The Australian Women's Register

Following preparatory work and approaches to government by the National Council of Women (ACT) and the Nursery Kindergarten Society, the Emergency Housekeeper Service commenced in Canberra in April 1947. A Committee of Management, chaired by the National Council of Women, was established in February 1947 with representatives from the Canberra Mothercraft Society, the Nursery Kindergarten Society and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). An organising secretary, Ella Buttsworth, was appointed in March 1947. In July 1977, responsibility for providing the service passed to the ACT Division of the Australian Red Cross Society. With ACT self-government in 1989, Home Help Service ACT adopted its own constitution, becoming an incorporated association. It now operates as a community sector not-for-profit organisation that provides quality in-home support to the elderly and people with disabilities and their carers in the ACT, under the Home and Community Care Program and the Veterans’ Home Care Program.

As an early-career academic, Marian Sawer experienced first-hand the difficulties encountered by women in a male-dominated workplace. After establishing equal employment opportunity programs at the Australian National University and the Department of Foreign Affairs in the 1980s, she pursued an academic career as a political scientist at the University of Canberra and the Australian National University, becoming head of the Political Science Program in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University in 2000 and being promoted to professor in 2003. From 2002 to 2008 she led the Democratic Audit of Australia which assessed the health of Australian democracy and produced over 200 discussion papers and reports. Marian took a leading role in Women’s Electoral Lobby campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s, particularly around equal opportunity legislation, women’s policy machinery and tax reform. She has authored or edited around twenty books, including a history of the Women’s Electoral Lobby.

Carol Woodrow has pursued a wide-ranging career in theatre in Canberra for many years. In the 1970s through her work with Canberra Youth Theatre, she provided opportunities for young people to learn about drama through improvisation. At the Jigsaw Theatre Company, she worked with professional actors to develop and present work for schools. In the 1980s and 1990s she worked as a freelance director of avant-garde and community theatre with several ensemble companies, developing new scripts and nurturing new playwrights, and also directed plays for professional theatre companies.

The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary established Marymead Children’s Centre (now Marymead Child and Family Centre) in 1967 as a specialised facility to provide residential care for children of families in temporary crisis. In the early years this might include a mother in hospital, a family breaking up, a child neglected or in danger. As the city grew rapidly so did demand for government-funded social services to provide for more complex needs requiring professional as well as community support. The Franciscan Missionaries of Mary withdrew from Canberra in 1986, transferring ownership of Marymead to the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. Since then, the agency has grown steadily, staffed by professional welfare workers (predominantly female), to become one of the major social services agencies in the ACT. By 2012 it was providing support, in the home and through out-of-home care, to vulnerable and disadvantaged children and their families across the Australian Capital Territory and the surrounding New South Wales region.

Isabel Masters was born in Western Australia in 1912. She graduated from university in 1934 with Honours in English and taught at Kobeelya Girls’ Grammar School in Katanning, Western Australia, Ascham Girls’ School in Sydney, New South Wales and Merton Hall (now Melbourne Girls’ Grammar School) in Melbourne, Victoria before becoming principal of Canberra Girls’ Grammar School in 1947. She retired in 1962, having overseen the doubling in size of what was described as a ‘happy’ school.

Adele (Jill) Mildenhall arrived in Canberra during the settlement’s infancy. She quickly became involved in several charitable and religious organisations including St John the Baptist Church, the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the Mothercraft Society. She was also a valued member of Canberra’s social scene as a tennis player and an entertainer.

Una Mitchell was Headmistress of Canberra Girls’ Grammar between 1937 and 1947. She left Canberra to return to her home state to become Headmistress of St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in Mosman Park in Perth. She retired in 1967 and was appointed Chairman of the Conference of Independent Girls’ Schools of Australia. She was an inspiring Science teacher and highly respected principal, who had high educational and moral standards. She dedicated her life to ensuring the girls in her care were prepared for what she saw as a rapidly changing and modernizing world. She taught them to have ‘a high regard for personal integrity’, to be adaptable as well as to have ‘enquiring minds and the spirit of adventure’.

