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Shirley BOOTH

One of the first women police in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry. All com­menced their recruit train­ing (with a num­ber of men) in Feb­ru­ary 1961, and the course ​“passed out” on 10…

Mona Margaret McBURNEY

Born 29/7/1862, Died 4/12/1932

Aus­trali­a’s first music grad­u­ate, was the first woman to have her opera, The Dal­ma­t­ian, com­posed 1905, per­formed in pub­lic at the Play­house, Mel­boure, 25 – 26 June 1926.
1896 -…

Nancy Lorna LEEBOLD

Born 2/11/1915, Died 13/7/1982

Also known as: née Ellis

Octo­ber 1952 — First Aus­tralian woman to fly a Lock­heed Lodestar aircraft.

1959 — She flew a jet air­craft in the USA, the first Aus­tralian woman to do so.
Award­ed Offi­cer of the…

Lynne ALLEN-BROWN

Also known as: Lynne Spencer

In 1993, Lynne Allen-Brown became the first female Chief Super­in­ten­dent of St Johns Ambu­lance. In 1999, she was the first female Chief Com­mis­sion­er of St Johns Ambu­lance. Earlier,…

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Margaret BARNES

Also known as: Madge

1906 — One of first women to grad­u­ate in den­tistry from Uni­ver­si­ty of Sydney.
1910 – 1913 — Per­haps ran Aus­trali­a’s first joint female den­tal prac­tice (with Annie Praed) in…

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Margaret Irene BULLOCK

Born 24 March 1933

Also known as: née Roberts, Dr Margaret Bullock

1955 — One of the first two stu­dents to grad­u­ate from Uni­ver­si­ty of Queens­land with a B.App.Sc in phys­io­ther­a­py and occu­pa­tion­al therapy.
1973 — Received Doc­tor of Phi­los­o­phy (Ph.D.),…

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…

Hannah COLLIS

Born 4 February 1828, Died 7 November 1899

Also known as: née Wells

Pio­neer teacher (in a tent) on the Furneaux Island Group in Bass Strait, Australia.

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Maria Antonia CICCONE

Born 1891, Died 1979

Also known as: née Cotela, Antonia

Maria Anto­nia Cic­cone arrived from Ser­ra­ta, South­ern Italy in 1933 and came straight to Alice Springs to join her hus­band Pat­sy. He had been here sev­en years already, try­ing to get…

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Tryphena Lucelle Willesee BENSTEAD

Born 3/08/1860

Also known as: née Rains, Trephina, Triphena, Tryphina, Tryphinia

Tryphena Lucelle Rains mar­ried William (Bill) Ben­stead in 1881. After man­ag­ing Undoolya Sta­tion for five years, Bill became man­ag­er of Bar­row Creek Pas­toral Com­pa­ny, set­ting up home…

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Rae COLSON

Cook, pen­sion­er.
1957 — Began work­ing as a cook at the Aileron pub, North­ern Territory.

Linda Joyce SHUTTLE

Also known as: Sister Linda Mary, Reverend Sister Linda Mary

2009 — First Moth­er Supe­ri­or of the Angli­can Com­mu­ni­ty of Sis­ters of the Church (CSC) (in the order’s 140-year his­to­ry) to live in Aus­tralia, instead of England.

Brit ANDRESEN

In 2002, Brit was the first woman to be award­ed the pres­ti­gious Roy­al Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Archi­tects (RAIA) Gold Medal, hon­our­ing her con­tri­bu­tion to the archi­tec­ture field and…

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Karen BROWN

2001 — Became first female to head the Finance Sec­tor Union, and the youngest state secretary.

Elizabeth Anne Valentine STERNE

Born 14 /02/1880, Died 17/04/1973

Also known as: née Hanrahan, Chute, E.A.V. "Ev"

Was one of the first women in Queens­land to become a jus­tice of the peace.
1924 – 1944 — She was the Queens­land Coun­try Wom­en’s Asso­ci­a­tion first State treasurer.

