The Australian Women's Register

Honours and awards
1987 Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of service to literature, particularly in the field of poetry
1996 HonDLitt, University of Sydney
2006 New South Wales Premier’s Special Award
2006 New South Wales Alice award
2001 The Age Book of the Year Book of the Year and Poetry Awards for Untold Lives & Later Poems
1996 Australia Council Writer’s Emeritus Award
1996 Emeritus Fellowship, Literature Board of the Australia Council
1985 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, 1985 for “The Three Fates”
1985 honorary life member of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature
1984 Patrick White Award
1984 Grace Leven Poetry Prize for “The Three Fates”
1980 Senior Fellowship, Literature Board of the Australia Council
1979 Robert Frost Prize
1978 Fellowship of Australian Writers Christopher Brennan Award
1977 Australian National University Honorary Convocation Member
1966 Myer Award II for Australian Poetry for Cock Crow
1948 The Sydney Morning Herald Award for poetry, for “The Ship of Ice”

Poet Rosemary Dobson’s significant contribution to Australian literature is evident in the long list of literary awards she received. She began writing at the age of 7, typeset and printed her first book aged 17 and published over twenty poetry collections and other books during her life. The most recent poetry book, Collected, was published just three months before her death in 2012. Recognised early in her career as a significant poet, Dobson was acclaimed as representing “a coming of age for Australian poetry” along with Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright and David Campbell. Contemplative and meditative, Dobson’s poetry is rich with references to art, history, relationship and the Australian landscape. Her move to Canberra in 1971 brought her into a rich literary and artistic community and she was freed to write again after five years in England when her pen remained still. Dobson became a vital member of Canberra’s literary community contributing generously of her time as mentor to younger poets, providing readings for poetry lovers and continuing to publish her own work until she died in 2012.

Titles/ Honours
• 2012 ACT Senior Australian of the Year
• 2009 Australia Council’s $10,000 Visual Arts Emeritus Medal
• 2005 New South Wales Premier’s Award for Script Writing for the documentary series, The Art of War 2004-2005
• 2004 HonDUniv (Queensland University) 2004
• 2003 Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
• 2001 – Centenary Medal
• HonDLit (Curtin University)
• 1996: AO – Officer of the Order of Australia, in recognition of service to art and to the community as Director of the Australian National Gallery
• 1996 The Australian newspaper’s Australian of the Year
• 1996 HonLLD (ANU)
• 1995 HonDA (RMIT)
• 1990 AM – Member of the Order of Australia, in recognition of service to the arts, particularly in the field of arts administration and education
• 1988 Fulbright Scholar

Betty Churcher AO AM FAHA was director of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra from 1990-1997 where she was nicknamed “Blockbuster Betty” because of the large-scale exhibitions of famous artworks she organised to make art relevant and accessible to the community. Betty Churcher has been a pioneer and role model for women in the art world: she was the first woman to head a tertiary institution when she was Dean of the Art and Design School, Phillip Institute of Technology (now RMIT University), the first female director of a state art gallery when appointed to the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the first female director of the National Gallery of Australia.

Jan Brown is a distinguished Canberra artist whose work has been exhibited in Canberra since the 1960s and whose public art installations include Kangaroos in Commonwealth Park and the Icarus group of sculptures in Petrie Plaza in Canberra. She taught sculpture and drawing for over forty years at the Canberra Technical College and the Canberra School of Art.

Dorothy Buckmaster was a member of the Canberra branch of the Country Women’s Association (New South Wales). She held various positions including President and Secretary between 1961 and 1980.

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.

From the time she arrived in Canberra in 1943 as a young wife and mother, Loma Rudduck became actively involved in several community organisations particularly those supporting women and children in the young and growing city. She was one of the founders and later president of the Canberra Pre-School Society and represented it on the National Council of Women. Later she was federal executive officer of the Australian Pre-School Association. For 14 years she recorded a weekly talk on women’s issues, ‘Canberra Roundup’, broadcast on ABC National radio. After the death of her husband in 1964 she worked at information centres, established by the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) in the new towns of Woden, Weston Creek and Belconnen, and as a liaison officer between the NCDC and the National Council of Women. She was a president of the Canberra Embroiderers’ Guild and took a prominent part in an Australia-wide project to produce an embroidery for the opening of the new Parliament House in 1988. Loma recorded the history of several organisations with which she was associated. She was a founder of the Canberra and District Historical Society and was honoured with life membership.

