Elizabeth COSSON

Born 1958

Eliz­a­beth Cos­son was the first woman to be pro­mot­ed to the rank of Major Gen­er­al, mak­ing her the first Aus­tralian woman to reach ​“two-star” rank in the Aus­tralian Army. Pri­or to that…

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Wendy SNOOK

1991 — First female chap­lain in the Defence Forces.

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Jacqueline NINIO

Also known as: Jackie

Jacque­line Ninio, in Syd­ney, was the third female Pro­gres­sive Rab­bi, ordained in 1998.

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Anna Christina BOOTH

Born 25 November 1955

1987 – 1992 — First Aus­tralian woman Fed­er­al Sec­re­tary of a union (Nation­al Sec­re­tary of the Tex­tile Union).

1977, 1983, 1984 – 1985 — Research Offi­cer for the Cloth­ing and Allied…

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Emmeline CHRISTIE

Born 1852, Died 1919

Sal­va­tion Army soldier.

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Mary SUTHERLAND

Co-Founder of ​‘Tam­bo Teddies’.

Jean Fleming ARNOT

Born 23 April 1903, Died 27 September 1995

1965 — Award­ed Mem­ber of the Order of the British Empire (Civ­il), for com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices in Sydney.

1921 – 44 — Librar­i­an at Pub­lic Library of New South Wales.1944 – Public…

Jessie Aitken LOVE

Born 1842, Died 1933

Also known as: née Tennant

1863 — Pas­toral Pio­neer with hus­band in Port Lin­coln Dis­trict. Own­ers of ​“Mitcham Lawn” home and prop­er­ty over­look­ing Ade­laide (now a Her­itage building).

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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.

Helen CALDICOTT

Born 7/8/1938

Also known as: Dr Helen Caldicott

Helen Caldicott is the founder of the Wom­en’s Action for Nuclear Dis­ar­ma­ment (1982). In 1985, Helen was nom­i­nat­ed for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was won by the organ­i­sa­tion she…

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…

Amboora

Amboo­ra worked for the Brad­shaw fam­i­ly at the Alice Springs Tele­graph Sta­tion as a housemaid.

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Maureen Patricia KIRK

Born 13/9/1955, Died 23/4/2001

Also known as: née Brown

In 1987, Mau­reen became the first Indige­nous vol­un­teer can­cer sup­port work­er in Aus­tralia. She was diag­nosed with breast can­cer in 1987 and, at the time, there were no cancer…

Dorothy MORRELL

Also known as: Dot

1888 — Won the world’s first wom­en’s bicy­cle race, Auburn, New South Wales.

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Amelia WILKINSON

First woman appoint­ed Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of Alice Springs Mas­ters Games (March-Sep­tem­ber 2001).

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Edith Miriel WITT

Born 11/10/1905, Died 19/11/2005

Also known as: Miriel

1943 — First woman phar­ma­cist to become a ​“Phar­ma­cy Aca­d­e­m­ic” in Victoria.

1926 — Grad­u­at­ed Vic­to­ri­an Col­lege of Pharmacy.1927 — Reg­is­tered as a qualified…

Ellen Sarah KETTLE

Born 21/4/1922, Died 2/8/1999

Also known as: Sister Kettle, "hook and eye sister"

Nurse of remote Aus­tralia, Papua New Guinea, Queens­land and Timor.

Foun­da­tion mem­ber of north­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Chap­ter of the Col­lege of Nurs­ing of Australia.1967 — Author of Gone…

Marian Ellis ROWAN

Born 30/07/1848, Died 4/10/1922

Also known as: RYAN, Ellis

Botan­i­cal artist. Painter of wild flow­ers. Explor­er and nature lover.

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Marie Louise UHR

Born 4 July 1935, Died 28 July 2001

Marie Louise Uhr and Zoe Han­cock found­ed the lob­by group Ordi­na­tion of Catholic Women to fight for women to enter the tra­di­tion­al­ly male-led stronghold.

