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…

Daphne CALDER

Born 5 January 1924, Died 15 October 2013

Also known as: née Campbell, Daphne Calder

Pic­tured here at Emi­ly Gap out­side Alice Springs, she starred oppo­site Aus­tralian act­ing leg­end chips Raf­fer­ty in The Over­lan­ders, a clas­sic movie being the first to show…

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.

Emma Linda Palmer LITTLEJOHN

Born 11/12/1883, Died 21/3/1949

Also known as: née Teece, Linda Littlejohn, Emma Teece, Emma Tilden

Broad­cast­er and Pub­lic Speak­er 1929 — Found­ing mem­ber of ​‘Open Door Inter­na­tion­al’ to pro­mote women work­er’s rights.President of Equal Oppor­tu­ni­ty Rights International…

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June Elizabeth 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…

Janet Catherine FINLAYSON

Also known as: Jean

In 1915, John Fly­nn asked Sis­ter Jean Fin­layson to do a one-year tri­al as nurs­ing sis­ter in Stu­art (now known as Alice Springs). 1915 – 1916 — First offi­cial Nurs­ing Sis­ter in Stuart.…

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Elsie Magdalene HARRIS

Also known as: née Bohning, Magdaline, The Little Bush Maid

Esther Bohn­ing and her daugh­ters, Elsie and Edith, from Helen Springs Sta­tion north of Ten­nent Creek, were known as ​“The Pet­ti­coat Drovers.” Esther and Elsie made history…

Myrtle Edna NOSKE

Born 22/11/1926, Died 25/02/2020

Also known as: née Johannsen

Artist and author.

As an artist, was award­ed the following:

1974 — Cal­tex Art Award
1977 — Cal­tex Reli­gious Theme & Gen­er­al Motors Hold­en Best Land­scape Award
1978 — Caltex…

Doris Irene TAYLOR

Born 25/07/1901, Died 23/05/1968

1953 — Founder of first Meals on Wheels organ­i­sa­tion in Aus­tralia (South Australia).

1959 — Appoint­ed Mem­ber of the Order of the British Empire.
The South Aus­tralian Electoral…

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Shirley ANDERSON

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

Dianne SULLIVAN

2003 — First North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry school teacher to rep­re­sent Aus­tralia at N.A.S.A. (USA) at their space camp.

Grew up in Alice Springs where she taught at Our Lady of the…

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Sherie BALE

First female accred­it­ed tow­er crane oper­a­tor in Sydney.

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Stephanie Louise GILMORE

Born 29 January 1988

Also known as: Steph

Pro­fes­sion­al surfer. Sev­en-time world cham­pi­on on the Wom­en’s World Surf­ing Cham­pi­on (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018).

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Candice Elizabeth REED

Born 22/06/1980

22 June 1980 — Aus­trali­a’s first test tube baby — Roy­al Wom­en’s Hos­pi­tal, Mel­bourne, Victoria.

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Marjorie POTT

Born 1921, Died 27/01/2007

Also known as: née Thomson, Marj

Pio­neer of Darwin.

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Kim ISAACS

First Yawu­ru and Kalapir­ri per­son to become a doctor.

Kim Isaacs is a Yawu­ru, Kalapir­ri and Noon­gar woman.
Bach­e­lor of Med­i­cine and Bach­e­lor of Surgery, Uni­ver­si­ty of Western…

Ena HAMILTON

Died 14 March 1993

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Devot­ed mem­ber (dog lover).

Rhoda WATKINS

Born March 1894, Died 1975

Mis­sion­ary nurse.

1922 — She was a Church of Eng­land mis­sion­ary nurse in the Church Mis­sion­ary Soci­eties ​“Way of Life” Hos­pi­tal, Kweilin, China.1924 — Sis­ter Watkins…

Margret ROADKNIGHT

Born 07/1943

First singer added to the Montsal­vat Jazz Fes­ti­val Hon­our Roll. 1998 — ​‘Artist Of The Year’ at the Port Fairy Folk Festival.
Life­time Achieve­ment Award win­ner at the…

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Leah HANDLEY

First Light­ing Tech­ni­cian to train in the North­ern Territory.

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Wirginia June MAIXNER

Born 28/6/1963

2007 — Per­formed the first audi­to­ry brain­stem implant on a child in Australasia.
2009 — Sep­a­ra­tion of con­joined twins.

1986 — Grad­u­at­ed Uni­ver­si­ty of Syd­ney’s School of…

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…

Ruth HEGARTY

Born 1929

1929 — First Abo­rig­i­nal baby born at Mitchell Hos­pi­tal, Mitchell, Queensland.
Now an author, her first book, Is That You, Ruthie? (1999), was an auto­bi­og­ra­phy. Her sec­ond book is…

Esther BOHNING

Born 14 July 1879, Died 2 January 1952

Also known as: née Jenkins

First lady on Ten­nant Creek goldfields.
She, with her daugh­ter Elsie, became known as ​“The Pet­ti­coat Drovers” and took the first mob of cat­tle between Alice Springs and…

Monica Augustine HAINES

Born 1897, Died 1996

Also known as: née Minahan, Mona, Mona Minahan

1932 — First bar­maid in Cen­tral Australia.
1959 – 60 — First woman to own a Hotel in Alice Springs, ​‘The River­side’ (now Todd Tavern).
Opened first dress shop in Alice Springs,…

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Luna SOUTH

Also known as: née Everall

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…

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Robyn Denise COLE

Also known as: née Bland, Denise

At Yuen­du­mu, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry, set up one of the ear­ly pre-schools for Abo­rig­i­nal chil­dren in Cen­tral Australia.

