Ricky BURGES

Ricky Burges was the first woman to head the Perth Zoo, when she became the Zoo’s chief exec­u­tive offi­cer between 1995 – 1998.

In 1997, Ricky was the West­ern Australian…

Lillian Georgina FRANK

Born 16 January 1930

Also known as: née Jacob

First woman hair­dress­er to be trained at Eliz­a­beth Arden.
11 June 1977 — Appoint­ed a Mem­ber of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), for involve­ment with char­i­ties, includ­ing the…

Julia Margaret GUERIN

Born 23/4/1858, Died 26/7/1923

Also known as: Bella

Bel­la Guerin was Aus­trali­a’s first woman uni­ver­si­ty grad­u­ate, award­ed Bach­e­lor of Arts (Hons) from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mel­bourne in 1883. In 1881 with three oth­er female students,…

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Margaret Hilda FRIEDEL

Also known as: Marg

since 1974 – OIC and group leader of Com­mon­wealth Sci­en­tif­ic and Indus­tri­al Research Organ­i­sa­tion (CSIRO) Sus­tain­able Ecosys­tems’ Lab­o­ra­to­ry, Alice Springs, North­ern Territory.1996 -…

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Elizabeth Jean ANDREW

Born 1948, Died 12 April 1993

Also known as: Elizabeth Andrew-Oates

North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry’s first woman to hold an exec­u­tive and Cab­i­net posi­tion. At first, she was the Exec­u­tive Mem­ber for Edu­ca­tion and Con­sumer Ser­vices, then for Edu­ca­tion and Law…

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Margaret Sarah THOMAS

Born 23/12/1842, Died 24/12/1929

Also known as: née Cook

1857 — First woman sculp­tor in Australia.

Sculp­tor. Exhib­it­ed a por­trait bust at first Vic­to­ri­an Soci­ety of Fine Arts.

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Dorothy O'BRIEN

Born 29/11/1923, Died 2004

Twin sis­ter of Moyia O’BRIEN who, togeth­er, were pio­neer Occu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­pists in Queens­land. Their lega­cy to Queens­land ​“The Sun­shine Wel­fare and Remedial…

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Vicki DARKEN

Born 1929, Died 3/05/2014

Also known as: née Ormond

The first Miss North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry (Vic­ki Ormond); mar­ried (1942) to Con­sta­ble Bob Dark­en, their tent hon­ey­moon gave Hon­ey­moon Gap its name; a ​“pio­neer” who lived in rough…

Emily MacARTHUR

Born 26/2/1806, Died 27/11/1880

Also known as: née Stone, E. M. Fecit, Amelia MacArthur, Amelia Stone, Emily Stone

Wife of James MacArthur (son of Eliz­a­beth and John Macarthur). Con­tin­ued work on ​“Cam­den Park” with husband.
Taught farm chil­dren (free and con­vict) at school estab­lished by…

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Caroline Wilhelmina LEHMANN

Born 15/3/1873, Died 8/5/1955

Also known as: Minnie, Caroline Dux

Pio­neer of Parna­roo and Clare dis­tricts of South Australia.Charity worker.

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Joanne SCHILLING

2007 — First female Gov­er­nor in North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Rotary Club.

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Val DYER

1994 — ABC Rur­al Woman of the Year

Pio­neer of North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Cat­tle Sta­tion, ​‘Hay­field’

Helen WILLIAMS

Born 1945

First woman to head a Com­mon­wealth gov­ern­ment depart­ment when she was appoint­ed Sec­re­tary of the Dep­tart­ment of Edu­ca­tion in 1985.

1979: Ear­ly in her pub­lic ser­vice career,…

Rosetta Jane BIRKS

Born 12 March 1856, Died 3 October 1911

Also known as: née Thomas, Rose

Chris­t­ian wom­en’s leader active in many areas includ­ing wel­fare of girls and suffrage.

Presided over sev­er­al Bap­tist wom­en’s asso­ci­a­tions, includ­ing a moth­er’s union,…

Johanna Maria Luise LIEBLER

Also known as: née Kuffner, Luise

Johan­na Maria Luise Liebler came to Her­manns­burg more than thir­ty years after Dorothee and Wil­helmine. She arrived on 1 May 1910 with her hus­band who was a new­ly grad­u­at­ed missionary.…

Clara DENNIS

Born 7 March 1916, Died 4 June 1971

Also known as: née Dennis, Clare, Clara Golding

Clare Den­nis was the first Aus­tralian woman to com­pete in the Empire Games (1934, Lon­don) win­ning gold in the 200 yards breaststroke.
1931 — Won her first New South Wales and…

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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.

