HerStory: Women commemorated in the City of Port Phillip
The City of Port Phillip has a rich ‘herstory’ of inspiring women who have made significant contributions to local politics, literature, the arts, sport, health, education and the wider community.
The ‘HerStory’ map displays places in the City of Port Phillip where women are recognised and honoured in street names, parks and gardens, buildings and on monuments and other public artworks. This map is not intended to show all the women who should be commemorated but are not yet.
‘HerStory’ celebrates women’s stories and achievements, but the map is just the beginning. There are many hidden stories to tell, and many more women who deserve to be commemorated.
Help us ‘Put Her Name on It’
Council is responsible for creating and changing the names of roads, reserves, open spaces, laneways and other features in the city. The naming process helps to recognise the local history, culture and identity of the area. Gender equality and First Nations equity are important priorities for place-naming. We encourage submissions from the community proposing women’s names and the names of Indigenous people to support these objectives. Click the button to learn more about our role and how to make a submission.
Gaps in ‘HerStory’
We acknowledge that there will be gaps in the information contained on the map and on this webpage. And we want ‘HerStory’ to show where these gaps exist. We encourage the community to let us know, so that we can strengthen our knowledge and the information presented here. If you find an error or have information to fill in the gaps, please get in touch with us on diversity@portphillip.vic.gov.au.
Despite our best efforts to source accurate information and engage with those closest to the stories, some information may be missing or incomplete. ‘HerStory’ is a reflection of the inequality in place-naming and commemoration. Some women and some stories are more widely told and more visible, others may be invisible or harder to find.
Through ‘HerStory’, we want to raise community awareness and support for commemoration of those women who have not yet been recognised and to contribute to greater gender equality and First Nations equity in place naming and public commemoration in the future.
We encourage you to send in your submissions to roadandfeaturenaming@portphillip.vic.gov.au with relevant supporting information. See more information on the Road naming, place naming and feature naming web page.
First Nations women
City of Port Phillip respectfully acknowledges the enduring legacy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The footprints left behind by resilient Matriarchs of our First People since time immemorial has always been strongly linked to their cultural identity and connectedness to family and community.
It is vital to ensure that the stories and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are told. With this aim in mind, we have endeavoured to work with First Nations communities to include First Nations women on the ‘HerStory’ map. We respect the wishes of First Nations communities to have their members included, or not included, and ‘HerStory’ reflects the autonomy of their wishes.
The HerStory map
Download the map (PDF 4MB) or view below to discover places where women have been commemorated.
