The Australian Women's Register

Valentine Leeper was the secretary and a long-time member of the Victorian Aboriginal Group, formed in 1933 to promote the welfare of Aboriginal people and influence public opinion in their favour. Its most active members were women including Leeper and Amy Brown. Leeper was close to the activist Mary Montgomerie Bennett, who taught at the school on the Mount Margaret Mission in Western Australia from 1932 until 1941. Bennett sent copies of the schoolwork of students at Mt Margaret Mission to Leeper, and the Victorian Aboriginal Group displayed the work in Melbourne to help the Group raise funds to improve Aboriginal education. The records of the Mt Margaret students are preserved within the Leeper Family Papers collection at the University of Melbourne Archives and are highly significant records of the lives of Aboriginal children and communities on missions.

In 1983 Joan Caelli was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1983 ‘in recognition of service to the sport of gymnastics’. Joan was a gymnastic judge at the Rome and Tokyo Olympics and was also awarded a life membership of Gymnastics Victoria.

Lillian (Lee) Caelli was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia on Australia Day, 1976. She was also awarded a life membership of Gymnastics Victoria.

Norma Bull was a war artist in Britain during the Second World War.

Violet Ida Chomley was born in 1870 to parents William Downes Chomley and Sarah Simmonds (Cooper). Violet attended the Presbyterian Ladies’ College and afterwards studied at the University of Melbourne, receiving a Bachelors degree in mathematics in 1890 and a Masters degree in 1893. After graduation Violet was employed as a secondary school teacher.

In 1902 Violet left Australia and travelled overseas for approximately six months. She settled in England in mid-1903 and began teaching soon after, first at the Christ’s Hospital Girls’ School and then at the Bedford High School. In 1921 Violet took up a position as a full-time secretary and in 1936 she was elected to the Bedford Town Council. Violet Chomley passed away in Bedford on March 26, 1957.

As a widower with two young sons, Isabel Royal worked as a secretary during the day and ran the Novelty Manufacturing Company after hours, in order to support her family. Throughout her life Isabel dedicated much of her time to various charities and community organisations. In 2000 she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) ‘for service to the community, particularly through the Yooralla Society of Victoria’.

The Women’s Pioneer Society of Australasia is an organisation of female descendants of early colonial pioneers, government officials, military personnel, free settlers and convicts.

Leone Mills trained at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School and later worked for the Department of Aircraft Production in the Art and Photographic Section. From 1945 until 1982 she was a photographer at the State Library of Victoria.

Priscilla Wardle was a nurse in the Australian Army Nursing Service during the First World War.

Annemarie Bowen worked as an assistant at Preshil School, Hawthorn, and also helped establish a kindergarten in Blackburn.

Faye Dumont is a choir singer and director and has also worked as an adjudicator. She has her own choir called The Faye Dumont Singers.

Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and migrated to Australia with her family when she was 14. She studied French at the University of Melbourne and also completed a masters degree in Paris.

After returning to Australia, Michelle worked as an editor for Lonely Planet and later she became a founding editor of the Australian Women’s Book Review.

Michelle published her first novel, The Rose Grower, in 1999. Since then she has published several other award-winning books.

Amelia Tallis was a singer, theatre manager and entertainer.

Catherine Kyne was a campaigner for social justice, human rights, community affairs and the environment.

Clotilda Bayne migrated to Australia from England. She settled in South Australia and married Anglican minister Reverend Charles Latimer Marson on June 5, 1890.

Soroptimist International is a worldwide organisation for women in management and the professions working through service projects to advance human rights and the status of women. Soroptimists work at all levels of civil society, local, national and international, and are involved with a wide spectrum of women’s concerns.

The inaugural meeting to discuss the formation of a Soroptimist International organisation in Victoria was held in 1947. Founded by president Dr Jean Littlejohn, the ‘Divisional Union of Victoria’ (later the Region of Victoria) was accepted by the Federation of Great Britain and Ireland in November 1948. The Victorian Region, along with others in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, remained a member of the Federation until the establishment of the Federation of the South West Pacific in 1978.

The first Soroptimist International branch in Victoria was the Melbourne club, which received its charter on June 24, 1948. Dr Jean Littlejohn (CBE) was also the founding president, alongside members Margareta Webber and Myrtle Chisholm. Hilda Chandler was appointed honorary secretary.

The Morning Peninsula club was the second Soroptimist International branch in Victoria, receiving its charter on September 18, 1952. By 1982 there were 15 branches throughout Victoria.

Elizabeth Chipman was employed in various roles by the Antarctic Division of the Department of Science in Melbourne from 1954 to 1977. She visited Macquarie Island with the Australian Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) three times and was one of the first Australian women to set foot on the Antarctic mainland. Elizabeth was also the first female member of the ANARE Club.

Mollie Shaw was the first female architect employed by the Public Works Department of the Allied Service in 1941. She was one of the first female architects in Australia to be accepted as an equal in the male-dominated architectural profession.

Wendy Beckett is a playwright, print and radio journalist and the biographer of composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks.

Vicki Viidikas had her first poem, At East Balmain, published when she was 19 years of age. Since that time, Vicki had her poetry and fiction published in many literary magazines and later she also produced several collections of poetry.

The National Labor Women’s Conference brings together Labor women from around the country to discuss issues facing women and to consider Labor’s policy position on these issues.

In March 1942 the Australian Government passed the National Security (Employment of Women) Regulations which established the Women’s Employment Board (WEB). ‘The aim of the WEB was to encourage and regulate the employment of women in work usually performed by men’ during the Second World War. ‘From 1942 to 1944 the WEB set the wages, hours and conditions of over 70,000 female workers in Australian industries’ (Larmour, 1975).

Florence Higgs trained as an art teacher at the Royal Melbourne Technical College and subsequently worked as an art teacher in Victoria.

Later Florence moved to England where she studied lithography at the Central School of Art and Design in London. She was a member of the London Guild of Weavers and the Society of Designer-Craftsmen.

Sybil Mary Frances Craig was born in London in 1901 to Australian-born parents Matthew Francis Craig and his wife Winifred Frances (Major). Some time later the family returned to Melbourne and Sybil was educated at a school in St Kilda. In 1920 she began private art tuition and from 1924 to 1931 she studied at the National Gallery of Victoria’s school of painting.

Sybil held her first solo exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery in 1932. This was followed by further solo exhibitions in 1948, 1978 and 1982. In March 1945 Sybil became an official war artist. She was commissioned by the Australian War Memorial to record the work undertaken at the Commonwealth Explosives Factory at Maribyrnong.

Sybil Craig was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1981 ‘in recognition of service as an artist’.

The Australasian Women’s Association (AWA) was founded on September 3, 1900. It was a sister organisation to the Australian Natives Association (ANA) and was both a friendly society and a society that promoted national causes. The AWA ceased operation in 1964.

As its name suggests, the Federal District Women’s Bowling Association Past Presidents’ Association is comprised of the past presidents of the Federal District Women’s Bowling Association. The Association held its inaugural bowling match on Thursday 14 February, 1957.

Jennifer Compton was born in New Zealand and emigrated to Australia in the early 1970s. She has published several volumes of poetry, in addition to writing plays and short stories. In 1996 Jennifer was awarded the New South Wales Writers Fellowship and it was the first time the prize had been awarded to a poet.