Grad­u­at­ed from Teach­ers Col­lege in 1966; came to the…

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Edna Almurta BRADSHAW

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Faith BANDLER

Born 27 September 1920, Died 13 February 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…

Kaye Bronwyn KESSING

Born 27 November 1950

Also known as: née Neal

Kaye Kess­ing is an artist, per­former, envi­ron­men­tal­ist and author.

Major murals and paint­ings include Alice Springs Hos­pi­tal Chil­dren’s Ward, Coles Super­mar­ket Alice…

Margaret Helen MITTELHEUSER

Born 25/07/1931, Died 27/12/2013

1964 — First woman stock­bro­ker in Aus­tralia and almost cer­tain­ly the world.

1952 — Received Bach­e­lor of Com­merce degree, Uni­ver­si­ty of Queensland.1952 — She joined the firm…

Jessica WATSON

Born 1993

At 16 years of age, Jes­si­ca was unof­fi­cial­ly the youngest per­son to sail non-stop, unas­sist­ed around the world, com­plet­ing her trip in May 2010.

In 2010, Jes­si­ca was awarded…

Emma MILLER

Born 26 June 1839, Died 22/01/1917

Also known as: née Holmes, Grand Old Woman of Queensland Labour, Mother of the Australian Labor Party, Mother Miller

1890 — Found­ed a women’s union, advo­cat­ing equal pay and votes for women.
The first woman and life mem­ber of the Bris­bane Work­ers’ Polit­i­cal Organisation.
1894 – 1905 — Foundation…

Mary READY

Born 1834, Died 06 April 1902

Also known as: née Hayes

First white woman in Mack­ay area of Queensland.

Pio­neer of the Mack­ay area, Queens­land. Wife of bul­locky James READY.

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Wendy SNOOK

1991 — First female chap­lain in the Defence Forces.

Dorothy Helena HERBERT

Born 24 September 1922, Died 27 August 2014

Dorothy Her­bert start­ed with the Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor Ser­vice in 1961, locat­ed at Charleville, Queens­land. She worked 20 years for them, flew all over the out­back, and attend­ed outback…

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Lucy OSBURN

Born 1 April 1836, Died 22 December 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…

Ita Clare BUTTROSE

Born 17/1/1942

Acknowl­edged for her bril­liant and ground­break­ing media career, Ita But­trose has also ded­i­cat­ed her con­sid­er­able ener­gy and skills to cham­pi­oning med­ical edu­ca­tion and health care. Ita…

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…

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Sarah BROMLEY

1930s — Domes­tic, Alice Springs, North­ern Territory.
Pos­si­bly orig­i­nal­ly from Ood­na­dat­ta, South Australia.

Amy CAIL

Born 29 March 1833, Died 15 July 1914

Also known as: née Williams

Pio­neer of Bendi­go area of Victoria.

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Tracey MOFFATT

Born 12/11/1960

1990s — First suc­cess­ful Indige­nous Aus­tralian woman pho­tog­ra­ph­er and film mak­er. Mof­fatt is a con­tem­po­rary artist using a vari­ety of tech­niques, such as col­lage, set design, and…

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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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Lucy SHAW

Born 1898

Jane FRANKLIN

Born 4 December 1791, Died 18 July 1875

Also known as: née Griffin, Lady Franklin

Wife of Sir John FRANKLIN, Gov­er­nor of Tas­ma­nia between 1837 – 1843. She was a con­tro­ver­sial reformer for the wel­fare of con­victs and pub­lic education

Lexia BRYANT

Born 24/11/1940, Died 20/5/2015

Lex­ia Bryant was the first woman Pres­i­dent of the Aus­tralian Col­lege of Rur­al and Remote Med­i­cine (1999). She was also the Chair of the Women in Rur­al Prac­tice group which developed…

Lilian Daphne MAYO

Born 1 October 1895, Died 31 July 1982

Also known as: Daphne

1919 — First woman to be award­ed the Rome Schol­ar­ship by the Roy­al Acad­e­my in London.
1927 – 30 — Carved the Bris­bane City Hall tympanum.
1929 – 32 — Carved the Queens­land Wom­en’s War…

Erika FELLER

Born 1949

2006 — Appoint­ed Assis­tant High Com­mis­sion­er for Pro­tec­tion at Unit­ed Nations High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees (UNHCR); posi­tion held until her retire­ment in 2013.

Held senior…

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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…