The Australian Women's Register

Lucy Blanche Biggs was born on 20 December 1909 in Scottsdale in Tasmania. She completed her medical training at the University of Melbourne, graduating MB BS in 1946. She held appointments at the Bendigo Base and the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospitals before embarking on work as a medical missionary in Papua New Guinea.

Dr Biggs was the first medical Coordinator for the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea from September 1948 to January 1974 working in the northern district of Papua. In 1948 she was appointed by the Australian Board of Missions to Eroro and spent the next twelve years in Eroro in general practice before moving onto St Luke’s TB hospital in 1968. She was transferred to medical administration at Popandetta and resigned in 1974.

Dr Biggs was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1975 for her work as a medical missionary in Papua New Guinea. Her life in Papua is detailed in her regular newsletters – 110 of them over 25 years – which she published under the title From Papua with love.

In 1903 some of the 260 members of the Wattle Club decided to expand their activities. At a meeting held on the 4th of August that year, members voted to carry the motion: ‘That the name of the Wattle Club be changed to “Alexandra Club”.

According to Monica Starke, author of The Alexandra Club: A Narrative 1903-1983, Rule 1 of the Club states categorically: ‘The name of the Club shall be the Alexandra Club and it shall be exclusively for social and non-political purposes’. The only quality sought in a prospective candidate was – and is – that she should be ‘clubable’.

Author Monica Starke writes in the publication The Alexandra Club:

“The honour of being the first women’s club in Australia belongs to the Karrakatta Club, founded in Perth in 1894… The inspiration for the club came from Dr Emily Ryder, a visiting American who was so impressed by the standard of the books studied by the St George’s Reading Circle and the members’ ability in debate that she suggested the formation of a club modelled on the Education Clubs that were popular with American women. A well-attended meeting, convened by two distinguished members of the teaching profession, unanimously voted to form a club on the lines explained to them by Dr Ryder. Sociability would not have been ruled out as an aim but Dr Ryder obviously envisaged an active role in public affairs for the new club since she warned that ‘ridicule would be cast on the club but they must make up their minds to live down opposition and ignore ridicule’. With this attractive future predicted for it the Karrakatta Club set off bravely with thirty-eight foundation members and four departments: hygiene, literature, arts and, as an afterthought, because of the continuing battle for the enfranchisement of women, legal and educational.”

The vision of the YWCA of Australia is of a fully inclusive world where peace, justice, freedom, human dignity, reconciliation and diversity are promoted and sustained through women’s leadership.

The YWCA of Australia is a women’s membership organisation nourished by its roots in the Christian faith and sustained by the richness of many beliefs and values. Strengthened by diversity the YWCA draws together members who strive to create opportunities for growth, leadership and empowerment in order to attain a common vision: peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all people. In Australia, the YWCA is represented in over 45 locations in all States and Territories, and currently delivers services to more than a quarter of a million women, men and children each year, throughout rural, regional and metropolitan Australia. The YWCAs of Australia provide services in youth; childcare; health; housing; emergency accommodation and travel accommodation.

Jean Skuse was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on 26 January 1992 for service to religion, particularly through the World Council of Churches, and to women’s affairs. In the Queen’s Birthday Honors list 1979 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the community.

Dr Nancy (Nan) Giese was a pioneer of education and the visual and performing arts in the Northern Territory. She was strongly involved in planning and setting up the first tertiary institutions and for ten years was elected Chancellor of the Northern Territory University, now Charles Darwin University.

Valerie Fisher was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on Australia Day 1995 for service to raising the status of women in developing countries through the organisation ‘Associated Country Women of the World’. She had been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for service to women’s affairs on 31 December 1981.

On 10 June 2019, Ita Buttrose was appointed Companion (AC) in the General Division, Order of Australia for eminent service to the community through leadership in the media, the arts, and the health sector, and as a role model. On 13 June 1988, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to the community, particularly in the fields of medical education and health care. In the Queen’s Birthday list 1979 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for service to journalism. She became the first woman to be awarded the Harnett Medal for community service and achievements in publishing, journalism, radio and television.

