Catherine Grace GREGSON

Born 19/06/1914, Died 10/07/2007

Also known as: née Gregson, Catherine MacLean

1937 — One of the ear­ly women to dri­ve around Aus­tralia. Cather­ine’s daugh­ter, Mar­garet, gave us a com­pi­la­tion of infor­ma­tion. This includ­ed copies of a num­ber of pho­tos from…

Dorothy Muriel CRAWFORD

Born 21 March 1911, Died 2 September 1988

Also known as: née Crawford, D. C.

March 1942 – 1944 — Became one of the Aus­tralian Broad­cast­ing Commission’s first three female announc­ers in Victoria.

1944 — Joined, with her broth­er Hec­tor, the…

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Robyn Wells MAY

Also known as: née Hammond

Began fly­ing between Mel­bourne and Tasmania.Flew in Papua New Guinea — ​“Only excep­tion­al pilots sur­vive.” Now flies in South Australia.

Helen CALDICOTT

Born 7/8/1938

Also known as: Dr Helen Caldicott

Helen Caldicott is the founder of the Wom­en’s Action for Nuclear Dis­ar­ma­ment (1982). In 1985, Helen was nom­i­nat­ed for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was won by the organ­i­sa­tion she…

Marina PRIOR

Born 18 October 1963

2006 — She was induct­ed into the list of Australia’s top 100 Enter­tain­ers of the Century.

Opera singer and Aus­trali­a’s First Lady of musi­cal theatre.

Metha GREGORY

Born 27/08/1886, Died 11/08/1958

Also known as: née Zimmerman, Meta, Matha

Pio­neer of Alice Springs, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry and Ood­na­dat­ta, South Australia.

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Wendy SNOOK

1991 — First female chap­lain in the Defence Forces.

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Shirley ANDERSON

1 of 2 first women Air Traf­fic Con­trollers in Aus­tralia (Syd­ney Air­port 1960).

Hope BLACK

Born 7 February 1919, Died 25 January 2018

Also known as: Jessica Hope Black née Macpherson

Hope Black was the first woman cura­tor (of Mol­lusks) at the Muse­um of Vic­to­ria (1947); and one of the first four women sci­en­tists to vis­it an Aus­tralian Antarc­tic base (Mac­quar­ie…

Matilda Ann ASTON

Born 11 December 1873, Died 1 November 1947

Also known as: Tilly

The first blind Aus­tralian to go to Uni­ver­si­ty, she even­tu­al­ly had to drop out because of lack of Braille text­books. She went on to estab­lish Australia’s first Braille library when…

Patricia Lyle TOOLE

Born 11/1928, Died 04/2016

Also known as: née Graham, Pat

Pat was the first female to hold a com­mer­cial pilot’s license in Papua, New Guinea, 1952. Her license had lapsed when in her sev­en­ties she decid­ed to renew it. Her first solo…

Elna Joy Cardona CARDONA

Born 18/3/1956

Also known as: Joy Cardona

Joy Car­dona is the first woman in Aus­tralian Rules to offi­ci­ate a rep­re­sen­ta­tive match. This was the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry ver­sus Hawthorn in 1991, and she still has the score card! She…

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Mara WARWICK

1998 — Award­ed a dual Ful­bright and George Mur­ray Schol­ar­ship, com­plet­ed PhD Stan­ford University.
Dr

2010 — Appoint­ed to man­age largest emer­gency loan in the World Bank’s…

Mary Anna McMANUS

Born 7/2/1844, Died 22/7/1933

Also known as: née Spencer

First white child to live where Saint George is now sit­u­at­ed. With her moth­er, they were the first white women to reside in Mara­noa Dis­trict, Roma Queensland.

Wrote Rem­i­nis­cences of…

Patricia Julianne EVANS

Also known as: née Morris

Qual­i­fied as an accoun­tant in 1948, and in 1949, at 21, became the first female accoun­tant to be employed by Bitu­men and Oil Refiner­ies (Aus­tralia) Lim­it­ed (Boral). One of the…

Mary LYNCH

Born 1880

Alice Maud MANFIELD

Born 9/9/1878, Died 14/7/1960

Also known as: née Manfield

Pio­neer of Mt Buf­fa­lo district.
​“Guide Alice” con­duct­ed guid­ed tours in Mt Buf­fa­lo Nation­al Park.

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Roma BLAIR

Born 1923, Died 5 November 2013

Also known as: née Blair, Swami Nirmalananda

First Aus­tralian Bride to be mar­ried by Proxy.

