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Ann McCOLL

Pio­neer of the Mallee Dis­trict, Victoria.

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Annie Jean MACNAMARA

Born 1/4/1899, Died 13/10/1968

Also known as: Jean, Jean Connor

First woman Res­i­dent Med­ical Offi­cer at Roy­al Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal, Melbourne.

In May 1923 Jean, with high rec­om­men­da­tions, was appoint­ed res­i­dent at the (Roy­al) Children’s…

Kate LYNCH

Born 1882

First all girl tim­ber cut­ting team in Queensland.

In 1900 the Lynch fam­i­ly faced ruin when their cat­tle were wiped out by fever. Cor­nelius then taught his daugh­ters the art…

Moira Therese KELLY

Born 31/1/1964

Award­ed ​‘Sir ​‘Weary’ Dun­lop Memo­r­i­al Award
1988 — Named Aus­tralian Bicen­ten­ni­al Young Woman of the Year

Aid Work­er — dubbed ​‘Aus­trali­a’s Mother…

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…

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Ada Isabel J. TOVELL

Born 1865, Died 19 August 1932

Also known as: née Fenton

First woman to take the degree of M.A.C.D. at the Aus­tralian Col­lege of Den­tistry at Mel­bourne Den­tal Hospital.
1900 — M.A.C.D.
1903 — L.D.S.

Mavis Laurel FULLER

Born 16 October 1911, Died 1 August 1971

Also known as: née Baker

Pas­toral pioneer.

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Dorothy NAPANGARDI

Born 1958, Died 1/06/2013

Dorothy began paint­ing in 1987. Her artist sis­ter Eunice Napan­gar­di intro­duced her to it.
1991 — Dorothy won the Best Paint­ing in Euro­pean Media and 8^th Tel­stra Nation­al Aboriginal…

Janet Cameron CARR

Born 15 October 1927, Died 13 August 2006

Also known as: née Davidson, Dr Janet Davidson

1950 – Grad­u­at­ed as a M.D. from Queen’s Uni­ver­si­ty, Belfast, Ireland.1958 – With her hus­band, moved to his home city of Sydney.Ran a gen­er­al prac­tice, immu­niza­tion clin­ics, and was…

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…

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Joy STACY

Girl Guides In Ser­vice Social Work­er with refugees in camps in Europe after World War II.

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Frances CAMPBELL

First woman to prac­tice med­i­cine in Australia.

Rose SCOTT

Born 8 October 1847, Died 20 April 1925

First pres­i­dent of a wom­en’s com­mit­tee of the Pris­on­er’s Aid Asso­ci­a­tion in 1898.

Known as the voice of wom­en’s suf­frage in Sydney.Campaigned for the education…

Dorothy HILL

Born 10 September 1907, Died 23 April 1997

1959 — First woman appoint­ed to the Chair in any Aus­tralian uni­ver­si­ty (Chair of Geology).
1956 — First woman elect­ed as Fel­low of the Aus­tralian Acad­e­my of Science.
1956 — Woman…

Ethel Mary TURNER

Born 24 January 1870, Died 08 April 1958

Also known as: née Burwell, née Ethel Sibyl Turner, Ethel Mary Curlewis, Ethel Sibyl Cope

Author of Sev­en Lit­tle Aus­tralians which was Aus­trali­a’s first chil­dren’s clas­sic (1894). Has writ­ten over 40 books.

Natalee Joy JOHNSTON

Born 19/08/1976

Also known as: née McDougall

1998 — First woman pilot in the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy (RAN) and first woman to grad­u­ate as a pilot for the RAN in its 50 years of naval aviation.
1998 — First female Navy helicopter…

Leah MORCK

Born 1881, Died 10 May 1966

Wife of drover, cat­tle­man, bush­man of West­ern Aus­tralia and North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry, Tom MOR­CK. At 15 Mrs MOR­CK was moth­er to her sev­en sib­lings after their moth­er’s death. Managed…

Rosa Caroline PRAED

Born 27/03/1851, Died 10 April 1935

Also known as: née Murray-Prior, Mrs Campbell Praed

First Aus­tralian-born nov­el­ist to achieve a sig­nif­i­cant inter­na­tion­al reputation.

