The Australian Women's Register

Read more about Jocelyn Brown in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Ida Bell Brodrick in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Professor Verity Burgmann is a leading Australian political scientist who has taught in Europe and Australia. She was the first female professor at Melbourne University’s School of Social and Political Sciences and has been active in the Women’s Caucus of the Australian Political Studies Association from its early days. She has a long history of radical political activism, including for Aboriginal land rights, the anti-Apartheid movement, female prisoners’ rights, the Public Education Group and environmental groups. Verity is currently Adjunct Professor of Political Science in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University, and Honorary Professorial Fellow in the eScholarship Research Centre at the University of Melbourne.

Read more about Verity Burgmann in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Kate Burrow in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Eva Evelyn Burrows in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Eva Burrows passed away on 20 March, 2015.

Read more about Jan Chapman in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Hesba Brinsmead in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Larissa Behrendt, AO, is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman, born in Cooma, New South Wales, in 1969. She was educated at Kirrawee High School before studying law at the University of New South Wales and then at Harvard Law School. She was the first Indigenous Australian to graduate from Harvard Law School.

Behrendt was appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2020for distinguished service to Indigenous education and research, to the law, and to the visual and performing arts.

Read more about Larissa Behrendt in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Wendy Blacklock in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Mary Bluett in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Patricia Anne Brennan in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Mary Kate Barlow in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Jessie Scotford was president of the National Council of Women of New South Wales (1967-1970), and national president (1970-1973). She brought to her work with the National Councils a strong sense of the importance of history and literature as the creators of national culture and identity. The same concern led her to join the National Trust, where she campaigned for ‘the importance of preserving not only the buildings, but the contents of the buildings’. In 1973, she ran in Sydney the first International Council of Women’s Regional Conference to be held in the Pacific region.

In 1948 Hazel Dobson was commissioned by the first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell to investigate the living conditions and social problems of newly arrived refugees. Her report successfully recommended the employment by the Department of Immigration of professionally qualified social workers to assist migrants and refugees experiencing settlement difficulties. It also successfully recommended the enlistment of community organizations in helping new arrivals settle through what became the Good Neighbour Movement. She became the first Director of The Department of Immigration’s Assimilation and Social Welfare Section and continued in that role until her death.

Read more about Mary Maria Andrews in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Thelma Metcalfe was president of the Australian National Council of Women from 1957 to1960. She also held office in a variety of other organisations, including as president of the NCW of NSW 1948-1960. During her term of office as national president, she stressed the importance of regional activism and work towards improving social and economic conditions, particularly for women in the Asia-Pacific area, most urgently in Papua New Guinea. Metcalfe’s presidency also saw ANCW attention directed towards redressing inequality issues relevant to women, varying education standards in Australia, the declining value of child endowment, and the financial hardships of deserted wives. In light of her extensive community involvement, an ANCW obituarist claimed she was regarded as ‘the best authority on the women’s organisations in NSW’.

Sylvia Parsons was a dressmaker and women’s fashion retailer who owned a popular dress shop in Kingston during the second half of the twentieth century. Parsons was active in the Canberra community and hosted regular fundraising fashion shows for local charities.

Leonie Christopherson gave up a promising career in advertising to marry into the army. She turned her talent for communication to the service of political and community organisations: the Liberal Party of Australia, and the National Council of Women. She served as president of National Council of Women of Australia from 2003 to 2006 at a time of great change for the association, and her consensual style of leadership provided a secure basis for it to move forward. In 2006, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia, and, in 2013 she was invested as a Dame of Honour in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Knights Hospitaller, honouring her for her services to the community.

Dr Laurel Macintosh served for nearly 40 years as an ophthalmic surgeon in Brisbane hospitals, working all the while for women’s rights and as a community activist. In her professional life, she chaired the Queensland Branch of the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists. Her community work took her to the presidency of both the National Council of Women of Queensland (1977-1979, 1994-1996) and the National Council of Women of Australia (1979-1982), and to membership of state, national and international committees with the capacity to influence government. An achievement of which she is proud is the winning of the case for late night shopping for Brisbane and Ipswich in Queensland’s industrial court in December 1978.

Heather Reid has been instrumental in forming, developing and promoting opportunities for women and girls in sport and physical activity, predominantly through football (soccer) since 1978. She has a sound knowledge of the cultural, social and political complexities of the Australian sport industry.

In 2004, she was the first woman appointed as CEO of a State football federation, at Capital Football. Since then she has led the integration of all aspects of football in the ACT – for male, female, junior, indoor and outdoor players along with referees and coaches.

She has won numerous awards in recognition for her outstanding service to sport in Canberra and at a national level. In 2006, she won the Australian Sports Commission’s Margaret Pewtress Memorial Award for her contribution to women in sport.

Aunty Agnes Shea is a highly respected elder of the Ngunnawal Aboriginal people of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). A foundation member of the United Ngunnawal Elders’ Council and a member of the ACT Heritage Council, Aunty Agnes works toward improving non-Indigenous Australians’ understanding of Aboriginal culture. She contributes significantly to progress towards reconciliation. (Reconciliation is about unity and respect between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous Australians. It is about respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and valuing justice and equity for all Australians.) Her work in the area of health and social equity for Aboriginal people contributes to an increase in the quality of life for many. Aunty Agnes is one of the Ngunnawal elders who performs the traditional Ngunnawal Welcome to Country ceremony for visitors to the ACT.

Violet Josephine Bulger (née Freeman) was among the first Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families under New South Wales’ Aborigines Protection Act, 1909. She raised eight children on her own near Yass after being widowed in 1939 and went on to raise many of her grandchildren. She was respected as an Elder in the Canberra Aboriginal community until her death in 1993.

Isabel Coe, a Wiradjuri woman, was born in Cowra. A stalwart of the Aboriginal rights struggle, and a leading figure in the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, she was also the lead litigant in Isabel Coe v the Commonwealth, an unsuccessful but important legal challenge which sought to assert the sovereignty of the Wiradjuri nation.

After an upbringing in the bush Lucy Frances Harvey (Lu) Rees worked as a shearers’ cook on a family property during the Depression; she moved to Canberra with her three sons in the late 1930s. In 1950 she became inaugural secretary of the Canberra Branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers remaining a central figure in the organisation for many years. In 1955 she opened Cheshire’s Canberra bookshop which she managed for ten years. Always passionate about children’s literature she amassed a personal collection that became the nucleus of the ACT Children’s Book Council collection. It was donated to the University of Canberra where it is named the Lu Rees Archives of Australian Children’s Literature in her honour. She was created a Member of the Order of Australia and awarded the inaugural Dromkeen Medal for services to Australian children’s literature, both awards being announced posthumously.

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.

Ethel Trounson was a granddaughter of William Ginn, one of Canberra’s well-known pioneers, who lived in what is now known as Blundell’s Cottage. She grew up at the Canberra Park homestead and worked as a children’s nurse to the Crace family in the early 1920s.

Ruth Lane Poole was an interior designer whose most notable commission was to design and furnish the interiors of the Prime Minister’s Lodge and the Governor-General’s residence in Canberra in time for the opening of Parliament House in May 1927. She also designed the interiors for Westridge House in Yarralumla, which was the residence for the Principal of the Australian Forestry School, a position held by her husband Charles Lane Poole from 1927 to 1944.