Author of six (6) books on yoga.Established Roma Blair Yoga Clubs in Syd­ney, New South Wales.1959 — Estab­lished television…

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Jean BAIRD

Wife of Rev. John Fly­nn the founder of Aus­tralian Inland Mis­sion and the Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor Service

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Ada Mary WADE

Born 1909

Also known as: née Smith (formerly Pick)

One of first babies bap­tised at Alice Springs Catholic Church

Pio­neer of Arl­tun­ga, Ten­nant creek, Hatch­es Creek and Alice Springs. Attend­ed school behind old Courthouse.When…

Ruby LINDSAY

Born 20/3/1885, Died 12/3/1919

Also known as: Ruby Lind, Mrs Will Dyson

Sis­ter of Creswick artist broth­ers Bill and Nor­man Lindsay.Worked under name ​“Ruby Lind” to sep­a­rate her work from rest of family.Won spe­cial prize of a Diplo­ma to be Awarded…

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Patricker Catherine Bridgett HOLDEN

Born 5 April 1913, Died 19 February 1997

Also known as: née Callahan, Pat

Estab­lished Pat Hold­en Fash­ions, a ladies dress shop in Alice Springs. Worked for Mona MINA­HAN in her dress shop originally.

Kelly COLE

2000 — Kel­ly walked with camels (and with Mark Swindells for part of the jour­ney) from West­ern Aus­trali­a’s most west­er­ly point to New South Wales most east­er­ly point.

Ethel Mary TURNER

Born 24 January 1870, Died 08 April 1958

Also known as: née Burwell, née Ethel Sibyl Turner, Ethel Mary Curlewis, Ethel Sibyl Cope

Author of Sev­en Lit­tle Aus­tralians which was Aus­trali­a’s first chil­dren’s clas­sic (1894). Has writ­ten over 40 books.

Elizabeth Ann LEWIS

Eliz­a­beth is a high­ly respect­ed neu­ro­sur­geon with a spe­cial inter­est in medico-legal work, pae­di­atric neu­ro­surgery and spinal neurosurgery.

1958 — Bach­e­lor of Medicine,…

Ella Vivian WILKINSON

Born 1877, Died 1943

Also known as: née Mould

First school teacher in Yates’ Flat sub­sidised school sys­tem, Clarence Riv­er Dis­trict, New South Wales.

Corn Beef and Damper by daugh­ter Isabel Wilkin­son tells her story.

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Margaret Sarah THOMAS

Born 23/12/1842, Died 24/12/1929

Also known as: née Cook

1857 — First woman sculp­tor in Australia.

Sculp­tor. Exhib­it­ed a por­trait bust at first Vic­to­ri­an Soci­ety of Fine Arts.

Helen BROWNLEE

Helen Brown­lee was the first Aus­tralian woman to gain inter­na­tion­al sta­tus in canoe­ing when select­ed to judge slalom at the Munich Olympics (1972). She was first woman Pres­i­dent of…

Rosa Caroline PRAED

Born 27/03/1851, Died 10 April 1935

Also known as: née Murray-Prior, Mrs Campbell Praed

First Aus­tralian-born nov­el­ist to achieve a sig­nif­i­cant inter­na­tion­al reputation.

Rosa PRAED’s step­moth­er was Nora Mur­ray-Pri­or (née BAR­TON), Ban­jo PATER­SON­’S aunt…

Margaret DOYLE

Born 1920, Died 25 February 2002

Also known as: Margaret Henderson

Aus­trali­a’s first female radio announc­er was appoint­ed by the Aus­tralian Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (ABC) and seen here at their Syd­ney stu­dios in Novem­ber 1940. The major­i­ty of…

Gertrude Fanny Emma ROBERTSON

Born 2/2/1900, Died 28 September 2002

Also known as: née Govier

Pio­neer of the Birchip dis­trict, Vic­to­ria. Known local­ly as ​‘Mrs Rob­by’, she was regard­ed as ​‘an asset to her community’.

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Laura THOMAS

Born 1967

Also known as: née Perucich

2001 — First woman in Aus­tralia to be ​‘Chief Whip Crack­er’ on a major car launch — Hold­en Monaro’s $60m project.

Senja Raymond ROBEY

Born 25/01/1927

Also known as: née Havard

A foun­da­tion mem­ber of the Aus­tralian Women Pilots Asso­ci­a­tion Sen­ja learned to fly in a Tiger Moth in 1949. She has taught hun­dreds of stu­dents to fly and fer­ried many air­craft to…

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June APPLEBY

1985 — First woman in South Aus­tralian Par­lia­ment to become Gov­ern­ment Whip in House of Assembly

A mem­ber of the Aus­tralian Labor Par­ty, June Apple­by was elect­ed as the Member…

Anne Isabella DARCY FOWLER

Born 24 July 1911, Died 13 June 2003

Also known as: née Darcy, Ann, Annie

Annie was one of the first female drovers, and it is believed that she and her broth­ers pho­tos adorn the walls at Daly Waters Pub as charar­c­ters of the Territory.

