The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Lenore Bishop, née Wilson, was born in Mount Gambier, South Australia where her father was a butcher. After finishing high school she began working, first as a legal secretary, then as a journalist, and then with her husband in a hardware business. Lenore became heavily involved in community work during her three children’s school years. Following the retirement of Mount Gambier’s first woman councillor in 1959, Lenore was asked to stand. She was re-elected two years later unopposed. At this time she was one of very few women in local government. In 1964 Lenore nominated for mayor and was unopposed, becoming the first woman mayor in South Australia. Lenore retired from council in 1967 but returned as the region’s first woman alderman in 1972.