Roma Flinders MITCHELL

Born 2/10/1913, Died 05/03/2000

1962 — First woman Queen’s Coun­sel in Australia.
1965 — First female Supreme Court judge in Australia.
1972 — First woman deputy chan­cel­lor of a university.
1981 – 82 – First human…

Anne Marie Louise INGHAM

Born 1932, Died 2014

Author, Artist, Sculp­tor. Anne Marie Ing­ham has writ­ten the fol­low­ing titles:
​“The Boss Drover and His Mates”, 1996
​“Pio­neers of the Kim­ber­ley: the Mag­gie Lilly…

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Carmel Mary ROSE

Born 1923, Died 13/10/1996

Also known as: née Kerrison

Wid­ow of Colonel Lionel Rose, Chief Vet­eri­nar­i­an Offi­cer for the Ani­mal Indus­try Branch. Her con­tri­bu­tion to Emer­gency Home Help Organ­i­sa­tion was invaluable.

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Ann LEWIS

Born 1926

1948 — First woman com­mer­cial pilot in West­ern Aus­tralia. Award­ed the Coro­na­tion Medal for rep­re­sent­ing the wom­en’s fly­ing branch of the R.A.F.
First female pilot to fly for the…

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Lucy OSBURN

Born 1/04/1836, Died 22/12/1891

She trained at the Nightin­gale Train­ing School, St Thomas’ Hos­pi­tal. One month into her train­ing she was select­ed to lead a team of nurs­es to estab­lish the Nightin­gale nursing…

Dale Roger JONES

Dale made her first flight in Alice Springs, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry and went on to fly with oth­er pio­neer­ing women, both barn­storm­ers and com­mer­cial pilots. She helped co-ordi­nate the…

Tania VERSTAK

Also known as: née Verstak

1962 — First and only Aus­tralian to win Miss Inter­na­tion­al Beau­ty competition.

1962 — Crowned Miss New South Wales.1962 — Crowned Miss Australia.

Alice Maude NORTHCOTE

Died 06/1934

Also known as: née Alice Brooke, Alice Stephen

Lady North­cote was cre­at­ed a Com­pan­ion of the Order of the Crown of India (CI) when her hus­band became Gov­er­nor of Bom­bay in 1900 and a Dame Com­man­der of the Order of the British…

Margaret ILLMANN

Born 9/12/1965

Aus­tralian Prin­ci­pal Bal­le­ri­na in Cana­da, New York, Europe, and on Broad­way for which she was award­ed The The­atre Word Award as Best Actress on Broad­way, Fred Astaire Award Best Dancer…

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Jill KNIGHT

Born 1946

Jill is the own­er of a motor craft cut­ter named Cooee. She has sailed solo around the Pacif­ic and Indi­an Oceans.

Jill wrote for sail­ing mag­a­zines to sup­port the…

Denise ALLEN

1983 — First observ­er woman post­ed to Queens­land 1984 — First woman post­ed to Willis Island 1986 — First woman to win­ter on the Antarc­tic Con­ti­nent for the Bureau of Mete­o­rol­o­gy 1988 -…

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Alisa Peta CAMPLIN

Born 10 November 1974

“Alisa Cam­plin is Aus­trali­a’s first female Win­ter Olympic gold medal­ist, dual Olympic medal­ist, World Cham­pi­on, World Record Hold­er and two times WC Grand Prix…

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Susan Elizabeth Anne WIJFFELS

Born 3/08/1965

First woman sci­en­tist on staff in the Com­mon­wealth Sci­en­tif­ic and Indus­tri­al Research Organ­i­sa­tion (CSIRO) Divi­sion of Oceanog­ra­phy in Hobart, Tasmania.
1986 — Cal­tex Scholarship…

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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Cheryl KERNOT

Born 5/12/1948

Also known as: nee Paton, formerly Young

1993 – 1997 — First female Leader of the Aus­tralian Democ­rats in Fed­er­al Parliament

For­mer high school teacher.1993 – 1997 — Leader of the Aus­tralian Democrats.1998 – 2001 — Member…

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Kerryn PHELPS

Born 14 December 1957

Also known as: Dr Kerryn Phelps

First woman Fed­er­al Pres­i­dent of Aus­tralian med­ical Association

Ker­ryn Lyn­del Phelps AM was the first woman to be elect­ed pres­i­dent of the Aus­tralian Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion (AMA).

Marion Lillian ADDISON

Born 21 December 1885, Died 27 November 1982

Also known as: Lily

1919 — First Aus­tralian woman to play at Wimbledon. 

