The Australian Women's Register

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.

Ruth Arndt was a qualified social worker who, while unable to practise her profession because her British qualifications were not recognised in Australia, was a tireless advocate and community worker in Canberra, particularly for migrants and foreign students. She taught English to many new arrivals, taught German and Economics at both Canberra Boys’ and Girls’ Grammar Schools and worked as a research officer in the Department of External Affairs. She also served on the Australian National University Council, the Governing Body of Bruce Hall and was president of the Ladies Drawing Room at University House.

Yseult Bailey became active in the kindergarten movement from her arrival in Canberra during World War II and she continued to take a leading role in organisations to further the interests of women and children, including the National Council of Women and the Young Women’s Christian Association, for the next twenty years. She was founding president of the Canberra Nursery Kindergarten Society, representing the Society on the National Council of Women (ACT) of which she became president. After the formation of the national Australian Pre-School Association she became president and in the early 1960s she was president of the YWCA (Canberra). She brought to these roles a rigorous mind, communication skills and great organising ability. Simultaneously she studied pottery becoming an accomplished potter.

Jan Brown is a distinguished Canberra artist whose work has been exhibited in Canberra since the 1960s and whose public art installations include Kangaroos in Commonwealth Park and the Icarus group of sculptures in Petrie Plaza in Canberra. She taught sculpture and drawing for over forty years at the Canberra Technical College and the Canberra School of Art.

Dorothy Buckmaster was a member of the Canberra branch of the Country Women’s Association (New South Wales). She held various positions including President and Secretary between 1961 and 1980.

Born to Belgian and Scandinavian parents, Hilma Dymphna Lodewyckx grew up surrounded by languages which, combined with a natural talent, saw her master over eight languages and become a successful linguist. Her most ambitious and important work was a translation from German to English of Baron Carl von Hügel’s New Holland Journal. After meeting her future husband Manning Clark at Melbourne University, the couple journeyed to Germany and England, respectively, to continue their studies. They married at Oxford in 1939. Returning to Australia to escape the war in Europe, the couple and their growing family eventually settled in Canberra where Manning took up a position at what would become the Australian National University. Dymphna worked to raise her young family and establish their home as a warm welcoming space for friends and colleagues, as well as assisting Manning with translations and editing for his historical works. By 1959 Dymphna returned to teaching, eventually taking up a position at the ANU German Department. She was also an activist for Aboriginal rights and the environment. After Manning’s death in 1991 Dymphna worked tirelessly to turn the home they shared into Manning Clark House – a cultural hub for scholars, artists and writers. Today, Manning Clark House still plays a vital role in the Canberra community.

Savina Patroni migrated to Australia from Italy in 1951. She lived in the Somerville garden district of Kalgoorlie and raised a family while also working on the family market garden.

Margherita Stefani ran the Amalfi Boarding House and wine saloon in Kalgoorlie with her husband.

The Ladies Drawing Room was formed in 1956 to organise social functions for women members and the wives of members of University House. The group took its name from the Room so dedicated in University House, ANU, Canberra. The Ladies Drawing Room enabled creation of a community of likeminded women which resulted in lifelong friendships, and provided intellectual stimulation in a city which was initially small and lacking in social or cultural facilities.

The Ladies Drawing Room continued to hold regular lunches and other social activities for nearly 50 years until the age of remaining members, and lack of new membership, caused the group to wind up its affairs in 2003. Its story is a microcosm of the social history of the women associated with the University who played a significant but typically discreet part in creating the community and culture of the ANU.

From the time she arrived in Canberra in 1943 as a young wife and mother, Loma Rudduck became actively involved in several community organisations particularly those supporting women and children in the young and growing city. She was one of the founders and later president of the Canberra Pre-School Society and represented it on the National Council of Women. Later she was federal executive officer of the Australian Pre-School Association. For 14 years she recorded a weekly talk on women’s issues, ‘Canberra Roundup’, broadcast on ABC National radio. After the death of her husband in 1964 she worked at information centres, established by the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) in the new towns of Woden, Weston Creek and Belconnen, and as a liaison officer between the NCDC and the National Council of Women. She was a president of the Canberra Embroiderers’ Guild and took a prominent part in an Australia-wide project to produce an embroidery for the opening of the new Parliament House in 1988. Loma recorded the history of several organisations with which she was associated. She was a founder of the Canberra and District Historical Society and was honoured with life membership.

Beulah McAppion is descended from several pioneer families in Canberra’s Ginninderra district, the Southwells, Gribbles and Currans. Her grandfather, Henry Curran, was the last Ginninderra blacksmith. Educated at Hall Primary School and Canberra High School, she joined the Commonwealth Department of Price Control in 1942 and following the war served as a clerk in he Commonwealth Superannuation Retirement Benefits Office until 1968. She then managed a cake shop and in the 1980s worked as a volunteer visitor in the Red Cross service for home bound people. From 2002 she was a volunteer counsellor with the Uniting Church.

Ethel Tory was a teacher of French and Latin and an advocate for drama and language studies, particularly French. She taught French and Latin in Western Australian schools and at the University of Western Australia before undertaking further study in French literature in Paris. She was appointed a lecturer in French at the Australian National University in 1961 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1965. In 1970, she published an edition of Giraudoux’s play Intermezzo for use in schools and universities. She retired in 1977 but continued to teach French and to support drama studies at the Australian National University through donations and a bequest on her death in 2003.

Born to English parents, and daughter of the Surveyor General, Mary Emily Twynam married wealthy pastoralist James ‘Jim’ Cunningham and became an important and formative figure in the developing pastoralist community in the Tuggeranong district. She was a compassionate, sensitive and intellectually curious woman whose capacity for friendship and kindness turned her homestead ‘Tuggranong’ into the social focal point of the community. Her early married years were taken up with raising eight children and battling with the bouts of serious depression that would shadow her for her entire life. As her children grew she found time to indulge in her love of gardening as well as pursue her passion for poetry and the written word. Cunningham was also an outspoken advocate for conscription during the two referenda in 1916 and was dedicated to fundraising for soldiers in the Great War.

Gwen Pinner was a significant figure in the medical profession in Canberra. In addition to her work as a radiologist, she conducted a tuberculosis survey of the Australian Capital Territories and Queanbeyan and was involved in the establishment of the John James Memorial Hospital. As a child, however, it was her role of presenting a bouquet to the Duchess of York at the opening of Parliament House in 1927 that created an enduring image.

Margaret Edis trained at the Coolgardie Hospital and served in both World Wars; after World War II she held a number of senior administrative positions and was awarded an MBE and the Florence Nightingale Medal.

Joan Heenan studied law in Western Australia in the 1930s, moving to Kalgoorlie after her marriage in 1937. She was a partner in the Heenan and Heenan law firm, and was the only permanent lawyer in Kalgoorlie during the war years. She is particularly remembered for her assistance to Italian internees during this period.