The Australian Women's Register

Margaret Crawford was interested in the position and working conditions of women in the Commonwealth Public Service and was involved in their equal pay campaign.

Margaret was the secretary, and later convenor, of the Women Graduates’ Committee of the Professional Officers Association and from 1951 until 1964 she was also a member of the Canberra Branch Equal Pay Sub-Committee of the Professional Officers’ Association.

Doris Chadwick was born in 1899 to parents Sheldon Western Chadwick and his wife Annie. Her father was a former editor of the Daily Examiner and the Newcastle Morning Herald.

Doris held a Bachelor of Arts degree and originally trained to be a secondary teacher, however she relinquished those duties to undertake journalistic work for the New South Wales Education Department. Doris was the assistant editor of the Department’s School Magazine from July 1924 to 1948 and editor from 1949 to 1962.

Elizabeth Harrower grew up in Newcastle, New South Wales, and lived in London from 1951 to 1959. After returning to Sydney, she worked for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Sydney Morning Herald and for a publishing firm. Throughout her life, Elizabeth has written a number of novels and short stories.

Nancy Keesing’s first collection of poems, Imminent Summer, was published in 1951. Since this time she published numerous books, in addition to editing and writing reviews for various journals and major Australian newspapers. She was employed by the Sydney magazine the Bulletin from 1951 until the birth of her first child in 1956.

Nancy was involved in the Sydney branch of the English Association and served on the committee for a number of years. She was also actively involved in the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) from 1964, and in 1969 she was elected to the management committee. Nancy edited an anthology of members’ work, titled Transition, in 1970, and from 1971 to 1974 she edited the Society’s journal Australian Author.

In 1973 Nancy was one of eleven writers and academics appointed to the new literature board of the Australian Council for the Arts, which she chaired from 1974 to 1977. In 1979 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to Australian literature.

Maxine Poynton-Baker was a long-time friend of Sydney John Tomholt, an Australian playwright and critic.

The Pakies Club was founded in 1929 by Mrs Augusta (‘Pakie’) MacDougall, wife of theatre director Duncan MacDougall. The club operated on two floors at 219 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, and was a meeting place for artists and writers.

The café, a Little bit of Paris, boasted colourful modernist décor and was known for monthly ‘international’ nights featuring aspects of the culture and cuisine of a particular country.

A journal entitled Urgewas produced by Club members between 1933 and 1935.

Charlotte Barnard was born in 1909 to parents Arthur Michael and Katie Terry. She was the sister of explorer and author Michael Terry (1899-1981) and Hilda Francis Terry.

Charlotte was also an author, producing two books: The last explorer: the autobiography of Michael Terry and The Prince’s men: a story of the Jacobite Rising of 1715 .

Throughout her career artist Leeanne Crisp has held numerous solo exhibitions and been a part of over 60 group exhibitions. She has taught at the Canberra Institute of the Arts, Australian National University, since 1975 and has also been employed at the National Gallery of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery. For her work Leeanne has received the Canberra Institute of Arts Drawing prize (1989), the Tuggeranong Art Prize (2003) and the John Copes Watercolour Prize (2011), in addition to many other awards.

Siobhan McHugh graduated from the University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Science and after working as an editor, writer and broadcaster, she migrated to Australia in 1985. Siobhan completed a Doctor of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong in 2011.

Siobhan is an award-winning writer, podcaster, documentary-maker and oral historian and in 2013 she founded the first scholarly journal of radio documentary & podcast critical studies, RadioDoc Review. Siobhan is currently an Associate Professor in journalism at the University of Wollongong.

For a short time Nancy Elizabeth Flannery worked as a journalist and broadcaster, before establishing a small publishing company called Nadjuri, where she was the executive editor. In 1971 she published her first book, Change on change: a history of the northern highlands of South Australia.

Nancy also worked as a radio journalist, a tutor in communication skills, as a consultant for the National Film and Sound Archive and as a valuer for the Tax Incentives for the Arts scheme. Nancy developed a particular interest in Antarctica after she was invited to value the Mawson Collection at the University of Adelaide. She became a member of the Friends of Mawson at their inaugural meeting in 2000 and later became their official consultant. Nancy was granted a life membership of in 2006.

