The Australian Women's Register

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.

Romaine Rutnam was born in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1947. She immigrated to Australia in 1969, where she has made a significant contribution to Australian public and community life.

Romaine Rutnam enjoyed a career in the public service that extended across three decades and three states and territories, in Sydney, Canberra, Wollongong and Melbourne. She has also been active in the trade union movement on behalf of her public sector colleagues. She contributed to the formation of the Wollongong Workers’ Research Centre.

Since establishing a small charitable foundation, The Romaine Rutnam Serendipity Endowment within The Perpetual Foundation Endowment Fund, in 2002, Romaine has been able to assist a variety of organisations. These include Australia21, the Community Environment Network, National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Association (NAISDA)and, most recently, the International Women’s Development Agency and the Central Coast Conservatorium – the latter to establish a scholarship for music tuition for an Aboriginal student.

The ABC Radio Rural Woman of the Year Award was the brain child of Lisa Palu. An Agricultural Science graduate and journalist for ABC Radio in Queensland, Lisa identified a lack of confidence amongst women on the land and decided that their achievements and contributions should be recognised and encouraged. With support from people in ABC Rural, she developed a program in the state of Queensland that went national.

Lisa has spent two and a half decades working in the agricultural industry, as a journalist and policy advisor to State and Federal Government ministers and farm organisations. In 2011 and she is the Manager, Public Affairs and Communication for CSIRO Livestock Industries. She remains involved in her own family’s farm near Bundaberg, growing sugar cane and custard apples.

She is Vice president of the current board of the Rural Press Club.

Edwina Clowes has a distinguished career in rural radio journalism, having worked with ABC Radio and the Country Hour program for over ten years. She has also had many years of involvement with a wide variety of media, government and industry organisations. She is National Co-ordinator of the RIRDC Rural Woman of the Year Award, a position she has held since its inception in 2000.

Edwina’s support of the ABC version of the Rural Woman’s Award was very important to getting it off the ground in 1994.

Jager has worked as Executive Producer for the ABC’s Natural History Unit and the Head of Factual Division of Artists Services. She has also held positions as Documentary Manager at Film Victoria and Documentary Commissioning Editor for SBS Independent. Alongside these positions, Jager has managed the production company Arcimedia and has written, directed and produced numerous dramas, documentaries and television series.

Darlene Johnson is one of Australia’s most prominent indigenous filmmakers.
Her films and documentaries are centred upon Aboriginal identity and the position of Aboriginals within contemporary Australian society.

Laura Jones is an Australian film and television scriptwriter. She has a particular talent for literary adaptations, An Angel At My Table and Oscar and Lucinda being two of her well known efforts.

Ms Jones has been the recipient of three Australian Writers’ Guild Awards and twice won the New South Wales Premier’s Prize for Screen Writing. She won the Australian Film Institute’s Byron Kennedy Award in 1997. She has served as a commissioner on the Australian Film Commission.

Sandra Levy is an Australian film and television producer. Levy has held a number of head positions in the Australian television industry, including Director of Television at ABC. In 2007, Levy was appointed CEO of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Throughout her career, Levy has produced a number of iconic Australian films including High Tide (Armstrong, 1987), Police Rescue: The Movie (Carson, 1993), The Well (Lang, 1997), Secret Men’s Business (Cameron, 1999) and Serenades (Khadem, 2000).

Wendy Thompson is a writer, director, producer and cinematographer who has made over twenty films and received various international awards.

In 1982, Thompson was Director of Photography for the film Waiting ‘Round Wynyard. The short film focused upon a young man as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality.

In 1987, Thompson began work on the television drama series, The Australian Image as a scriptwriter.

Also in 1987, she wrote, produced and directed the short film Damsels be Damned. The experimental fairytale told the story of a Cinderella who is plucked from Fairy Training School and transported to the world of a writer’s imagination. She received the Lillian Gish Award for Best Film at Los Angeles Women in Film Festival and the Best Screenplay at the St Kilda Film Festival for this film.

Jane Kennedy is well known for her work with Working Dog Productions in creating iconic Australian television and feature film comedies.

Jane Kennedy attended the Genazzano FCJ College, Kew. After leaving school she began her career as a newsreader for the Melbourne commercial radio show The D-Generation Breakfast Show. While working at the radio station, she met Tom Gleisner, Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Tony Martin, Mick Molloy and Judith Lucy.

After she left the radio station, Kennedy continued to work with the group on the comedy sketch show The Late Show. She also co-wrote and starred in the current affairs spoof Frontline.

In 1997, Kennedy co-wrote The Castle. The Castle was extremely successful and has since become an iconic Australian film about the average Australian family and their battle against a faceless corporate enemy.

