The Australian Women's Register

May Freeman was born into a privileged Geelong, Victoria, family. Her great and lifelong contribution to her local community was as a committed volunteer leader and member of community organisations. May was a Sunday School teacher, and was involved in the Guides and Brownies from their earliest days in 1925 until her death.  She was a committee member of the Girls Unity Club, which provided education, recreation and support for Geelong’s working girls, and was a member of Rotary, the YWCA, the Red Cross, the Victoria League, The Royal Commonwealth Society Women’s Group and the Trefoil Guild.

The daughter and grand-daughter of Gippsland dairy farmers, Catherine Noy has always been involved in her local community. Based in Gippsland, she was at the geographical epicentre of the Women in Agriculture movement, and worked on the administration of the First International Women in Agriculture Conference, the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women, and the projects of the Gippsland Women’s Network. 

Ursula McConnel is recognised as an influential anthropologist of the Cape York Peninsula and a talented amateur photographer. McConnel used her photographs to illustrate publications of her research in magazines and ethnographic journals such as Oceania and Walkabout. She was also a collector of Indigenous artefacts.

Content added for original entry by Lee Butterworth, last modified 11 June 2009

As one of the first students of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown’s Australian tenureship, Ursula McConnel conducted ethnographic fieldwork as a participant-observer in western Cape York Peninsula between 1927 and 1934. She worked chiefly among the Wik peoples, particularly the Wik Mungkan based at Aurukun Mission. As part of her anthropological study McConnel amassed a substantial material culture collection of over five hundred artefacts. Together with Donald Thomson’s collection from the same area, it forms a unique record of Wik Mungkan material culture from that period. In 2006 a large collection of professional papers belonging to Ursula was discovered and donated to the South Australian Museum.

May Jordan McConnel was the first paid female union organiser in Queensland, elected Secretary of the newly-formed Tailoresses Union on 5 August 1890. The Brisbane Women’s Union met for the first time on 27 August 1890 and discussions focused on securing fair wages, fair hours and equitable conditions in the workplace for women. In Brisbane on 17 December 1893, May delivered an address to suffrage supporters, celebrating New Zealand women’s success in attaining the right to vote. In February 1894, a public meeting was held and the Woman’s Equal Franchise Association, a strong supporter of women’s suffrage, was founded. May was elected as Treasurer. In 1910, the McConnel family left Brisbane for the United States, leaving their Indooroopilly house, ‘Robgill’, as a gift to Queensland. This house became the Methodist Church’s first institutionalised home for orphans in the state – the original Queen Alexander Home for Children. The family never returned to Australia and May died in California in 1929.

Zara Dare was 45 years-old when she applied for a position as a Queensland police officer. She had previously worked in China for the Salvation Army and, upon returning to Australia, she was an organiser of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Zara and her colleague, Ellen O’Donnell, commenced at the Roma Street Police Station in 1931. Neither of the women was sworn in and therefore did not receive the same pay allowances and privileges (including superannuation) as male officers. Zara’s work within the police force was restricted to looking after lost children, escorting female prisoners, and working with victims of domestic and sexual violence. Nine years after joining the police force, Zara retired to marry. It was not until 1965 that Queensland police women were officially sworn in and therefore entitled to some of the privileges enjoyed by men.

Meta Overman was a Dutch-born composer who studied piano and composition with leading figures in Rotterdam before emigrating to Western Australia in 1951. She earned accolades for her works, which included choral, instrumental, chamber pieces, ballets and operas. After lengthy sojourns in both Melbourne and Holland, she returned to Perth in 1978, where she remained until her death in 1993.

Evelyn Evans was a young English girl from a well-to-do family, who while in Australia as part of a world trip, met and married station manager Charles Maunsell in 1912. They lived at Mulgrave Station which was located on the frontier of far north Queensland. Evelyn endured incredible hardship, with pioneering forcing her to endure hazards that pushed her far beyond the traditional female role; that of mother, wife and homemaker. Her courage and resourcefulness helped further the position and importance of women in colonial society.