Gladys Pendred was considered in the mid-twentieth century ‘the main Australian authority in the field of early childhood education’. In 1944, after lobbying by Canberra kindergarten and mothercraft groups, Gladys was asked by the Minister of the Interior to draw up a plan for the extension of pre-school care in the Australian Capital Territory, known as the ‘Pendred Plan’. Pendred Street in the Canberra suburb of Pearce recognises her contribution to the Canberra community.

Ruth Lane Poole was an interior designer whose most notable commission was to design and furnish the interiors of the Prime Minister’s Lodge and the Governor-General’s residence in Canberra in time for the opening of Parliament House in May 1927. She also designed the interiors for Westridge House in Yarralumla, which was the residence for the Principal of the Australian Forestry School, a position held by her husband Charles Lane Poole from 1927 to 1944.

Gail Radford’s first career was in veterinary science. In 1970 she joined Canberra Women’s Liberation and was the first Convenor of WEL-ACT. In 1973 she was appointed to the first National Committee on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation.

In 1975, she was appointed to the Office of the Public Service Board in Canberra as the Director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Section. For fifteen years Gail shaped and led EEO policies and programs, firstly from the Public Service Board and later from the Public Service Commission.

In 1992, Gail was appointed to the position of Chief of the Human Resources Development Division in the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris. At the conclusion of her contract, she returned to Australia in 1994 to become a Member of the Immigration Review Tribunal in Sydney. In 2001 she returned to Canberra to research and write at the Australian National University on the history of WEL and EEO.

In 1985, Gail became a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to women’s affairs and EEO.

After an upbringing in the bush Lucy Frances Harvey (Lu) Rees worked as a shearers’ cook on a family property during the Depression; she moved to Canberra with her three sons in the late 1930s. In 1950 she became inaugural secretary of the Canberra Branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers remaining a central figure in the organisation for many years. In 1955 she opened Cheshire’s Canberra bookshop which she managed for ten years. Always passionate about children’s literature she amassed a personal collection that became the nucleus of the ACT Children’s Book Council collection. It was donated to the University of Canberra where it is named the Lu Rees Archives of Australian Children’s Literature in her honour. She was created a Member of the Order of Australia and awarded the inaugural Dromkeen Medal for services to Australian children’s literature, both awards being announced posthumously.

Professor Sue Serjeantson had a distinguished career as a geneticist in the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University. Her research concerned the inherited susceptibility to disease and the human immune response to organ transplantation. She was the first woman to hold the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University.

The Business and Professional Women’s Club of Canberra formed in 1954, affiliated to the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women (now BPW Australia) which had formed in 1947, which was in turn part of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women which had formed in Geneva in 1930. The Club remained active until the 1990s, with separate clubs for Woden and Belconnen meeting in the 1980s.

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 Soroptimist Club of Canberra was chartered on 1 April 1955 and has met continuously since then.

The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) is a feminist political organisation founded in 1972. It is a non-party-political and non-sectarian women’s lobby. Members of Canberra Women’s Liberation organised the first meeting of WEL-ACT in May 1972. WEL, which began in Melbourne, was to interview candidates for the Federal elections to be held later that year and publish the results. WEL-ACT was particularly active running public education campaigns on what mattered to women in the ACT and interviewing local candidates and sitting Members. Women had flocked to join WEL around Australia and 400 women attended the first National Conference held in Canberra in January 1973.

Over the years WEL-ACT played a major role in supporting the WEL National Office in Canberra and lobbying for national campaigns such as access to affordable childcare; the introduction of sex discrimination, equal employment opportunity and affirmative action legislation; and changes to industrial relations, taxation and economic policies. Locally members entered parliament and the public service. WEL-ACT provided support for those working for women in the bureaucracy, continued to lobby for local issues, such as the repeal of abortion laws, and continued to question candidates standing for election.

Ethel Trounson was a granddaughter of William Ginn, one of Canberra’s well-known pioneers, who lived in what is now known as Blundell’s Cottage. She grew up at the Canberra Park homestead and worked as a children’s nurse to the Crace family in the early 1920s.

As a young migrant who arrived in Australia from the Netherlands in 1953, Petronella Wensing became concerned about the welfare of other migrants, particularly women, and how they could be successfully integrated into the community. As a consequence of her growing awareness of the problems that existed for them, she became a delegate of the St. Patrick’s branch of the Catholic Women’s League and on 22 June 1961, a member of the Good Neighbour Council of the ACT. Her work with migrants was recognised in the A.C.T. International Women’s Day Awards 2011.

