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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Pamela BONE
Born 1940, Died 26/4/2008
Pamela Bone was The Melbourne Age’s first woman leader writer and first woman Associate Editor; she twice won the Melbourne Press Club’s award for best newspaper columnist; and…
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Cheryl BART
Cheryl is the first Australian female and the 31st person worldwide to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam.
The Seven Summits which includes Mt Everest was completed in May… -
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Marion KENNEDY
Born 1846, Died 1/9/1936
Also known as: née Murray
An early pioneer of western Queensland. Married to pastoralist Alexander Kennedy.
Sir Hudson Fysch wrote the book Taming the North: the Story of Alexander Kennedy and other… -
Sophia Elizabeth STEFFANONI
Born 8/05/1873, Died 1/11/1906
Also known as: née Steffanoni, Sophie
Impressionist Artist.In 1886 her embroidery was exhibited at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London. Ca 1890 she joined the family business as full-time designer and…
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Ada Emily EVANS
Born 17 May 1872, Died 27 December 1947
Also known as: née Evans
Australia’s first female law graduate received her L.L.B. from the University of Sydney in 1902 but was not permitted to practice until The Women’s Legal Status Act 1918 (New…
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Alexa SIMMONS
Also known as: Lexie, Alexa Bates
Author of Kajirri, The Bush Missus.
1948 – 1959 — Pioneer on Victoria River Downs (VRD) Station.1958 — she was only the second white woman ever to live at Mount Sanford Station… -
Erika FELLER
Born 1949
2006 — Appointed Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); position held until her retirement in 2013.
Held senior… -
Maureen Patricia KIRK
Born 13/9/1955, Died 23/4/2001
Also known as: née Brown
In 1987, Maureen became the first Indigenous volunteer cancer support worker in Australia. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 and, at the time, there were no cancer…
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Margaret Elizabeth HALL
Born 11/06/1910, Died 01/09/1993
Also known as: née Nicker
Helped set up first School of the Air in Central Australia. President of Country Women’s Association (CWA). President of Royal Flying Doctor Service Women’s Auxiliary.…
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Larissa BEHRENDT
Born 1 April 1969
First Aborigine to earn a doctorate from Harvard Law School in USA.
Professor of Law at Sydney University of Technology.
1993 — Won the Lionel Murphy Foundation… -
Ida Joy BRUCEK
Born 4/4/1923, Died 2/7/1997
Also known as: Joy Brucek, Ida Joy Cuskey (maiden name)
1953 — Established first library in Alice Springs. 1962 — Granted first restaurant liquor licence in Alice Springs for Zdena Motel (where Alice Resort is now located, on Stott Terrace,…
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Anna Maria O'REILLY
1825 — One of first women to own and operate a hat shop in their Castlereagh Street residence, Sydney, New South Wales.
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Christine TREFRY
Born 10/05/1955
First Northern Territory woman Gold Medal Pistol Shooter.
1994 — Gold Medalist, Victoria Commonwealth Games.
1998 — Gold Medalist, Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games. -
Daria Nina LOVE
Born 4/9/1946, Died 9/6/2001
Also known as: née Hair
1969 — She was the first woman to be awarded the University of Sydney Medal for Veterinary Science.
1973 – The first woman in the Faculty of Veterinary Science to be awarded a Doctor… -
Agnes McWHINNEY
Born 25 September 1891, Died 4 August 1987
Also known as: Agnes Osborne
1915 — Agnes McWhinney was the first woman to be admitted as an attorney and to practice law in Queensland.
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Marlene KANGA
First Australian woman to be President of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations; has been an engineer for 30 years; founded a company specialising in safety, risk…
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Rosemary PARKIN
Australia’s foremost Lacemaker. Has correspondence courses in lacemaking and written an instruction book.1981 — Vice Chairman of The Australian Lace Guild.Conducts weekly lace…
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Ruby Dawn PRIOR
Born 1925
Also known as: née Vivian, Dawn
1998 — Had been a fundraiser for the Royal Flying Doctor Service for 44 years.
1992 — She was awarded the Order of Australia, for services to the Royal Flying Doctor Service Auxilliary… -
Nellie LESTER
1938 — Nellie Lester was the first Aborigine to attend High School at Quorn, South Australia.
First Aboriginal, triple certified, nursing sister.
First Matron of Aboriginal descent,… -
Joan Elizabeth KIRNER
Born 1938, Died 2015
Also known as: née Hood
Joan Kirner became the first female head of government in Victoria when she was elected by the Labor Party to succeed Premier John Cain Junior following his resignation in 1990. She…
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Clara Puella GREIG
Born 23 December 1877, Died 9 June 1957
1904 — Opened a coaching college in (The Block, Collins Street) Melbourne for university students, staffed by her women graduate friends as specialist tutors.
Sister of Grata Flos… -
Emma Constance STONE
Born 4 December 1856, Died 29 December 1902
Also known as: Constance
Born in Hobart, Tasmania, she was Australia’s first woman doctor registering with the Medical Board of Victoria in 1890, after training overseas. She practised one day a week at…
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Dorothy Muriel CRAWFORD
Born 21 March 1911, Died 2 September 1988
Also known as: née Crawford, D. C.