Carmel Bird’s first collection of short stories was published in 1976. Since this time she has produced novels, essays, anthologies, children’s books and also guides for writers. In the 1980s and 1990s she worked as a literary editor for Fine Lines, Australasian Post and other literary journals.

Carmel graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tasmania and, after obtaining her teaching diploma, worked for a time as a teacher.

Cheryl Creatrix and her former husband, Robert Adamson, were heavily involved in the Poetry Society of Australia and together they co-edited the Society’s journal, New Poetry. Cheryl also published the journal, in addition to editing Prism Books.

Nancy Edith Fullarton was born in Temora, New South Wales, in 1913, to parents John and Lilian Fullarton. She attended Sydney Girls’ High School and later Sydney Technical College as an art student. After her studies, Nancy worked as an artist in Sydney before turning to a career as a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Her first book, The Alphabet from A to Z, sold 50,000 copies.

In addition to children’s books, Nancy also produced comic strips. In 1948 her comic strip Frisky was published in a three-month trial in the Sydney Morning Herald and afterwards it became a permanent feature in the comic strip supplement of the Sunday Herald. Nancy also wrote and illustrated a comic-strip version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories.

Nancy moved to London with her daughter Christina in 1955 and there she continued producing comic strips. During her retirement, Nancy worked on programs and publicity and designed costumes for the London Ballet Theatre.

Nicolette Stasko was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to Polish and Hungarian parents. She first started writing during her school years and then went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in English) at Pennsylvania State University. Nicolette then completed a Master of Arts at Lehigh University.

In 1979 Nicolette moved to Australia, settling first in Perth, where she taught at Perth Modern School. Afterwards she moved to Canberra, followed by Sydney. Nicolette has taught English and creative writing and both secondary and tertiary levels. She has contributed to various poetry journals and remained active as a poetry reviewer, editor and researcher

Nicolette had her first poem published in Australia in Hecate in 1987, and her first collection of poetry, Abundance, was published in 1992. Abundance won the Anne Elder Award in 1993 and was shortlisted for the Dame Mary Gilmore Award, the New South Wales Premier’s Prize and the National Book Awards.

Nicolette completed a PhD at the University of Sydney inn 2006.

Writer Drusilla Modjeska has lived in Australia since 1971. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in history from the Australian National University and a PhD in history from the University of New South Wales.

Many of Drusilla’s published works have focused on the lives of women and have been in the form of both fiction and non-fiction. She has also taught in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the New South Wales Institute of Technology.

Grace Gorman is an activist who has campaigned for refugees held in detention in Australia, to raise public awareness of their plight.

Grace became involved in refugee rights before the Tampa affair in August 2001 and was a part of both the Refugee Action Collective (Victoria) and Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR).

Australian poet Chris Mansell worked as an editor and poet in Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, Chris continues to write, perform and edit, in addition to holding writing classes.

Delta, Chris’s first collection of poetry, was published in 1978 and since this time she has also written short prose, plays, and a children’s book titled Little Wombat. Her work has been shortlisted for numerous awards and prizes, and she has held various writing and editing residencies.

Chris co-founded the literary magazine Compass Poetry and Prose in 1978, which she edited until 1987. She taught creative writing at the University of Wollongong from 1987 to 1989 and from 1989 at the University of Western Sydney. Chris then attended the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) Playwright’s Studio.

Since the late 1980s Chris has been involved in poetry publishing. She was one of the founders of Five Islands Press and since 2002 she has run the independent poetry press PressPress.

Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) was established in numerous New South Wales towns in 2001, with public meetings in Bowral and Armidale. Further public meetings were held in Cootamundra and Lismore and groups were launched in Orange and Goulburn. RAR then spread to Victoria, followed by other Australian states.

The group was originally founded by Anne Coombs, Susan Varga and Helen McCue.

RAR consists of Australian citizens living in rural and regional areas who aim to change Australia’s policy on refugees and asylum seekers towards a more humane approach.

