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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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…
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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… -
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.
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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.
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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 -… -
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.
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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… -
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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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.
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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…
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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. -
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. -
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…
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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.
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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… -
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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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…
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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.
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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… -
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… -
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…
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Marita MUNRO
Born 1955
Marita Munro was the Baptist Church’s first woman minister when ordained in Victoria in 1978.
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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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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.
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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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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… -
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… -
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…