Catherine Helen SPENCE

Born 31/10/1825, Died 3/4/1910

The first female mem­ber of a pub­lic board when appoint­ed to the East Ade­laide School Board of Advice in 1877, she was also the first woman in Aus­tralia to par­tic­i­pate in an official…

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Ali RODDA

2001 — First woman mid­night to dawn radio pre­sen­ter (5AA) in Adelaide.

Mas­ters in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion Degree in Pub­lic Rela­tions. Nurse.

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Valerie FANN

1970s — First female bank teller, Com­mon­wealth Bank, Alice Springs.

Joan ANDREWS

Joan hand­built her house con­sist­ing of three cot­tages using 14,000 bot­tles and cans in a nine-year peri­od in Light­ning Ridge. She built these cot­tages after being in hos­pi­tal for two…

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Emily Mary BARTON

Born 3 December 1817, Died 24 August 1909

Also known as: née Darvall

Emi­ly wrote poems for most of her life and was still being pub­lished at the age of 90. She was the grand­moth­er to A B (Ban­jo) Pater­son who she was a great inspi­ra­tion to.

Margaret Grace SMITH

Born 1928, Died July 1995

Also known as: née Murray

Wife of first res­i­dent surveyor/​engineer in Cen­tral Aus­tralia, David Dou­glas ​“D. D.” Smith. Lived on block which is now D. D. Smith Park in Alice Springs Cen­tral Business…

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Sally CHIRNSIDE

First female com­mit­tee mem­ber of the Vic­to­ri­an Rac­ing Club (VRC). Appoint­ed in July 1991 — retired in 2002.

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Edna Margaret WALLING

Born 4 December 1896, Died 8 August 1973

1918 — First female land­scape gardener.

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Sandy TAYLOR

Alice Springs first Abo­rig­i­nal female Alderman.

Daugh­ter of Her­Sto­ry Archive entry Emmie WEHR.

Patricia Lyle TOOLE

Born 11/1928, Died 04/2016

Also known as: née Graham, Pat

Pat was the first female to hold a com­mer­cial pilot’s license in Papua, New Guinea, 1952. Her license had lapsed when in her sev­en­ties she decid­ed to renew it. Her first solo…

Margaret BATTYE

Born 9 September 1909, Died 16 November 1949

First female lawyer to rep­re­sent a client in a West­ern Aus­tralia Court of Law.
1939 worked for the Coun­cil For Civ­il Liberties. 
1934 joined the West­ern Aus­tralian branch of the…

Mildred Grace COLLINGS

Born 4 March 1916, Died 9 March 2006

Also known as: Grace Collings

Grace and her hus­band Mur­ray co-found­ed Ring­wood sta­tion, locat­ed 80 miles (130 kilo­me­tres) east of Alice Springs. They moved to the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry in 1946 to work on Ti Tree and…

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Mary GLOWREY

Born 23 June 1887, Died 5 May 1957

Also known as: Mary Glowrey, M.D.; Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart Society of Jesus, Mary, Joseph

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Mary EDWARDS

1920 — Began first Moth­er’s Club at Nor­wood School, South Australia.

Sarina BRATTON

In 1999, Sari­na Brat­ton became the first woman founder and chief exec­u­tive offi­cer of a cruise line any­where in the world when she launched her Syd­ney-based Nor­we­gian Capri­corn Line.…

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Bronwyn Nancy DONAGHY

Born 21/12/1948, Died 23/07/2002

Also known as: née Simeon, Frances Storm

Journalist/​Author of books on youth sui­cide and sex edu­ca­tion. Wrote Anna’s Sto­ry (Anna Wood died after tak­ing an Ecsta­sy tablet at a ​“Rave’ Par­ty.” Anna’s…

Gwen PETERSON

Gwen became C.E.O. of Peter­son Indus­tries Pty. Ltd. after her hus­band Max passed away in 2002.
The Com­pa­ny had its begin­nings in 1948, when it was set up in an old stone barn in a…

Lorrae DESMOND

Born 2 October 1932

Also known as: née Beryl Hunt, Sheila Hunt, Beryl Gorshenin, Lorrae Gorshenin

1962 — First female Gold Logie award win­ner, for her music vari­ety show The Lor­rae Desmond Show.

