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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Anne Nicole CURRIE
Born 13 July 1970
Also known as: Anne Brunell
Youngest athlete to win an Olympic Medal (aged 13). Paralympian.
Captain of Barcelona Paralympic Swim Team.
Has won over 100 Gold Medals.
1992 — Barcelona Games, won three… -
Sarah Friend WILLOUGHBY
Born 3 August 1861, Died 25 July 1923
Also known as: née Skinner
Pioneer of Mallee District, Victoria. The family spent the first year at Tyntynder Homestead. While the government promised “all the water you wanted,” their home was…
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Sarah Johnston CHINNERY
Born 30 January 1887, Died 24 March 1970
Also known as: née Neill
The “second woman in England to have” a motorbike.
“The first woman to ride a lady’s bicycle in” Rabaul, Papua New Guinea.
Sarah set herself the task of recording her… -
Helen DANN
At 17, first woman in Victoria to get semi-trailer licence.
2015 — Inducted into Shell Rimula Hall of Fame at National Road Transport Hall of Fame.
Bought her own TK Bedford… -
Olive O'KEEFE
Born 14/05/1907, Died 10/11/1988
Also known as: née Harvey, Keefy, O'Keeffe
Matron at “The Bungalow” at the Old Telegraph Station, Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
Volunteered to help Catholic nuns with 35 Bathurst Island children travel to Alice… -
Carla Maria ZAMPATTI
Born 19 May 1942
Carla Zampatti is a prominent Australian fashion designer who was the first woman appointed as Chairperson of SBS television in 1999.
1965 — Produced her first collection.… -
Carlene Faye KING
1994 — Elected as the first female District Governor of Lions in Australia, serving in that capacity 1994/1995.
First national manager in Australia for Lions Youth and Community… -
Blanche McNAMARA
Born 1859, Died 1900
1897 – 1900 — Blanche McNamara was the pioneering first woman school inspector in South Australia and also the first in Australia. She was appointed specifically to pay attention to the…
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Anne-Marie PRIESTLEY
1999 — Northern Territory’s first female Anglican Priest. First woman to have responsibility for a parish.
She “was ordained a priest in Alice Springs on Sunday, May 30,… -
Kristen Alanna APPEL
Born 23/7/1964
First female national park ranger to be in charge of a national park/reserve in Australia (Arltunga) — August 1992.
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Kaarene Noelle FITZGERALD
Born 12 December 1944, Died 24 May 2003
1999 — Appointed Companion of the Order of Australia for her services to the community and for “coordination of world-wide efforts to develop and research educational strategies…
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Beth PRESS
From Yuanduma — Chair of Council Indigenous Advisory Council — to suggest ways to win Indigenous disadvantage.
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Margaret Ella BURTON
Born 2 March 1931, Died 17 February 2020
Also known as: née Hayden
Pioneer of South Australia. An arts and crafts teacher, carrying on family arts and crafts traditions. Taught in England and Canada, where she opened a school for Eskimo children who…
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Marjorie JACKSON
Born 13 September 1931
Also known as: Lithgow Flash, Marj, Marjorie Jackson-Nelson
1950 — First Australian woman to break a world record for the 100 metres; won four gold medals (100 yards; 220 yards; 440 yards Medley Relay; 660 yards Medley Relay), British Empire…
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Bertha Martha ANDREW
Born 16/3/1882, Died 8/11/1963
Also known as: nee Cook
Worked the land with husband. Bertha and her husband, with their four children, departed Port Lincoln, South Australia, in 1933 and travelled overland to Alice Springs. The journey…
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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). -
Kate VANDERLAAN
1980 — First police woman motorcyclist in Australia.
First police woman to be a Superintendent in the Northern Territory.
1978 — Joined NT police as a constable.Bachelor of… -
Margaret BLACKWOOD
Born 26 April 1909, Died 1 June 1986
Also known as: Dame Margaret Blackwood
First woman Deputy Cancellor at Melbourne University. First woman appointed Honorary Life Member by the Association of Women on Campus Melbourne University. OBE 1981. First constructor…
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Nicolette Ella FRAILLON
Born 29 July 1960
1995 — Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, becoming the first Australian woman to conduct an Australian symphony orchestra.
2003 — Music Director and Chief Conductor, The Australian… -
Annie PRAED
Born 4 April 1872, Died 26 December 1948
Also known as: née Spraggs, Hannah
1895 – 1900 — One of first women to be practicing dentistry in Australia.
1903 — She became the first woman dental graduate in New South Wales to receive the L. D. S.
1905 -… -
Margaret Gwen HARDY
Born 5 August 1926, Died 7 December 2001
Also known as: née Sutcliffe
First woman shire president of Lilydale, Victoria.
