The Australian Women's Register

Established in 1907, Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) is Australia’s major water safety and rescue authority and is one of the largest volunteer organisations in the country. Their mission is ‘to provide a safe beach and aquatic environment throughout Australia.’

Women had an active involvement in surf-lifesaving for many years before 1980, when they eventually became eligible to become active patrolling members of the association.

The Australian Womensport and Recreation Association Inc (AWRA) is a volunteer not-for-profit organisation that was incorporated in 2005 to provide leadership and advocacy for Australian women and girls in sport and active recreation. As well as seeking to encourage the participations of women of all ages and abilities to participate in sporting and recreational pursuits, the AWRA seeks to encourage governments and sporting and recreation providers to develop strategies that will increase the numbers of women in leadership roles in the sport and recreation industries.

Womensport Queensland Association (WQA) was incorporated in 1994 following a successful inaugural year in 1993 under the banner of the Women’ s Sports Foundation. It cam into being because its founding members believed that Queensland sportswomen deserved public acknowledgement of their achievements.

Up until recently, the main aim of the organisation was to increase recognition of Queensland’s sportswomen and their achievements. In 2007, the association plans to increase its advocacy role, by being ‘leaders in inspiring and creating winning opportunities for Queensland women and girls in sport’.

The War Widows’ Guild of Australia was formed in 1945 in Victoria by the late Mrs Jessie Mary Vasey OBE, CBE, widow of Major-General George Vasey. In 1947 the Queensland State Branch was formed. The Guild aims to watch over and protect the interests of war widows by lobbying politicians and offering its members friendship, empathy and comfort in times of need, particularly in the loss of a partner. Its motto is as relevant today as it was at the Guild’s formation over 60 years ago:-

We all belong to each other
We all need each other
It is in serving each other
And in sacrificing for our common good
That we are finding our true life

(Extract from an Empire Day Message from His Majesty the late King George the Sixth in 1949).

Gaelic Football was the preserve of men in Australia until 1994 when some Irish girls living in Sydney decided that anything the men could do they could do equally as well. With the support of their State association they organised games on an ad hoc basis and were successful to the extent that they played a demonstration game at the 1994 Australasian Championships. Much to the surprise (and delight) of spectators the game was of a very high standard and extremely well received.

As a result of the initiative in Sydney those visiting from interstate and New Zealand returned to their home bases and set out to develop women’s football locally. The development was rapid and in 1995 the first women’s football Australasian Championships were contested by New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria and Aucklan, with New South Wales victorious. Subsequent to 1995, all affiliates have ongoing State leagues and their State teams have participated at the Championships

Presently there are 30 teams playing in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland.

Bowls Australia is the governing body for lawn bowls players in Australia. Its vision is to deliver an exceptional sport and community development experience that is appealing, entertaining and accessible to all Australians.

The McLeod Country Golf Club as founded in 1968 with the establishment of the first 9 holes. The 18 hole course was completed by 1972. Located in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, it is the only golf club in the southern hemisphere managed by female members. The club welcomes both females (Members) and males (Fellows) and has recently commenced a proactive program to encourage juniors.

The Sportswomen’s Association of Australia (S.A. Division) was formed in 1966 in response to a need felt by sportswomen in this state that they should organise in order to better represent their interests and achievements. As well as organising a committee in Adelaide, regional women in South Australia formed a country branch in Waikerie.

One initiative of the association was the establishment of a ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ award in 1966, the inaugural winner of which was athlete Dianne Burge. In February 1979 the S.A. Division set up an interim Australian Executive to form a National Association, and the first national conference was held in November that year. The Association at state and national level was dissolved in 1997.

The National Fitness Council of South Australia was a government advisory body established in 1939 that alerted individuals to the importance of gaining physical fitness, and encouraged community interest in open space and the “Quality of Environment.” In 1976 the Council was taken over by the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport.

The South Australian Women’s Amateur Sports Council was established with financial and administrative assistance from the National Fitness Council to promote the interests of sportswomen in South Australia, and to help formulate “a common policy on planning and development for women’s sport”. One of its most important initiatives, in cooperation with the National Fitness Council of South Australia, was the establishment of the Women’s Memorial Playing Fields on the corner of Shepherds Hill Road and Ayliffes Road, St. Marys.

