The Australian Women's Register

The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary established Marymead Children’s Centre (now Marymead Child and Family Centre) in 1967 as a specialised facility to provide residential care for children of families in temporary crisis. In the early years this might include a mother in hospital, a family breaking up, a child neglected or in danger. As the city grew rapidly so did demand for government-funded social services to provide for more complex needs requiring professional as well as community support. The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary withdrew from Canberra in 1986, transferring ownership of Marymead to the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. Since then, the agency has grown steadily, staffed by professional welfare workers (predominantly female), to become one of the major social services agencies in the ACT. By 2012 it was providing support, in the home and through out-of-home care, to vulnerable and disadvantaged children and their families across the Australian Capital Territory and the surrounding New South Wales region.

Adele (Jill) Mildenhall arrived in Canberra during the settlement’s infancy. She quickly became involved in several charitable and religious organisations including St John the Baptist Church, the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the Mothercraft Society. She was also a valued member of Canberra’s social scene as a tennis player and an entertainer.

Una Mitchell was Headmistress of Canberra Girls’ Grammar between 1937 and 1947. She left Canberra to return to her home state to become Headmistress of St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in Mosman Park in Perth. She retired in 1967 and was appointed Chairman of the Conference of Independent Girls’ Schools of Australia. She was an inspiring Science teacher and highly respected principal, who had high educational and moral standards. She dedicated her life to ensuring the girls in her care were prepared for what she saw as a rapidly changing and modernizing world. She taught them to have ‘a high regard for personal integrity’, to be adaptable as well as to have ‘enquiring minds and the spirit of adventure’.

Gladys Pendred was considered in the mid-twentieth century ‘the main Australian authority in the field of early childhood education’. In 1944, after lobbying by Canberra kindergarten and mothercraft groups, Gladys was asked by the Minister of the Interior to draw up a plan for the extension of pre-school care in the Australian Capital Territory, known as the ‘Pendred Plan’. Pendred Street in the Canberra suburb of Pearce recognises her contribution to the Canberra community.

Gail Radford’s first career was in veterinary science. In 1970 she joined Canberra Women’s Liberation and was the first Convenor of WEL-ACT. In 1973 she was appointed to the first National Committee on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation.

In 1975, she was appointed to the Office of the Public Service Board in Canberra as the Director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Section. For fifteen years Gail shaped and led EEO policies and programs, firstly from the Public Service Board and later from the Public Service Commission.

In 1992, Gail was appointed to the position of Chief of the Human Resources Development Division in the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris. At the conclusion of her contract, she returned to Australia in 1994 to become a Member of the Immigration Review Tribunal in Sydney. In 2001 she returned to Canberra to research and write at the Australian National University on the history of WEL and EEO.

In 1985, Gail became a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to women’s affairs and EEO.

From her arrival in Canberra in 1947 till close to her death in 1999 Lady Nora Randall was an indefatigable worker for services and organisations which sought to make life easier for people, with a special focus on women, young families, and newcomers to Canberra. She was awarded an MBE in 1982 in recognition of her many and remarkably varied contributions to the development of the Canberra community.

Professor Sue Serjeantson had a distinguished career as a geneticist in the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University. Her research concerned the inherited susceptibility to disease and the human immune response to organ transplantation. She was the first woman to hold the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University.

As a young migrant who arrived in Australia from the Netherlands in 1953, Petronella Wensing became concerned about the welfare of other migrants, particularly women, and how they could be successfully integrated into the community. As a consequence of her growing awareness of the problems that existed for them, she became a delegate of the St. Patrick’s branch of the Catholic Women’s League and on 22 June 1961, a member of the Good Neighbour Council of the ACT. Her work with migrants was recognised in the A.C.T. International Women’s Day Awards 2011.

As a skilled artisan her specialities are lace making and embroidery. She was foundation President and is now a Life Member of the Canberra Lace Makers Association: a past President of the Embroiders’ Guild of the A.C.T. and as well, a member of the Australian Lace Makers Guild. She has continued to volunteer and consult with the Australian National Art Gallery and the Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra on lace and textiles.

Jean Mulvaney was an active and committed community worker in Canberra from the mid-1960s until her death in 2004. She was a founding member of Canberra Lifeline, the ACT Girl Guides Commissioner, and president of the Canberra Mothercraft Society, the Queen Elizabeth II Family Centre Committee, and the University House Ladies Drawing Room. She was also an active member of the Civil Rehabilitation Committee (Prisoners’ Aid) and served on the National Council of Women.

