The Australian Women's Register

Helen Gerondis was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1965.

Justice Glynn was educated at St Ursula’s College,
Armidale and then completed a Bachelor of Arts at the
University of Sydney. She then studied and completed
the Barristers’ Admission Board exams, before being
admitted to the Bar in NSW in 1964. She went on to become the Librarian in Chief for the New South Wales Supreme Court Library and the New South Wales Industrial Commission Library. She also
achieved a Master of Science from Columbia
University. In 1975 she became the first woman appointed to the office of Commissioner in the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales.
On 14 April 1980 her Honour was appointed as a judge of the Industrial Commission of New South Wales becoming the first woman in New South Wales, and one of the first women in Australia, to be appointed as a judge of a superior court of record.
Her Honour was known for her compassion, attention to detail and dedication to the proper performance of her office. Whilst she heard many different kinds of cases in her time on the bench, her Honour will be particularly remembered for her important work in the Pay Equity Inquiry during 1997 and 1998. Her Honour’s report to the Minister set the important framework for future consideration in industrial cases dealing with differences between the rates of pay of men and women in the State of New South Wales. Her Honour retired on 8 December 2003 following 27 years of dedicated service.

Peggy Goldberg was admitted to the Victorian Bar in the 1970s.

The Hon. Michelle Gordon is a justice of the High Court of Australia. She was appointed to the Court in June 2015 while serving as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, an appointment she had held since April 2007. Gordon attended Perth’s St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School and the Presbyterian Girls’ College. After graduating from the University of Western Australia with bachelor degrees in jurisprudence and laws, she was admitted to practice in 1987. She served articles with Robinson Cox before joining Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks as a solicitor (1988-1992), later becoming a senior associate (1992). Called to the Victorian Bar in 1992, Gordon took silk in 2003. Her practice – in state and federal courts – was predominantly in the areas of commercial, equity, taxation and general civil matters. Between 1998 and 2007, she served as a sessional member of the Victorian Administrative and Administrative Appeals Tribunal; she was also a member of the Law Council of Australia’s Taxation Committee, Business Law Section (2003-2007). In July 2015 she was appointed a Professorial Fellow of the Law School, University of Melbourne. Gordon is married to the Hon. Kenneth Hayne AC QC, himself a former justice of the High Court. They have a son.

Dr Sue Gordon AM has achieved many ‘firsts’ during her career. In 1986, she was the first Aboriginal person to head a government department in Western Australia, as Commissioner for Aboriginal Planning; in 1988 she was WA’s first Aboriginal magistrate and first full-time children’s court magistrate; and in 1990 she was one of five commissioners appointed by federal Labor minister Gerry Hand to the first board of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).

Gordon has been appointed by state and federal governments, on both sides of politics, to various positions. In 2002 she was appointed by the Premier of Western Australia, Geoff Gallop, to head an inquiry into family violence and child abuse in Western Australian Aboriginal communities. One outcome of the Gordon Inquiry was closure of the controversial Swan Valley Noongar Camp. In 2004, she was appointed Chair of the new National Indigenous Council, an advisory body to the Federal Government, following the winding down of ATSIC. She chaired the Northern Territory Emergency Response Taskforce from June 2007 to June 2008 before retiring from the bench in September 2008.

In retirement, Gordon has remained very active in a variety of organisations. Currently (2016) president of the Graham (Polly) Farmer Foundation and the Police and Community Youth Centres Federation of WA (PCYC) Board, to name only a couple of her appointments, her special long term project is Sister Kate’s Aged Persons Project, supported by the Indigenous Land Corporation and Aboriginal Hostels Limited.

Gordon received the Order of Australia award in 1993 as acknowledgement of her work with Aboriginal people and community affairs. In 2003 she received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters (Hon. DLitt) from the University of Western Australia, the same year she was awarded the ‘Centenary Medal’ for service to the community, particularly the Aboriginal community.

Sue Gordon was interviewed by Nikki Henningham for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of AustraliaCATALOGUE RECORD.

Jennie Grainger is the Director General, Enforcement and Compliance at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Prior to this role, Jennie was Second Commissioner Law at the Australian Tax Office, based in Canberra, Australia. She is a member of the International Monetary Fund Panel of Tax Administration experts and a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. During her time at the Australian Taxation Office she became only the second woman in Australian history to become a deputy commissioner – she was made second commissioner of compliance in 2002 after holding a number of high-profile roles across the organisation.