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Daisy Florence RUDDICK

Born 15/08/1915, Died 23/04/2002

Also known as: née Kumachi Cusack

Pio­neer of Dar­win, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry. One of Stolen Gen­er­a­tion. Nan­ny to Austin ASCHE. Nurse who worked with Fly­ing Doc­tor, Clive Fen­ton, at Kather­ine, North­ern Territory.

Gabrielle Beryl HOLLOWS

Born 21/05/1953

Also known as: Gabi, née O'Sullivan

With her first hus­band (deceased) Dr Fred Hol­lows, they treat­ed Abo­rig­i­nal Aus­tralians with a range of eye con­di­tions. Over a peri­od of three years, they vis­it­ed over 465 remote…

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Marjorie Faith BARNARD

Born 16 August 1897, Died 8/05/1987

Also known as: Marjory

1928 the Bul­letin Prize 

1981 Offi­cer of the Order of Aus­tralia AO

1983 Patrick White Award

1984 NSW Pre­mier’s Spe­cial Award

1986 Hon­orary Doc­tor of Let­ters from the…

Frances MACK

Born 1922

Also known as: née Rowe

Pio­neer of Vic­to­ria and New South Wales dur­ing The Depres­sion and war years.

Robyn WILLIAMS

Also known as: née Williams, Robyn Clay-Williams

Flight Lieu­tenant Williams and Fly­ing Cadet Hicks were the first female pilots to grad­u­ate from the Roy­al Aus­tralian Air Force (RAAF) on 30 June 1988. Only 18 grad­u­at­ed out of 34…

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Beth PRESS

From Yuan­du­ma — Chair of Coun­cil Indige­nous Advi­so­ry Coun­cil — to sug­gest ways to win Indige­nous disadvantage.

Beatrice Mary BRUMBY

Born 8 January 1915, Died 31 March 2012

Also known as: née Lennon

Pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia and north South Australia.

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Natalie Rona MILLER

Natal­ie Miller became Aus­trali­a’s first female inde­pen­dent film dis­trib­u­tor and the Vic­to­ri­an Film Cor­po­ra­tion’s first woman board member.
2001 — Award­ed Medal of the Order…

Katie Louisa ARDILL

Born 3 August 1886, Died 3 January 1955

Katie Ardill Brice was an Aus­tralian doc­tor. She was the first woman to be appoint­ed as a divi­sion­al sur­geon in New South Wales, and a year lat­er was among the first female doctors…

Ann Jane HAYES

Born 25 June 1893

Also known as: née Doolan, Jane

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Lived on Undoolya sta­tion for many years of her mar­ried life. Upon retire­ment of her hus­band, the prop­er­ty of Undoolya went to Mr and Mrs Ted…

Lydia LONGMORE

Born 15/7/1874, Died 30/10/1967

1917 — First female Inspec­tor of Schools (Low­er Grades).
1957 — Offi­cer of the Order of the British Empire (Civ­il), ​“Moth­er’s Clubs in South Australia.”

1918 — Founded…

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Norma Jean FINDLEY

Born 19 September 1921, Died 2 January 2001

1950s — First woman in the Tech­ni­cal’s Schools Divi­sion to win a Ful­bright Scholarship.

1978 — Hon­oured with a Life Gov­er­nor­ship of Mel­bourne’s Alfred Hospital.Home…

Heather McDonald SUTHERLAND

Born 25 May 1903, Died 1953

Also known as: née Moir

1940s — Prob­a­bly Aus­tralian Cap­i­tal Ter­ri­to­ry’s first female architect.

Half-sis­ter of the opera singer Dame Joan Sutherland.

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Lily Isabel Maude ADDISON

Born 1887, Died 1968

1906 — First woman to do tech­ni­cal work in archi­tec­tur­al office in Queens­land. Lily assist­ed in her father’s office from about 1906. In 1914 she passed Build­ing Con­struc­tion and…

Flora Sydney Patricia ELDERSHAW

Born 16 March 1897, Died 20 September 1956

Also known as: M. Barnard Eldershaw

1935 & 1943 — Pres­i­dent of Syd­ney Branch of Fel­low­ship of Aus­tralian Writers.