In 2000, Kennedy co-wrote and co-produced the feature film, The Dish. This comedy drama traced the events surrounding the NASA Apollo XI mission to the moon and the role of the tracking radio telescope in Parkes, New South Wales.

In 2009, Kennedy released her first cookbook, Fabulous Food Minus the Boombah.

Jane Kennedy is married to Australian comedian and actor Rob Sitch.

Janet Isaac is one of Australia’s earlier female indigenous directors who helped pave the way for indigenous film in Australian.

In 1976, Isaac produced the short documentary Do I Have to Kill My Child? The documentary provided a stark portrayal of a young mother suffering from depression after the birth of her third unwanted child. The lack of assistance for women and mothers suffering mental illness resulted in the child being taken to hospital with a suspicious fractured skull.

Isaac’s following film, Sister if Only You Knew (c.1981), raised social and moral questions about the role of Aboriginal women in today’s society. The film follows the lives of four Aboriginal women and their role in the movement for equal opportunities for urban Aboriginals.

Jocelyn Moorhouse has worked in both the Australian television and film industry. After the success of her debut feature film, Proof (1991), Moorhouse produced and directed big budget Hollywood films.

Moorhouse was born in September 1960, in Victoria, Australia. After she completed her Higher School Certificate at Vermont High School in 1978, Moorhouse enrolled in the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS).

In 1983, while studying, Moorhouse wrote and directed her first short film, Pavane. She graduated from AFTRS in 1984 and began work as a television script editor.

Moorhouse worked on such television shows as The Flying Doctors (1990-1991),Out of the Blue (1991), A Place to Call Home (1990), The Humpty Dumpty Man (1986).

Her short film The Siege of Barton’s Bathroom (1986) was developed into a book and a twelve part television series.

In 1991, she released her feature film debut Proof. Moorhouse wrote and directed the film which was funded entirely by Government sources. Proof is now recognised as a key contemporary Australian film.

In 1994, she produced the Australian classic,Muriel’s Wedding, directed by her husband, P.J. Hogan.

Her next two films were big budget Hollywood productions. Both films received mixed reviews and did not achieve the acclaim ofProof. In 1995, Moorhouse directed How to Make an American Quilt. The film focused upon a group of woman who share their stories and family histories through flashback while sewing a wedding quilt. In 1997, Moorhouse directed A Thousand Acres, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Jane Smiley. Based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, the film explored the relationship between a father and his three daughters in the face of tragedy.

In 2002, Moorhouse wrote and Produced Unconditional Love (P.J. Hogan). In 2003, she was executive producer of Peter Pan (P.J. Hogan).

Mona Donaldson is an important figure in early Australian film production and worked as film editor on numerous quintessentially Australian films.

In February 1915, at the age of 15, Mona Donaldson began work for Australasian Films in Sydney as a film examiner. In 1917, she moved to Paramount and worked first as a film examiner and then a booking clerk. In 1921, Donaldson left work to take care of her mother. Once she could return to work, her previous work experience again allowed her a job with Australasian Films.

Donaldson soon became known for her competence and perfectionism. This was said to have led to a reputation of being formal and distant.

Many of Donaldson’s early editing is uncredited. In an interview with Andree Wright and Stuart Young in the 1980s, Donaldson described cutting for Whyte’s Painted Daughters (1925), Webb’s Tall Timber (1926) and The Grey Glove (1928) and Longford’s Hills of Hate (1926) and The Pioneers (1926).

Donaldson’s first clear onscreen recognition for editing was in For the Term of His Natural Life (Dawn, 1927). The silent film was based on a novel by Marcus Clarke of the same name and tells the story of an English aristocrat who is transported for life as a convict to Van Dieman’s Land for a crime he did not commit.

Donaldson again worked with director Norman Dawn on his film The Adorable Outcast (1927). The film was based on the romantic adventure novel, Conn of the Coral Seas by Beatrice Grimshaw.

In 1928, Lacey Percival, a colleague from Australasian Films, left and started Automatic Films. He invited Donaldson to join him. Donaldson used this job offer to attempt to get a pay raise from Australasian Films, however they refused and she began work for Automatic Films.

While working at Automatic Films, Donaldson was ‘loaned out’ to work on other feature films. She re-edited Chauvel’s Heritage (1935), which then won the Australian Film Award in 1935. She worked again with Chauvel on Uncivilised (1936). Donaldson also co-edited Badger’s Rangle River (1936). In 1937, Donaldson edited Chauvel’s documentary about how screen tests were conducted, Screen Test.

In 1946, after working for Automatic Films for eighteen years, Donaldson fell ill and was hospitalised for seven months. During this time, Donaldson was denied sick leave and she was fired. Both Cinesound and Commonwealth Film Laboratories offered her employment, however she decided to leave the film industry completely.