Beatrice Gray was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1968.

Regina Graycar was a Commissioner of the NSW Law Reform Commission (1998-2002) and a former Professor of Law at the University of NSW and University of Sydney. She is the co-author of The Hidden Gender of Law.

Maureen Green was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1979.

Eleanor Guiliana Scarparo was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in the early 1960s.

Mina Guli studied law and science at Monash University and holds a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne. She is a business woman and activist in the area of climate change, and an early pioneer in the carbon market. She is CEO and founder of Thirst, which advocates around water scarcity.

Lesbia Venner Harford (1891-1927), poet, was born on 9 April 1891 at Brighton, Melbourne, daughter of Edmund Joseph Keogh, a well-to-do financial agent, and his wife Helen Beatrice, née Moore, both born in Victoria. Her mother was related to the earl of Drogheda. About 1900 the Keoghs fell on hard times and in an effort to retrieve the family fortunes Edmund went to Western Australia, where he eventually took up farming.

Lesbia was born with a congenital heart defect which restricted her activity throughout her life. Nettie Palmer remembered her at a children’s party as ‘a dark-eyed little girl who sat quite still, looking on’. She was educated at Clifton, the Brigidine convent at Glen Iris, and Mary’s Mount, the Loreto convent at Ballarat, but she rebelled against the family’s staunch Catholicism: in 1915 she conducted services for Frederick Sinclaire’s Fellowship group.

In 1912 she enrolled in law at the University of Melbourne, paying her way by coaching or taking art classes in schools. She graduated LL.B. In December 1916 in the same class as (Sir) Robert Menzies. During her undergraduate years she had become embroiled in the anti-war and anti-conscription agitation, forming a close friendship with Guido Baracchi (son of Pietro Baracchi) who claimed later that ‘she above all’ helped him to find his way ‘right into the revolutionary working class movement’.

On graduation she chose what she considered to be a life of greater social purpose and went to work in a clothing factory. Much of her poetry belongs to this phase of her life and she shows a growing solidarity with her fellow workers and an antagonism towards those whom she saw as exploiters. She became involved in union politics and like her brother Esmond (later a Melbourne medical scientist) joined the Industrial Workers of the World. She went to Sydney where she lived with I.W.W. Friends and worked, when strong enough, in a clothing factory or as a university coach. On 23 November 1920 in Sydney she married the artist Patrick John O’Flaghartie Fingal Harford, a fellow I.W.W. Member and clicker in his father’s boot factory: they moved to Melbourne where he worked with William Frater in Brooks Robinson & Co. Ltd and was a founder of the Post-Impressionist movement in Melbourne.

For many years Lesbia had suffered from tuberculosis. She tried to complete her legal qualifications but died in hospital on 5 July 1927. She was buried in Boroondara cemetery.

Lesbia transcribed her poems into notebooks in beautiful script; she sang many of her lyrics to tunes of her own composing. Some she showed to friends or enclosed in letters. She was first published in the May 1921 issue of Birth, the journal of the Melbourne Literary Club, and then in its 1921 annual. She provoked much interest at the time and Percival Serle included some of her poems in An Australasian Anthology (Sydney, 1927). In her review of the anthology, Nettie Palmer singled out Lesbia’s poetry for special praise, and in September and October 1927 published four of her poems in tribute to her. Lesbia mistrusted publishers, explaining that she was ‘in no hurry to be read’. In 1941 a collection edited by Nettie Palmer was published with Commonwealth Literary Fund assistance. No complete collection exists. On her death her father took custody of her notebooks and they were lost when his shack was destroyed by fire.