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.

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.

Sandra Levy is an Australian film and television producer. Levy has held a number of head positions in the Australian television industry, including Director of Television at ABC. In 2007, Levy was appointed CEO of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Throughout her career, Levy has produced a number of iconic Australian films including High Tide (Armstrong, 1987), Police Rescue: The Movie (Carson, 1993), The Well (Lang, 1997), Secret Men’s Business (Cameron, 1999) and Serenades (Khadem, 2000).

Mona Donaldson is an important figure in early Australian film production and worked as film editor on numerous quintessentially Australian films.

In February 1915, at the age of 15, Mona Donaldson began work for Australasian Films in Sydney as a film examiner. In 1917, she moved to Paramount and worked first as a film examiner and then a booking clerk. In 1921, Donaldson left work to take care of her mother. Once she could return to work, her previous work experience again allowed her a job with Australasian Films.

Donaldson soon became known for her competence and perfectionism. This was said to have led to a reputation of being formal and distant.

Many of Donaldson’s early editing is uncredited. In an interview with Andree Wright and Stuart Young in the 1980s, Donaldson described cutting for Whyte’s Painted Daughters (1925), Webb’s Tall Timber (1926) and The Grey Glove (1928) and Longford’s Hills of Hate (1926) and The Pioneers (1926).

Donaldson’s first clear onscreen recognition for editing was in For the Term of His Natural Life (Dawn, 1927). The silent film was based on a novel by Marcus Clarke of the same name and tells the story of an English aristocrat who is transported for life as a convict to Van Dieman’s Land for a crime he did not commit.

Donaldson again worked with director Norman Dawn on his film The Adorable Outcast (1927). The film was based on the romantic adventure novel, Conn of the Coral Seas by Beatrice Grimshaw.

In 1928, Lacey Percival, a colleague from Australasian Films, left and started Automatic Films. He invited Donaldson to join him. Donaldson used this job offer to attempt to get a pay raise from Australasian Films, however they refused and she began work for Automatic Films.

While working at Automatic Films, Donaldson was ‘loaned out’ to work on other feature films. She re-edited Chauvel’s Heritage (1935), which then won the Australian Film Award in 1935. She worked again with Chauvel on Uncivilised (1936). Donaldson also co-edited Badger’s Rangle River (1936). In 1937, Donaldson edited Chauvel’s documentary about how screen tests were conducted, Screen Test.

In 1946, after working for Automatic Films for eighteen years, Donaldson fell ill and was hospitalised for seven months. During this time, Donaldson was denied sick leave and she was fired. Both Cinesound and Commonwealth Film Laboratories offered her employment, however she decided to leave the film industry completely.

Upon retirement from the Australian film industry, Donaldson bought a shop in Chatswood and became a successful milliner.

Agnes Gavin is commonly historicised as a supporting figure to her husband’s film ambitions. This inaccurate perception, however, minimises her contribution to early Australian silent film, most notably as one of the first female scriptwriters to achieve international success with her scripts.

Agnes Adele Wangenhein was born in Sydney in 1872. In 1890, she married Barney Kurtz, however they divorced shortly after. On 1 October 1898, she married stage actor John Frances Henry Gavin.

Gavin and her husband both worked as actors in the Bland Holt stage company and in vaudeville for many years.

Gavin made her credited debut in Forsyth’s Moonlight (1910). In this film, Gavin played an Aboriginal girl named Bunda.

Gavin’s husband then began to direct his own films. Gavin played small parts in her husband’s films and was credited as scenario writer for Ben Hall and His Gang (1911), Frank Gardiner, King of the Road (1911), The Assigned Servant (1911), Keane of Kalgoorlie (1911), The Drover’s Sweetheart (1911) and Assigned to his Wife (1911).

In 1916 Gavin and her husband released their most successful film,The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell, for the Australian Famous Feature Company. The film told the story of English nurse Edith Cavell who was executed by the German Army in October 1915. Written by Gavin, the film was well received in Australia, Britain and the USA.

Gavin’s next script again focused upon German war atrocities. The Murder of Captain Fryatt (1917) told of the murder of a commander of a merchant ship. This film was not received as well.

After this unsuccessful script, she returned to the subject of bushrangers and convicts in His Convict Bride (1918). Later in 1918, Gavin and her husband moved to Hollywood where her husband acted in Western and comedy feature films. It is not known what Gavin did during this time.