Salme Koobakene was born in rural Estonia and undertook tertiary studies at the University of Tartu. It is likely that the second Soviet invasion of her homeland ended the possibility of her graduating, when she joined tens of thousands fleeing. She reached what became the American zone of Germany and was selected by the Australia Government to be in the first party of refugees to be resettled from Germany. The bulk of her working life was spent at the Menzies Library of the Australian National University. In her estate, she left an endowment to the National Gallery of Australia and another to the Country Women’s Association for annual grants to high school students and young carers in the Canberra-Monaro region.

Yetty Landau was an actor and comedian who worked in Melbourne and with travelling companies. She was a popular broadcaster in Melbourne and Canberra and with her actor husband set up schools which taught drama, elocution and public speaking. After her husband’s death Yetty continued teaching verse speaking, training choirs and successfully preparing students for the examinations of Trinity College, London.

The Auxiliary of Marymead Child and Family Centre is a volunteer group established in 1966 to raise funds in support of the services provided by Marymead to Canberra children and families in need. Over the ensuing years the Auxiliary initiated Canberra’s first Walkathon which, together with an annual Button Day and numerous other fundraising activities, raised significant sums annually to help Marymead’s work with disadvantaged and vulnerable children. In the process, the Auxiliary has galvanised the active participation of thousands of members of schools, businesses, sporting and service groups and embassies across the Australian Capital Territory. It continues today to be a major source of non-government funds for the agency.

Titles/ Honours
• 2012 ACT Senior Australian of the Year
• 2009 Australia Council’s $10,000 Visual Arts Emeritus Medal
• 2005 New South Wales Premier’s Award for Script Writing for the documentary series, The Art of War 2004-2005
• 2004 HonDUniv (Queensland University) 2004
• 2003 Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
• 2001 – Centenary Medal
• HonDLit (Curtin University)
• 1996: AO – Officer of the Order of Australia, in recognition of service to art and to the community as Director of the Australian National Gallery
• 1996 The Australian newspaper’s Australian of the Year
• 1996 HonLLD (ANU)
• 1995 HonDA (RMIT)
• 1990 AM – Member of the Order of Australia, in recognition of service to the arts, particularly in the field of arts administration and education
• 1988 Fulbright Scholar

Betty Churcher AO AM FAHA was director of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra from 1990-1997 where she was nicknamed “Blockbuster Betty” because of the large-scale exhibitions of famous artworks she organised to make art relevant and accessible to the community. Betty Churcher has been a pioneer and role model for women in the art world: she was the first woman to head a tertiary institution when she was Dean of the Art and Design School, Phillip Institute of Technology (now RMIT University), the first female director of a state art gallery when appointed to the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the first female director of the National Gallery of Australia.

Honours and awards
1987 Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of service to literature, particularly in the field of poetry
1996 HonDLitt, University of Sydney
2006 New South Wales Premier’s Special Award
2006 New South Wales Alice award
2001 The Age Book of the Year Book of the Year and Poetry Awards for Untold Lives & Later Poems
1996 Australia Council Writer’s Emeritus Award
1996 Emeritus Fellowship, Literature Board of the Australia Council
1985 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, 1985 for “The Three Fates”
1985 honorary life member of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature
1984 Patrick White Award
1984 Grace Leven Poetry Prize for “The Three Fates”
1980 Senior Fellowship, Literature Board of the Australia Council
1979 Robert Frost Prize
1978 Fellowship of Australian Writers Christopher Brennan Award
1977 Australian National University Honorary Convocation Member
1966 Myer Award II for Australian Poetry for Cock Crow
1948 The Sydney Morning Herald Award for poetry, for “The Ship of Ice”

Poet Rosemary Dobson’s significant contribution to Australian literature is evident in the long list of literary awards she received. She began writing at the age of 7, typeset and printed her first book aged 17 and published over twenty poetry collections and other books during her life. The most recent poetry book, Collected, was published just three months before her death in 2012. Recognised early in her career as a significant poet, Dobson was acclaimed as representing “a coming of age for Australian poetry” along with Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright and David Campbell. Contemplative and meditative, Dobson’s poetry is rich with references to art, history, relationship and the Australian landscape. Her move to Canberra in 1971 brought her into a rich literary and artistic community and she was freed to write again after five years in England when her pen remained still. Dobson became a vital member of Canberra’s literary community contributing generously of her time as mentor to younger poets, providing readings for poetry lovers and continuing to publish her own work until she died in 2012.

