The Australian Women's Register

Florence Taylor, the eldest of five daughters, of John and Eliza (née Brooks) Parsons immigrated to Australia with her family. She attended Presbyterian Ladies’ College (Sydney), and commenced clerical work at an architectural and engineering firm, after her father passed away suddenly.

Realising that draftsmen received a higher scale of pay, she decided to obtain the qualification and enrolled in evening classes at Sydney Technical College – the only female in the class. Between 1900 and 1902 she was apprenticed to the office of Sydney architect Edmund Garton, where she was allocated the less interesting menial tasks. In 1902 she transferred to the office of John Burcham Clamp where she remained until she completed her studies in 1907. In that year her employer Clamp nominated her for associate membership of the New South Wales Institute of Architects. Her membership was granted 13 years later in 1920.

On 3 April 1907, she married George Augustine Taylor, an architect-engineer, whose hobbies included aviation and gliding. Florence Taylor, who shared her husband’s interests, became the first woman to attempt a glider flight in Australia, on 5 December 1909. She flew from the Narrabeen sand hills near Sydney, in a guilder built by her husband, to became the first woman to fly a heavier-than-air machine in Australia.

Upon marriage the Taylors established their own company, the Building Publishing Company, a producer of trade and professional journals. Also the Taylors were founding members of the Town Planning Association in New South Wales in 1913.

After her husband’s death in 1928, Florence Taylor continued to manage the company until she retired due to ill health in 1961, although she scaled down the company publishing list. Throughout her life Taylor continued to produce town planning schemes.