The Australian Women's Register

Jean Rooney, whose father was a teacher, lived in Mt Gambier, Adelaide and Port Lincoln. Rooney attended Adelaide teachers’ Training College and worked in Unley and Nailsworth for four years. She married Cliff Rooney, a high school teacher, in 1935 and had two daughters.

Margaret Hodge was born in Adelaide in 1918. She subsequently moved to a Western Australian jarrah timber camp where her father was a teacher in a two roomed school. After his death, when she was nine, Hodge and her mother returned to Adelaide to live with relatives. She attended Presbyterian Girls’ School (now Seymour College) on a scholarship. Here she was particularly influenced by two of her teachers – in English and current affairs. On leaving school she taught at the Wilderness School.

Margaret married Scott Hodge in 1940 and had five children, including one who was born with spina bifida. She joined the Lyceum Club in 1971 and served in a number of official capacities over the years.

Mary Miller was born in Yorketown, South Australia and spent her childhood on Yorke Peninsula. Her work in munitions factories during World War II led to her involvement as an organiser in the iron workers’ union and a life-long commitment to the labour movement. In the mid-1950s she qualified as a primary school teacher and became active in child welfare and Aboriginal education.

Gertrud Wilkins was born in Brno-Bruenn, southern Moravia in 1910, which after World War I became part of Czechoslovakia. Her mother had a millinery business and her father was a chartered accountant. She completed a two year teacher training course, followed by course for foreign students in London.

Following her short-lived marriage, at the outbreak of war in 1939, Wilkins was living and teaching at a boarding school in Prague. After the German occupation she escaped into Poland and on to London.

Her situation came to the attention of the South Australian branches of the Women Graduates Club and the League of Women Voters who sponsored her immigration. She sailed to Australia via New Zealand in 1940. Wilkins tried to get work with the Education Department but was ‘knocked back time and time again’. Her sponsors found her a job in a private kindergarten for a year, after which time she remarried and ‘suddenly overnight became…worthy to teach Australian children’.

She taught for two years at Adelaide High School before moving to the country. In 1971 Wilkins was accepted for Australian Volunteer Abroad teacher service in Papua New Guinea and Thailand in 1980. Fluent in several languages, Wilkins continued to teach English as second language to migrants.

Margaret Edith Atkins grew up at Kensington Park where she attended kindergarten and small private schools despite the cerebral palsy and received regular physiotherapy and speech pathology. After leaving school she enrolled in a playgroup course at the Kindergarten Training College and commenced voluntary work in kindergartens. She later worked as an equipment maker for the Kindergarten Union and designed and made toys. Atkins decided to return to study social work at university but was initially refused entry to the course at Adelaide University. She completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours majoring in psychology. Atkins gained a full-time teaching position with the Education Department as a teacher of intellectually handicapped children and was also supervised by the Department’s psychologist to allow her to gain membership of the Australian Psychological Society. She was employed at the Woodville Special School where she developed innovative teaching methods and designed equipment. During her career Atkins held positions as Deputy Head at Strathmont Centre for Intellectually Retarded Children, Head of Barton Terrace and Kings Park special schools, and then in 1975 the Ashford Special School. She retired on the grounds of invalidity in 1977 and become a resident at the Julia Farr Centre. Here she was funded by the Centre to undertake research into leisure activities for the residents and was able to travel overseas. After her health improved Atkins felt that she needed to return to a more home-like environment and was able to move to an aged care facility. She then became very active in community activities and events, WEA and University of the Third Age. Margaret Atkins was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to education in special education on 26 January 1982.

Bessy Cameron was educated at a ‘native institution’ (later known as Annesfield) at Albany, opened in 1852 by Anne Camfield, a teacher and governess. Bessy took her certificate of Proficiency with honours, and was sent to Sydney to attend a ‘model school’, where she became an accomplished pianist. In 1866 she returned to Albany to help Mrs Camfield in the school and was employed as church organist. In 1867 Bessy was sent to the Moravian Ramahyuck mission as a teacher. Not being able to marry a European man of her choice, she was transferred to Lake Tyers, were she married Donald Cameron, a Jupagilwournditch man from Ebenezer in 1868. Bessy lost her initiative and enthusiasm, which was reflected in a marked deterioration in her status. Her married years were spent moving from Ramahyuck to Lake Tyers and back, in a struggle to support her four surviving children. Her marriage deteriorated, and in 1887 Bessy fell seriously ill following another miscarriage. The rest of her life was spent battling to prevent the forceful removal of her children and grandchildren.

Patricia O’Shane was born in Northern Queensland in 1941. A noted activist for Indigenous rights, her achievements in the public sphere have been remarkable. She was the first Aboriginal Australian barrister (1976) and the first woman to be appointed to the New South Wales Metropolitan Water, Sewerage and Drainage Board (1979). When she was appointed permanent head of the New South Wales Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs in 1981, she became not only the first Aboriginal person but also the first woman to become a permanent head of ministry in Australia.

