Frances Georgina Watts Higgins (September 1860 – 26 October 1948), usually known as Ina Higgins, was an Australian

horticulturalist Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manage ...

and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

. She was the first female

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

Biography

Early life

Ina Higgins was the daughter of John and Anne (née Bournes) Higgins. She was born in

County Cork County Cork () is the largest and the southernmost Counties of Ireland, county of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, named after the city of Cork (city), Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster ...

, Ireland, in 1860. She arrived in Melbourne, from Ireland, on the ship ''Eurynome'' on 12 February 1870 with her mother and four siblings. Both Ina and her younger sister, Anna, attended the Presbyterian Ladies' College and the University of Melbourne. A brother,

Henry Bournes Higgins Henry Bournes Higgins KC (30 June 1851 – 13 January 1929) was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge. He served on the High Court of Australia from 1906 until his death in 1929, after briefly serving as Attorney-General of Australia in 1 ...

, was a Justice of the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is the apex court of the Australian legal system. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified in the Constitution of Australia and supplementary legislation. The High Court was establi ...

Career

In 1897, Charles Bogue Luffman, the director of Burnley Horticultural College in Melbourne, welcomed women into his institution as students, an event that had a profound effect on the subsequent development of landscape architecture. Higgins enrolled at Burnley in 1899 and later established herself as Victoria's first professional woman landscape gardener (there were no landscape architects until the 1960s in Australia), while maintaining a prominent role as a political activist. She assisted with the planting schemes for two new model towns in the Murrumbidgee district at the invitation of the New South Wales Commission of Irrigation, designed notable private gardens and was a vocal advocate for women's participation in the profession. During the First World War, Higgins, now in her fifties, was active in her profession of landscape gardening and also in political activity. In 1914, she was invited by the New South Wales Government Commission of Irrigation, to assist with the planting plans for the two new townships in the Murrumbidgee irrigation districts of New South Wales. In 1915 when a co-operative women's farm, The Women's Rural Industries Co. Ltd., was started at Mordialloc, Higgins was involved. She was also a member of the Women's Political Association.

Activism

In 1891 a Victorian Women’s Suffrage Petition signed by approximately 30,000 women was presented to the Victorian parliament to urge the Government of the day to grant women the right to vote. Although that right was not won until 1908, the petition is an indication of the strength of the women's suffrage movement in Victoria. Higgins signed the petition and, from 1894, was the honorary secretary of the

United Council for Woman Suffrage The United Council for State Suffrage (UCSS), formerly the United Council for Woman Suffrage, was founded in the Colony of Victoria, Australia, in 1894 by Annette Bear-Crawford, to unite the existing groups who were fighting for women's suffrage ...

and sat on its executive committee from 1900.

Death

From 1890 Higgins lived at the family home, "Killenna," Malvern. She never married and continued to live there until the time of her death on 26 October 1948.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Ina Australian horticulturists Australian landscape architects Australian feminists 1860 births 1948 deaths 20th-century Australian architects Architects from County Cork People from Malvern, Victoria Architects from Melbourne Irish emigrants to colonial Australia