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Person
Goodes, Jessie
(1910 – 1999)

Community worker

Jessie Goodes, née Tate, was born in Salisbury, South Australia. She attended St Peters Girls’ College and married in 1939. Experience working in her husband’s St Morris delicatessen meant that she was able to gain employment in a Salisbury grocery shop when she was widowed with three children. Jessie attended a local meeting arranged by the Apex Club in 1958 to form a South Australian branch of the Civilian Widows Association, and was elected President – first of the local sub-branch, and in 1959 of the state branch. Two weeks later she was in Sydney for the formation of the national body.

Person
Oldfield, Christobel
(1960 – )

Community advocate, Psychologist

Christobel Oldfield, née McInnes, was born at Millicent, South Australia and grew up on a farm west of Lucindale. She began her education by correspondence and then attended local schools before finishing at Scotch College in Adelaide. She married in 1977 and had two daughters. Chris did further studies part-time and in 1985 breached the male bastion of the Greenways branch of the United Farmers and Stockowners to gain insight into issues she was studying in Psychology. She became politically conscious as a child when her parents were involved in a legal dispute over drainage rates, but assisting in her mother’s Lucindale shop gave Chris a wider understanding of the impact on families of the rural crisis. In July 1993 Chris and five other women formed Rural Women for Justice to educate outsiders and set up legal aid and mediation services.

Christobel was a 1994 nominee from South Australia for ABC Rural Woman of the Year

Person
Penniment, Diana Elizabeth
(1936 – )

Rural leader

Diana Penniment, née Thomas, was born in Adelaide, South Australia. She attended Methodist Ladies College for her secondary education. Her family could not support further studies, so she worked in a bank until her marriage in 1956, when she moved with her husband into a two room cottage on his father’s property at Wirrega, near Bordertown. They had four children as the children grew up Diana became involved in public affairs, from school activities and craft groups to helping form a local branch of the Women’s Agricultural Bureau (WAB). Diana rose to State President of WAB in 1986. Highlights of her term included organising two international conferences. Diana also sat on the South Australian Rural Advisory Council. In 1991 she decided to focus on local issues and stood for the Tatiara District Council.

Person
Russell, Kathleen
(1911 – 2005)

Women's rights activist

Kathleen Russell was born at Mount Gambier, South Australia. She came to Adelaide to live in 1936. Following the death of her husband in the late 1960s she became active in the Housewives Association and was Vice-President for a time. She died in Adelaide in 2005 at the age of 94.

Person
Tonkin, Miriam
(1928 – )

Kindergarten teacher, Peace activist, Women's health advocate, Women's rights activist

Miriam Tonkin, née Brunning, was born in Melbourne, Victoria. She left school at 13 years of age to begin work. She was very active in the Eureka Youth League as a teenager and worked on the Communist Party’s Guardian newspaper. Married in 1950 she and her husband moved to Adelaide with their five young children in 1958. In the late 1960s Tonkin became involved in the peace movement and Women’s Liberation. Her belief in women’s right to control their fertility led to her involvement in organisations including the Humanist Society, the Abortion Law Reform Association and the Friends of the Pregnancy Advisory Centre. Tonkin qualified as a kindergarten teacher in the mid 1970s and became active in her union and in education reform as well.

Person
Sheehan, Maria (Luisa)
(1933 – 2000)

Women's rights activist

Maria Luisa Sheehan, nee Drescher, was born in Italy. Her mother was widowed two years later. In 1945, when the region was occupied by Yugoslavia, the family moved to Trieste. Luisa’s mother married an English officer and in 1952 the family joined him in Khartoum. From there they emigrated to South Australia in 1955 where two of Luisa’s uncles had already settled. Luisa found work immediately and within two years married a fellow employee at Philips Electrical Industries. She left the workforce for 21 years while raising her family. In 1978 she returned to paid work as one of the six original staff members of the Women’s Information Switchboard. Luisa worked there as an information officer until her retirement in 1993.

Person
Jeffreys, Irene Florence
(1913 – 2004)

Accountant

Irene Jeffreys was born in London, England. She migrated to Australia in 1922 with her parents. Determined from the age of 12 to be an accountant, Irene attended Adelaide Technical High school. She went to work at the age of 16 but studied for the Federal Institute of Accountants diploma at night at the School of Mines. In 1942 she was the first South Australian woman to qualify by examination for the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Irene’s accountancy practice and personal interests included much involvement in the Church of England, particularly the Church Missionary Society and the General Synod, where she pioneered the involvement of South Australian women. Irene supported the movement for the ordination of women and is herself licensed as a lay preacher. For many years she was involved with the National Council of Women. On 3 June 1978 Irene Jeffreys was appointed an Officer to the Order of the British Empire for service to the church, women, children and the aged.

Person
Forte, Kathleen (Margaret)
(1917 – 2001)

Journalist, Peace activist

Margaret Forte, née Johnston, was born in London, England. Her widowed mother emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand when Margaret was seven and supported her three children working as a teacher. Margaret’s education included three years boarding at a Friends’ School. Margaret worked as a journalist in Sydney and Vancouver before settling and marrying in Adelaide. She gave up working with the News in 1950 after the birth of her second child. Margaret quickly became involved in many voluntary activities, including the South Australian Peace Council. She became Secretary of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in the early 1960s.

Person
Sebastian, Andi
(1952 – )

Manager

Andi Sebastian has a diverse work background including having established the Women’s Information Service, been General Manager of the AIDS Council of South Australia, Manager of the Disability Complaints Service and Equity and Diversity Consultant at the University of Adelaide.

She now runs an independent business specialising in the management of diverse workgroups and interpersonal complaints in the workplace. She has two degrees from Flinders University, a Masters degree in Primary Health Care and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons).

She can be contacted via her business email address: andi.sebastian@d-q.biz

Person
Berton, Marina Elizabeth Anne
(1948 – )

Teacher

Marina Berton was born at Mildura, Victoria in 1948 to Italian-born parents who had emigrated in 1937. Berton moved to Adelaide to attend Wattle Park Teachers College in 1965. Early in her teaching career she became involved in English language adult education for migrants, and more recently in developing Italian language education for second generation Italo-Australians. Throughout, Berton has been much involved with the Italian Federation of Emigrant Workers and their Families (FILEF), including six years as its President.

Person
Munro Ferguson, Helen Hermione
(1865 – 1941)

Charity worker

Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, daughter of the viceroy, the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, was president and founder of the Australian Branch of the British Red Cross Society. The wife of Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson (1860-1934), Governor-General of Australia 1914-1920, she established the Australian Branch of the British Red Cross Society on 13 August 1914. During World War I the ballroom of Melbourne’s Government House was taken over by Lady Munro Ferguson’s work for the Society. In 1918 she was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) for her work during World War I. Following the end of her husband’s term as Governor-General, on 6 October 1920, the Munro Fergusons returned to Scotland.

Person
Somers, Lady Finola
(1896 – 1981)

Governor's spouse

In 1926, Lord and Lady Somers sailed to Australia following Lord Somers’ appointment as Governor of Victoria. The couple disembarked the R.M.S. Cathay at Port Melbourne, where they were escorted by launch to an official landing amid much celebration at St Kilda Pier. At “Stonnington”, the Vice-Regal residence in Glenferrie Road, Malvern, 220 scouts formed a guard of honour lining the driveway and school children gathered to welcome the new Governor and his wife.

Person
Dugan, Ruby

Governor's spouse