The Australian Women's Register

Lulu Benstead began her singing career in Coolgardie and performed from 1907 until 1911 throughout the goldfields and New South Wales. She retired in 1934.

Margherita Stefani ran the Amalfi Boarding House and wine saloon in Kalgoorlie with her husband.

Mary Smith nee Steedman was the first white woman to live in Bardoc, approximately 30 km from Kalgoorlie. She ran the Bardoc Hotel from 1896 until 1924.

Nalda Searles is nationally recognised for her baskets and artworks using materials found in the bush. Working within the landscape her art reflects a deep commitment to nature and culture. Her inspirational workshops and involvement with Aboriginal women have seen new methods of making grass basketry and sculpture spread into remote indigenous communities.

Joan Heenan studied law in Western Australia in the 1930s, moving to Kalgoorlie after her marriage in 1937. She was a partner in the Heenan and Heenan law firm, and was the only permanent lawyer in Kalgoorlie during the war years. She is particularly remembered for her assistance to Italian internees during this period.

Lina Furia owned and ran the Cornwall Hotel in Boulder with her husband Charlie Furia and her son Jack Osmetti from 1926 -1970.

The Ladies Drawing Room was formed in 1956 to organise social functions for women members and the wives of members of University House. The group took its name from the Room so dedicated in University House, ANU, Canberra. The Ladies Drawing Room enabled creation of a community of likeminded women which resulted in lifelong friendships, and provided intellectual stimulation in a city which was initially small and lacking in social or cultural facilities.

The Ladies Drawing Room continued to hold regular lunches and other social activities for nearly 50 years until the age of remaining members, and lack of new membership, caused the group to wind up its affairs in 2003. Its story is a microcosm of the social history of the women associated with the University who played a significant but typically discreet part in creating the community and culture of the ANU.

Beulah McAppion is descended from several pioneer families in Canberra’s Ginninderra district, the Southwells, Gribbles and Currans. Her grandfather, Henry Curran, was the last Ginninderra blacksmith. Educated at Hall Primary School and Canberra High School, she joined the Commonwealth Department of Price Control in 1942 and following the war served as a clerk in he Commonwealth Superannuation Retirement Benefits Office until 1968. She then managed a cake shop and in the 1980s worked as a volunteer visitor in the Red Cross service for home bound people. From 2002 she was a volunteer counsellor with the Uniting Church.

Ethel Tory was a teacher of French and Latin and an advocate for drama and language studies, particularly French. She taught French and Latin in Western Australian schools and at the University of Western Australia before undertaking further study in French literature in Paris. She was appointed a lecturer in French at the Australian National University in 1961 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1965. In 1970, she published an edition of Giraudoux’s play Intermezzo for use in schools and universities. She retired in 1977 but continued to teach French and to support drama studies at the Australian National University through donations and a bequest on her death in 2003.

Born to English parents, and daughter of the Surveyor General, Mary Emily Twynam married wealthy pastoralist James ‘Jim’ Cunningham and became an important and formative figure in the developing pastoralist community in the Tuggeranong district. She was a compassionate, sensitive and intellectually curious woman whose capacity for friendship and kindness turned her homestead ‘Tuggranong’ into the social focal point of the community. Her early married years were taken up with raising eight children and battling with the bouts of serious depression that would shadow her for her entire life. As her children grew she found time to indulge in her love of gardening as well as pursue her passion for poetry and the written word. Cunningham was also an outspoken advocate for conscription during the two referenda in 1916 and was dedicated to fundraising for soldiers in the Great War.

Elizabeth McKeahnie was a successful, independent pastoralist between 1882 and 1911, at a time when women generally did not run their own properties. She owned and operated Blythburn, an 810ha dairy and cattle property next to her parents’ property, Booroomba, near Tharwa. She usually worked the property singlehanded, when necessary employing only women to assist her. McKeahnie was also a poet, publishing poems in the local newspaper, particularly after the deaths of friends and relatives.

Gwen Pinner was a significant figure in the medical profession in Canberra. In addition to her work as a radiologist, she conducted a tuberculosis survey of the Australian Capital Territories and Queanbeyan and was involved in the establishment of the John James Memorial Hospital. As a child, however, it was her role of presenting a bouquet to the Duchess of York at the opening of Parliament House in 1927 that created an enduring image.