What does the Convent mean to you?
The Convent was where I worked for 20 years, and where I had my studio until last year. It means a great deal to me because I’ve been intimately involved in telling its story.
I also have family connections to the site. My parents learned music here, and my family history intersects with the Convent’s time as an institution. Over the years, I’ve formed wonderful friendships and connections here, both personally and professionally.
It’s such a unique and special place. It’s very precious, really.
Why should this place continue as it is?
The Convent tells many important stories.
It is a significant Wurundjeri place, where people can learn about and feel the deep connection between Country, the Birrarung and this landscape.
It is also one of Victoria’s most important sites for understanding the history of women and girls. Through its buildings, institutions and communities, it reveals changing social attitudes, welfare systems and the role of religious organisations in caring for people affected by economic, political and cultural circumstances.
For a large, intact monastic village located so close to a major city, it is completely unique. Its layers of Wurundjeri, religious, architectural and cultural history make it an extraordinary place.
Today, it is also home to a thriving arts and cultural community. To have such a vibrant creative precinct within this landscape is incredibly rare.
How has the Convent shaped you or your work?
As an architect, the Convent has been a constant influence. For two decades, I would leave this place to meet clients and discuss ideas, then return here to develop them.
From the beginning, it provided a calm and peaceful environment in which to work. Being surrounded by creative, thoughtful people doing interesting things has had a lasting impact on me.
It has been both a place of work and a place of inspiration.
What would be lost if the Convent no longer existed?
The Convent is one of Melbourne’s most distinctive cultural places. It’s somewhere people can step away from the city while remaining right on its doorstep — a remarkable precinct surrounded by bushland and the river, with an extraordinary cultural life.
As a volunteer tour guide, I’ve taken thousands of people through the site. Almost all of them say the same thing:
“I had no idea this place existed.”
They’re amazed by its beauty, history and significance.
It would be a tremendous loss, not only for those who already love it, but for all the people who have yet to discover it.
I love the Convent because…
I know it so well, and I feel that a part of me lives here — in its history, its stories and its spaces.
After so many years, it has become part of who I am.
About Rema
Rema O’Neill is an architect who spent 20 years based at the Convent. During that time she worked from a studio on site, led heritage tours, contributed to creative projects and became deeply connected to the place and its community.