne Walking Tours as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival on May 10 and 11 (both sold out) and is in conversation with Santilla Chingaipe and Steve Vizard for The Past is a Foreign Country at the State Library on May 10. The Melbourne Writers Festival runs May 8-11; https://mwf.com.au/ The Age is a festival partner.