Upon retirement from the Australian film industry, Donaldson bought a shop in Chatswood and became a successful milliner.

Nadia Tass is an internationally successful director, bringing a unique style of film to audiences worldwide. Tass has extensive experience in dramatic and musical theatre in Australia, which has translated into a distinguished style of film production. She has directed acclaimed films and top rating television movies in both Australia and America, and has received numerous Australian Film Institute (AFI) award nominations and multiple international awards.

Senora Spencer was one of the world’s first female projectionists. Spencer, together with her husband, is credited for making cinema-going attractive to the Australian middle class through the introduction of films with popular musical scores and ambitious special effects.

Kate Howarde, born Catherine Clarissa Jones in England and migrating to New Zealand as a child, was the first woman to direct a feature film in Australia.

She married the musician William Henry de Saxe in April 1884 and their only child, Florence Adrienne, was born not long after on 5 December 1884. William Henry de Saxe left soon after Florence was born and died c.1899.

Catherine de Saxe adopted the stage name Kate Howarde in the 1890s. By the late 1890s, her theatre production company, the Kate Howarde Company was based in Australia and was reported to be extensively touring through New Zealand and all Australian States. In addition to managing the tours, Howarde controlled all finances, wrote and directed many of the performances, songs and pantomimes and performed herself.

Her biggest success was the comedy Possum Paddock (1919). Written, produced and presented by Howarde, the play told the story of the financial and romantic problems of a bush family. The success of the play convinced Howarde to turn the play into a film which she starred in, produced, co-scripted and co-directed with Charles Villiers. This made her the first woman in Australia to direct a feature film. Australian censors removed a scene from the film in which an unmarried mother imagines drowning her baby. The film was released in Sydney on 29 January 1921 and was well received throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Agnes Gavin is commonly historicised as a supporting figure to her husband’s film ambitions. This inaccurate perception, however, minimises her contribution to early Australian silent film, most notably as one of the first female scriptwriters to achieve international success with her scripts.

Agnes Adele Wangenhein was born in Sydney in 1872. In 1890, she married Barney Kurtz, however they divorced shortly after. On 1 October 1898, she married stage actor John Frances Henry Gavin.

Gavin and her husband both worked as actors in the Bland Holt stage company and in vaudeville for many years.

Gavin made her credited debut in Forsyth’s Moonlight (1910). In this film, Gavin played an Aboriginal girl named Bunda.

Gavin’s husband then began to direct his own films. Gavin played small parts in her husband’s films and was credited as scenario writer for Ben Hall and His Gang (1911), Frank Gardiner, King of the Road (1911), The Assigned Servant (1911), Keane of Kalgoorlie (1911), The Drover’s Sweetheart (1911) and Assigned to his Wife (1911).

In 1916 Gavin and her husband released their most successful film,The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell, for the Australian Famous Feature Company. The film told the story of English nurse Edith Cavell who was executed by the German Army in October 1915. Written by Gavin, the film was well received in Australia, Britain and the USA.

Gavin’s next script again focused upon German war atrocities. The Murder of Captain Fryatt (1917) told of the murder of a commander of a merchant ship. This film was not received as well.

After this unsuccessful script, she returned to the subject of bushrangers and convicts in His Convict Bride (1918). Later in 1918, Gavin and her husband moved to Hollywood where her husband acted in Western and comedy feature films. It is not known what Gavin did during this time.

In 1925, Gavin and her husband returned to Australia permanently. Upon return, she wrote her final scripts for Trooper O’Brien (1928) and The Adorable Outcast (1928).

Jane Bennett was winner of the Australian Rural Woman of the Year Award in 1997.

Belinda Hazell was a Tasmanian Nominee for the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award in 1997.

Clair O’Brien was the State winner (for the Northern Territory) of the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award in 1996. She is a pastoralist and community worker with a strong commitment to improving the lives of women and children in remote and isolated communities.

Robyn Tredwell was winner of the ABC Australian Rural Women of the Year Award in 1995.

Winsome McCaughey had the distinction of becoming the second female lord mayor of the City of Melbourne. She served in that capacity from 1988-89.

Jessie White served on the Mornington Shire Council, Victoria from 1963-75 and was its Shire president from 1971-72. She was appointed MBE in 1978.

Lily Addison competed in the All England Tennis Championships at Wimbledon in 1919. She served with the Australian Army Nursing Service 1917-19 in Greece and England.

Jessie Scott served as a councillor for the City of Ballarat, Victoria from 1970-71, 1972-75 and again in 1979. She was also elected Ballarat’s first female mayor in 1976.

In 1987 Lecki Ord gained the distinction of becoming the first woman to be elected as lord mayor of Melbourne. As an architect she was particularly interested in planning issues and environmental sustainability.