The Victorian Ladies’ Golf Union (VLGU) was established in 1906 after the golfing women of Geelong, in 1905, had initiated moves to create an organisation to further the development of golf for women in Victoria. There were six foundation clubs – Caulfield (later known as Metropolitan, Colac, Kew, Essendon (Northern), Geelong and Surrey Hills (Riversdale) – with a total of 278 members.

The women of the union immediately established themselves as women of action. Within its first six months, the Union had undertaken a standardised handicapping system, decided to introduce pennant competition, held a number of friendly interclub matches and initiated a silver medal competition, a competition that is still played as the Silver Spoon event. Since those early days, the VLGU has overseen metropolitan and country competitions, junior development and the emergence of some exceptional talent. Jane Lock, for instance, began her international career playing junior golf in competitions overseen by the VLGU.

Needless to say, the VLGU has undergone change and development throughout its 100 years of existence. Competition stopped, for instance, during the first and second world wars and the members put their considerable skills and networks to use to raise funds for the war effort. The Equal Opportunity Act of 1985 had a huge impact on the way clubs operated and laid the foundations for the way the sport is organised today.

The 1990s were a time of great change for the Union, with the most important issue being that of constitutional change. Over the years, the development of the sport in Victoria had outgrown the ability of the governing structure to operate efficiently and democratically. Between 1992 and 1994 the board worked to develop a new constitution that would take the Union into the new millennium. As a reflection of this new direction, a new name was adopted. In June 1995 the Victorian Ladies’ Golf Union became Women’s Golf Victoria.

In November 2010 Women’s Golf Victoria amalgamated with the Victorian Golf Association to form the umbrella organisation Golf Victoria.

A national body for netball in Australia was founded at a meeting on August 26-27, 1927 when the All Australia Women’s Basket Ball Association was formed in conjunction with an interstate basketball carnival. Foundation Members of the association included:

• The City Girls’ Amateur Sports Association in New South Wales
• The Adelaide Women’s Basket Ball Association in South Australia
• The Melbourne Girls’ Basket Ball Association in Victoria
• The Australian Ladies’ Basket Ball Association in Queensland
• The Basket Ball Association of Perth in Western Australia

Tasmania affiliated soon after, competing in carnivals since 1933. The Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory became full members in 1975 and 1977 respectively.

In 1970, in accordance with the change of the game’s name to ‘netball’, the association became known as the All Australia Netball Association. In 1993, the name changed again to Netball Australia.

The Sydney University Women’s Sports Association (SUWSA) was established on August 5, 1910 when twenty-four women committed to ‘further the interests of sport among University women’ by becoming ‘full active members during the season 1911’. The action was prompted by the continual refusal of the Sydney University (men’s) Sports Union, founded in 1890, to admit the women rowers, tennis and hockey players, to their membership.

Effectively, this meant that the women had no access to facilities, including University playing fields; the men did not want any ‘Newtown Tarts’ using the Sports Union’s Oval. Consequently, the concerned women undergraduates, who included Jessie Lillingston (Street) amongst their number, decided that a united body of sportswomen, speaking as one, would have a louder voice and therefore more chance of acquiring the facilities they needed. Once incorporated, the organisation received moral and financial support from senior women in the University and some interested men amongst the lecturing staff.

From these beginnings, the SUWSA grew in membership and effectiveness, always retaining its underlying aims of :

• providing women with a democratic, balanced schedule of physical activity,
• responding to the needs of its members,
• providing facilities and equipment to support all women, not just elite athletes,
• creating opportunities for all students to exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Changing social, political and economic contexts that accompanied the new millennium made it difficult for the SUWSA to continue in its historic form. The year 2002 marked the end of the SUSWA and the beginning of a new era for Sport at Sydney University. In a meeting on 3 September 2002, members agreed to combine with the Sydney University Sports Union to create a new body called Sydney University Sport. Said the Executive Director at the time, Ann Mitchell, ‘some may have had regrets [about the decision] but combining resources was seen as the best way forward.’