Rosa PRAED’s step­moth­er was Nora Mur­ray-Pri­or (née BAR­TON), Ban­jo PATER­SON­’S aunt…

Marina PRIOR

Born 18 October 1963

2006 — She was induct­ed into the list of Australia’s top 100 Enter­tain­ers of the Century.

Opera singer and Aus­trali­a’s First Lady of musi­cal theatre.

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Constance Irene DOYLE

Born 15 August 1899, Died 17 October 2004

Also known as: Connie

Pio­neer of Gipp­s­land and Mel­bourne, Victoria.

Clare LINDOP

First Aus­tralian female to ride in the Mel­bourne Cup (2003).
First woman to win South Aus­trali­a’s Jock­ey’s Pre­mier­ship (2004−2005) with 87 winners.

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Jane FARGHER

Hote­lier: Prairie Hotel, Parachilna, South Australia.

Hephzibah MENUHIN

Born 20/05/1920, Died 1/01/1981

She made her pub­lic debut at age 8 in San Fran­cis­co. She was her broth­er Yehudi’s accom­pa­nist as her par­ents reject­ed a career in music for her.
1933 — Their record­ing of Mozart’s…

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Nora Clarina MURRAY-PRIOR

Born 3/12/1846, Died 1935

Also known as: née Barton

One of the ​‘hid­den’ pio­neer women of the colo­nial era, who nur­tured her net­work of rel­a­tives through let­ters. In strik­ing­ly direct and flu­ent prose, inter­spersed with…

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…

Elsie Regina LAMB

Born 1/2/1887, Died 1993

Dis­trict mid­wife in Wing­ham, New South Wales.During World War I pro­vid­ed vol­un­tary aid at Bullin­mim­bah Station.During World War II worked in the Depart­ment of the Air after declaring…

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Gilda WILLOX

1999 — First North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry nurse to become accred­it­ed in endoscopy.

Helen LYNCH

Born 1879

Also known as: Nell

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Eadith Walker JOSHUA

Born 1897

Pio­neer of Cobar and Wilcan­nia dis­trict, New South Wales. Wrote her life sto­ry, The Daisies at my Feet.

Jennifer BURGE

First female Chair­man of Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Embalmers.

Jan­u­ary 1994 — Began work­ing in the funer­al industry.

Dorothy Margaret TANGNEY

Born 12/03/1907, Died 03/06/1985

Also known as: Dame Dorothy Tangney

The first woman in the Fed­er­al Sen­ate when elect­ed in August 1943, she was a Sen­a­tor for West­ern Aus­tralia for 25 years, the only female mem­ber of the Aus­tralian Labor Par­ty throughout…

Mary Harriet GRIFFITH

Born 4 November 1849, Died 27 July 1930

Ear­ly pio­neer in Unit­ing Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church in Queensland.Harriett Grif­fith Memo­r­i­al Door — YWCA Head­quar­ters, Bris­bane, Queens­land and cred­it­ed for ​“revi­tal­is­ing and over­see­ing its…

Frances JACKSON

Also known as: nee Hyatt

1930 — First Tas­man­ian woman to become a pilot.
First woman to fly from Goul­burn to Mas­cot and return. 

