Women's Museum of Australia presents the
HerStory Archive
This is a collection of stories which tell of the achievements of over 1,500 pioneering women in various fields. We are proud that our HerStory Archive brings Australian women and their achievements to light, and we hope that you enjoy discovering these inspiring women.
This archive contains more information about some women than others. As a small, not-for-profit museum, our limited resources often prevent us from collecting as much information as we would like. The information we do have, however, brings Australian women and their achievements to light. If you have additional information on any woman who features in our Herstory Archive, please contribute it here.
HerStory Home
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June Mary BRONHILL
Born 26 June 1929, Died 24 January 2005
Also known as: née Gough
Australian National Opera and Sadler’s Wells Opera Company Singer. Winner of Sydney Eisteddfod and Sun Aria Prize. 1949 came third in Sydney Eisteddfod behind Joan Sutherland.…
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Senja Raymond ROBEY
Born 25/01/1927, Died 14/4/2020
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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Louisa Maria FAWKNER
Born 6 September 1876, Died 22 June 1915
Also known as: née MacNamara, née Faulkner
1901 — Founder of Villa Maria, an organisation that provides quality services and life enhancing opportunities for older and disabled people.
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Deborah HICKS
Also known as: née Hicks, Debbie, Deborah Jeppesen
At age 16 Deborah Hicks was the youngest female pilot in Australia to fly solo.
Flight Lieutenant Williams and Flying Cadet Hicks were the first female pilots to graduate from the… -
Dorothy BUCKLAND-FULLER
Born 21 January 1922, Died 5 July 2019
Also known as: née Dorothea Dimitropoulos, Dorothy Buckland, Dorothy Buckland Fuller
1974 — First woman to establish an Australian Migrant Women’s Association.
1977 – Awarded Member of the British Empire (MBE), for services to the community.
1977 — Queen… -
Pat FLEMING
Born 2/03/1915, Died 9/07/1995
Also known as: née Wallace, Nungala, Daisy Alma was her birth name
Life Member of National Trust of Australia.
Pat came to the Northern Territory with her husband Baptist minister and missionary, Tom Fleming in 1950. Their son Adrian was two… -
Kate GRENVILLE
Born 14/10/1950
Also known as: Katherine Gee
Kate Grenville is an Australian author. She has published widely , including fiction, non-fiction, biography, and books about the writing process.
Her books have been awarded many… -
Caroline Wilhelmina LEHMANN
Born 15/3/1873, Died 8/5/1955
Also known as: Minnie, Caroline Dux
Pioneer of Parnaroo and Clare districts of South Australia.Charity worker.
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Helen Maxine Lamond REDDY
Born 25/10/1941, Died 29/09/2020
First Australian to win a Grammy Award and have three hit in the same year. First female performer invited to sing in the People’s Republic of China
Singer and Lyricist… -
Gina SMITH
First deputy chairwoman of the Central Land Council.
She and Rayleen BROWN founded Kungas Can Cook, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, an indigenous catering company.Ms SMITH… -
Rayleen BROWN
Also known as: née Howard
2000 — Creator, manager, and operator of Kunga’s Can Cook, Alice Springs, Northern Territory.2011 — Northern Territory Research and Innovation Award co-recipient of Desert…
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Eileen JAMES
Born 1894, Died 1988
Also known as: née Edes, stage name was Ivy DARRELL
1910 — The youngest musician in the first concert party of The Association for the Advancement of the Blind, travelling with them for 18 years. Played in concert halls in 1913 – 1920s…
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Maryanne MORTON
2003 — First Aboriginal woman to head up an Australian company earning more than $50m a year. Awarded Northern Territory Star of Achievement from Chief Minister Clare Martin.…
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Isobel WILLIAMS
Also known as: Dr Isobel Wiilliams, Constance Isabel Arundel
In 1967, Dr Isoblel Williams became the first woman President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP).