The City Girls’ Amateur Sports Association (CGASA) was established in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1918 to provide a mechanism by which the young working women of Sydney could participate in organised sport. Founding members, Eleanor Hinder and Margaret Thorp, used the experience and networks they developed while working as welfare officers at large department stores (Farmers and Anthony Hordens) to establish the association, which thrived throughout the 1920s. Membership suffered as the depression hit in the 1930s and the CGASA accumulated debts, but in its heyday, over fifty clubs were affiliated with the organisation, representing a cross section of ‘city girls’ from small and large businesses in the service and manufacturing industries.

In 1959 the U.S. Congress authorised and requested the President of the United States to proclaim the third week in July as Captive Nations Week. The Captive Nations Week Committee was founded in Sydney in 1965 to organise the inaugural, and subsequently annual, commemoration of Captive Nations Week in Australia. In 1971 the Committee changed its names to the Captive Nations Council of New South Wales to reflect, in part, its broadening scope of activities. Foundation member organisations comprised the Byelorussian Association of N.S.W., Central Council of Croatian Associations in Australia, Estonian Society of Sydney, Hungarian Council of N.S.W., Latvian Federation of Australia and New Zealand, Australian Lithuanian Community (Sydney District), Polish Association in N.S.W., Australian Romanian Association, Association of Australian Slovaks, Agency for Free Slovenia and Ukrainian Council of N.S.W.; by 1982 the Afghan Association in Australia and the Vietnamese Volunteer Youth in N.S.W. had become member organisations. In 1988 the Council made a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs on the War Crimes Amendment Bill, 1987. The work of the Captive Nations Council of New South Wales wound down after the fall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe.

The United Council of Migrants from Communist Dominated Europe in Australia was established in Sydney in September 1953. Representatives from various national organisations made up the Council. It sought to co-ordinate the groups’ anti-Communist activities and actions aimed at liberating their respective homelands from Communist control. The Advisory Committee was composed of Australian representatives, including State politicians, Douglas Darby and Eileen Furley, and Federal politician, W. C. Wentworth.

The Joint Baltic Committee was formed by representatives of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian communities in Sydney in 1952. Estonian-born Lia Looveer was the founding Secretary and served in that position until 2002. In June 1940 the respective homelands of Looveer and her Committee members had been occupied and annexed by Soviet Russia. A year later began the mass deportation of thousands of people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to remote regions of the U.S.S.R.. The Committee held an annual Commemoration Concert, organised to pay tribute to their compatriots who were deported and suffered under Soviet oppression for more than 50 years. The Committee liaised with Federal and State politicians to campaign for the defence of human rights and fundamental freedoms in, and independence of, the Baltic States. In 1986 the House of Representatives passed the Baltic Resolution which, in part, ‘reinforced Australia’s non-recognition de jure of the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union’.

Established in 1979, the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia (FECCA) is the peak, national body representing Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. FECCA is a non-political community-based organisation that advocates, lobbies and promotes issues on behalf of its constituency to government, business and the broader community. Apart from its national office professional staff, it is supported by the work of a voluntary Executive Council.

FECCA strives to ensure that the needs and aspirations of Australians from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds are given proper recognition in public policy. The organisation works to promote fairness and responsiveness to its constituency in the delivery and design of Government policies and programs. FECCA promotes Multiculturalism as a core value that defines what it means to be Australian in the 21st century. FECCA works to protect the fundamental rights of all Australians, regardless of cultural, spiritual, gender, linguistic, social, political or other affiliations or connections.

The Catholic Migrant Centre has been crucial to the provision of support services to immigrants to Perth for over twenty years.

From the time of her election to parliament, Franca Arean was hopeful of forming a “network” of women of all backgrounds who could meet informally, exchange ideas and help and support each other. In January 1984, she sent a letter to twenty to thirty women asking them to come to a meeting at Parliament House. They met in Feb 1984 for the first time, and the Women’s Network – Australia was born. The first Women’s Network guest was Frederika Steen, the head of a newly established Women’s Desk at the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs in Canberra.

The formation of the Greek Young Matrons’ Association was an overt attempt by second generation parents of Greek heritage to ensure that their children married Australian born Greeks like themselves. By providing them with an organisation which would offer social activities and cultural events in which young Greek people could participate, the organisers hoped that young Greeks would marry within the community.