1941 -…

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Eliza JENKINS

Also known as: née Sharp

… Eliza and Thomas Jenk­ins, worked on Lake Nash Sta­tion in the ear­ly 1890s.Mother of Esther Jenk­ins BOHNING.

Lillian Myrtle BLOOMFIELD

Born 1916, Died 2005

Also known as: née Kunoth, Lil, Lillian

Daugh­ter of Cen­tral Aus­tralia pio­neers Har­ry and Car­o­line Kunoth of Oodnadatta.
Pio­neer of Cen­tral Australia.
Pas­toral­ist Loves Creek Station.

Writ­ten on the back of the…

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Joyce RICHARDSON

1961 — First Police­woman (from South Aus­tralia) to be sec­ond­ed to the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Police to estab­lish Women Police Sec­tion of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Police.

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Ali RODDA

2001 — First woman mid­night to dawn radio pre­sen­ter (5AA) in Adelaide.

Mas­ters in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion Degree in Pub­lic Rela­tions. Nurse.

Myrtle Lillias Hope BINET

Born 31 May 1906, Died 11 November 1985

Also known as: née Bell

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Fam­i­ly woman and hap­py work­er — hus­band in gov­ern­ment service.

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Sue GIBSON

2009 — North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Para­medic of the Year.

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May RAGETT

Born 28/12/1955

Wife of a stock­man on Mal­la­pun­yah Springs Sta­tion, bring­ing up her fam­i­ly, send­ing them to the sta­tion school then to Char­ters Tow­ers for fur­ther education.

Sarah Frances DURACK

Born 27 October 1889, Died 20 March 1956

Also known as: Fanny, Fanny Gately

With Wil­helmi­na (Mina) Wylie, they were Aus­trali­a’s first female Olympians, com­pet­ing in the first ladies’ event — swim­ming — in 1912. The two girls were only permitted…

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Faye BARTLETT

One of the first women police in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry. All com­menced their recruit train­ing (with a num­ber of men) in Feb­ru­ary 1961, and the course ​“passed out” on 10…

Emily Caroline CREAGHE

Born 1 November 1860, Died 11 November 1944

Also known as: née Robinson, Emily Caroline Barnett

Con­sid­ered Aus­trali­a’s first white woman explorer.

1882 – 1883 — Only woman mem­ber of Ernest Favenc’s explor­ing par­ty across north­ern Australia.

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Ellen Harriet LINES

Born 1915, Died 8/9/2008

Also known as: Nell, née Colson

Cen­tral Aus­tralian Pio­neer. Matri­arch of COL­SON and LINES families.

​“A more com­pre­hen­sive nar­ra­tion of Nel­l’s life and that of her broth­ers, and par­tic­u­lar­ly of her…

Linda Marion BERLOWITZ

Born 1903, Died July 1998

Also known as: née Cave, Lyn

1960 – 63 — First woman to suc­cess­ful­ly stand for elec­tion to the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil — won seat of Fan­ny Bay.

Busi­ness­woman in Darwin.

Clare Majaella MARTIN

Born 15 June 1952

In 2001, Clare Mar­tin became the first female chief min­is­ter of the North­ern Territory. 

Clare Mar­tin was the leader of the first labor Gov­ern­ment in the North­ern Territory.

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Annie Mackenzie GOLDING

Born 10/03/1857, Died 28/12/1934

Lob­bied for equal pay, female edu­ca­tion, removal of sex bar­ri­er in employ­ment (e.g., appoint­ment of women as JPs and police offi­cers). In 1909, wrote a paper enti­tled ​“The…

Lillian Daphne DE LISSA

Born 25 October 1885, Died 16 October 1967

Also known as: née de Lissa, Lillian Daphne Turner-Thompson

1906 — Founder of South Aus­trali­a’s first kinder­garten in Franklin Street.

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Helene Katharine Frieda BURNS

Also known as: née Albrecht

Daugh­ter of Her­manns­burg Mis­sion pio­neers Pas­tor Friedrich Wil­helm Albrecht and Min­na Marie Mar­garetha née Gevers.

Sigrid THORNTON

Born 12/02/1959

2002 — Cen­te­nary Medal for act­ing and ser­vice to the media.

