The Australian Women's Register

Summary

The second woman member of the House of Representatives, Doris Blackburn successfully won her late husband’s Federal seat of Bourke as an Independent Labor candidate in 1946. In an electoral redistribution the seat of Bourke was abolished and Blackburn contested the new seat of Wills at the 1949 and 1951 elections, but was unsuccessful on both occasions.

She was involved in the Free Kindergarten movement and numerous campaigns for better education, playgrounds and crèches. Blackburn was a member of the Women’s Political Association in Victoria, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the Women’s Prison Council and the Save the Children Fund. In 1957, with Doug Nicholls, she was a co-founder of the Aboriginal Advancement League and the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement.

Events

• 1911

  Attended her first meeting of the Women’s Political Association

• 2014

  Married Maurice McCrae Blackburn (died 1944), they were to have 2 sons and a daughter

• 1946 - 1950

  Member House of Representatives (Independent) for Bourke, Victoria

• 1913

  Acted as campaign secretary for Vida Goldstein

• 1957

  Co-founded the Aboriginal Advancement League with Doug Nicholls

• 1916 - 1917

  With her husband she was an anti-conscription campaigner

• 1952

  Travelled overseas as an emissary of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

• 1948

  President of the Council for Civil Liberties