In 1925, Gavin and her husband returned to Australia permanently. Upon return, she wrote her final scripts for Trooper O’Brien (1928) and The Adorable Outcast (1928).

Kate Howarde, born Catherine Clarissa Jones in England and migrating to New Zealand as a child, was the first woman to direct a feature film in Australia.

She married the musician William Henry de Saxe in April 1884 and their only child, Florence Adrienne, was born not long after on 5 December 1884. William Henry de Saxe left soon after Florence was born and died c.1899.

Catherine de Saxe adopted the stage name Kate Howarde in the 1890s. By the late 1890s, her theatre production company, the Kate Howarde Company was based in Australia and was reported to be extensively touring through New Zealand and all Australian States. In addition to managing the tours, Howarde controlled all finances, wrote and directed many of the performances, songs and pantomimes and performed herself.

Her biggest success was the comedy Possum Paddock (1919). Written, produced and presented by Howarde, the play told the story of the financial and romantic problems of a bush family. The success of the play convinced Howarde to turn the play into a film which she starred in, produced, co-scripted and co-directed with Charles Villiers. This made her the first woman in Australia to direct a feature film. Australian censors removed a scene from the film in which an unmarried mother imagines drowning her baby. The film was released in Sydney on 29 January 1921 and was well received throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Beverlee Adams was the New South Wales winner of the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award in 1995.

At the time of her award, Beverlee had been a small farm operator in the Scone district, in New South Wales since 1968.She had her farm declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1973 with the belief that grazing and wild life preservation can be combined.

Beverlee built up a Cherolais herd due to her belief that a low fat breed of cattle would be compatible with the 1990s trend towards less fat consumption and healthier eating.

Beverlee has contributed significantly to education on weed control in NSW and was the Scone Shire’s representative on the National Parks’ Advisory Committee for the Barrington Tops (1974-1992). The committee established the Broom Council program of biological control for the Broom plant and raised $300,000 to implement the program.

She has served has a Hunter Valley Shire Councillor and is a strong supporter of agribusiness in the community. She also has a long history of connection with green and indigenous issues in the community.

In 2011, Beverlee Adams is a member of the Board of Trustees that manage the Coal and Allied Community Trust of Rio Tinto Coal Australia.

Robyn Tredwell was winner of the ABC Australian Rural Women of the Year Award in 1995.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Michelle Rowland was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as Member for Greenway, New South Wales at the federal election, which was held on 21 August 2010. Before her election to the federal Parliament, she had served as a local government councillor and deputy mayor of Blacktown from 2004-2008.

Sally Coddington was a nominee for the ABC Rural Woman if the year Award in 1997. She was regional winner for the Western Plains district in New South Wales.

When Sally married Graham, a fourth generation woolgrower, she became a co-principal of Roseville Park Merino and Angus Stud. At the time of her nomination she was an active member of the Australian Wool growers Association, the New South Wales Stud Breeders Association and the Dubbo (New South Wales) Tourist Association.

Sally and Graham have handed on the management of Roseville Park to their son, Matthew and his wife Cherie. They have retained 8000 acres based around their current home of Eulandool near Dubbo and at Limestone, Parkes and run the Roseville Park Dohne (a breed of sheep that produces quality wool and meat) Stud.

Jane Leake was a nominee for the ABC Rural Woman if the year Award in 1997. She was regional winner for the New England district in New South Wales. She manages Bahreenah one of the oldest Poll Hereford studs in Australia.

Jane trained and worked as a nurse before moving into agriculture. (Perhaps her father’s professional experience as a doctor, as well as a livestock owner encouraged her down that path.) She returned to the country to run the house of a sow piggery, moving then to a 7000 acre property in the Timor district of New South Wales which ran sheep and cattle. After staring her own business (farm secretarial services) in 1989, she moved back to the family farm, of which she now has total management, in 1990.

Described as ‘one of the great treasures of the Bega Valley Shire’, Moira Collins has been involved in a broad range of issues and interests since she arrived in the district over fifty years ago. She was a winner of the Rural Woman of the Year award in 1997 for the South East district in New South Wales.

She began her career in agriculture as a diary farmer with her husband Jim, and along the way re-instituted the Bega branch of the Australian Primary Producers’ Union in 1961. She serves as a member of the executive of the NSW Dairy Industry Conference and the Bega Dairy Farmers’ Action group.