East Melbourne in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia — Oceania

Great Petition

Photographed by Dean Barton-Ancliffe, May 11, 2026

1. Great Petition Marker

Inscription. When suffragists campaigned for the vote in the late nineteenth century, critics said that women had no interest in political rights. Leading activists including Marie Kirk, Vida Goldstein and Annette Bear-Crawford, working with organisations such as the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Victorian Women's Suffrage Society sought support from both men and women throughout Victoria. A giant petition with 30,000 signatures, later to be known as the Monster Petition, was offered up to parliament in 1891 as evidence of widespread support for equal voting rights for women.

The bulky document, carried into the legislature by several attendants, was claimed to be the largest petition presented to the Victorian parliament to that date.

Yet the continuing opposition of the parliament, which knocked back numerous Bills, meant that women had to wait another seventeen years before they were given voting rights in Victoria with the passage of the Adult Suffrage Act in 1908.

Victoria was the last Australian State to grant women the suffrage, and even then most Indigenous women would be denied political rights until 1962.

Professor

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Click or scan to see
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Marilyn Lake

Commissioned by the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria, the Community Support Fund and the Office of Women's Policy in collaboration with the City of Melbourne.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of Dulux and the Victorian Women's Trust.

For more infection on this artwork and women's suffrage please the Arts Victoria or City of Melbourne websites

Erected 2008.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Civil Rights • Colonial Era • Women. A significant historical year for this entry is 1891.

Location. 37° 48.688′ S, 144° 58.505′ E. Marker is in East Melbourne, Victoria, in Melbourne. It is on Macarthur Street 0.1 kilometers north of Saint Andrews Place, on the left. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 33 Parliament Place, East Melbourne VIC 3002, Australia. Touch for directions.

Regionally, it is in Oceania,

in Australasia,

in the Pacific Ocean,

in South Pacific,

on the Pacific Rim,

in the Western World,

and in the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once a British colony.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers

Great Petition sculpture behind the Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Dean Barton-Ancliffe, May 11, 2026

2. Great Petition sculpture behind the Marker

are within walking distance of this marker: Great Petition Sculpture (a few steps from this marker); Coaxial Cable - Sydney to Melbourne (about 90 meters away, measured in a direct line); Daniel Mannix (about 120 meters away); Victorian Houses of Parliament (about 150 meters away); Stanford Fountain (about 150 meters away); Adam Lindsay Gordon 1932 (about 150 meters away); Charles George Gordon (about 180 meters away); The Windsor Hotel (about 180 meters away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in East Melbourne.

Also see . . . History of the Women's Suffrage Petition. Parliament of Victoria

In 1891 members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Victorian Temperance Alliance and other women's suffrage groups worked together to collect signatures from residents of more than 800 Victorian towns and suburbs for the Women’s Suffrage Petition.

Tabled in Parliament in September 1891, with the support of then Premier James Munro, the petition sought that ‘Women should Vote on Equal terms with Men'. It became known as the 'Monster Petition' because it was the largest petition that had ever been presented to the
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Parliament of Victoria on any question. Now held in Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), it is made of hundreds of sheets of paper pasted onto a cotton or linen fabric backing, rolled onto a cardboard spindle. The petition is approximately 260 metres long and 200 millimetres wide and takes three people three hours to unroll from one spool to another.

(Submitted on May 27, 2026, by Dean Barton-Ancliffe of Rowville, Victoria.)

Credits. This page was last revised on May 28, 2026. It was originally submitted on May 27, 2026, by Dean Barton-Ancliffe of Rowville, Victoria. This page has been viewed 11 times since then. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on May 27, 2026, by Dean Barton-Ancliffe of Rowville, Victoria. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.