The Australian Women's Register

Catherine Cochrane was a regional winner of the ABC Rural Woman of the Year award in 1997. She represented the Illawarra region in New South Wales. She is the business and administrative brains behind the family run cattle property and company, Reg Cochrane Pty. Ltd.

Catherine entered the farm in the NSW Small Business Awards in 1990 and was runner-up in the Primary Production section. She was trained as a high school teacher was a community representative at the Nowra East School Finance Committee, and President of the Parents and Citizens Association. She worked very hard for her regional community.

Mitty Davies was a regional winner of the ABC Rural Woman of the Year award in 1997. She represented the Broken Hill region in New South Wales. A full partner in a specialist wool growing farm enterprise, she was involved in the day to day management of two properties, 80,000 hectare Murtee Station and 28,000 hectare Oxford. Both properties, at the time of her nomination, carried a total of 26,000 sheep. It was a steep learning curve for a girl born and raised on the New South Wales coast who had never been past the Blue Mountains when she married a farmer from Wilcannia in the 1980s!

Mitty’s hard work did not end at the farm gate. In 2009, she received a Queen’s Birthday honour for her long and distinguished record of service to the community. She has been a member of the Wilcannia and District Hospital Board and a member of the Far West Advisory Council. She was the Wilcannia and District hospital Board Treasurer and later the Chairman. She was elected the NSW Section Councillor of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and was the Chair of the Regional RFDS Advisory Committee. She also served on the board of the Isolated Children’s Parents Association.

Netta Holmes was the state winner of the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award for New South Wales in 1997. At the time of the award, she was a partner in the Noonee Angus Stud in Wellington, in the Tablelands of New South Wales.

Netta established an extraordinary record of achievement at a young age. She was a winner of the Angus Australia University of Illinois Scholarship in 1989, which gave her the opportunity to build upon her developing knowledge of the beef industry. She was the founding Chair of the local Landcare Group and assisted in the development of a regional Angus group. She has a commitment to sustainable agriculture which was aptly demonstrated in a twenty-five year plan for the family property Noonee Nyrang.

Netta has a first class honours degree in Botany from the University of Sydney, majoring in Botany and Ecology. She also has her Artificial Insemination and Preg-testing certificates.

Bertha McNamara’s experience as a widow trying to rear six children prompted her interest in radical politics. She published pamphlets on socialism and with her second husband, William McNamara, opened a radical bookshop in Castlereagh Street in Sydney in the 1890s. She was a member of the Social Democratic Federation of Australasia and of the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales. In addition she was a founder of the Labor Women’s Central Organising Committee.

Patricia (Pattie) Leighton was a Western Australian nominee for the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award in 1994. She and her husband established a property in the Cape Rich area, north-east of Albany, W.A., in 1966.

Dale Spender has distinguished herself as a writer on feminist and women’s issues. Whilst living in England from 1974-86 she was active in feminist groups there, serving on the executive of the Fawcett Society from 1983-87. On her return to Australia she was appointed an honorary fellow at the University of Queensland.

Jamie Tarabay is an Australian born journalist who has spent most of her professional life reporting on matters in the middle east. Since September 2000 she has worked as a foreign correspondent for Associated Press (AP) and American National Public Radio (NPR), covering wars in Palestine and Iraq. She is one of very few western women who have made a career as a war reporter. In January 2007, Tarabay was part of the NPR News team that won the prestigious Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of Iraq.

Lebanese by heritage, Tarabay grew up in Sydney, Berlin and Beirut. She has a BA in Government and French from the University of Sydney and can speak Arabic and French.

Jacqueline Lawrence, became the second Australian woman medallist, after Danielle Woodward’s silver at Barcelona 1992, in the Slalom Canoe/Kayak singles event when she won silver at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

In the synchronised platform diving at Beijing in 2008, Melissa Wu teamed with the Briony Cole to win the silver medal.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Marion Reilly was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory on the resignation of Mr Terry Connolly, representing the electorate of Molonglo. She remained in the Parliament until 1998, when she was defeated at the election held in that year.

Phyllis Mander-Jones was Mitchell Librarian from 1947 to 1957. In 1962 she became the first Australian Joint Copying Project Officer. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1971 in recognition of her contribution to Australian history.

Marie Coutts Clark was a physicist and spectrochemist at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Clark was educated at North Sydney Girls’ High School and then the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1932. She subsequently completed a Radio Engineering Diploma Course at Sydney.

Between 1932-1940 she taught at schools in Kyogle, Coffs Harbour, Yass and Griffith (all in New South Wales).

During the Second world War she worked at the (Amalgamated Wireless Australia) AWA Material Testing Laboratory (1940-45).

She then spent the rest of her professional life (1947-1970) employed as a Demonstrator in Physics at the University of Sydney, as a research officer in the Division of Radiophysics (CSIRO) and as a spectrochemist.

Dymphna Cusack was one of Australia’s most prolific and translated writers. Educated at St Ursula’s College, Armidale she won an Exhibition and Teaching Scholarship to the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma of Education. While at the University of Sydney, she developed life-long friendships with fellow authors Florence James and Christina Stead, and lawyer Marie Byles. After graduating she worked as a teacher until her early retirement in 1944 due to ill-health.

Cusack’s literary career took off in 1935 when her first novel, Jungfrau, was published to critical acclaim. A further eleven novels, seven plays, three travel books, two children’s books and one non-fiction book followed. Two of her novels were collaborations: Pioneers on Parade (1939) with Miles Franklin; and Come In Spinner (1951) with Florence James.

Cusack’s books were translated into over 30 languages worldwide, making her one of Australia’s most translated authors. Her anti-bomb play, Pacific Paradise (1955), written in response to the United State’s atomic tests on Bikini Atoll, sealed her reputation across Asia, Eastern Europe and the Pacific.