Pamela Burton, lawyer and author, was born and brought up in Canberra. Apart from working holidays in London in 1964 and 1970, Pamela has lived her life in the Canberra and the Bungendore district. After studying law at the Australian National University she worked on a range of cases involving environmental and social justice issues and has been involved in various government tribunals and committees. She was one of the first women to establish a legal firm in Canberra, following Mrs Bruna Romano and Margaret Elizabeth Reid. In 2010 Burton’s biography of the first woman high court justice, Mary Gaudron, was published.

Pamela Burton was interviewed by Kim Rubenstein for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia catalogue record.

Dragons Abreast Canberra started in 1999, one year after Dragons Abreast Australia, the umbrella organisation was founded. Members, both breast cancer survivors and supporters, race dragon boats on Lake Burley Griffin in an annual Breast Cancer Challenge Regatta, to raise awareness of breast cancer and funds for cancer services and research.

Thea Exley was the first woman to head a regional office of the Commonwealth Archives Office (now the National Archives of Australia), its first national Senior Archivist Reference and Access and the first Director Preservation at the Australian Archives (another predecessor of the National Archives). She was an inaugural member of the Australian Society of Archivists and served as a Councillor from 1977 to 1979. After her retirement she completed a PhD in art history.

Joyce Goodes was a well-known Canberra personality who made a substantial contribution to the cultural and community life of the capital between the mid-1940s until her death in 1990. In the late war years she instigated meetings for the establishment of the city’s first kindergarten at Acton in 1944, and her teaching at Canberra Girls’ Grammar School over thirty years culminated in her single-handedly setting up the new library of 10,000 books at the Junior School, built in 1973. But Joyce Goodes is best remembered for the quality of her body of work as a local theatre producer, director and actor, first at Canberra Repertory Society in its early days and, from 1960, with her own group The Theatre Players. The legacy of this work resides in an award, The Theatre Players Scholarship, granted yearly to assist a promising young person from the ACT undertaking their tertiary education in any aspect of theatre craft.

Pauline Griffin was a Commissioner of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission from 1975 to 1990 and a member of the Australian National University Council from 1978 to 1998. She was chair of the National Committee on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation in the 1980s and a member of the 4th National Women’s Consultative Council in the 1990s.

Since Australia’s ‘new’ Parliament House opened in 1988, millions of visitors have admired one of the key artworks in the Great Hall, the 16 metre long embroidery which celebrates the story of settlement in Australia. A gift from the eight Australian Embroiderers’ Guilds to the nation, the embroidery was conceived, initiated and managed by Dorothy Hyslop, herself an experienced embroiderer and member of the ACT Embroiderers’ Guild. For her vision and achievement of a huge project posing enormous challenges of design and coordination, she was chosen Canberra Citizen of the Year for 1988, made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1989, and appointed a Life Member of the ACT Embroiderers’ Guild in 1992.

Ruth Arndt was a qualified social worker who, while unable to practise her profession because her British qualifications were not recognised in Australia, was a tireless advocate and community worker in Canberra, particularly for migrants and foreign students. She taught English to many new arrivals, taught German and Economics at both Canberra Boys’ and Girls’ Grammar Schools and worked as a research officer in the Department of External Affairs. She also served on the Australian National University Council, the Governing Body of Bruce Hall and was president of the Ladies Drawing Room at University House.

Born to Belgian and Scandinavian parents, Hilma Dymphna Lodewyckx grew up surrounded by languages which, combined with a natural talent, saw her master over eight languages and become a successful linguist. Her most ambitious and important work was a translation from German to English of Baron Carl von Hügel’s New Holland Journal. After meeting her future husband Manning Clark at Melbourne University, the couple journeyed to Germany and England, respectively, to continue their studies. They married at Oxford in 1939. Returning to Australia to escape the war in Europe, the couple and their growing family eventually settled in Canberra where Manning took up a position at what would become the Australian National University. Dymphna worked to raise her young family and establish their home as a warm welcoming space for friends and colleagues, as well as assisting Manning with translations and editing for his historical works. By 1959 Dymphna returned to teaching, eventually taking up a position at the ANU German Department. She was also an activist for Aboriginal rights and the environment. After Manning’s death in 1991 Dymphna worked tirelessly to turn the home they shared into Manning Clark House – a cultural hub for scholars, artists and writers. Today, Manning Clark House still plays a vital role in the Canberra community.

Savina Patroni migrated to Australia from Italy in 1951. She lived in the Somerville garden district of Kalgoorlie and raised a family while also working on the family market garden.