1970 — Award­ed Mem­ber of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), for ser­vices to the…

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Dorothy M. R. STEWART

Born 1892, Died 19/06/1954

Also known as: Dolly

Lyri­cist (arrange­ment and lyrics) of Now Is The Hour.

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Natalie HARWOOD

2003 — A recip­i­ent of the Trib­ute to North­ern Territory.

Vice-Pres­i­dent Bagot [Dar­win, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry] Com­mu­ni­ty Council.Established the Bagot Break­fast Pro­gram for…

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Ida Elizabeth JENKINS

Born 29/8/1916, Died 30/10/2014

Also known as: née Osbourne, Liz. Professionally she was known as Elizabeth Osbourne and Ida Elizabeth Jenkins.

A pio­neer of chil­dren’s radio, wom­en’s issues and the Save the Chil­dren Fund, and a found­ing mem­ber of the Chil­dren’s Book Coun­cil of Australia.

1954 — Was the only…

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Dorothy Edna REIS

Also known as: née Bishop

1928 — First Queens­land woman to obtain a pilot’s licence.

She learned to
dri­ve a car at the age of 12 years, being
one of the first woman motorists in
Queensland.
When…

Cecilia Noel PADGHAM-PURICH

Born 25 December 1927

Also known as: Noel, Noel Padgham

One of first female politi­cians in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry (CLP), serv­ing from 1977 – 1997. She is ranked as the fifth longest serv­ing woman, 20 years and 4 months.

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Ada Eliza RYAN

Born 1844

Also known as: née Smith

First woman into the Cape Riv­er Dig­gings (gold­fields) of North Queensland.

Known as a bul­lock team owner/​driver, pub­li­can, hotel keep­er, gra­zier, innkeep­er, store…

Winifred KIEK

Born 1884, Died 23/5/1975

Also known as: née Jackson

1923 — She became the first woman to grad­u­ate with a Bach­e­lor of Divin­i­ty, Mel­bourne Col­lege of Divinity.
1927 — Winifred became the first woman ordained as a min­is­ter of the…

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Norma Helen BAILEY

Born 25 June 1936

Also known as: Norma Helen Grant

One of the first five women to be recruit­ed into the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Police. Sworn in on 26 Feb­ru­ary 1961.

Inau­gur­al Pres­i­dent of Coun­try Wom­en’s Asso­ci­a­tion (CWA) in…

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Marise PAYNE

Born 29 July 1964

Marise Payne was appoint­ed Australia’s Min­is­ter for For­eign Affairs on 28 August 2018.

A Sen­a­tor for New South Wales since 1997, she has more than two decades’ parliamentary…

Heather SWAN

Also known as: née Wilson, Heather SINGLEMAN

2001 — First woman to climb ​‘Tran­go Tow­er’ in the Pak­istan Himalayas.

Joyce Inga ELLIS

Born 16 February 1926, Died 2006

Joyce Inga Ellis was the first Aer­i­al Med­ical Sis­ter at Alice Springs from 1962 to 1967. With the Aer­i­al Med­ical Doc­tor, she spoke dai­ly by radio to peo­ple with med­ical problems,…

Elinor Caroline WRAY

Born 30/10/1899, Died 4/2/1992

1936 — Only Speech Ther­a­pist in Aus­tralia and New Zealand.
First Speech Ther­a­pist at Spas­tic Cen­tre, Mos­man, New South Wales.
1981 — Appoint­ed Mem­ber of the Order of the British…

Isabel Clifton COOKSON

Born 25 December 1893, Died 1 July 1973

The Cook­so­nia plant genus and the Isabel Cook­son Award (Botan­i­cal Soci­ety of Amer­i­ca) have been named in her honour.