During the 1950s and 1960s Cusack spent long periods overseas with her partner (later husband) Norman Randolph Freehill, a journalist and founding member of the Community Party of Australia. After returning to Australia in 1962 she became associated with Faith and Hans Bandler, leaders of the Aboriginal rights movements.

In 1963 Cusack was a foundation member of the Australian Society of Authors. In 1975 she was named Woman of the Year by the Union of Australian Women. In 1976 she refused the Order of the British Empire due to her republican ideals, but in 1981, soon before her death, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her contribution to Australian literature.

A member of the Tasmanian Greens, Peg Putt was elected to the House of Assembly of the Parliament of Tasmania representing the electorate of Denison in 1993. She was re-elected in 1996, 1998, 2002 and 2006. In 1998 she became leader of the Greens after the election in which she was the only Greens candidate to retain her seat. She retired from Parliament in 2008.

Fanny Cohen was headmistress of Fort Street Girls’ High School in Sydney from 1929 to 1952. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1962 for her services to education.

She was an inspirational teacher and leader with firm views about the importance of streaming gifted students and ensuring that talented girls were given the same opportunities as boys.

Dorothy Rhodes Taylor was one of the first women employed in the Department of Geography at the University of Sydney. She co-authored The Geographical Laboratory (1925) with her better known brother, Thomas Griffith Taylor.

Dorothy Rhodes Taylor was born in Serbia where her British father, James Taylor, was employed as a mining engineer. She migrated to New South Wales with her family in 1892/1983. She attended Abbotsleigh College, Parramatta.

Florinda Katharine Ogilvie was a pioneer in the developing field of medical social work, who served as a fellow of the University of Sydney Senate in the 1940s.

Gladys Hope Marks was a lifelong supporter of women’s rights. She was active in a range of feminist groups, including the National Council of Women of New South Wales. A gifted linguist, she taught French at the University of Sydney in the 1920s and 30s.

The New South Wales branch of the Australian Federation of University Women established the Gladys Marks memorial fund to assist mature women to complete courses at the university.

Jane Foss Barff was a leading advocate for women’s education at the University of Sydney. She was also active in charitable and church activities.

Established in 1892, The Women’s College within the University of Sydney was the first residential university college for women in Australia and has been in continuous use as a university college for women for well over a century. From modest and financially challenging beginnings, it developed into (and remains) a flourishing institution, particularly after 1916 when it finally received equivalent financial endowment to that of the male colleges.

The College’s first home was a rented house in Glebe. It moved to its own building within the University grounds in May 1894. Designed by the architectural firm of Sulman & Power, the College’s first permanent home still forms the heart of the present building complex and is heritage listed. In 2009 the College accommodates 250 women undergraduates and 30 postgraduates. It is a progressive organisation that is proud of its tradition of being at the forefront of education and social theory and championing women’s rights, academic thought and leadership.

Alice Ruth Walker was a student and later academic in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sydney.

Educated at North Sydney Girls’ High School, she matriculated in 1933 and enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney. She graduated with First Class Honours and the University Medal in Philosophy in 1937.

She began her academic career soon after when she was appointed as a part-time correcting assistant in Department of Philosophy in 1937. The following year she was promoted to the position of part-time Demonstrator/Tutor

The years later, in 1941 she received her first full time appointment at the university, that of full-time Assistant Lecturer. She was appointed lecturer in 1944.
1944: Appointed Lecturer

In 1952, she took a year’s study leave to work at the University of London and the London School of Economics, where she mixed with the likes of Karl Popper and Alfred Jules Ayer. Two years later, in 1954 she was appointed Senior Lecturer. In 1960 she took a year’s study leave, worked at the University of Oxford as a “recognised student”.

Alice Walker retired from the University of Sydney in 1972.

Beryl Ada Graham was a science teacher and author of several school textbooks.

She was educated at Bellevue Hill Public School, William Street Girls Junior High School (1931-1933) and Sydney Girls’ High (1934-35).

Graham graduated from Sydney Teachers’ College with Bachelor of Science in 1940 and was awarded the Eva Saunders Prize for Botany III. She received her Diploma in Education in 1941.

After graduating Graham taught at several public schools, including Cessnock High and Willoughby Girls’ Home Science High.

She married Ernest Graham in 1947 and had two children, born 1956 and 1957.

Sarah Hynes was the first woman to hold a government appointment in science in New South Wales. In 1934 she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Annie Margaret McArthur led a distinguished career as an academic and an international consultant in the field of nutrition. Her research interests included Aboriginal Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. She paid particular attention to the contribution of women to the food supply and subsistence.

In 1965, McArthur was the first woman to be offered a tenured position in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sydney.

When McArthur died in 2002, she bequeathed property to the University of Melbourne. The McArthur Fellowship, for postdoctoral studies in the humanities and social sciences, was subsequently established in her honour.

Annie Praed enrolled in the first dentistry course at the University of Sydney. In 1938 she was the first woman to graduate with a Doctor of Dental Science (DDSc) from the University of Sydney. She was actively involved in the Society of Dental Science and helped to found the New South Wales Branch of the Australian Dental Association.

The Sydney University Women Evening Students’ Association was established in April 1911 to cater for the needs of evening students, many of whom were teachers.

The Sydney University Women’s Society was established in 1891 with the object of assisting “anyone requiring and deserving help”.

Among other activities, members of the Society worked at Lewisham Hospital, Newington asylum for aged women, the Woolloomooloo girls’ club and the Harrington Street night school for girls at Millers Point.

Today the re-named Sydney University Settlement Neighbourhood Centre works primarily with the Aboriginal community and other disadvantaged groups in Chippendale, Redfern, Darlington and Waterloo.