In November, Nillumbik Shire Council installed two new informative panels on Watkins Street Reserve. They form
the Diamond Creek section of the Heidelberg School Artists’ Trail and replace signs that were installed in a similar
location along the creek about 25 years ago, that over time deteriorated and were removed.

MAY VALE

May Vale was a strong fighter for the recognition of the professional standing of women artists and was one of the
first women to be elected a member of the Buonarotti Club, a group that included Frederick McCubbin and Tom
Roberts, formed in Melbourne in the 1883.

In April 1906, May Vale held an exhibition in her studio in Melbourne that included her sketches of scenes in the
vicinity of Diamond Creek, and another exhibition six years later with a painting named Cottage at Diamond Creek.
She moved to Diamond Creek in 1920 and lived until 1940 in a hill-top cottage she named The Shack which
overlooked the area where the panels are located.

JANE PRICE

Jane Price settled in Melbourne two years after arriving from England in 1880 where she made close, life-long
friendships with Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin and his family and women artists of the Heidelberg School
Clara Southern and Jane Sutherland. Jane often joined their painting camps at Heidelberg and Eaglemont where she adopted and developed the distinct painting styles of the Heidelberg School and painted impressionist works that demonstrated the influences of Walter Withers and others.

Jane moved to Sydney in 1907 and founded the Society of Women Painters in 1910. Her interest in using art to
capture the effects of the different seasons is reflected in “Moonrise” and a comparable painting “Sunset”. On her
return to Melbourne during the First World War she moved to Diamond Creek and lived for a time in a cottage close
to May Vale.