Sister Deirdre Jordan was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) on 26 January 1989. She became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 1 January 1969 for services to education. The daughter of Clement and Helana (née Roberts) Jordan, Sister Deirdre Jordan is a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy. In March 2002 she retired as Chancellor of Flinders University South Australia. Her association with Flinders University commenced in 1981 as Pro-Chancellor. A senior lecturer at Adelaide University from 1968 to 1988, Sister Jordan lectured in the field of sociology of education. She undertook study tours of Tanzania (1975), China (1976 and 1979), South America (1977 and 1980) to investigate bases for decision-making in structure of curriculum and education administration in developing countries.

The Country Women’s Association of Australia was founded on 7 June 1945. Delegates from the six State Country Women’s Associations, voted to form the national body. The purpose of the newly-formed body was to: “enable Country Women’s Associations throughout Australia to speak with one voice on all national matters, more especially concerning the welfare of country women and children”. The first state branch of the organisation had been formed in New South Wales in 1922. All other mainland states followed suit by 1928 with the Tasmanian branch being founded in 1936. It is a non-sectarian, non-party-political, non-profit lobby group working in the interests of women and children in rural areas. Given its national scope, large membership and longevity, it was arguably the most influential Australian women’s organisation of the twentieth century.

As of 2004, the Association comprises44,000 members and 1855 branches. It is the largest women’s organization in Australia.

Professor Enid Campbell, a leading Australian scholar in constitutional law and administrative law, was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 16 June 1979 for services to education in the field of law. Campbell, who was the first female dean of a law faculty in Australia, was bestowed with the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa by the University of Tasmania in 1990.

Margaret McIntyre was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for services to education on 1 January 1948. She was the first woman Member of Parliament in Tasmania and was killed in an air crash three months after being elected to the Legislative Council seat of Cornwall as an independent.

Hazel de Berg interviewed thousands of people in her work as an oral historian. A significant number of her interviews are held in the oral history collection of the National Library of Australia. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1968 for services in collection of archival material.

Pixie O’Harris was an artist and author particularly of children’s books. On 1 January 1976 she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for services to the Arts. In 1953 she was awarded the Queen’s Coronation Medal and in 1977 she received the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal. In 1977 she became patron to the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney.

Dr Lorna Lloyd-Green founded the sterility clinic at the Queen Victoria Hospital (Melbourne) which became the infertility clinic and later the IVF Clinic at Queen Victoria Monash. Lloyd-Green ran the clinic for 25 years. She was also the first medical adviser to the Nursing Mothers Association (now Australian Breastfeeding Association). She was the first woman fellow of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), and foundation fellow of the Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; she was a senior member and president of the Australian Federation of Medical Women and president of Medical Women’s International Association, hosting a world conference in Melbourne in 1970, the year in which she was named Woman of the Year. Lloyd-Green was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 16 June 1979 and Officer (Civil) on 1 January 1968 for services to medicine as a doctor.

Soroptimist International of the South West Pacific (SISWP) is one of four federations in the world’s largest classified service organization for business and professional women. Soroptimist International has more than 100,000 members in 3,000 clubs in over 100 countries and territories.

Soroptimists are executive women of all ages, cultures and ethnic groups who work through a Programme of Service to make a difference for women throughout the world.

Isobel May Schenk worked for many years alongside her husband, Reverend Rodolphe Samuel Schenk (1888-1969), at the Mt Margaret Mission in Western Australia. Rev. Schenk established the mission, located between Leonora and Laverton, in 1921, under the auspices of the Aboriginal Inland Mission (later the United Aborigines Mission). According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Rev. Schenk, Isobel Schenk was ‘a typist’ who ‘taught crafts to the women’ on the mission. The mission was made a central ‘rationing station’ and was visited by anthropologists and researchers including A. P. Elkin, Phyllis Kaberry, J. B. Birdsell and Norman Tindale. Along with the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, these researchers engaged in the assimilation debates of the day. Rev. Schenk’s ‘unsympathetic and fundamentalist interference with traditional practices’ attracted criticism from Elkin, and resistance from Aboriginal elders. Many Aboriginal children were taken to the mission, which had a children’s home and a hospital, and mining- and pastoral-related work was carried out there.

