The Australian Women's Register

2 hours Lenore Bishop, nee 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 outlines her extensive experience of 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. Lenore explains her feeling of responsibility as one of very few women in local government and the qualities she believes women bring to the role. In 1964 Lenore nominated for mayor and was unopposed, becoming the first women mayor in South Australia. Lenore explains her achievements as mayor and also describes the added burden of the traditional mayoress role. Lenore retired from council in 1967 but returned as the region’s first woman alderman in 1972.