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…

Suzanne LEE

1992 — First Alice Springs’ Miss Australia.

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Cheryl BART

Cheryl is the first Aus­tralian female and the 31^st per­son world­wide to com­plete the Explor­er’s Grand Slam.

The Sev­en Sum­mits which includes Mt Ever­est was com­plet­ed in May…

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Sarah CALLAGHAN

Human rights activist. Law and art grad­u­ate, Uni­ver­si­ty South Australia.

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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…

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…

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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.…

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.

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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…

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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…

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…

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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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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…

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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…

Margaret PRIOR

Chief pilot of West­ern Australia.

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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.

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Elizabeth Ann DUN

Born 8 April 1866, Died 20 June 1959

Also known as: née Cork

Tra­di­tion­al pio­neer of the Gympie Dis­trict in Queensland.

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…

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…

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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…

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…

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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…

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 13^th 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…