Isobel Schenk was appointed to the Order of the British Empire (31 December 1977) for work in Aboriginal welfare.

Kathleen Lester was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 13 June 1970 in recognition of her work as Welfare Officer at the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs in Sydney.

Joyce Caroline Clague (née Mercy) was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 31 December 1977, with the citation ‘Aborigines’. As Joyce Mercy, she worked as a welfare officer at the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs in Sydney in the 1960s.

Winifred Hilliard was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire on I June 1977 for ‘Aboriginal welfare’. She was later awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia on the Queen’s birthday list, 1989, for ‘service to Aboriginal welfare, particularly the Pitjantjatjara people’.

On 12 February 1942 the Empire Star sailed from Singapore harbour. The ship which normally had an allocation of space for 20 passengers was carrying over 2100 people. While on route to Batavia, the ship came under enemy fire and received three direct hits. During one of the raids, two of the Australian nursing staff on board, Sister Vera A Torney and Margaret Anderson came on deck to attend to the wounded. They protected their patients by covering them with their bodies. Staff Nurse Vera Torney was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Military) on 22 September 1942 for her work with the Australian Army Nursing Service. Staff Nurse Margaret Anderson received the George Medal.

On 12 June 2000 Beryl Grant was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to nursing and to the community through the support and development of services and programmes for children and families, particularly in rural and remote areas of Australia. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1976 for services to nursing.

Catherine King was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to the community on 11 June 1966.

Margaret Court was one of Australia’s greatest sportswomen. She won 62 grand slam titles and, in 1970, was the second woman in history to win the Australian, French, U.S. and Wimbledon titles in a calendar year.

Winner of the ABC Sportsman of the Year Award in 1963 and 1970, Margaret Court was appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Member (Civil) on 1 January 1967 for services to sport and international relations. In 1970 she also won the Walter Lindrum Award.

In January 2003, Tennis Australia renamed Melbourne Park’s Show Court One to the Margaret Court Arena. She was the recipient of the 2003 Australia Post Australian Legends Award, and featured on a special 50c stamp.

In 2006 she was awarded the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) highest accolade, the Philippe Chatrier Award.

In 2017, in the context of Australian debates about marriage equality, Margaret Court became a controversial figure, as many prominent people in tennis condemned her views on same sex marriage and the rights of transgender people.

In January 2021, Court was awarded an AC in the Australian Day Honours Awards list, for eminent service to tennis as an internationally acclaimed player and record-holding grand slam champion, and as a mentor of young sportspersons. In response to criticisms that it was not appropriate to honout her this way, based upon her controversial views on the rights of LGBTQI+ people, an anonymous member of the Council for the Order of Australia said the award to address a gender disparity created five years ago when Rod Laver became the first tennis player to be made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Awarded the Australian Sports Medal on 30 August 2000, Heather McKay was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on 26 January 1979 for her service to the sport of squash. She had previously been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1969 for services to sport. An Australian representative in squash and hockey, McKay dominated ladies squash for two decades and lost only two squash matches in her career.

On 10 June 1961, Ida Spencer was appointed a Member to the Order of the British Empire for services to the Country Women’s Association in Western Australia.

Mollie Lukis graduated with Honours from the University of Western Australia in 1932. She worked as a teacher from 1934 to 1940 in Perth, Victoria and England, then with the Munitions Supply Laboratories during the war years. In 1945 Lukis was appointed State archivist of the Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia. On June 1976 Lukis was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for archival work.