As a skilled artisan her specialities are lace making and embroidery. She was foundation President and is now a Life Member of the Canberra Lace Makers Association: a past President of the Embroiders’ Guild of the A.C.T. and as well, a member of the Australian Lace Makers Guild. She has continued to volunteer and consult with the Australian National Art Gallery and the Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra on lace and textiles.

For almost 20 years the Women’s House in O’Connor was an important feminist space providing support for community based women’s groups and organisations. Activities and events at the house reflected the changing shape of the women’s movement, both locally and nationally, as well as local women’s involvement in broader political campaigns. The House was the first centre for community based women’s services in Canberra with Canberra Women’s Liberation, Women’s Electoral Lobby, the Abortion Counselling Service and the Rape Crisis Counselling Service as the first tenants. Over the years many of the women involved formed significant groups and connections at the House, contributing to the establishment of some of the key women’s services in Canberra. Lesbian Line, a telephone support service for women, operated out of the House for a number of years in the late 1980s and early nineties. An even wider range of women’s groups used the House for meetings. By the mid 1990s there were more women-specific services established in Canberra, both government and non-government. This meant that the House was being used less often after having provided a critically significant place for a diverse range of Canberra women to meet, work, organise and party.

The Auxiliary of Marymead Child and Family Centre is a volunteer group established in 1966 to raise funds in support of the services provided by Marymead to Canberra children and families in need. Over the ensuing years the Auxiliary initiated Canberra’s first Walkathon which, together with an annual Button Day and numerous other fundraising activities, raised significant sums annually to help Marymead’s work with disadvantaged and vulnerable children. In the process, the Auxiliary has galvanised the active participation of thousands of members of schools, businesses, sporting and service groups and embassies across the Australian Capital Territory. It continues today to be a major source of non-government funds for the agency.

Joan Corbett began her career in Canberra as a mathematics teacher then worked as a union official with the ACT Teachers Federation. She was appointed the first Women’s Officer of the Australian Teachers’ Federation in 1986, then joined the Commonwealth Public Service specialising in policy development initially in the Department of Employment, Education and Training on youth support and women’s employment including child care issues. Moving to the Department of Health and Ageing in 2003 she worked in the areas of Indigenous health and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. She left the Australian Public Service in 2011 and is currently an Associate Professor in Public Health at the University of Canberra.

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.

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.

Pamela Burton, lawyer and author, was born and brought up in Canberra. Apart from working holidays in London in 1964 and 1970, Pamela has lived her life in the Canberra and the Bungendore district. After studying law at the Australian National University she worked on a range of cases involving environmental and social justice issues and has been involved in various government tribunals and committees. She was one of the first women to establish a legal firm in Canberra, following Mrs Bruna Romano and Margaret Elizabeth Reid. In 2010 Burton’s biography of the first woman high court justice, Mary Gaudron, was published.

Pamela Burton was interviewed by Kim Rubenstein for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia catalogue record.

Born in Germany in 1947 to Polish parents who had been forced by the Nazis into farm labour in Germany during World War 2, Maria Doogan came to Australia with her parents in 1950 under the International Refugee Organisation’s Displaced Persons scheme. In 1998 she became the first person to be appointed to the ACT Magistracy from a non-English speaking background. Maria Doogan is best known by Canberrans for her role as Coroner in the controversial Coronial Inquiry into the catastrophic 2003 Canberra bushfires.

Thea Exley was the first woman to head a regional office of the Commonwealth Archives Office (now the National Archives of Australia), its first national Senior Archivist Reference and Access and the first Director Preservation at the Australian Archives (another predecessor of the National Archives). She was an inaugural member of the Australian Society of Archivists and served as a Councillor from 1977 to 1979. After her retirement she completed a PhD in art history.

Dr Joyce Fildes worked at the Australian National University for over thirty years, establishing the Microanalytical Service for all medical researchers in the John Curtin School of Medical Research.

Pauline Griffin was a Commissioner of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission from 1975 to 1990 and a member of the Australian National University Council from 1978 to 1998. She was chair of the National Committee on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation in the 1980s and a member of the 4th National Women’s Consultative Council in the 1990s.