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Nathalie Gladwyn GOREY

Died 11/11/1951

Also known as: née Lacey, Nat

1947 — Found­ed first free kinder­garten in Alice Springs.

First Pres­i­dent of Alice Springs Kinder­garten Inc.

Author of The Alice, The Sto­ry of Alice Springs and a book of…

Ann JAMES

Born 1839, Died 6/3/1912

Also known as: née Minogue, Granny

Just arrived from Gal­way, Ann mar­ried Moses Wal­ter JAMES in 1858. In 1863, with three sons, they road pack­hors­es to the gold dig­gings in Dar­go and then on to Omeo. Even­tu­al­ly they…

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Louise GEE

2002 — First woman appoint­ed a direc­tor of Gos­ford Coun­cil (New South Wales).
Was a mem­ber of the first class to grad­u­ate with a Bach­e­lor of Applied Sci­ence in Envi­ron­men­tal Health…

Margaret WHYTE

1891 — One of the first two women to grad­u­ate in Med­i­cine from Mel­bourne Uni­ver­si­ty — the oth­er was Clara STONE.
​“When the final results appeared Mar­garet Whyte had done…

Ruth BANNER

Born 3/1931

Also known as: Desy

Ruth Ban­ner was the first woman to train a Cool­gar­die Cup win­ner (2002) since this pres­ti­gious West­ern Aus­tralian horse race was first estab­lished in 1896 (Desy’s horse Law­mak­er also…

Margery HOBBS

Also known as: Marge

In June 1947 Marge began work at the Alice Spring Hos­pi­tal, com­bin­ing nurs­ing and wards­maid duties. The Delany broth­ers brought a baby eagle to her to attend to. He was called Buster…

Maureen PLAVSIC

First female Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of Sev­en Tele­vi­sion Network.

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…

Marie Ottilie JOHANNSEN

Born 15/7/1881 or 1882, Died 26/12/1959

Also known as: née Hoffman, used the name Ottilie, Tillie/Tilly

Pio­neer of Cen­tral Australia.
1909-11 & 1922 – 26 — Her­manns­burg Mission.
1911 — The Johannsens acquired the rights to draw water from Deep Well, a gov­ern­ment water facility.
Planted…

Cathy SALVAIR

Born 17/10/1963

Cathy has flown tour groups around Aus­tralia. She has endorse­ments in aer­o­bat­ics, for­ma­tion fly­ing, and float planes.
1987 — Won the Lady Casey Scholarship.

1979 — Her first…

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Mary MURPHY

A hand­ful of Euro­pean women accom­pa­nied their hus­bands to the mines. Mary Mur­phy, Bet­ty O’Neil and F Suther­land signed a peti­tion to get a polling booth there.

Kathryn Isobel HAY

Born 24 November 1975

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

Nancy GREER

Also known as: Nan

“A triple-cer­tifi­cat­ed nurs­ing sis­ter, Miss Greer trav­elled the iso­lat­ed areas of Vic­to­ria between 1944 and 1951, brav­ing bush­fires, floods, dust storms and all man­ner of emergencies…

Magdalene JOHNSON

Born 1/7/1905, Died 26/1/2010

Also known as: Maggie

Worked as drover, cook, teacher, car­er. Dur­ing World War II ​“she worked as a cook for hun­dreds of peo­ple” at the mis­sion at Arltunga.

At time of death, 2010, Alice…

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Sandra MAY

Lilliane Olive BRADY

First female Pres­i­dent, West­ern Divi­sion (local government).

1974 – 2020 — Lil­liane is the Councillor/​Mayor of Cobar Shire Coun­cil, New South Wales and has been a local government…

Rosemary Mina De PIERRES

Born 28/05/1926

Also known as: née Vincent

Rose­mary was a good friend of Robin Miller and often helped her with her vac­cine flights. She was the state pres­i­dent of the Aus­tralian Women Pilots Asso­ci­a­tion and then went on to be…

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Sheila CLARKE

Born 20 June 1916, Died 4 May 2006

Also known as: née O'Loughlin

1944 — First woman elect­ed to the Com­mit­tee of the Fed­er­at­ed Clerk’s Union in the North­ern Territory.
1950 — Found­ing Com­mit­tee mem­ber of the Half-Caste Progress Asso­ci­a­tion in…

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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.