March 1942 – 1944 — Became one of the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s first three female announcers in Victoria.
1944 — Joined, with her brother Hector, the… -
Bronwyn Kathleen BISHOP
Born 19/10/1942
Also known as: nee Setright
Bronwyn Bishop was the first woman to be president of any political Party in New South Wales when elected President of the Liberal Party in NSW (1985); first woman from NSW to be…
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Mary REIBEY
Born 12 May 1777, Died 30 May 1855
Also known as: née Haydock, Molly, James Burrow, Mary Raby, Mary Raiby
1811 — First known successful Australian business woman.
Mary REIBEY’s image is displayed on the Australian $20 note. She was a former convict. -
Thora Daphne HOLZHEIMER
Born 5 July 1934, Died 29 February 1992
Also known as: née Bishop, Toots
*“First female truck driver to clock up over one million miles driving through some of Queenland’s most inhospitable terrain – Cape York Peninsula. Toots delivered freight to the…
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Margaret ILLMANN
Born 9/12/1965
Australian Principal Ballerina in Canada, New York, Europe, and on Broadway for which she was awarded The Theatre Word Award as Best Actress on Broadway, Fred Astaire Award Best Dancer…
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Mona Dora BYRNES
Born 27/10/1923, Died 25/7/2010
Also known as: Mona Johannsen
Won the first bursary which was made available to assist a child from the Territory to undertake secondary schooling in Adelaide.
1963 — Official Photographer of the Queen and Duke… -
Florence Ann GAYLARD
Born 1888
Mother of Kathleen Sneddon’s mother. She was artistic and made all manner of things including emus out of sea shells. She eventually returned to Dunedin, New Zealand to live.
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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… -
Kathleen Winifred CROOK
Rose (Bertha) Crook and her husband William operated the water whip at Wycliffe Well, a depot for watering travelling stock. As young girls their daughter Doreen and Kathleen did much…
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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. -
Elizabeth Ann DUN
Born 8 April 1866, Died 20 June 1959
Also known as: née Cork
Traditional pioneer of the Gympie District in Queensland.
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Beatrice DAY
Born 1865, Died 5 September 1933
1900 — Beatrice Day is said to be the first woman in an Australian film, appearing in Australia’s, and possibly the world’s, first film (albeit silent) the Salvation…
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Shirley Elaine ADKINS
Born 18 March 1930
Also known as: née Lee
First woman President of the Royal Aero Club of Western Australia (1979−1984).
First woman elected president of the Royal Federation of Aero Clubs of Australia (1990−1997).
First… -
Ruth Frances BISHOP
Born 12 May 1933
First person to discover the virus that causes gastroenteritis.
1996 — Received Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in Queen’s Birthday Honours in recognition of… -
Olga TARLING
1960 — First Australian female Air Traffic Controller appointed to a position at Brisbane Airport.
Was an Air Traffic Controller for 25 years.
1981 — President of the… -
Jill TABART
Born 18 April 1941
1994 – 1997 — First woman president of Uniting Church in Australia (or any other church in Australia).
1964 — Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, Melbourne University. -
Una Sybella TEAGUE
Born December 1878, Died 1969
During the prolonged drought in Central Australia in the 1920s many Aboriginal people died of beri-beri and scurvy. Pastor Albrecht wanted to pipe good water from Kaporilya Springs 7…
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Leone Beth CREAMER
Born 1929
1966 — The first female horse trainer in New South Wales.
1972 – 1973 — First woman horse trainer to reach the top ten trainers in the Southern Tablelands and South Coast (New South… -
Nanette ROGERS
First female Queen’s Counsel (QC) in Alice Springs; despite declining press contact after her initial 2006 interview, became known for her public exposure of family violence in…
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Vera Agnes FOWLER
Born 27 December 1917, Died 13 February 2002
First honorary legal advisor during growth of Girl Guides Association.
Pioneering woman lawyer.1996 — Foundation member of ‘Emily’s List’. -
Stella Annette JOHNSON
Born 14/2/1925
Also known as: nee Dunn
Despite her handicap, she was a community worker and taught handicraft on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia.
Community worker — Eyre Peninsula, South Australia -
Katharine Susannah PRICHARD
Born 4 December 1883, Died 02 October 1969
Also known as: née Prichard, Katherine Susannah Throssell
One of Australia’s most celebrated writers. She wrote 13 novels and four short stories, among other works.
She is attributed as being a founding member of the Communist… -
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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Lottie KERR
Born 13 August 1885, Died 16 November 1957
Also known as: née Hill
Established Delny Station in Central Australia, with her husband Alexander Kerr.
Lottie Hill grew up in a family of 12 children and a 13th adopted child. After the death of… -
Gwenyth Valmai MEREDITH
Born 18 November 1907, Died 3 October 2006
Gwen Meredith created Australia’s longest running radio serial “Blue Hills” (1949−1976), one of the first radio soap operas or serialized dramas designed for housewives…