Good Mother Gateway

At the northern end of Rosalind Park in Bendigo, is a granite gateway leading into the Fernery, known as the "Good Mother Gateway"

 In 1879 G S Mackay who was a leading authority on ferns proposed the establishment of a fernery in an area known as the Willows, which was once a bend in the Bendigo Creek. The billabong was levelled and transformed into an open air fernery where mature trees now provide a canopy of shade for the more tender ferns.

G S Mackay dedicated the fernery to his mother.

Bendigo from its earliest days has been one of the major Cornish Australian settlement areas. In 1881 46.9 percent of fathers and 41.4 percent of mothers in Bendigo were born in Cornwall. This was in addition to those Cornish who were born in Australia or places as far afield as Mexico or Brazil.  The Cornish in Bendigo outnumbered the combined strength of their Irish and Scottish counterparts