The Australian Women's Register

The first branch of the Ukrainian Women’s Association was formed on September 13th, 1949 in Cowra migrant camp. Mrs. I Polensly was the inaugural president. Ukrainian women were holding meetings in all the migrant centres across Australia, however Cowra is always considered to be the cradle of the U.W.A in Australia

Ukraine is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea in south-eastern Europe. The area of present-day Ukraine was populated only by Scythian nomads until the 6th century AD, when Slavic people begin to settle in the area. An organised political entity, known as Rus, evolved around Kyiv. (Russia, which later evolved around the principality of Moscow, did not yet exist).

In the fifteenth century Ukraine became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and then of the Polish-Lithuanian ‘Commonwealth’ (Rzeczpospolita), until the eastern half of the country was finally annexed by Muscovy in the seventeenth century. With the annexation of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth by Russia in 1795, the whole of Ukraine came under Russia’s rule until 1918.

Ukrainians managed to establish an independent Ukrainian state in 1918, but it could not withstand simultaneous attacks by Poland from the west and Russia from the east. Ultimately the fighting ended in the partition of Ukraine between Poland and the USSR. Ukrainians suffered greatly under Stalin’s repression during the inter-war period. An artificially-induced famine, in which Ukrainians estimate about six million
people died, was used by Stalin to forcibly implement the collectivisation of agriculture in Ukraine. Ukraine remained occupied by the USSR until 1991, when the latter was dismantled.

It is believed that prior to World War I up to 5,000 Ukrainian workers had settled in Australia. Ukraine was a major area of conflict in World War II and many Ukrainians fled to Western Europe, where they were interned as Displaced Persons (DPs). The first Ukrainians began arriving from the refugee camps in late 1948. They came to Australia on assisted passages which included two-year work contracts with the Commonwealth Government. Among the migrants were priests, lawyers, doctors and engineers, but the vast majority were people from a rural background.

The 1947 census did not list Ukraine as a birthplace, but the 1954 Census recorded 14,757 Ukraine-born. After that the number of migrants from the Soviet Ukraine was negligible, apart from some Ukrainian Jews. There was also limited migration of Ukrainians from communities in Poland and
Yugoslavia. Migration from Ukraine has only been significant since independence in 1991. The 1996 Census recorded 13,460 Ukraine-born people resident in Australia (up from 9,051 at the 1991 Census). Most live in Victoria and New South Wales.

The review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants was established by Cabinet decision and announced by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Malcolm Fraser, on August 31, 1977. Established in order to ensure that the changing needs of migrants were being met by available resources, the review was conducted under prime ministerial authority in order to circumvent some allegedly obstructionist senior bureaucrats in the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. The first meeting of the Review Group, which was chaired by Mr Frank Galbally, C.B.E, was held on 1 September 1977. The committee of review consulted widely, seeking submissions from individuals and organisations, government and non-government. Advice from migrant community groups was actively sought.

The report brought down by the review group, Migrant Services and Programs, was submitted to
the Prime Minister on 27 April 1978 and tabled by him on 30 May 1978. It was made available in Arabic, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese. In it, the Review Group came down with a total number of fifty-seven recommended improvements to
programs and services involving expenditure of about $50 million in such areas as initial settlement and education, especially the teaching of English, with emphasis placed on the role of ethnic communities themselves, and other levels of government, to encourage multiculturalism.

Of particular significance to migrant women was recommendation number 43, which stated ‘the implementation of the general recommendations of the Report, which have been framed in recognition of the special problems of migrant women, should take particular account of their needs’.

Conducted at a time, according to the committee, when Australia was ‘at a critical stage in the development of a cohesive, united, multicultural nation’, the Galbally review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants marks an important development in the evolution of Australian official policy towards settlers from one of assimilation to multiculturalism. Its pointed reference to the needs of women also marked a moment when ethnic and gender politics connected.

The first contact between Poland-born people and Australia occurred in 1696, when several citizens of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth were included in the crew of Captain Willem Vlamingh’s Dutch expedition which explored the Western Australian coast. The first Polish settler in Australia was a convict who arrived in 1803 and became a successful wheat farmer in Tasmania.

Later arrivals included a group of Poland born people who established a community in South Australia which grew to about 400 people by the 1880s. Some Poles joined the goldrush to Australia in the 1850s. The 1921 Australian Census recorded 1,780 Poland born residents and by the 1933 Census their number had almost doubled.

Following World War II, many Polish refugees came to Australia and during the period between 1947 and 1954, the Poland born population increased from 6,573 to 56,594 people. Many refugees worked under a two-year contract in unskilled jobs and continued in similar work for a period after their contracts ended. There was further emigration from Poland to Australia after the Polish government relaxed its emigration laws with almost 15,000 Poland born people coming to Australia between the years 1957 and 1966. By the 1966 Census, the Poland-born population had reached 61,641 people.