The Queensland Women’s Electoral League (QWEL) was co-founded by Christina Corrie (wife of Brisbane mayor Leslie Corrie) in 1903. The Queensland Women’s Electoral League differed from the Women’s Electoral Franchise Association (WEFA) in that it was conservative, anti-socialist and pro private enterprise. Its membership was drawn from women in professions and wives of businessmen. Christina Corrie was one of the most well known women in Brisbane in the early 1900s and she used her notoriety to advance the causes of the many social, cultural and charitable institutions she supported.

Alice Crist was a prolific writer of verse and short fiction, who published widely in the Australian secular and religious press including the Bulletin (Sydney) Worker, Steele Rudd’s Magazine, Home Budget, Toowoomba Chronicle, Catholic Advocate and Catholic Press. Crist wrote about her rural and domestic experiences, frequently celebrating the beauty of the bush and the virtues and struggles of Irish Australian pioneers. Crist was also a long-term member and vice-president of the Toowoomba Ladies Literary Society. Her Irish heritage intermingled with a unique Australian flavour and this contributed to the uniqueness of her poetry.

Mother Patrick Potter was born in Ireland and educated at Cloontagh National School and Longford Convent School. In 1866 she began her novitiate as a Sister of Mercy at Athy Convent, Kildare. Upon arrival in Australia in 1868, Mother Patrick joined the Queensland Sisters of Mercy congregation which had been established by Mother Vincent Whitty, making her profession of vows at Brisbane’s All Hallows Convent in 1869. Appointed to All Hallows’ school, Mother Patrick contributed greatly to the religious, academic and cultural development of the students. In 1879 she was elected to the administration of the Brisbane congregation of Sisters of Mercy, where she acted as Superior or assistant, for the next 48 years.

From 1974 to 1993 Margaret McAleer served in the Parliament of Western Australia. She was the first non-Labor member of the Legislative Council, and served as Whip from 1980 to 1993.

Grace Sydney Vaughan served in the Western Australian Legislative Council from 1974 to 1980. She drew on her extensive experience as a community and social worker to campaign on issues concerned with poverty, unemployment and welfare.

Edith Bryan was appointed head teacher of the school section of the Queensland Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution in Brisbane, Australia, in 1901. In 1918 the Queensland government assumed responsibility for this charitable organisation and initially Edith retained her position with the institution.

Following an increase in class numbers as a direct result of introduction of the Blind, Deaf and Dumb Instruction Act of 1924, which made the education of deaf children compulsory, it was deemed appropriate in 1926 that a male should take control of the school. Edith retained charge of the deaf section of the school until she retired in 1937, after which she continued to work for the deaf community.

An active member of the Queensland Adult Deaf and Dumb Mission which she had helped to establish in 1902, Edith chaired a parent support-group which she had also promoted. The mission named Edith Bryan Hostel in her honour.

Winifred Piesse became the first woman to represent the Country Party in the Western Australian Parliament when she was elected to the Legislative Council for a six year term, beginning in May 1977. Her extensive experience in nursing ensured that health matters were high on her Parliamentary agenda. She was particularly concerned about issues affecting children and youth, and also urged the government to urgently fund research into breast cancer, especially its high incidence in young mothers.

Ann Drew settled in Toowong, with her husband Richard Langler Drew in the early 1860s. Over the next four decades Ann advocated and helped administer an array of welfare institutions. Most importantly, in April 1871 she founded the Female Refuge and Infants’ Home (‘Mrs Drew’s Home’) for young single mothers and their babies. Initially funded by Ann and her friends, the refuge eventually gained government assistance, however, this funding was withdrawn in 1900.

As lady president of the Social Purity Society, Ann was involved in the establishment of Lady Musgrave Lodge (1891-1892) as a hostel and training place for immigrants and other ‘friendless’ girls. She also took part in agitation to repeal the Contagious Diseases Act of 1868 and held the position of secretary of the committee of the Lady Bowen Hospital from 1870 to 1879. In 1906 Ann Drew retired as ‘Foundress and Superintendent’ of the Female Refuge and Infants’ Home.

Ruth Don was the first Senior Mistress of a Queensland high school, as well as the first female Principal of the Domestic Science High School and of Brisbane’s Office Training College. She also became the Queensland Teachers Union’s first female president. Ruth was founding president of the Forum Club in Brisbane.