At the time, Lily was the wom­en’s sin­gles cham­pi­on of Australia. 

She was the South Aus­tralian Ladies Ten­nis Cham­pi­on in…

Pearl Ruth POWELL

Born 14/12/1909, Died 2004

Also known as: née Price, formerly Bird

Daugh­ter of Fred and Iso­belle PRICE.Author of By Pack­horse and Bug­gie with daugh­ter Eileen McRAE. Fred Price was Tele­graph Mas­ter at Tele­graph Sta­tion, Alice Springs (1916−24).

June NOBLE

June was named the 2008 Cen­tralian of the Year. 

June has also has served as an Alice Springs Town Coun­cil Alder­per­son and Deputy Mayor.
She is a vol­un­teer at the…

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Pippa TESSMAN

Born 1961

2006 — Win­ner North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry West­pac Busi­ness Own­er award.
2009 — Select­ed to rep­re­sent the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry on the inau­gur­al Phys­io­ther­a­py Board of Australia.…

Ethel Florence Lindesay RICHARDSON

Born 3 January 1870, Died 20 March 1946

Also known as: née Richardson, Henry Handel Richardson, Ethel Robertson, Et, Ettie, Etta

1932 — First Aus­tralian woman to be nom­i­nat­ed for The Nobel Prize for Literature.

Kay Christine Lesley PATTERSON

Born 21/11/1944

She was elect­ed as a Lib­er­al Par­ty Sen­a­tor for Vic­to­ria in 1987 and went on to become Min­is­ter for Fam­i­ly and Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices and Min­is­ter Assist­ing the Prime Min­is­ter for the…

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Nellie TRUMAN

Born 28 June 1900

Also known as: née Moyle

Stayed in Alice Springs for 20 months while trav­el­ling with hus­band and four sons in 1952. Embroi­dered a table­cloth when she left with 24 sig­na­tures of local C.W.A. members.

Tanya Mary MONRO

Born 1973

Win­ner of The Week­end Aus­tralian Mag­a­zine’s Next 100 Emerg­ing Lead­ers in Science.
An award-win­ning Aus­tralian physi­cist known for her work in photonics.

Physicist.1995 -…

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Janine Ellen FEYAERTS

Born 23 September 1972

First woman moun­tain bike rid­er to be spon­sored by a major cor­po­ra­tion (Eric­s­son Australia).

Joan MacCORMAC

Also known as: née Waterton

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Short-term member.

Stephanie ZANK

Born 1969

Aus­trali­a’s first woman to become a Mer­chant Marine Engi­neer (1994).


To become a Mer­chant Marine Engi­neer requires a recog­nised qual­i­fi­ca­tion, qual­i­fy­ing sea-time and…

Christiane Susanne Augustine ZADOW

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

Also known as: née Hofmeyer, Augusta

1894 — First appoint­ed female fac­to­ry inspec­tor in South Australia.

1890 — Work­ing Wom­en’s Trades Union formed to reform ​‘sweat­ed’ con­di­tions of female clothing…

Margaret McDONALD

Born 1858, Died 27 August 1943

Also known as: née Lamb

Pio­neer of White Cliffs, New South Wales; Bro­ken Hill, New South Wales; and Nor­man­ton, Queensland.

Amy Gwendoline STARK

Born 3/04/1910, Died 28/11/1994

Also known as: née Stark, Gwen, Starkie, Gwen Caldwell

1941 — First ser­vice woman recruit­ed by WAAAF in New South Wales. On 40^th Anniver­sary of Anzac Day, she was the first woman hon­oured to give the Dawn Ser­vice Address in Sydney.
1968 -…

Beryl Grace McINTOSH

Died 12/1/2013

Also known as: née Hansen

Some of her awards:1999 — Received Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Day award.2000 — Select­ed to car­ry Syd­ney 2000 Olympics torch.2001 — Received Cen­te­nary medal.2002 — Award­ed Palmer­ston Proud…

Hanna NEUMANN

Born 12/02/1914, Died 14/11/1971

Also known as: née Johanna von Caemmerer

1964 — First female Pro­fes­sor of Pure Math­e­mat­ics at Aus­tralian Nation­al Uni­ver­si­ty, Can­ber­ra, Aus­tralian Cap­i­tal Territory.