Florence Violet McKENZIE

Born 28/9/1890, Died 23/05/1982

Also known as: née Granville, Vi, Violet Wallace, Mrs Mac

Aus­trali­a’s first female elec­tri­cal engi­neer, licensed woman ama­teur radio oper­a­tor, and first female mem­ber of the Wire­less Insti­tute of Australia.

Flo­rence Violet…

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Lauren MITCHELL

Born 23 July 1991

First Aus­tralian female gym­nast to win a World Cup Final. This was in Madrid, Spain, on the bal­ance beam.

2009 World Cham­pi­onships sil­ver medal­ist on bal­ance beam and floor and 2010…

Dianne SULLIVAN

2003 — First North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry school teacher to rep­re­sent Aus­tralia at N.A.S.A. (USA) at their space camp.

Grew up in Alice Springs where she taught at Our Lady of the…

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Laura THOMAS

Born 1967

Also known as: née Perucich

2001 — First woman in Aus­tralia to be ​‘Chief Whip Crack­er’ on a major car launch — Hold­en Monaro’s $60m project.

Alice Maude NORTHCOTE

Died 06/1934

Also known as: née Alice Brooke, Alice Stephen

She arranged the first ever exhi­bi­tion of Aus­tralian wom­en’s art held at the Exhi­bi­tion build­ing, Mel­bourne in 1907, dur­ing her hus­band’s term as Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al of…

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…

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Mara WARWICK

1998 — Award­ed a dual Ful­bright and George Mur­ray Schol­ar­ship, com­plet­ed PhD Stan­ford University.
Dr

2010 — Appoint­ed to man­age largest emer­gency loan in the World Bank’s…

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Anna Wilhelmine Charlotte Dorothea SCHWARZ

Also known as: née Schultz (Schultz, Schultze), Wilhelmine

The first white women to set­tle in Cen­tral Aus­tralia were Dorothea Queck­en­st­edt and Wil­helmine Schulze from Ger­many, the wives of mis­sion­ar­ies Kempe and Schwarz. They arrived at…

Marion Lillian ADDISON

Born 21 December 1885, Died 27 November 1982

Also known as: Lily

1919 — First Aus­tralian woman to play at Wimbledon. 

At the time, Lily was the wom­en’s sin­gles cham­pi­on of Australia. 

She was the South Aus­tralian Ladies Ten­nis Cham­pi­on in…

Margaret HEWITT

2009 — Togeth­er with David HEWITT, both received the Order of Aus­tralia Medal for their work on bush com­mu­ni­ties and record­ing oral his­to­ries of indige­nous people.

Gillian May ARMSTRONG

Born 18/12/1950

Gillian Arm­strong is an award-win­ning Aus­tralian fea­ture film and doc­u­men­tary direc­tor, whose films often fea­ture female per­spec­tives and pro­tag­o­nists. Gillian became the first woman…

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Mary SANDERCOCK

1970s — First female Prop­er­ty Val­uer in South Australia.

Marie Louise Hamilton MACK

Born 10/10/1870, Died 23/11/1935

Also known as: née Mack, registered as Mary Louisa, Louise Creed, Gouli Gouli, Louise Leyland, Mary Mack

1914 — First woman war cor­re­spon­dent, Bel­gium, report­ing for the Evening News and the Dai­ly Mail.

Late 1880s — Con­trib­u­tor to The Bul­letin, an Aus­tralian mag­a­zine, Sydney.1896…

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Catherine Amelia WELLS

Born 17/9/1868

Also known as: née Long, Kate

Kate was the first white woman to live at Alice Springs.
Drove the mail and pas­sen­ger coach from Alice Springs to Ood­na­dat­ta when her hus­band was too drunk to drive.

Lydia LONGMORE

Born 15/7/1874, Died 30/10/1967

1917 — First female Inspec­tor of Schools (Low­er Grades).
1957 — Offi­cer of the Order of the British Empire (Civ­il), ​“Moth­er’s Clubs in South Australia.”

1918 — Founded…

Elizabeth DALMAN

Born 1934

Eliz­a­beth Cameron Dal­man was the pio­neer of con­tem­po­rary dance in Aus­tralia. She was the founder of the Aus­tralian Dance The­atre, this country’s first pro­fes­sion­al mod­ern dance…

Mary Jane DOUGLAS

Born 9 October 1958

Also known as: née Gillett

First woman employed nation­al­ly by Fed­er­at­ed Store­man and Pack­ers Union.

