AIDS Memorial Garden Walking Tour

Remember Fairfield - from hospital to horticulture

Originally established by Victorian AIDS Council volunteers over 30 years ago, the AIDS Memorial Garden remains a treasured resource and place of quiet reflection. The Garden is located on the grounds of the old Fairfield Hospital which was responsible for the care of the majority of HIV/AIDS patients in Victoria.

Fairfield Hospital was originally opened in 1904. Diseases treated included typhoid, cholera, scarlet fever and in its final years HIV/AIDS. Despite plans for its closure in the early 1990s, an unprecedented community campaign kept the hospital open. By the time it closed in 1996 it was the last specific infectious diseases hospital in Australia.

In 2004, after the site was acquired by Melbourne Polytechnic Fairfield (previously NMIT), the Garden was transformed into a valuable learning space for Horticulture and Landscape students. Interest in the old hospital grounds was rekindled in recent years with the release of the 2015 movie Holding The Man.

This walking tour provides a rare opportunity to have a guided tour by community members who helped to establish the Memorial Garden and had a close relationship with the Fairfield Hospital, from friends to family who had been cared for.