1946 – 63 — Han­na was a Lecturer
and Senior Lecturer…

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Anna LICHTENBERG

Lec­tur­er in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy (IT) (now PhD and con­sul­tant at Curtin Uni­ver­si­ty. First woman involved in the IT depart­ment at the Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege in Alice Springs, Northern…

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Alison M. PYPER

Also known as: née Mitchell

1967 — Nurse at Alice Springs Hos­pi­tal for 17 years.
1997 – 2004 — Worked in two major Sau­di Ara­bi­an hospitals.
Fol­low­ing was one year in Kuwait, 20 months in Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates, and…

Bronwyn Kathleen BISHOP

Born 19/10/1942

Also known as: nee Setright

Bron­wyn Bish­op was the first woman to be pres­i­dent of any polit­i­cal Par­ty in New South Wales when elect­ed Pres­i­dent of the Lib­er­al Par­ty in NSW (1985); first woman from NSW to be…

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Karyn HUMPHREYS

First woman to stand for and be elect­ed to the Divi­sion­al Coun­cil of the Insti­tute of Munic­i­pal Man­age­ment (IMM) (now Local Gov­ern­ment Man­agers Aus­tralia — LGMA) in Victoria.…

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Essie STUART

Born 1904

Also known as: née Simpson

With camel dri­ver hus­band, brought goods from Maree and Ood­na­dat­ta to Alice Springs, North­ern Territory.

Louise Nellie LOVELY

Born 28 February 1895, Died 19 March 1980

Also known as: née Alberti, Louise Alberti (maiden name), Louise Carbasse (stage name), Louise Cowan (married name), Louise Lovely (stage name), Louise Welch (former married name)

She is cred­it­ed by film his­to­ri­ans for being the first Aus­tralian actress to have a suc­cess­ful career in Hol­ly­wood. She made 55 motion pic­tures between 1911 – 1922, most in Hollywood…

Stella

Stel­la was an Allow­era (Allyawarr) woman, Jane Web­b’s trust­ed Allyawarr Abo­rig­i­nal friend, who lived at Mount Rid­dock Sta­tion with the Webb fam­i­ly for eigh­teen years.She helped…

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Jill RATHBORNE

2000 — One of two first female research sci­en­tists to work at the South Pole in a Uni­ver­si­ty of New South Wales led expedition.

Louisa Ann MEREDITH

Born 20/07/1812, Died 21/10/1895

Also known as: née Twamley

1880 — First women in Aus­tralia to design a postage stamp. She sketched the platy­pus on a Tas­man­ian Duty Stamp. Two years lat­er these stamps were autho­rised for postal use.…

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Ann McCOLL

Pio­neer of the Mallee Dis­trict, Victoria.

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Rebecca MILLS

Died 23/08/1927

First woman on a Board of Direc­tors (although NPWHF researchers have been unable to dis­cov­er details). In 1926, Rebec­ca was award­ed an Offi­cer of the Order of the British Empire, for…

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Bess Nungarrayi PRICE

Born October 1960

Chair of Coun­cil, Indige­nous Advi­so­ry Coun­cil to sug­gest ways to curb Indige­nous disadvantage.2012 — Nom­i­nat­ed for US Inter­na­tion­al Women of Courage award.

Jacqueline Gail HUGGINS

Born 19 August 1956

Also known as: Jackie

2000 — Received the Queens­land Pre­mier’s Mil­len­ni­um Award for Excel­lence in Indige­nous Affairs.
2001 — Appoint­ed a Mem­ber of the Order of Aus­tralia, ser­vice to the indigenous…

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Irene M. HALL

Also known as: Irene Shackcloth

Pio­neer of radio writ­ing for chil­dren. Her first work was broad­cast on ABC in 1936. Her radio ser­i­al play ​“The Faka­m­a­gangees” was on the air with 3DB Jean Lawson’s children’s session…

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…

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Catherine Matilda ROGERS

Born 1876

Also known as: née McCaw, Kate, Kate Warrington Rogers

North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Pio­neer — Urapunga/​Urandangi, Queensland.“Regarded as one of the great­est woman pio­neers of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry and is known as one of the Pet­ti­coat Drovers.…

Adelaide Laetitia MIETHKE

Born 8/06/1881, Died 4/02/1962

Also known as: Addie

1916 — She was the first woman vice-pres­i­dent of the South Aus­tralian Pub­lic School Teacher’s Union.
1924 — Became the first female inspec­tor of high schools.
1937 — Miethke was…

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Dorothy Evelyn Lettie BELLAMY

Born 1907, Died 1984

Also known as: née Oliffe, Paddy, Dorothy Evelyn Letty

1940s — First woman to dri­ve alone between Ade­laide and Alice Springs.
1947 — First woman in Alice Springs to actu­al­ly reg­is­ter a busi­ness — the first exclu­sive wom­ens’ store in…