1996 – 2002 — A mem­ber of the Aus­tralian Labor Par­ty, rep­re­sent­ing Wer­ribee. The seat was abolished.…

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Kath BAIRD

1945 — Put her Girl Guide expe­ri­ence to work with British Girl Guides, Gov­ern­ment and Red Cross to help Euro­pean dis­placed peo­ple (main­ly chil­dren) to a bet­ter life. First Ger­man Girl…

Estelle Muriel Bridson CRIBB

Born 26 February 1877, Died 5 November 1947

Also known as: Dess, Dessie

1901 — First woman to grad­u­ate from Syd­ney Uni­ver­si­ty with a Mas­ter of Arts and a Math­e­mat­ics Degree with Honours.

1892 — Estelle was a first day pupil at Ipswich Girls…

Stephanie ZANK

Born 1969

Aus­trali­a’s first woman to become a Mer­chant Marine Engi­neer (1994).


To become a Mer­chant Marine Engi­neer requires a recog­nised qual­i­fi­ca­tion, qual­i­fy­ing sea-time and…

Telka Alathea WILLIAMS

Died 27 April 2018

Also known as: née Rowe, Althea Telka Rowe, Alathea Telka Rowe

One of the first women in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry pub­lic ser­vice to be grant­ed equal pay.
1977 — Tel­ka was made Mem­ber of the Order of the British Empire.

1956 – 1984 — Telka…

Nova Maree PERIS

Born 25 February 1971

Also known as: née Peris, Nova Peris-Kneebone

1996 — First Indige­nous Aus­tralian to win an Olympic Gold Medal.
1997 — Named Young Aus­tralian of the Year.
2000 — First car­ri­er of the Olympic flame on Aus­tralia Soil at Uluru,…

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Daphne Rosina COLLESS

Born 28 May 1928, Died 10 June 2016

Also known as: née Oliver, Rose

First Aborginal woman man­ag­er of the Alco­hol Relief Cen­tre, Cairns, Queensland.
1984 — Received the Medal of the Order of Australia.

1987 — The first recip­i­ent of the Human Rights…

Mary Taylor BURNELL

Born 21 February 1907, Died 25 August 1996

Also known as: née Angel

1953. First female Dean of a Fac­ul­ty of Anaes­thet­ics in the world (work­ing in Victoria).

Mary Morton ALLPORT

Born 17/5/1806, Died 10/6/1895

Also known as: Mary Morton Chapman (maiden name)

Mary All­port was Tas­ma­ni­a’s first pro­fes­sion­al woman artist. She exhib­it­ed in local exhi­bi­tions and pub­lished lith­o­graphs. She adver­tised her pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices as a portrait…

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Heather WHITTAKER

Born 1929

Pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia in teach­ing in remote set­tle­ments. Her first post was Papun­ya, North­ern Territory.

Diamantina BOWEN

Born 1833, Died 17 November 1893

Also known as: née Roma, Contessa Diamantina Roma, Lady Bowen

1859 — As the Gov­er­nor’s wife, she became First Lady of Queens­land on the sep­a­ra­tion of Queens­land from New South Wales.1864 — The Lady Bowen ​‘Lying In Hos­pi­tal’ was…

Jessie Constance Alicia TRAILL

Born 29/7/1881, Died 15/05/1967

One of first women to prac­tice etch­ing in Australia

Dur­ing the pro­longed drought in Cen­tral Aus­tralia in the 1920s many Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple died of beri-beri and scurvy. Pastor…

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Katrina LEE

1978 — Kat­ri­na Lee was the first on com­mer­cial television.

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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…

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…

Beryl Edith BEAUREPAIRE

Born 24/9/1923

Also known as: Dame Beryl Beaurepaire née Bedggood

A pio­neer­ing Aus­tralian fem­i­nist, Beryl knew how to push boundaries.

Beryl’s first attempts to force accep­tance of equal­i­ty was dur­ing World War Two when she joined the Women’s…

Margaret DOYLE

Born 1920, Died 25 February 2002

Also known as: Margaret Henderson

Aus­trali­a’s first female radio announc­er was appoint­ed by the Aus­tralian Broad­cast­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (ABC) and seen here at their Syd­ney stu­dios in Novem­ber 1940. The major­i­ty of…