Few records remain of Dr… -
Marlene KONG
1997 – 1998 — Marlene and her twin sister Marilyn were the first Indigenous women to graduate with a Bachelor of Medicine from the University of Sydney.
1993 — Inaugural winner of the… -
Lilian Violet COOPER
Born 11 August 1861, Died 18 August 1947
Also known as: Dr Lilian Cooper
English born and London-trained, she emigrated in 1891 and set up practice in Brisbane, becoming Queensland’s first woman doctor. She used a horse and sulky by day and a bicycle…
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Lillian INKAMALA
Born 1966
Artist
Former health worker at Imanpa Health Clinic
Worked for two years as an Anangu education worker at the Imanpa Primary School -
Catherine Elizabeth GREEN
Born 1 August 1881, Died 25 January 1965
Also known as: née Digges
First female in Upper House (Labor Party), New South Wales.
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Lorraine MORGAN
1991 — First woman to join Lions Club in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory.
First woman to join Lions Club of MacDonnell at Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
1999 — First woman to be… -
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Winifred Alison WELLS
1950 – 51: First woman to ride a motor bike (Royal Enfield Bullet 350) across Australia (Perth to Sydney and back).
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Colleen O'REILLY
Born 1949
Also known as: née O’Reilly, Stewart
The Melbourne Synod of Australia’s Anglican Church first called for women priests in 1974. The foundation of the Movement for the Ordination of Women by Dr Patricia Brennan and…
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Zara DARE
Born 28 May 1886, Died 1 October 1965
Also known as: née Dare, Zara Wilson
1931 — First of two women police officers in Queensland.
She spent 1917 – 1921, ca 1925 – 1930 as an officer with the Salvation Army serving in China. In 1930, she began working… -
Andrea Jane MASON
Born 1968
2004 ‑First ever female Aboriginal Party Leader when she was made National President of Family First.
1988 — Bachelor of Arts degree in Aboriginal Affairs and Public… -
Kathryn Isobel HAY
Born 24 November 1975
2002 — First Indigenous woman elected to State and Territory Parliaments.
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Elizabeth Jean ANDREW
Born 1948, Died 12 April 1993
Also known as: Elizabeth Andrew-Oates
Northern Territory’s first woman to hold an executive and Cabinet position. At first, she was the Executive Member for Education and Consumer Services, then for Education and Law…
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Lalla TRUGERNANNER
Born 1812, Died 8 May 1876
Also known as: Truganini, Trucanini, Trucaninny, Lalla Rooke
One of the foremost Tasmanian Aboriginal leaders of the 1800s, negotiator and spokesperson for her people.
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Emma Mary WITHNELL
Born 19/12/1842, Died 16/05/1928
Also known as: née Hancock
One of the first women in Western Australia to be made a Justice of the Peace.
Settled near Mt Welcome in 1864. Her son, James, found the gold bearing stone which started the… -
Lillian Rose SAVAGE
Died 17/10/2012
1965 — Arrived with husband Bob and six children at Suplejack Downs (in Tanami Desert) in virgin country and made a working station (15,000 sq. miles).
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Mary Constance BEASLEY
Born 1937
Elected Acting Chairman of South Australia’s Public Service Board in 1983, this was the first time a woman had held such office in Australia. She was also South Australia’s…
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Beryl Ivy BEALE
Born 1898, Died 18/03/1979
Also known as: née Laidlaw, Cloudy
Beryl Ivy Beale was known as ‘Cloudy’ because she was a heavy smoker.
‘.…..an artistic, sensitive, music-loving woman with the down-to-earth determination, fortitude and hard… -
Eileen STOTT
Born 1912, Died 26/06/1999
Also known as: née O'Shea
Born in Pine Creek, Northern Territory. Pioneer of Northern Territory.1940 — Married Gordon STOTT (son of Robert STOTT, Northern Territory’s first Commissioner of Police).
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Virginia WYKES
Born 1949
1982 — Believed to be the first Aboriginal woman to gain her Private Pilot’s Licence (Cessna 150).
