The Australian Women's Register

Marg Hypatia was a key member of the women’s only anti-nuclear group, Feminists Against Nuclear Energy (FANG), and was a media contact for the group.

Robin Eagle has been active in the South Australian Women’s Movement since 1976 and a lesbian feminist activist in Victoria before then. Born in Hopetoun, Victoria, she joined the Women’s Liberation Movement in Victoria in 1975. A dedicated community worker, she helped establish and run many community groups. She is on the Board of Management for the Women’s Studies Resource Centre in Adelaide, South Australia 1999-2013. Robin has published a book of poetry.

Women Against Nuclear Energy (WANE) was formed as a result of a growing feminist concern about, and a desire for action on, uranium and nuclear power issues. WANE’s objectives included educating and activating women as citizens rather than as mothers and carers. The exclusion of males was felt to better enable this, providing women with an environment free from the constraints of sexism that were felt to be inherent in the hierarchical structure of other anti-nuclear groups.

WANE aimed to work with women’s groups in unions against uranium. The group also supported investigation into finding alternative energy sources. WANE believed the implications of a solar future were inherent in feminist theory (for example, people before profits). WANE maintained strong links to Campaign Against Nuclear Energy (CANE) and helped organise Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND).

Belonging to the small aristocracy of the Ionian Islands, Lady Diamantina Bowen married Sir George Fergerson Bowen on 28th April 1856, who later went on to become the first governor of Queensland, Australia in 1859. An advocate for the underprivileged, injured and infirm, Lady Bowen founded many benevolent and charitable organisations, particularly in the field of public health, and was instrumental in the development of health care services in Queensland.

Women’s Action Against Global Violence (WAAGV) was formed in Sydney in the early 1980s, as an organisation that aimed to support “women and children of all races and cultures in their struggle against violence and oppression”. WAAGV was distinctly anti-nuclear, citing the nuclear arms race and its direct link to uranium mining, as well as the desecration of Australian Aboriginal land, the endangerment of workers’ health and environmental instability as the basis for the group’s opposition to uranium mining.

WAAGV organised and supported numerous protests and events, including the Pine Gap Peace Camp, 1983, an all women’s peace camp at Lucas Heights, women’s only dances and a ‘Die-In’, a peaceful action that was intended as a symbolic representation of nuclear attack. The group felt that it was necessary to retain a women only composition as it provided an environment where women could speak out, enabling a correction of a gender imbalance that was identified within the decision making process in other groups.

They had strong links to other women’s peace groups including Feminist Anti-Nuclear Group (FANG) and Women Against Nuclear Energy (WANE) in Adelaide.

Born in Gorton, Lancashire, England, Doris Bardsley came to live in the Brisbane area of Queensland prior to World War 1. Trained at the Diamantina Hospital for Chronic Diseases, she completed her midwifery certificate in Melbourne before returning to Queensland (Qld) to serve as matron at St Denis’s Hospital in Toowoomba. In October of 1923, Bardsley joined the staff of the maternal and Child Welfare Service, devoting the rest of her life to the expansion of child-welfare services, as well as the improved education and training of ante-natal nurses.

Connie was born in Coventry, England in 1925 to a working class family. She migrated to Whyalla, South Australia with her husband, Bill and their son.

Connie became active in the Anti-War Movement during the Vietnam War, when her son was a teenager, a newspaper announcement regarding conscription being the trigger.

This involvement lead to her joining the Women’s Liberation Movement, where she was part of the core group that established the Women’s Liberation Centre at Bloor Court, Adelaide and a counselling service as part of the centre. She also helped set up the first Women’s Shelter in Adelaide and the Christies Beach Shelter, in suburban Adelaide.

Connie was a member of the Tuesday Afternoon Group, a group of older women interested in women’s issues. She was a poet and writer with the Adelaide based, Friendly Street Poets from its inception and has been published in many of the Friendly Street Poet anthologies, as well as in journals, magazines, and newspapers. She also published two collections with Friendly Street Poets, Other Ways of Looking c1988) and Earthdweller. Ugly as a Boxer’s Glove was also published about Connie’s life, as a text spoken by Connie and edited by Marg McHugh.