In the early 1980s there was further Polish emigration from Poland to Australia. The emergence of the Solidarity trade union movement and the declaration of martial law in Poland at the end of 1981 coincided with a further relaxation of Polish emigration laws. During the period 1980-91 Australia granted permanent entry to more than 25,000 Poland-born settlers, many arriving as refugees. The Poland-born population of Australia peaked at 68,496 at the 1991 Census. Since then the improvement in living conditions in Poland, as well as more stringent migration criteria, have significantly reduced the levels of Polish migration to Australia from the high levels of 1981-85.

Dorothy Buckland-Fuller was a sociologist and social activist of some longstanding, with a distinguished career in ethnic and multicultural politics, particularly as they impact upon women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She was a peace activist, an environmentalist, a feminist and committed to the cause of reconciliation with indigenous Australia.

Of Greek heritage, Buckland-Fuller had a long involvement with the Greek Community of New South Wales, and her valuable contributions were acknowledged in 2001 when she was granted Life Membership to the Council of the Greek Orthodox Community of Sydney and New South Wales. In 1974, she established the Australian-Migrant Women’s Association, an organisation designed to bring together immigrant and Australian-born women.

She was active in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, serving as president in 2002-4. As a sociologist, she taught and conducted action research. Her life has been a case of putting that theory to practice. In her own words, she was an ‘action oriented person’.

Dorothy Buckland-Fuller passed away in Sydney on 5 July 2019. She will be remembered for her words resounding in the ears of all those who knew her over her great life: “I will continue to work for equal rights for all and the betterment of our society for as long as I live”.

The Australian-Migrant Women’s Association was established by Dorothy Buckland-Fuller in 1974 to bring together immigrant and Australian-born women to discuss matters of common interest. Buckland-Fuller, who had some influence within the Greek community in New South Wales, was concerned that Greek women were often too inward looking. She wanted to expose them to new ideas and open lines of communication between them and other women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Buckland-Fuller was assisted by International Women’s Year funding in 1975 to promote the initiative. She received a small grant to assist in running a program of monthly meetings as the premises of the Greek Orthodox Community of New South Wales in Sydney. These meetings brought together about one hundred women at a time from different ethnic communities, as well as Buckland-Fuller’s friends from the Women’s Electoral Lobby and academic circles.

The Greek Orthodox Community is one of Australia’s oldest organisations representing Greek migrants. Apart from operating churches, it provides a wide range of migrant related social services, including afternoon Greek schools, kindergartens and aged care hostels. In more recent times, it has taken on board the need to meet its members’ cultural and artistic aspirations. This has involved a shift in emphasis towards promoting and supporting cultural initiatives not only of Greek/Australians of New South Wales but of all Australia.
In the 1970s and 80s the organisations premises were used to host meetings of the Australian-Migrant Women Association, an organisation established by Dorothy Buckland-Fuller with the aim of broadening the horizons of Australian-Greek women.

Marion Halligan was an acclaimed author of novels, short stories, reviews, essays and gastronomic writing.

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Dorothy Horsfield has worked as a journalist in Australia and overseas. Her published novels include Dream Run (1992) and Venom (2006)

(This entry was sponsored by a generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Dorothy Johnston is an award-winning novelist, poet, short story writer, and author of reviews and literary essays. Her crime writing portrays the darker side of Canberra.

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

The Australian Greek Welfare Society (AGWS) was established in Melbourne in 1972 with the aim of lobbying for the rights of migrants and their children, and to improve services in the area of education, health, welfare, child care and language services. It’s continuing purpose is to empower members of the Australian-Greek community to reach their full potential, by undertaking service provision, advocacy, policy development and research in an innovative, culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. The AGWS is not a women’s organisation; nevertheless it has significant female representation in its executive and on its board and has historically advocated on behalf of women and their interests.

Voula Messimeri has been involved in the community services field for over twenty years and has a particular interest in multicultural affairs and women’s issues. She was appointed the position of Executive Director of the Australian Greek Welfare Society in 1989 and elected Chair of the Federation of Ethnic Community Councils of Australia in 2006. She is the first woman to hold the position.

She co-founded the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Coalition (VIRWC) and has served as Chair of the Immigrant Women’s Domestic Violence Service, as Inaugural Chair of the Women in the North Service, as Council member at the RMIT University, as well as on a number of State and Federal advisory and policy structures.

The Association of Non-English Speaking Background Women of Australia (ANESBWA) was established in 1987, with the aim of promoting access and equity for the culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women of Australia. The founding members argued that women could not rely on the male heads of existing multicultural, ethnic and feminist organisations to represent their interests and that they must speak up for themselves.

As well as networking with women in state and territory Ethnic Community Councils, ANESBWA sought to link up with existing organisations that catered for women, such as social, cultural and political groups. A key feature of the organisation was that it was not ethnically aligned and was therefore in a position to cut across multicultural politics to lobby on behalf of all CALD women.