First and only woman commissioner of the then Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works, Victoria.
1977 — Awarded the Queen’s… -
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Rowie SCHULZ
2003 — First Territorian to win the Australian Fitness Leader of the Year Award.
Owner/manager of ‘Essential Fitness’ Fitness Club, Alice Springs, Northern Territory. -
Mary Jean GILMORE
Born 16/08/1865, Died 3/12/1962
Also known as: née Cameron, Dame Mary Jean Cameron, Em Jaycey, Sister Jaycey, Rudione Calvert
The first woman executive/member of the Australian Workers’ Union.
1928 — Founder of the Fellowship of Australian Writers.
1937 — Made Dame of the British Empire for her contribution… -
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… -
Joyce Ethel PRICE
Born 8/11/1915, Died 19/08/2009
Also known as: née Brooke
1956 — Lifetime devotion to Girl Guides as District and Division Commissioners in South Australia. She served as:
1963 – 1968 — State Commissioner of Victoria.
1968 – 1973 — Chief… -
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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Jude MUNRO
First woman Chief Executive Officer of two cities: Adelaide and Brisbane.
Chief Executive of councils: Adelaide, Brisbane, Moreland, and St Kilda.2010 – Ms. Munro received… -
F SUTHERLAND
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.
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Fanny Elizabeth HUNT
Born 25 July 1863, Died June 1941
1888 — First woman science graduate from University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science.
1892 — First headmistress of Ipswich Girls Grammar School; resigned in 1901.
1905 — Founded… -
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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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… -
Sciona BROWNE
Born 13 April 1953
1994 — Winner of the Nancy Bird Trophy.
2002 — Sciona is the oldest woman to compete on Australian Survivor.
2002 — Sciona is the highest placing woman on Australian Survivor.… -
Pearl BURTON
First teacher at Hartley Street School, Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
May 1929 – 1933 — “Miss Pearl Burton was sent to the town to teach the children who had not moved to Jay… -
Ruth Winifred CRACKNELL
Born 6 July 1925, Died 13 May 2002
Renowned actress of film, stage and television. Author of ‘A Biased Memoir’ and ‘Journey From Venice’. Ruth was the first woman to be inducted into the Australian…
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Kim ANSON
Born 1955
Kim Anson was the first woman General Manager appointed at Waverley Council, New South Wales in its then 141 year-old history (2001). She has subsequently held senior management roles…
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Sara Jane HENDERSON
Born 15 September 1936, Died 29 April 2005
Also known as: née Barton
1991 – Australian Business Woman of the Year award.
Northern Territory pastoralist.Author. -
Muriel Grace CRABTREE
Born 9 April 1908, Died 18 December 2010
Biochemist and artist. Crabtree was associated with the Melbourne University Women’s College “for almost 50 years as a graduate, resident, resident tutor, vice-principal, acting…
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Ivy Lavinia WEBER
Born 7/6/1892, Died 6/3/1976
Also known as: née Filshie
1937 — President, League of Women Electors.
1937 — Candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat of Nunawading, State election and became the second woman to be elected to the Victorian… -
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… -
Caroline Louisa Waring ATKINSON
Born 25 February 1834, Died 28 April 1872
Also known as: Louisa Atkinson, Caroline Calvert
She contributed many natural history articles to Sydney papers and journals becoming the first Australian born woman novelist when she published Gertrude the Emigrant: A Tale of…
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Denise ALLEN
1983 — First observer woman posted to Queensland 1984 — First woman posted to Willis Island 1986 — First woman to winter on the Antarctic Continent for the Bureau of Meteorology 1988 -…
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Agnes Jean POLLOCK
Born 13/07/1909, Died 13/02/1996
Also known as: Jean
1952 — Founding Principal of ‘Larnook ‘Teacher Training College.
Pioneered education for women.Trained in Domestic Arts (later known as Home Economics). -
Chelsea ROFFEY
Born 1 August 1981
First woman to officiate (goal umpire) at an AFL Grand Final (2012).
Practicing journalist and trained musician; recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 2014. -
Anna STEWART
Born 11/03/1947, Died 12/04/1983
1979 — First woman to achieve maternity leave for women in the private sector.
A former journalist and active Victorian Union official from 1974 to 1983. -
Lorna Jennie McNAMEE
First female “to qualify under the British Institute of Embalmers in Australia”.
Prior to the funeral business, she had been a nurse in Adelaide and Darwin.“Her… -
Monica Teresa KENNEDY
Born 1892, Died 28/12/1970
Also known as: nee Sheeran
Married Michael Frederick Kennedy (“Fred”) in 1929 and moved to Elkedra Station in the Northern Territory. Mother of five children who she supervised with their schooling…
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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.…