The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Bella Guérin became the first woman to graduate from an Australian university when she was awarded her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Melbourne (number 255) in December 1883. She taught first at Loreto Convent, Ballarat then as lady principal of Ballarat School of Mines university classes, resigning upon marriage to Henry Halloran. A civil servant and poet, Halloran married Guérin on 28 June 1891 aged 80. Following his death Guérin married George D’Arcie Lavender.

Bella Guérin was politically active and a member of the suffrage movement. She became vice-president of the Women’s Political Association in 1912, and later joined the Labor Party.

Events

• 1970

  Passed the University of Melbourne Matriculation Examination, passing in Latin, English, French, Arithmetic, Algebra, Euclid and History

• 1970

  Awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Melbourne (number 255)

• 1970

  Married 80 year old Henry Halloran (died 19 May 1893) at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, she bore him a son, Henry Marco.

• 2009

  Married George D’Arcie Lavender, 30 years her junior

• 1970 - 1903

  Office-bearer with the Bendigo Women’s Franchise League

• 1904 - 1917

  Teacher at schools in Camperdown, South Yarra, St Kilda, Parkville and Brunswick

• 1912 - 1914

  Vice-president of the Women’s Political Association

• 1913

  Co-authored Vida Goldstein’s Senate election pamphlet

• 1916

  Led the Labor Women’s Anti-Conscription Fellowship campaign during the referendum

• 2018

  Appointed vice-president of the Labor Party’s Women’s Central Organizing Committee