Dr Susan Harris Rimmer (BA(Hons)/LLB(Hons) UQ, SJD ANU) is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University. She is also a Research Associate at the Development Policy Centre in the Crawford School. She joined Griffith Law School as an Associate Professor in July 2015. Her Future Fellow project is called ‘Trading’ Women’s Rights in Transitions: Designing Diplomatic Interventions in Afghanistan and Myanmar. Susan is the author of Gender and Transitional Justice: The Women of Timor Leste (Routledge, 2010) and over 30 refereed academic works. Susan was chosen as the winner of the Audre Rapoport Prize for Scholarship on the Human Rights of Women for 2006. She often acts as a policy adviser to government and produces policy papers. Susan was selected as an expert for the official Australian delegation to the 58th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York in March 2014. She has provided policy advice on the UNSC, G20, IORA and MIKTA. Susan is the G20 correspondent for The Conversation site. She is part of the Think20 process for Australia’s host year of the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane 2014, and attended the St Petersburg Summit in 2013 and the Brisbane Summit in 2014. Sue is one of the two Australian representatives to the W20 Turkey. Sue was awarded the Vincent Fairfax Ethics in Leadership Award in 2002, selected as participant in the 2020 Summit 2008 by then Prime Minister Rudd, and awarded the Future Summit Leadership Award, 2008, by the Australian Davos Connection (part of the World Economic Forum). In 2014 she was named one of the Westpac and Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence in the Global category. Sue was previously the Advocacy lead at the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID). She has also worked for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the National Council of Churches and the Parliamentary Library.

Maureen Hickey was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1975.

A partner in the law firm Hunt and Hunt, Marea Hickie brought a successful and landmark discrimination case against the law firm. In 1998 in the case of Hickie v Hunt and Hunt, Ms Hickie alleged that the law firm Hunt and Hunt discriminated against her on the ground of sex. Ms Hickie was made a contract partner after being with the firm for seven years. At the time of being made a contract partner she was pregnant. She commenced maternity leave and later returned to work on a part-time basis. A couple of months after her return to work, Hunt and Hunt decided not to renew her contract. She was informed of the decision and on the same day she left the firm. Ms Hickie alleged discrimination in the way she was treated by the firm. The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found that there had been “indirect sex discrimination” within the meaning of s5(2) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth). The discrimination occurred because Ms Hickie was required to work full-time as a necessary condition to maintain her position in the firm. This requirement was a condition that disadvantaged or was likely to disadvantage women and it was not reasonable in the circumstances. Ms Hickie was awarded compensation of $95,000. This case was important in establishing precedent in the area of sex discrimination. It typifies the discrimination that women lawyers face as they attempt to balance work life and family responsibilities.

Jane Hodges is the former Director of the International Labour Organisation’s Gender, Equality and Diversity Branch.

Beverley Hooper was admitted to practice in 1955, and came to the Bar in 1972.

Judge Hribal was appointed as a Magistrate in 2007 and was one of two magistrates appointed on a part-time basis – a legal first in SA.

Prior to her appointment as the Chief Magistrate, Judge Hribal presided over criminal and civil matters in Adelaide, suburban and country courts and was Regional Manager of the Criminal Division of the Adelaide Magistrates Court. As Chief Magistrate, Judge Hribal also has a key role on the State Courts Administration Council.

In 1953, Katharine Hurst became the first woman prosecutor in the British colony of Kenya where she prosecuted members of the Mau Mau secret society who were responsible for many deaths during the 1950s. According to the Sun Herald Hurst was an impressive figure in Court: “a woman barrister strode into the Githunguri Court with a revolver at her hip. Katharine Patricia Hurst, 34, wore a khaki drill skirt, mud
spattered nylons, a man’s white shirt and a cartridge belt holding the gun. Her barrister’s robe went on top of all that as she opened the Crown case against five rows of manacled East African natives in the biggest mass-murder trial in Commonwealth history.”

Maggie Jackson is the Head of the International Crime Cooperation Division, Attorney-General’s Department.

Kate Jenkins was appointed to the position of Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner in February 2016 while she was serving as Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights commissioner, a position she had held since 2013. Jenkins was educated at Tintern Grammar and Geelong Grammar School, followed by the University of Melbourne where she studied arts and law and graduated with double honours degrees. Between 1993 and 2013, Jenkins was partner at Freehills (now Herbert Smith Freehills); her areas of specialisation included equal opportunity and diversity. She is a current board member (and former director) of the Heide Museum of Modern Art and the Carlton Football Club; for many years she also served on the board of Berry Street Victoria, a charity which helps disadvantaged children, young people and families. In her role as Victorian Equal Opportunity commissioner, Jenkins conducted an independent review into sex discrimination and sexual harassment, including predatory behaviour, among Victoria Police personnel. She also convened a Victorian chapter of the ‘Male Champions of Change’ group, an initiative of former Federal Sex Discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick which aims to advance gender equality and increase opportunities for women in the workplace by enlisting the assistance of men in positions of power in the workplace. In 2015, Jenkins was named in the Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards.