Born in 1908, as a teenag­er, Frances Hyatt lived with her fam­i­ly at…

Nellie MELBA

Born 19/05/1861, Died 23/02/1931

Also known as: née Helen Porter Mitchell, Nellie, Dame Nellie Melba

Aus­trali­a’s great­est opera singer.
1911 — First Aus­tralian opera super star.
First Aus­tralian singer to be record­ed on cylinder.
First per­former in the world to have an opera…

Annie ROSS

Also known as: Annie Southall

With Kate Boad­i­cia Cocks, they were the first women police offi­cers in South Aus­tralia when sworn in to that state’s police force on 1 Decem­ber 1915 — the first police­women in…

Mary Ann BIN-SALLIK

Born 2 November 1940

Hold­ing both a Mas­ters (1986) degree in Edu­ca­tion­al Admin­is­tra­tion and a Doc­tor­ate (1989) in Edu­ca­tion from Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty, USA, she was also the first Indige­nous grad­u­ate in…

Miriam Edith CANNING

First Abo­rig­i­nal (and first woman) vet­eri­nary sur­geon in Australia.

Born and raised at Leono­ra near Kal­go­or­lie, West Aus­tralia. Qual­i­fied for her pri­vate pilot’s licence…

Kylie Ann MINOGUE

Born 28/05/1968

Biggest sell­ing female artist in Aus­tralian con­cert history.

Woo Len AH TOY

Born 24 October 1917, Died 15 November 2001

Also known as: nee Wong, Lily

Lily was born and grew up in Dar­win and was known to many in the Top End for her sto­icism, gen­eros­i­ty and warm good humour. From 1936 to 1942 and con­tin­uin­ing after the war, Lily and…

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…

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Cheryl BELL

Also known as: Commander

1992 — First woman to be per­ma­nent­ly appoint­ed to a ​‘Bush Sta­tion’ (at Yuen­du­mu) by North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Police.

Joan CAIRNS

Born 7/1932, Died 27/6/2019

Joan Cairns was Australia’s first female anaes­thet­ic tech­ni­cian. Joan worked at the Alice Springs Hos­pi­tal and took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to study at the May­field Med­ical Cen­tre in…

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Maria Elizabeth KIRK

Born 9/12/1855, Died 14/1/1928

Also known as: née Sutton, Marie

Maria Kirk was the founder of the Wom­en’s Chris­t­ian Tem­per­ance Union in Aus­tralia (in 1887). She held numer­ous exec­u­tive posi­tions in the organ­i­sa­tion. Maria sup­port­ed and worked…

Heather Mary SCOTT

Born 9 November 1939

Also known as: Jill

A pio­neer of con­tem­po­rary tourism in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry from 1969 until 1992.
Jill began her pro­fes­sion­al life as a reg­is­tered nurse. Her expe­ri­ence includ­ed trav­el­ling to England…

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.…

Eleanor MENGEL

Born 1930

Also known as: née Petrick

Grew up on Mount Swan Sta­tion, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry and moved to Neu­tral Junc­tion Sta­tion, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry after her mar­riage. Spent 42 years there in a life of sheep shear­ing and…

Jessie Mary Grey STREET

Born 18/04/1889, Died 02/07/1970

Also known as: née Lillingston, Lady Street

First and only woman mem­ber of the Aus­tralian del­e­ga­tion at the 1945 found­ing con­fer­ence of the Unit­ed Nations in San Fran­cis­co, she had also found­ed the Unit­ed Asso­ci­a­tions of Women…

Betty ROLAND

Born 22/07/1903, Died 12/02/1996

Also known as: née Mary Isabel Maclean/McLean, Betty M. Davies, Mary Isabel Davies

Wrote her first play The Touch of Silk in 1928. Also known for her four vol­ume auto­bi­og­ra­phy. In 1951 she legal­ly changed her name to Bet­ty Roland.

Janine Lee SHEPHERD

Born 7/01/1962

First Aus­tralian par­tial para­plegic to fly an FA 18 Jet fighter.
First female direc­tor of the Civ­il Avi­a­tion Safe­ty Authority.

For­mer cross-coun­try ski­er. Part Paraplegic…

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Danni Patricia MIATKE

Born 29/11/1987

First North­ern Ter­ri­to­ri­an swim­mer to win at world swim cham­pi­onships (50 meter butterfly).
2006 — Gold Medal­ist at Man­ches­ter Com­mon­wealth Games — swim­ming — 50m butterfly.…