Janet Lindsay GREIG

Born 8 August 1874, Died 18 October 1950

Also known as: Jenny

One of first two women appoint­ed Res­i­dent Doc­tors at Mel­bourne Hospital.
First woman Anaes­thetist in Victoria.

Con­duct­ed pri­vate prac­tice in Fitzroy for many years.Consultant…

Edith Ellen DEMPSTER

Born 31 January 1884, Died 28 May 1967

Also known as: née McLellan, E. E.

Pio­neer on cat­tle sta­tions in South Aus­tralia and North­ern Territory.Top End pio­neers and South Aus­tralian pioneers.Pioneer pas­toral­ist on Vic­to­ria Riv­er Downs.

Margaret Gwendoline KEATS

Born 1895, Died 6/4/1970

Aus­trali­a’s first woman to qual­i­fy as a vet­eri­nar­i­an with uni­ver­si­ty train­ing, she was also the first and only woman to grad­u­ate from Aus­trali­a’s first vet­eri­nary faculty…

Caroline Emily CLARK

Born 6 September 1825, Died 18 November 1911

In 1887 Car­o­line was appoint­ed to the new­ly-cre­at­ed State Chil­dren’s Coun­cil and in the 1890’s helped to win such reforms as the estab­lish­ment of the Chil­dren’s Court in…

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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,…

Sandy COULSON

Also known as: Commander Coulson

First female Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of the Navy’s sub­ma­rine base HMAS Platypus.

First female mem­ber of Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy (RAN) Staff Col­lege’s direct­ing staff.

April 2000…

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Jane Catharine TOST

Born 1817, Died 24 April 1889

Also known as: née Ward

Prob­a­bly the first female taxi­der­mist in Aus­tralia (Syd­ney 1860s).
Maybe first woman to be employed in a pro­fes­sion­al capac­i­ty in any Aus­tralian Muse­um (Tas­ma­nia 1856).

Wendy Jennifer CHAPMAN

Born 3 June 1942

She became the first woman Lord May­or of an Aus­tralian state cap­i­tal city when appoint­ed in Ade­laide in 1983 (until 1985).
1986 — Award­ed a Mem­ber of the Order of Aus­tralia, at the…

Stephanie ALEXANDER

Born 13/11/1940

Pio­neer­ing food writer, first woman to own and man­age a world-class restau­rant in Aus­tralia (Stephanie’s Restau­rant: 1976 – 1997); ini­ti­at­ed inno­v­a­tive pri­ma­ry school pro­gram, The…

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Jillian Kay TEUBNER

Born 19/10/1941, Died 12/11/2002

First female Woodville High School Stu­dent to gain a PhD.
First South Aus­tralian woman to gain a PhD in Organ­ic Chemistry.

Sci­en­tist and Med­ical Educator.

Susan BOYD

Born 1946

Sue Boyd was the first woman pres­i­dent of a stu­dents asso­ci­a­tion in Aus­tralia (Guild of Under­grad­u­ates, Uni­ver­si­ty of West­ern Aus­tralia 1969). She spent 34 years in the Australian…

Sibyl Enid Vera Munro MORRISON

Born 18 August 1895, Died 29 December 1961

Also known as: née Gibbs

New South Wales’ first woman bar­ris­ter qual­i­fied in 1924 after grad­u­at­ing LL.B. from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Syd­ney’s law school. As the only woman stu­dents in their year, both…

Louisa Ann MEREDITH

Born 20/07/1812, Died 21/10/1895

Also known as: née Twamley

1880 — First women in Aus­tralia to design a postage stamp. She sketched the platy­pus on a Tas­man­ian Duty Stamp. Two years lat­er these stamps were autho­rised for postal use.…

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Mabel Montana CRICKETT

Born 1897, Died April 1983

Also known as: née Forrest, Mabs

Pio­neer of Eyre Penin­su­lar, South Aus­tralia. Char­i­ty vol­un­teer from age 11.Taught CWA hand­i­crafts — in Girl Guides move­ment, Red Cross, and Mis­sion to Seamen.