Lyla Daphne Elliott joined the Australian Labor Party in 1955, and was a member of the Legislative Council in Western Australia from 1971 until 1986.

During World War II, Joyce Tweddell became a prisoner of war (POW) when she was captured, together with many other nurses, by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in February 1942. She was interned in Sumatra for three and a half years before her recovery from the camp at the cessation of the war.

She refused to accept the honour of an MBE in the early 1970s as she believed all surviving prisoners of war should have been awarded this honour.

During World War II, Sylvia Muir, along with fellow Queensland Joyce Tweddell, became a prisoner of war (POW) when she was captured, together with many other nurses, by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in February 1942. She was interned in Sumatra for three and a half years before her recovery from the camp at the cessation of the war.

In 1931, Ellen O’Donnell, along with Zara Dare, became Queensland’s first female police officer, serving with the service for nearly 31 years. As Ellen was never officially sworn in as an officer, she did not wear a uniform or receive officer’s wages. She also was never part of the superannuation scheme. Her duties were restricted to assisting lost children, escorting female prisoners, and working with victims of domestic and sexual violence. Queensland’s decision to allow female officers into the police service was extremely controversial, with opinions divided across the state.

Jennifer Fowler is an internationally renowned composer who was born in Bunbury, Western Australia. She works as a freelance composer in London, where she has lived since 1969.

Mary Salce is a dairy farmer from Gippsland, in Victoria. She has been actively involved in agricultural politics since the 1960s, often, in the first twenty years, as the only woman on industry boards. By the mid-1980s, Mary had emerged as a leader of the Women in Agriculture movement. She was instrumental in establishing the Rural Women’s Network, and her role in organising and convening the First International Women in Agriculture Conference was pivotal in the process of securing a voice in decision making for rural women nationally and internationally. Her leadership and influence has resulted in profound change in the profile of rural women: in the acknowledgement of their contribution to the rural sector, in their empowerment though the development of their leadership skills and confidence, in the development of a co-ordinated voice airing their particular concerns with social, welfare and sustainability issues, and in their role in strengthening communities.

Appointed as temporary lecturer in the department of dentistry, University of Queensland, in 1961, Mrs Marlay joined the department staff in 1965 as lecturer in oral biology. She was awarded a Ph.D. in 1969 for a study of the incident of dental caries in adolescent girls; her project also contributed to knowledge about tests of buffering capacity of saliva and the ability to predict dental caries increments. On 1 January 1971 Dr Marlay was made a senior lecturer.

Una Prentice (nee Bick) was the first woman law graduate admitted to the Bar of the Queensland Supreme Court, first woman admitted to the Bar of the High Court, and first female Commonwealth Prosecutor.

June Craig was a member of the Western Legislative Assembly from 1974 until 1983, and served also as a cabinet Minister. In 1994 she received an Order of Australia (AM) for her long and distinguished parliamentary and community service.

Fanny Elizabeth Hunt was the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Sydney, graduating in 1888. She was appointed as first headmistress of Ipswich Girls Grammar School in 1892. Fanny Hunt was in charge of the school from its opening in 1892 until 1901, when she resigned because of ill-health. Her family had relocated to Toowoomba and after a restorative holiday Fanny Hunt founded Girton College in Toowoomba in about 1905. In 1915 the family moved to Sydney and settled at Rose Bay. Fanny Hunt died in Sydney in 1941.

Estelle Cribb was a first day pupil at Ipswich Girls Grammar School (IGGS) in 1892. She was the first woman to study for a Master of Arts, with Honours in Mathematics, from the University of Sydney. She graduated in 1901. After obtaining an Honours Diploma in Education, she was appointed Mathematical Mistress at IGGS in 1903. She held the position for 35 years, retiring in 1938. Estelle Cribb was an active member of the IGGS Old Girls’ Association, serving as President for 12 years. She was much loved and when she died on 5 November 1947 a memorial fund was established by the Old Girls’ Association. In 1952 commemorative gates were unveiled at the front of IGGS, which still commemorate her