Annie was part of a…

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Myra FILSELL

Born 1904, Died 2001

Also known as: née Scott

First Aus­tralian Inland Mis­sion (A.I.M.) nurse at Ood­na­dat­ta, South Australia.

Mary Turner SHAW

Born 14/01/1906, Died 23/04/1990

Also known as: Mollie

A grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mel­bourne’s Archi­tec­tur­al Ate­lier, she orig­i­nal­ly worked for the large Mel­bourne firm of Stephen­son & Turn­er before join­ing the Australian…

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Ellen PERRY

Born 1908, Died 2005

Also known as: Nell

The Per­ry fam­i­ly arrived in Ten­nant Creek in 1934 to search for gold. Nell lived in Ade­laide with their three chil­dren for around 10 years, hav­ing a dis­tance rela­tion­ship, before…

Judith Mary ROBERTS

Born 17 December 1936

1978 — First Rep­re­sen­ta­tive from South Aus­tralia to Nation­al Wom­en’s Advi­so­ry Council.

1980s — Appoint­ed to the Nation­al Health and Med­ical Research Coun­cil and later…

Matilda Jane EVANS

Born 7 August 1827, Died 22 October 1886

Also known as: née Congreve, Maud Jeanne Franc

1859 — First South Aus­tralian woman to have a nov­el pub­lished, Mar­i­an by Maud Jeanne Franc.

Pio­neer woman and novelist.
See Our Own Matil­da by Bar­bara Wall (pub­lished 1994);…

May Emmeline WIRTH

Born 6 June 1894, Died 18 October 1978

Also known as: May

1963 — Induct­ed in the Cir­cus Hall of Fame as a bare­back rider

Pio­neer bare­back ricer cir­cus per­former and equestri­enne. In 1912, began work­ing with Bar­num and Bai­ley Circus…

Jean BEADLE

Born 1/1/1868, Died 22/5/1942

Also known as: Jean (Jane) Miller

1898 — Found­ing mem­ber of the first Labour Wom­en’s Asso­ci­a­tion in Australia

1905 — Found­ing mem­ber of the first West­ern Aus­tralian Wom­en’s Polit­i­cal and Social Crusade…

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Faith BANDLER

Born 27/09/1920, Died 13/02/2015

Also known as: Ida Lessing Faith Mussing

1976 appoint­ed Mem­ber of the Order of the British Empire but declined1984 appoint­ed Mem­ber of the Order of Aus­tralia in recog­ni­tion of ser­vice to Abo­rig­i­nal welfare1994 award­ed an…

Ann JAMES

Born 1839, Died 6/3/1912

Also known as: née Minogue, Granny

Just arrived from Gal­way, Ann mar­ried Moses Wal­ter JAMES in 1858. In 1863, with three sons, they road pack­hors­es to the gold dig­gings in Dar­go and then on to Omeo. Even­tu­al­ly they…

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Runge

Amboo­ra, Amelia (Kunoth) and Runge, who worked for the Brad­shaw fam­i­ly at the Tele­graph Sta­tion.… as well as Abo­rig­i­nal house­maids includ­ing Amboo­ra, Runge and Amelia, sup­port­ed Mrs…

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Chris BENZ

Cen­tral Aus­tralian. Lived at Her­mans­burg and stud­ied via School of the Air.

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Anna Maria O'REILLY

1825 — One of first women to own and oper­ate a hat shop in their Castlereagh Street res­i­dence, Syd­ney, New South Wales.

Christiane Susanne Augustine ZADOW

Born 27/8/1846, Died 7/7/1896

Also known as: née Hofmeyer, Augusta

“Mrs Inspec­tor Zad­ow”, South Aus­trali­a’s first and the nation’s sec­ond woman Inspec­tor of Fac­to­ries was appoint­ed in 1895, hav­ing to share an office, amongst…

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Janice Eileen HEASLIP

Born 03/04/1939

Also known as: née Parnell

Found­ing Mem­ber Alice Springs Branch and Inau­gur­al State Pres­i­dent of Iso­lat­ed Chil­dren’s Par­ents Association.

Mary Jean GILMORE

Born 16/08/1865, Died 3/12/1962

Also known as: née Cameron, Dame Mary Jean Cameron, Em Jaycey, Sister Jaycey, Rudione Calvert

The first woman executive/​member of the Aus­tralian Work­ers’ Union.
1928 — Founder of the Fel­low­ship of Aus­tralian Writers.
1937 — Made Dame of the British Empire for her contribution…