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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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 8th 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…
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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 5th 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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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.
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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…
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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. -
Constance Irene DOYLE
Born 15 August 1899, Died 17 October 2004
Also known as: Connie
Pioneer of Gippsland and Melbourne, Victoria.
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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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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… -
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…
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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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Eadith Walker JOSHUA
Born 1897
Pioneer of Cobar and Wilcannia district, New South Wales. Wrote her life story, The Daisies at my Feet.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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… -
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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…
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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… -
Cheryl BELL
Also known as: Commander
1992 — First woman to be permanently appointed to a ‘Bush Station’ (at Yuendumu) by Northern Territory Police.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.
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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… -
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.…