Botanist and Palaeobotanist.
1916 — Grad­u­at­ed Bach­e­lor of…

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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.

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Marcia SPICER

Born 1947, Died 10/1999

1966 — Queens­land’s first woman couri­er driver.

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Dianne Jennifer GRADY

Born 31/7/1948

Also known as: nee Komor

First woman elect­ed to McK­in­sey Inter­na­tion­al part­ner­ship out­side of USA. She was a ​“Glob­al Thought Leader” in change man­age­ment, organ­i­sa­tion devel­op­ment and innovation.…

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Dolly

Min­nie GILLEN ran the house­hold with the help of two Arrente Abo­rig­i­nal women, Dol­ly (Aritcheuka) …, who also looked after her two boys.

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Karen KIME

Also known as: Reverend Karen Kime

Karen Kime was ordained as a priest in the Angli­can Church of Aus­tralia in 2000.She was the first Abo­rig­i­nal woman to become a priest in New South Wales.

In Feb­ru­ary 2012, Karen was…

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.…

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Diane Patricia HAMILTON

Born 11 July 1953

First female Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Union of Postal Clerks and Telegraphists.

1986 — Branch Assis­tant Sec­re­tary, Union of Postal Clerks & Telegraphs.
1988 — General…

Emily Elsie SIMPER

Born 1905, Died 30/08/1999

Also known as: Sister Emily Simper

1933 — Pos­si­bly the only nurse to ever buy her own hos­pi­tal, the War­rawee Pri­vate Hos­pi­tal on Oxide Street, Bro­ken Hill, New South Wales.

Joyce Anne CUMMINGS

Born 23 December 1923, Died 1 July 2003

Also known as: née Plumbe, Joy

Aus­trali­a’s first female Lord May­or, Alder­man Cum­mings head­ed New South Wales’ New­cas­tle City Coun­cil from 1974 – 1976 and then again from 1978 – 1983.

1975 — Appoint­ed a…

Anne Maree JENSEN

Also known as: Sister Anne Maree Jensen, the flying nun

Sis­ter Anne Maree Jensen is a Catholic Sis­ter who has been based at Lon­greach in Queens­land for the last ten years. She learnt to fly in order to reach peo­ple through­out her vast…

Effie Gwyneth McCAFFERY

Also known as: née Downie, Billie

1935- The first female hair­dress­er in North­ern Territory.

Appren­ticed to a Miss Jock­el, who ran a hair­dress­ing salon in Collins Street, Mel­bourne, Vic​to​ria​.In Alice Springs,…

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Katherine BROWNE

Died 31 May 1865

Also known as: née Jemott

Pio­neer pas­toral­ist in Queens­land on Moonie Riv­er prop­er­ty ​‘Tartha’.

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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…

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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Puni PUNI

1939 — Abo­rig­i­nal teenag­er who ran 80 miles to bring a res­cue team to save a three year old boy (Ramon BROWN) from floods at Shirley Well, South Australia.

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Merle THORNTON

Born 2/10/1930

Also known as: née Wilson

Known for, with Ros­alie BOGN­ER, chain­ing them­selves to a bar rail in protest of the exclu­sion of women in bars in Queens­land. Wom­en’s Rights Activist. Author. Moth­er of actress…

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Fidelia Savage Thornton HILL

Born 14 August 1794, Died 1854

Also known as: née Munkhouse, Fidelia S. T. Hill

First woman to have a book of poet­ry pub­lished in Aus­tralia (1840 ​‘Poems and Rec­ol­lec­tions of the Past’).

Andrea Jane MASON

Born 1968

2004 ‑First ever female Abo­rig­i­nal Par­ty Leader when she was made Nation­al Pres­i­dent of Fam­i­ly First.

1988 — Bach­e­lor of Arts degree in Abo­rig­i­nal Affairs and Public…

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Della EDMONDS

Born 1917

Also known as: Della Edmunds

Author of ​‘Del­la The Drover: A Bush Wom­an’s Own Story’.Pioneer of North Queens­land Outback.