Kings Domain

Kings Domain is an area of parklands in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It surrounds Government House Reserve, the home of the governors of Victoria, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, and the Shrine Reserve incorporating the Shrine of Remembrance.

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 and native 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 Baron Ferdinand von Mueller and later by William 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 the Yarra River known as the Domain Parklands, which includes;
 * The Royal Botanic Gardens
 * Kings Domain
 * Alexandra Gardens
 * Queen Victoria Gardens

Structures & other features

 * The Sidney Myer Music Bowl - a world standard, architecturally significant, tensile structure and outdoor performance venue. It was officially opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies on 12 February 1959 with an audience of some 30,000 people, and has remained a popular location for Melburnians.
 * The Shrine of Remembrance is one of the largest war memorials in Australia. It was built as a memorial to the men and women of Victoria who died in World War I, but soon came to be seen as Australia's major memorial to all the 60,000 Australians who served in that war.
 * Governor La Trobe's Cottage is an historic cottage built in 1839 for the first superintendent of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, Charles La Trobe, and his family. The cottage was constructed out of prefabricated materials imported from England on five hectares of land at Jolimont. 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 the governor of Victoria. It has also been used as the official residence of the Governor-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 Period Italianate style, it reflects the extravagant style of the period arising from a booming economy due to the Victorian gold rushes.
 * The Pioneer Women's Memorial Garden was designed by Hugh 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.
 * The Kings Domain Resting Place is a memorial for the remains of Indigenous People marked by a granite burial rock honouring the Aboriginal People of Victoria, including the local Wurundjeri. The skeletal remains of 38 Aboriginal People are buried here, after they were handed over to the Aboriginal Community in 1985 by the Melbourne Museum after the Koorie Heritage Trust proposed legal action.


 * The King 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 by World War 2 and was completed in 1951.
 * A plaque to commemorate Edward 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 the Two-minute silence on Armistice Day to pause and reflect on those who have lost their lives in war.
 * The Australian Turkish Friendship Memorial commissioned by the Victorian RSL's Turkish Sub-branch honours WWI fallen soldiers and is a tribute to Australian-Turkish relations.
 * 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.