The Centre for Philippine Concerns Australia is a national network advocating for the welfare of Filipinos in Australia

The Australian-Migrant Women’s Association was established by Dorothy Buckland-Fuller in 1974 to bring together immigrant and Australian-born women to discuss matters of common interest. Buckland-Fuller, who had some influence within the Greek community in New South Wales, was concerned that Greek women were often too inward looking. She wanted to expose them to new ideas and open lines of communication between them and other women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Buckland-Fuller was assisted by International Women’s Year funding in 1975 to promote the initiative. She received a small grant to assist in running a program of monthly meetings as the premises of the Greek Orthodox Community of New South Wales in Sydney. These meetings brought together about one hundred women at a time from different ethnic communities, as well as Buckland-Fuller’s friends from the Women’s Electoral Lobby and academic circles.

The Greek Orthodox Community is one of Australia’s oldest organisations representing Greek migrants. Apart from operating churches, it provides a wide range of migrant related social services, including afternoon Greek schools, kindergartens and aged care hostels. In more recent times, it has taken on board the need to meet its members’ cultural and artistic aspirations. This has involved a shift in emphasis towards promoting and supporting cultural initiatives not only of Greek/Australians of New South Wales but of all Australia.
In the 1970s and 80s the organisations premises were used to host meetings of the Australian-Migrant Women Association, an organisation established by Dorothy Buckland-Fuller with the aim of broadening the horizons of Australian-Greek women.

On June 2, 1976 the newly elected Australian Labor party Premier, Neville Wran, announced his cabinet’s decision to establish an Ethnic Affairs Commission. Under the Ethnic Affairs Act, 1976 ( Act No. 76, 1976) (3) the Ethnic Affairs Commission’s initial work involved the research and investigation of ethnic affairs with special emphasis on promoting the integration of different ethnic groups. The constitution and functions of a Commission to implement policy decisions in this area was also examined.

The Ethnic Affairs Commission interacted with a number of new government bodies all concerned with equal opportunity issues in society. These included the Anti-Discrimination Board which came into operation in June 1977 to address racial discrimination, the Review of New South Wales Government Administration which dealt with recruitment, promotion and equality of opportunity and the Women’s Coordination Unit of the Premier’s Department which had responsibility for creating opportunities for migrant women.

In 1978 the Ethnic Affairs Commission submitted its report, Participation, which outlined a concept of multiculturalism that went beyond preserving cultural heritage to a society where minority groups would achieve total participation in the New South Wales social and political system.

To implement this philosophy of equal opportunity Participation recommended that a Commission should be established as a strong and stable body to ensure that all elements of the New South Wales Government Administration come to regard ethnic affairs as part of their ordinary, day to day attitudes and thinking.

A new Ethnic Affairs Commission was established as a permanent government authority on 1 December 1979. It was established under the terms of the Ethnic Affairs Commission Act, Act No. 23, 1979. (7)

In 1977, when the Galbally review of Post-Arrival Migrant Programs and Services was announced, Senator Margaret Guilfoyle wrote to the Prime Minister advising him of the specific problems and special needs of migrant women. In June of that year, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser asked the Office of Women’s Affairs to set up an Interdepartmental Working Group Taskforce on Migrant Women. Officers from the following department were involved:

• Immigration and Ethnic Affairs
• Social Security
• Employment and Industrial Relations
• Productivity
• Health
• Education
• School’s Commission

Under extremely trying conditions, including endless delays caused by the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations, the taskforce completed its report in November, just making the deadline to be considered by the Galbally Review. Among other things, the report recommended that ‘wherever possible action should be taken to provide services through or in co-operation with ethnic organisations and migrant women’.

The report was regarded as a valuable resource for implementation of Recommendation 43 of the Galbally Report.

The Ethnic Childcare Development Unit was established in 1980, one of many initiatives funded through grant-in-aid programs that emerged in the wake of the Galbally Review of Migrant Post-arrival programs and services. It’s aim was to train immigrant women, many whom had overseas qualifications that were not recognised, to work in child-are centres and introduce multicultural programs.