Upon the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914, Annie Wheeler, a widow from central Queensland living in London, took it upon herself to improve the lines of communication between Queensland soldiers abroad and their loved ones Back home. Taking up residence near the Australian Army Headquarters and the Anzac Buffet in London, she endeavoured to contact all soldiers from central Queensland, be they injured, on leave or at the trenches. By keeping a detailed index card on each soldier, she corresponded with servicemen on the battlefield, forwarded packages and mail, whilst also providing comfort to those in hospital. Becoming known as the ‘Mother of Queensland’, by 1918 she provided reliable correspondence for over 2300 soldiers. Each fortnight Mrs Wheeler sent home detailed letters which were published in the Capricornian and the Morning Bulletin.

The Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia made her an associate member in 1920. In the same year, she was presented with an O.B.E.

After her death, a memorial plaque was erected at Mt Thompson Memorial Gardens in Brisbane, Queensland.

Briony Monahan was a founding member of the Feminist Anti-Nuclear Group (FANG) who travelled to Greenham Common and the peace camp at Comiso, Sicily. Briony was also involved in FANG’s peace camp at Smithfield, South Australia, and corresponded with the group while overseas.

Esma Banner worked in Europe for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) as an employment officer (c. 1945-50) and a welfare officer in a displaced persons camp (c. 1950-51).

Trained in Adelaide, Dr Ethel Ambrose applied to the Poona and Indian Village Mission established by Tasmanian evangelist Charles Reeve. Ambrose worked at the mission hospital in Nasrapur from 1905, moving to Pandharpur in 1909 where she led fundraising efforts for a hospital. By the time of her death in 1934, the mission’s medical program had reached over 300 Indian villages.

With her husband, clergyman Mervyn Archdall, Martha pushed for the establishment of a deaconess institution at Balmain, New South Wales, in 1885. Bethany was opened in 1891 with Canon Archdall as director. It was Martha who opened a parish school, and by 1900 Bethany had schools at Balmain, Lewisham, Dapto and Bega.

Louisa Ardill was matron-superintendent of the Home of Hope for Fallen Women (later the South Sydney Women’s Hospital) in New South Wales.

The Women’s Theatre Group was active in Adelaide from 1975 to 1989. The group wrote, produced, directed, scored, performed and built the stage for their productions. They performed cabaret and theatrical works. All-women productions were a first in Adelaide. The women worked through a collective. They won the Adelaide Festival Centre best production award for ‘Redheads Revenge’ in 1978.

Other productions included ‘Christobel in Paris’ 1975, ‘Caroline Chisel Show’ 1976, International Women’s Day Concert and ‘Chores 1’ in 1977, ‘Chores 2’ and ‘I want I want’ 1979, ‘Out of the Frying Pan’ 1980,’ Onward to Glory’ 1982, ‘Margin to Mainstream’ and ‘Women and Work Women and Paid Work’ 1984, ‘Sybils Xmas Concert ‘1985, and 1989 ‘Is this Seat Taken?’, this last show explored relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women. The group included the Women in Education Theatre Group and the Feminist Theatre Group.

The Adelaide Women’s Liberation Movement Archive was established in 1984 by a concerned group of women who wanted to preserve the history of what was called the second wave of feminism. With the aid of the Community Employment Program and the feminist community, memorabilia was collected along with the papers of a variety of groups and individuals. The material was collected from late 1969 through to 2008.

Sylvia Kinder was active in both the Adelaide Women’s Liberation Movement and the Sydney Women’s Liberation Movement. As a teacher she was involved with the South Australian Institute of Teachers (SAIT) which questioned sexist teaching practices within schools. She helped bring changes in education standards designed to reduce gender discrimination, including the use of non sexist language in school and equal opportunities for girls. Sylvia was a member of the Australian Women’s Education Coalition (South Australian Branch). She was involved in the establishment of the Adelaide Women’s Liberation Movement, Women’s Studies Resource Centre, Adelaide Women’s Liberation Movement Archives and the Hindmarsh Women’s Community Health Centre. She was a member of International Women’s Year National Advisory Committee 1974-1976. She wrote a book about the women’s liberation movement in Adelaide.