2002 — Board mem­ber for Film Victoria.

2007 — Mem­ber of Malt­house The­ater board.
2000 — Sil­ver Logie, most…

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Millicent Fanny PRESTON-STANLEY

Born 1883, Died 1955

Also known as: née Stanley

1925 — First woman to enter New South Wales government.

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Rosetta ROBERTS

Ear­ly 1900s pio­neer of the Coon­alpyn Dis­trict, South Australia.

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Emma SCHULTZ

Born 1875, Died 1951

Flew with Flo­rence Tay­lor, the first woman in Aus­tralia to fly a heav­ier-than-air machine, who took off from the Narrabeen sand­hills near Syd­ney in a glid­er on 5 Decem­ber 1909. They…

Mary Elizabeth BROWN

Born 1862, Died 1/05/1952

Also known as: Elizabeth

1885 — One of two female Arts grad­u­ates, with Iso­la Thomp­son, Syd­ney University.

Jane Sophia WEBB

Died 1933

Also known as: née White

New­ly mar­ried Jane Webb trav­elled by train to Ood­na­dat­ta and then by horse and dray with her hus­band Ben­jamin and broth­er-in-law Joe, to a new life at remote Arltunga.
Her wed­ding ring…

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Frances Emma BENNETT

Born 1871, Died 1965

Also known as: née Lord

One of first land­hold­ers in West­ern New South Wales.

Pio­neer of West­ern New South Wales.1930s — Moved from New South Wales to Ade­laide, South Aus­tralia. Bought Cob­ham, an 88…

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Gwendoline Alice BURROWS

Born 16 August 1913, Died 26 December 2006

Also known as: Gwen

Moth­er of Sir Robert Stig­wood, entre­pre­neur. First Entrant in Arthri­tis Foundation’s Grand­moth­er of the Year Quest. South Aus­tralia sup­port­er of Vari­ety Club and Zonta.

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Helen Elizabeth ARCHDALE

Born 21 August 1907, Died 11 January 2000

Also known as: Betty Archdale

Head­mistress of Abbot­sleigh Girls School, Syd­ney. Offi­cer in W.R.E.N.s dur­ing World War II. Became Prin­ci­pal of Wom­en’s Col­lege at Syd­ney Uni­ver­si­ty. After her tenure at the…

Marita MUNRO

Born 1955

Mari­ta Munro was the Bap­tist Church’s first woman min­is­ter when ordained in Vic­to­ria in 1978.

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…

Kathryn Isobel HAY

Born 24 November 1975

2002 — First Indige­nous woman elect­ed to State and Ter­ri­to­ry Parliaments.

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Roslyn Marjory LAMBERT

Born 2/4/1943

Believed to be the first woman in the bank­ing indus­try to be grant­ed male pay rate.

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’.

Grace Elizabeth BREBNER

Born 1914, Died 1984

1950 — First woman detec­tive in the Vic­to­ri­an Police Force.
1951 — The first female detec­tive in Australia.
1956 — The first police woman to pass her police dri­ving test.
1967 — First…

Dorothy CARROLL

Born 1 February 1897, Died 18 June 1966

1957 – 1966 — First woman to be appoint­ed to the boards of the Roy­al Ade­laide and Queen Eliz­a­beth hospitals.
1955 — Appoint­ed to the Order of the British Empire — Offi­cer (Civ­il).…

Valerie May TAYLOR

Born 9/11/1935

Also known as: née Heighes

1960s — Became first female pro­duc­er and film­mak­er of under­wa­ter doc­u­men­taries in Australia.
1992 — They are cred­it­ed as the ​“first peo­ple to film great white sharks with­out the…

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Enid Mona CAMPBELL

Born 30 October 1932, Died 20 January 2010

Also known as: Neil Campbell and Mona

1959 — First female lec­tur­er in the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tas­ma­nia Law School, teach­ing polit­i­cal science.
1967 — The first woman to hold a Chair in Law at any uni­ver­si­ty in Aus­trala­sia, when…

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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…