2001 — Only Aboriginal entrant to compete in Centenary of Federation London to… -
Minnie BERRINGTON
Born 9 October 1897, Died 13 April 2001
1925 — First woman opal miner in Coober Pedy, South Australia.
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Clara SOUTHERN
Born 3 October 1860, Died 15 December 1940
Also known as: Panther
First woman member and committee member of the Australian Art Association.
Her work is held by the National Gallery of Victoria and the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery. -
Eugenta Mabel Humphris JONES
Also known as: née McPHERSON, Mabel, formerly LAMPE
MRS JONES’ STORYOriginally arriving in Stuart in 1911 as Mrs Jeffrey Lampe, Mabel and her husband took over the license of the Stuart Arms which within a few months she was running…
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Vivian BULLWINKEL
Born 18 December 1915, Died 3 July 2000
First female Trustee of Australian War Memorial.
1947 — She received the Florence Nightingale Medal.
1973 — Ms Bullwinkel received the Member of the Order of the British Empire… -
Audrey June ATTWOOD
Born 23 June 1927, Died 25 December 2008
1978 — Awarded Member of the British Empire for contribution to education.
1997 — First President at Flynn Lodge Old Timers Village, Alice Springs, Northern Territory.… -
Una Sybella TEAGUE
Born December 1878, Died 1969
During the prolonged drought in Central Australia in the 1920s many Aboriginal people died of beri-beri and scurvy. Pastor Albrecht wanted to pipe good water from Kaporilya Springs 7…
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Mayse YOUNG
Born 1913, Died 2006
Also known as: née Dowling
1963 — First woman to be elected as president of a Race Club (Pine Creek).
1994 — Medal of the Order of Australia.
2003 — A recipient of the Tribute to Northern Territory.… -
Ellen Dorothy LITTLEJOHN
Also known as: née Small
1926 — One of two nursing sisters of the Australian Inland Mission appointed to Adelaide House Hospital, Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
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Mary CLARK
Died 1960
Written on the back of the drawing: Longstanding member, died 1960. Carrier and wood merchant.
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Anna DOIG
Born 4/05/1830, Died 11/09/1894
Also known as: née Moir
Pioneer of Beltana District, South Australia. Born in Scotland.
Founded non-denominational Sunday School (under Wesleyan Church).
Unofficial Doctor — laid out the dead.
Midwife,… -
Enid Muriel LYONS
Born 9/7/1897, Died 2/9/1981
Also known as: née Burnell
First woman to win a seat in Federal Parliament. In 1943 Enid was elected to the House of Representatives for the United Australia Party and became the first woman in Cabinet. She…
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Evelyn Mary PERKINS
Born 1889, Died 06/1968
Also known as: née Bray
The inaugural meeting of the Alice Springs Branch of the CWA was held at the Residency in 1933. This branch was formed by Mrs J A Perkins, immediate past president of the Metropolitan…
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Eliza FORLONGE
Born 21 October 1784, Died 5 August 1859
Also known as: née Jack, Betty Jack, Eliza Forlong
Pioneered Saxon Merino Wool into Australia — firstly into Tasmania and finally into Victoria.
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Georgina KING
Born 6 June 1845, Died 7 June 1932
Australia’s first female geologist. Georgina came from a family who held the natural sciences in high regard. As she was growing up, she did not lack for mentors among the…
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Nancy-Bird WALTON, OBE, AO
Born 16/10/1915, Died 13/1/2009
Also known as: Nancy Bird, Nancy Bird Walton, Nancy Bird-Walton
Nancy-Bird was a pioneering Aviatrix who in 1932, at the age of 17, was the youngest female Australian to gain a pilot’s license. Two years later she became the first female…
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Edith May LAVER
Also known as: née Parker
Edith May Parker married Jack Laver after World War I. They later took up the Stuart Arms Hotel licence, and with their son Robert (Bob), travelled on the train from South Australia…