Ms Print was established to provide inexpensive quality women’s work, to print women’s artistic work and to run workshops for sharing experiences. It operated out of the Women’s Studies Resource Centre from 1979 to 1983.

5 MMM was a public radio broadcaster that presented a number of women’s programs, including; Women’s Weekly, and Sunday Monthly . The programs had female presenters at a time when commercial stations did not. The women produced, wrote, presented and were the audio engineers. A small collective organised the programs’ content, time lines and themes. The station became 3D radio in 1988.

Women Against Rape (WAR) was formed after the 1981 ANZAC Day March in Canberra where three hundred women demonstrated about and for women raped in war. The Adelaide women organised a rally in support of the women who had been arrested in Canberra.

The Unemployed Women’s Union was a response to the economic downturn of 1980. The members wanted to debunk the myth of married women who were working as the cause of unemployment, to defend the right for all women to work, and to act as a support group for unemployed women. They picketed employers, published a newsletter, spoke at rallies, wrote letters to newspapers and politicians, and applied for jobs en masse.

Suzi Quixley was a feminist activist involved with the Women Against Rape (WAR) Collective in Adelaide, South Australia in 1981-1982.

The International Women’s Day (IWD) Collective is not to be confused with the IWD Committee which was formed in 1938. The IWD Collective was formed by the second wave feminists and was concerned with the IWD March; the festival or picnic after the march and the IWD Dance. They organised themes for the day and speakers. They also produced posters, badges and t-shirts.

Silver Moon has been a political activist since 1968, and was active during the Anti Viet man War Moratoriums and anti apartheid demonstrations in the 1970s. She became active in the women’s movement while still at high school. She has spent her life as a peace and environmental activist and as an anarchist-feminist activist.

Feminist Anti-Nuclear Group (FANG) was formed in November 1982, initially as an organisation which enabled women to demonstrate their solidarity with the women of the Greenham Common Peace Camp.

Central to FANG’s philosophy was a non-hierarchical structure, where women were free to feel empowered and express their desire to work toward the common goals of peace, social justice and a nuclear-free future.

The group organised several actions, including a peace camp at the US Base at Smithfield, and a 2-week vigil in support of the Pine Gap Peace Camp. The group also coordinated women’s only spaces at Roxby Downs actions, as well as information and film nights to educate women about worldwide peace movements and anti-nuclear actions, to educate its members about non-violent direct action techniques.

In 1988 a small group of Adelaide women formed the Women’s Environmental Action Group, to educate people on environmental issues effecting their lives and how they could help change things

Hindmarsh Women’s Community Health Centre was the first women’s health centre in South Australia. The Women’s Liberation Movement recognised the need for a separate women’s health centre from the number of health related calls and personal enquiries it received and lobbied the government for assistance. Funding was granted in 1974 and 6 Mary St, Hindmarsh was officially open in 1976. The Health Centre became a teaching centre for women’s health in late 1975 and produced pamphlets on both general and gynaecological health. The Rape Crisis Centre evolved from the Health Centre.

Funding came through the state government and as a result there were some clashes between the bureaucracy and the feminist executive over how the centre should be run. This was further complicated by the clashing politics of the various feminist groups involved in the centre, which was run by a feminist collective. Conflict with the State Health Department eventually lead to the withdrawal of funding.

After the intervention of the Women’s Adviser to the Premier, who argued the case for the need for specialised women’s health services, the centre was moved to North Adelaide and became Women’s Health Statewide. The Centre then became known as the Welling Place, providing alternative health including a vegetable patch for the community. 6 Mary St was demolished in 1989 to make way for the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Deborah McCulloch was an English teacher and later a lecturer at Salisbury CAE. She had became involved in the women’s movement in 1971. She was a member of Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) when it started in South Australia. She was appointed as the first Women’s Adviser to the Premier of South Australia in 1976 by Don Dunstan.