Today RAR:
– Aims to raise public awareness of the issues involving asylum seekers and refugees
– Writes letters to newspapers and politicians
– Meets members of parliament to challenge inhumane policies
– Provides practical help to local refugees
– Fundraises for asylum seekers and refugees
– Attends rallies and vigils

Author and historian Cassandra Pybus graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 1971 and a PhD in history in 1979.

Throughout her career, Cassandra has contributed to various national newspapers, journals and magazines, in addition to publishing eleven books. She was the editor of Island Magazine and Overland from 1989 to 1994 and was founding editor of the electronic journal Australian Humanities Review in 1996.

Cassandra is currently the ARC Research Professor at the University of Sydney. She was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001 ‘for outstanding contribution to Tasmanian and Australian literature and education’.

The Catholic Women’s League of Narrabundah was founded in 1960.

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 South Canberra Branch of Soroptimist International was inaugurated in February 1971 and ceased operation in 2001.

Diana Giese has worked in the publishing industry since the 1970s, in London and Sydney, for companies such as Macmillan, HarperEducational and Oxford University Press. She has written six books and collaborated with writers and publishers to produce dozens more. She worked as a literary journalist for The Australian, The Canberra Times, ABC Radio and various journals, and served on writers’ festival and prize committees. She now runs her own publishing consultancy.

In her projects with Australia’s diverse communities, she has worked with them and with museums, libraries and archives countrywide. She has produced a large number of interviews for the National Library of Australia. Her public programs include Travel at Home cultural tours (2001-2016) and Reclaiming the Past (1996-2001). This work has produced exhibitions, archives, books, CDs and Web material.

Children’s writer Joan Phipson was educated at Frensham School, New South Wales, and was later invited back to work as a printer and librarian. There she established Frensham Press. Later Joan studied journalism, worked for Radio 2GB and Reuters London, and also served with the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force.

After meeting Colin Fitzhardinge during World War II, the pair married in 1944. Soon after she wrote her first award-winning novel, Good luck to the Rider, which won the Australian Children’s Book of the Year award in 1953. By 1994 Joan had written 30 books and today she is best known for her quintessentially Australian children’s books, which she produced during the 1950s and 1960s.

Joan Phipson was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1994 for service to children’s literature.

Jill Hellyer was born in Sydney in 1925 to parents Harold and Ruby Hellyer. After the death of both parents and her brother Allan, Jill went to live with her aunts Elsie and Krissie, in Seaforth, New South Wales.

She attended North Sydney Girls’ High School and studied English under Huldah Turner, who had a great influence on Jill’s life. From age 11 Jill began writing poetry and as a young woman she joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW), later becoming secretary of the Sydney branch. In 1948 Jill married Conrad Stephan and together they had three children, Linda, Allan and Laurence.

Alongside Walter Stone (FAW president), Dal Stivens and Alex Sheppard, Jill co-founded the Australian Society of Authors (ASA). She was the Society’s first executive secretary, from 1964 until 1971. For her poetry, Jill won the verse prize in the 1963 Grenfell Henry Lawson Arts Awards and the Poetry Magazine Award in 1965. In 1969 she published her first collection of poems, titled The Exile, and the following year she accepted a Commonwealth literary fellowship and thus resigned from her ASA position. She published a novel, Not Enough Savages in 1975.

Jill was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2006 ‘for service to literature as a poet and as a supporter of Australian writers through the Australian Society of Authors’.

Vera Dwyer was the daughter of journalist George Lovell Dwyer and his wife Margaret Jafe (Shield). She was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 23 February, 1889.

From a young age she contributed regularly to the Australian Town and Country Journal. Her first book, With Beating Wings, was written when she was in her teens and was sponsored by author Ethel Turner.

In the 1930s Vera contributed articles to The Sydney Morning Herald and was a member of the Fellowship of Australian writers. Vera’s published works included children’s books, as well as adult fiction.

Vera married Captain Warwick Coldham Fussell at St Leonards, New South Wales, in 1915. They divorced in 1925.