Carolyn (Lindy) Frances Jenkins was appointed to the Supreme Court of Western Australia on 2 February, 2004.

Born in April, 1959 in Sydney, NSW, Justice Jenkins graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University in 1981. She was admitted to practice in New South Wales in 1982, in the Northern Territory (1982), and in Western Australia (1989).

Justice Jenkins was Crown Prosecutor in the Northern Territory from 1982 – 89, including Acting Chief Crown Prosecutor (1988 – 89). She was a Legal Officer, Western Australian Crown Solicitor’s Office from 1989 – 2001, including Deputy Crown Counsel.

She was a member of the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia in 2000 – 2001.

Justice Jenkins was a judge of the District Court of Western Australia from September, 2001 till her appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court.

Elizabeth Johnston was born in Adelaide on 1 October 1920. She was educated at Woodlands Church of England Girls’ Grammar School at Glenelg. During her student days at Adelaide University she was secretary of the Radical Club and on the editorial staff of On Dit. She was the first female secretary of a trade union in South Australia, the partner in the law firm Johnston & Johnston and the chair of South Australia’s first Sex Discrimination Board. She was an activist and member of the Australian Communist Party and was married to Justice Elliott Johnston QC. She died in 2002.

In over thirty years of practice, Ms Kelleher has made legal history through her involvement with test cases in the High Court, Federal Courts, Supreme Courts and one of the last Privy Council cases. She has extensive experience as an environment, planning and local government law specialist.

Ms Kelleher enjoys an international reputation for her work in property restitution in the reunification of East and West Germany and is proficient in the German language. Admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor in 1975 and qualified as a town planner, Ms Kelleher worked in one of Melbourne’s leading law firms before commencing her own practice. In 1981 she joined the first group of accredited specialists in environment, planning and local government law with the Law Institute of Victoria. In 1988 Ms Kelleher won a Bicentennial Women 88 Award.

In 1990, Ms Kelleher became one of the very few young women ever to be awarded an Order of Australia. In 2013, she completed a PhD examining the impact of regulatory change upon entrepreneurial opportunity, with particular focus on the Native Title Act 1993 and Aboriginal entrepreneurship.

In recognition of her expertise, Ms Kelleher has served on the Council of the Law Institute of Victoria, Heritage Council, Trust for Nature and the Land Valuation Boards of Review. She was also a member of professional associations including the Law Institute of Victoria, Royal Australian Planning Institute, Victorian Environmental and Planning Law Association and the Environmental Institute of Australia as well as being an Accredited Mediator. She is an Honorary Life Member of The Sovereign Hill Museums Association, President of LAMP (Lawyers for the Arabunna Marree People) and Board Member of Sentir, a Jesuit Academic body.

Ms Kelleher balances her successful career with her family responsibilities and takes enormous pride and pleasure in her four children.

Justice Patricia Kelly was a Prosecutor at the South Australian DPP and took silk in 2002. Her Honour was appointed to the District Court of South Australia in 2003 and appointed to the Supreme Court of South Australia in 2007.

Marcelle Allayne Kiddle completed two years of medicine at the University of Melbourne before her career was interrupted by marriage.

After a stint as a dancer, including a contract with the BBC, she enrolled at the London School of Economics (LSE) and graduated LLB (Hons) in 1956. Allayne or “Kiddle” (as she preferred to be known) read for the English Bar and was admitted to the Middle Temple in London, before returning to Melbourne. After signing the Bar Roll in 1959 (the sixth woman to do so), she read with Bill Kaye. She had hoped for a broad practice, but specialised in divorce.

During the 1960s, she returned to LSE to complete a Master of Laws. She appeared with Philip Opas QC at London’s Privy Council during the Ronald Ryan trial in the late 1960s.

Susan Mary Kiefel was appointed to the Court in September 2007. At the time of her appointment she was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island. She served as a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1993-94 before joining the Federal Court. She was admitted to the Queensland Bar in 1975 and was the first woman in Queensland to be appointed Queen’s Counsel, in 1987. Justice Kiefel served as a part-time Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission from 2003 to 2007. She has a Master of Laws degree from Cambridge University. Justice Kiefel was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2011. She was elected a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in June 2013. She was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn in November 2014.

On 29 November 2016, Justice Kiefel was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. She is the first woman to achieve the position, ending 113 years of men leading the nation’s highest court.