Wrote with lit­er­ary part­ner Mar­jorie Barnard under the pen name ​‘M Barnard…

Mabel ADAMSON

Born 3 October 1905, Died 18 December 1998

Also known as: May, née Wilkinson

Mabel was an ear­ly pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia, arriv­ing in Alice Springs on 5^th May 1920 with her fam­i­ly. Mabel’s father’s broth­er, George Wilkin­son, had a store in Alice…

Doreen Rose BRAITLING

Born 1904, Died 05/02/1979

Also known as: née Crook

1977: First Pres­i­dent of the Nation­al Trust (North­ern Territory)

1978: First hon­orary life mem­ber of Nation­al Trust

1979: Award­ed British Empire Medal (BEM) for ser­vices to the…

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Judith Arundell WRIGHT

Born 31 May 1915, Died 25 June 2000

Also known as: née Wright, McKinney

Judith Wright has pub­lished more than fifty books and was the first Aus­tralian poet to receive the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poet­ry (1992). She has also received many oth­er prizes…

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Leila Estelle CROPLEY

1963 — First Head of new Alice Springs Office of North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Tourist Board.

Georgia LEE

Born 1921, Died 23/4/2010

Also known as: Aunty Dulcie Rama Pitt, Dulcie Rama Pitt

Geor­gia Lee was the first Indige­nous Aus­tralian artist to record Blues songs, a Blues album, and the first Indige­nous woman to record an album. She also is cred­it­ed as hav­ing the…

Wendy GREEN

Born 1951

1999 — First female horse train­er in North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry to win The Mel­bourne Cup with the horse Rogan Josh.

Dar­win schoolteacher.

Leone Beth CREAMER

Born 1929

1966 — The first female horse train­er in New South Wales.

1972 – 1973 — First woman horse train­er to reach the top ten train­ers in the South­ern Table­lands and South Coast (New South…

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Julia Teresa FLYNN

Born 24 January 1878, Died 14 October 1947

1928 — First woman Chief Inspec­tor of Schools.

March 1912 — Obtained uni­ver­si­ty degree, Mel­bourne, Victoria.1914 — Appoint­ed inspec­tor of sec­ondary schools, ​“at a time when…

Marita MUNRO

Born 1955

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

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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…

Margaret Augusta DE MESTRE

Born 16 November 1915, Died 19 February 1942

Also known as: Sister Margaret DeMestre

First Aus­tralian woman to lose her life in Aus­tralia while on active ser­vice. She was 26 years of age.

1942 — Nurs­ing sis­ter from Bellin­gen in New South Wales on hospital…

Rosemary RYALL

Also known as: Rose

First female med­ical sci­en­tist of Flinders Med­ical Cen­tre to be pro­mot­ed to professor.

She is the grand­daugh­ter of Dame Enid LYONS.

Beverley Louise BOLIN

Born 23 January 1923

Also known as: Beverley Carter

The first known woman archi­tect to qual­i­fy in South Aus­tralia was Bev­er­ley Bolin, who grad­u­at­ed in 1948. She reg­is­tered in 1950 in South Aus­tralia but moved per­ma­nent­ly to the United…

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Clara Puella GREIG

Born 23 December 1877, Died 9 June 1957

1904 — Opened a coach­ing col­lege in (The Block, Collins Street) Mel­bourne for uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents, staffed by her women grad­u­ate friends as spe­cial­ist tutors.
Sis­ter of Gra­ta Flos…

Emma Constance STONE

Born 4 December 1856, Died 29 December 1902

Also known as: Constance

Born in Hobart, Tas­ma­nia, she was Aus­trali­a’s first woman doc­tor reg­is­ter­ing with the Med­ical Board of Vic­to­ria in 1890, after train­ing over­seas. She prac­tised one day a week at…

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Ann HOWE

Born 1802, Died 17 November 1842

Also known as: née Bird, Ann Bird, Ann Salmon, Ann Watt

1829 — First woman pro­pri­etor of a news­pa­per in Australia.
5 March 1803 — First news­pa­per pub­lished in Aus­tralia ​‘Syd­ney Gazette & New South Wales Adver­tis­er” was…