According to an executive member of the organisation, ANESBWA ceased operating in 1997, due in large part to the federal government of the day removing funding. It was deemed by the Coalition government that migrant women of CALD background should simply function under the auspices of FECCA (the Federation of Ethnic Community Councils of Australia), thus ignoring the women’s need for an autonomous voice. Nowadays, CALD women are represented by the Network of Immigrant and Refugee Women of Australia.

Matina Mottee is the Australian born child of Greek migrants who arrived in Australia in the early twentieth century. Her father emigrated from Greece in 1905 as a 12 year old and eventually settled in Tasmania where Matina was born.

Mottee was instrumental in establishing the Association of Non-English Speaking Background Women and in 1987 became that organisation’s first convener. In 1988 her extensive work on behalf of women in migrant communities was recognised when she was awarded the QANTAS Ethnic Communities Award. In keeping with her egalitarian ethics, however, she chose to interpret the award as honouring all immigrant women, not just Matina Mottee.

Upon accepting her award in 1988, Mottee said, ‘I have struggled from [a young age] for equality of opportunity for both my gender and my race.’ Her continued work on the behalf women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, at an age when others might have considered retirement, indicates that her attitude and motivation has not changed.

Born in the Netherlands in 1941, Beryl Mulder lived in Surinam and Zambia before migrating to Australia in 1982. She has worked in Multicultural Affairs for more than 20 years, in government agencies (including for the Office of Multicultural Affairs) and in non-government organisations (such as the Multicultural Council of the Northern Territory.) In 2006 she served as Senior Deputy Chair of the Federation of Ethnic Community Councils.

Beryl Mulder completed a Bachelor degree in the Social Sciences as a mature age student and has a special interest in access and equity, advocacy, anti- racism, reconciliation and immigrant women’s issues. She is a founding member of the Association of Non-English Speaking Background Women of Australia (ANESBWA) and is a volunteer community worker with immigrants and refugees from non-English speaking backgrounds in the Northern Territory.

A former Canberran of the Year (1984), and Centenary Medal winner, Frederika Steen has been actively involved in community, refugee, multicultural and human rights activities for thirty years. She retired from the Department of Immigration in 2001 after a distinguished career in settlement services and three years’ service as the Chief Migration Officer, in the Australian Embassy in Germany. In 1984, in response to recommendations that where possible, federal government departments should establish women’s units, the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs established a Women’s Desk. Frederika Steen was the inaugural head of the Women’s Desk between 1984-87. Her major focus, while director of the women’s desk, was to provide information and build up the confidence of migrant women to ‘do it for themselves’ and make demands on the system.

In 2006 she is a volunteer worker at the Romero Centre in Brisbane, a group of Australians supporting refugees on temporary visas.

Paulie Higgisson is the proprietor of Canberra’s much-loved Tilley’s Devine Café.

Elizabeth Drozd was born in Poland and arrived in Australia in 1982 under the Special Humanitarian Program. She has worked in a paid and voluntary capacity for the Polish community in Victoria for many years and currently holds the position of Chief Executive Officer of Australian-Polish Community Services (APCS). She is also an Executive Member of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria.

Tilley’s Devine Café may not rival its namesake in the arenas of vice and criminality, but in Canberra and beyond, this institution has been celebrated for providing originality and flair for over twenty-two years.

Australian-Polish Community Services (APCS) is a community-based, not for profit and charitable organisation, established in 1983 in response to a perceived need for a welfare organisation assisting Polish people in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. The organisation provides home-based support services through a variety of programs and conducts research and projects to assist the evolving needs of its clients.

As a writer and editor, Peg Job contributed to a number of Australian newspapers and magazines. She published on subjects ranging from human rights to travel and literary criticism, and produced short stories, poetry and one novel, The Dying.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) was a division of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. It was established early in 1987 to advise the Prime Minister directly on issues relating to Australian multicultural society. The purpose of the office was to be that of a ‘bridge-builder’, linking community and government to further the policy of multiculturalism. To that end, it had a liaison and Community Information Branch and a Policy and Research Branch. The focus of the community information program was on building upon research undertaken and evaluating ongoing projects. Although most staff were located in Canberra, there were Regional Coordinators in each State and in the Northern Territory, so there was some attention to decentralised services.

In early 1995 the functions of the OMA were to be transferred to the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. For administration purposes, OMA officially ceased to be part of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on 26 January 1995.

Seven Writers was a group of Canberra-based women writers who met regularly to debate and critique one another’s work.

This entry was sponsored by a generous donation from Christine Foley.

Margaret Barbalet is an award-winning children’s author, a novelist, poet and short-story writer, a public servant and a historian

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Suzanne Edgar is a Canberra-based writer of fiction, feature articles, poetry and reviews.

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Marian Eldridge was an acclaimed short-story writer, novelist and poet, and was instrumental in establishing the ACT Writers Centre. Her legacy is the Marian Eldridge Award to nurture promising women writers.

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Heather Henderson is the only daughter of former Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies and Dame Pattie Menzies. She was influential in the development of Australia’s capital city, Canberra.