Elizabeth K. TURNER

Born 19/08/1914, Died 26/12/1999

Also known as: EKT

First doc­tor in Aus­tralia to admin­is­ter Penicillin.
1951 — First doc­tor to per­form an exchange trans­fu­sion on a new­born in Victoria.
Only female Med­ical Super­in­ten­dent at the Royal…

Caroline DEXTER

Born 6 January 1819, Died 19 August 1884

Also known as: née Harper, Caroline Lynch

Har­ri­et Clis­by and Car­o­line Dex­ter pub­lished just two edi­tions of the Inter­preter in 1861; said to be the first mag­a­zine pub­lished by women in Australia.

1858 — Wrote and…

Verna ABBERTON

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Devot­ed mem­ber, very good fundraiser.

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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.…

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Ethel STEWART

Born 05/1907

Also known as: née Sinclair, Isa

Win­ner of the 1985 Aus­tralian Jack-Be-Nim­ble Cham­pi­onships (Knuck­le Bone (Jacks) Champion).

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Gladys Barbara EASTICK

Born 19 August 1920, Died 20 February 2011

Also known as: née Kemp, Nancy

Youth work­er from Queens­land who helped post war dis­placed per­sons in Europe through the Girl Guide move­ment of Aus­tralia and England.1947 — Trained in Britain for Guides International…

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Dianne YERBURY

Born 25 March 1941

Also known as: Emeritus Professor Dianne Yerbury, Dr Dianne Yerbury

In 1987 Dianne Yer­bury became the first female Vice-Chan­cel­lor in Aus­tralia (Mac­quar­ie Uni­ver­si­ty), a role she held until 2007.

She is cur­rent­ly the inau­gur­al Chair of the Crescent…

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Tjunmutja Myra WATSON

Born 27/09/1927, Died 3/01/2009

Learned to read and write at Unit­ed Abo­rig­ines Mis­sion School at Oold­ea, South Aus­tralia. After mar­riage, spent next 27 years at Ger­ard Mis­sion in the River­lands. Thir­ty years at…

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Jessica DEMPSEY

2000 — One of two first female research sci­en­tists to work at the South Pole in a Uni­ver­si­ty of New South Wales led expedition.

Sharyn FITZGERALD

2009 — Attempt­ed first Aus­tralian female Antarc­tic ice marathon.

2011 — In the North Pole Marathon, in the wom­en’s divi­sion, she came in sec­ond with a time of 6:28:16 3.

Margaret SOMERVILLE

Born 24 September 1912

1991 — Mar­garet was the first Aus­tralian woman to be pre­sent­ed with the Bat­tle of Aus­tralia medallion.

1941 – 1965 — Pio­neer Methodist lay mis­sion­ary on Cro­ker Island, Northern…

Evelyn Helena PARKER

Born 12 October 1907, Died 28 September 1993

1975 — First woman May­or in West­ern Aus­tralia (Subi­a­co Coun­cil). In 1976 she was Cit­i­zen of the Year.

She was a Jus­tice of the Peace. In 1977 she received an Offi­cer of the…

Julie BOYD

Julie Boyd was the first woman May­or of Mack­ay City Coun­cil, Queens­land (1997−2008).

With a back­ground in gov­er­nance, Julie has since served in a vari­ety of posi­tions (e.g.…

Mary Anna ROBERTSON

Born 7/3/1872, Died 15/8/1958

Also known as: née Loader, Mary Ann Loader

She and her sis­ter ran the laun­dry for min­ers in Snake Val­ley, Victoria.Married John ROBERT­SON, a miner.

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Amelia WILKINSON

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

Patricia WALTER

Born 1926, Died 23 November 2017

Also known as: Pattie

Cam­er­a­woman for ABC news 1964 – 1986. Pos­si­bly the first woman cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er in Australia.1993 — first woman to be giv­en Life Mem­ber­ship of the Aus­tralian Cin­e­matog­ra­phers Soci​ety​.In…

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…