Wendy McCarthy is an experienced businesswoman who has assumed many major leadership roles in both the public and private sectors for nearly forty years. Her first experience as a political lobbyist came about when, newly pregnant, she and her husband joined the Childbirth Education Association (CEA) in Sydney, campaigning for (amongst other things) the rights of fathers to be present at the births of their babies. Since then, she has had three children, and been an active change agent in women’s health, education, broadcasting, conservation and heritage and Australian business.

Her senior executive and non-executive positions have included: CEO – Family Planning Association of Australia (1979-84); Member – National Women’s Advisory Council (1978-81); Member – Sydney Symphony Orchestra Council; Director – Australian Multicultural Foundation. She has held executive and non-executive director roles in many of Australia’s leading private and public institutions including Executive Director, Australian Federation of Family Planning Associations; Deputy Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for eight years; General Manager of Marketing and Communications, the Australian Bicentennial Authority; Chair of the National Better Health Program; Executive Director of the National Trust; Director Star City; Chair of the Australian Heritage Commission; and Chair of Symphony Australia. In 2005 she compiled ten years as Chancellor of the University of Canberra.

In 2013 she is Chair of Circus Oz, McGrath National Youth Mental Health Foundation and Pacific Friends of the Global Foundation. In 2010 Wendy became a Non-Executive Director to GoodStart Childcare Limited. In 2009 after 13 years of service to Plan International, she retired from her most recent role as Global Vice Chair. She is Patron of the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance.

Wendy’s contribution to Australian life has been recognised in various ways. In 1989 she became an Officer of the Order of Australia for her contribution to community affairs, women’s affairs and the Bicentennial celebrations and in 1996 she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Australia. In April 2003 she was awarded a Centenary of Federation Medal.

Christina Brown arrived in Western Australia in 1896. She was one of the first students at Claremont Teachers’ College, graduating in 1902, and married Thomas Blake in 1906. After his death, she became Western Australian’s first woman sworn valuator, first woman to be a commissioner for declarations, and unsuccessfully stood for parliament as an independent candidate for Leederville-North Perth in 1927. In 1928, she married Augustus Robert Sewell, son of Frederick Sewell. She was an active member of numerous societies, most notably the Travellers Aid Society of which she became national president, and was awarded the Coronation Medal for social work in 1953.

Lucy Beeton spent most of her life on Badger Island, though she was sent to Launceston as a young girl to receive a Christian education. In adult life, the well-loved Beeton provided an education for the children of sealers on Badger Island and entertained visitors there.

In 1979, Gracia Baylor became the first woman member of the Liberal Party to be elected to the Victorian Legislative Council when she was electedthe member for Boronia. That year, she was one of the first two women to be elected to the Upper House, the other being Joan Coxsedge of the Australian Labor Party. Baylor held her seat until 1985 when she resigned to contest (unsucessfully) the Legislative Assembly seat of Warrandyte.

Justine Saunders was a member of the stolen generations of Aboriginal people. She became a professional actor in 1974 and was important to the establishment of Aboriginal theatre groups in the 1980s and 1990s.

Valerie Callister served as the Member for Morwell in the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian State Parliament from 1981-88. A member of the Australian Labor Party from 1976, she was secretary of the Parliamentary party from 1982 and served on the Privileges Committee of the Victorian Parliament from 1982. Before her election to parliament she had a career as a technical school teacher from 1975-81.

Joan Chambers joined the Mortlake branch of the Liberal Party in 1969 and was elected Member of the Legislative Assembly for the seat of Ballarat South in the Victorian Parliament in 1979. She served on the Subordinate Legislation Committee in 1979 and the Public Review Committee, 1980-82. She suffered defeat at the 1982 election, but was an unsuccessful candidate again in the 1988 election. In 1992 she stood as an Independent candidate in the Legislative Assembly seat of Ballarat West.

Thancoupie was born at Napranum in Queensland, on the land traditionally occupied by her ancestors. Her father was killed in war. Thancoupie attended the local school before being sent to Brisbane to train as a preschool teacher. Upon her return to Napranum she established a preschool but was unhappy with the situation and resigned.

Thancoupie began writing down and illustrating (with paintings on bark) stories her grandmother had taught her, and had a number of exhibitions of her work. Her application to study at a Sydney art school was rejected because she lacked formal qualifications, however she came across a pottery school which accepted her as a student. Thancoupie then went to America and Mexico and worked with indigenous potters. This helped her develop her own style, and she has since been creating pots and tile murals at her studio in Cairns where she moved in 1976, after the Comalco mining company refused to allow her a house at Napranum because she had left the community. Thancoupie still visits her hometown on a regular basis.

A member of the Australian Labor Party from 1969, Judith Dixon served as the member for Boronia in the Legislative Council of the Victorian Parliament from 1982-88.

A member of the Australian Labor Party from 1966, Caroline Hogg served as the Member for Melbourne North in the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Victoria from 1982-1999. During that period she held a range of ministerial appointments in Community Services, Education, Ethnic Affairs, Health and finally Ethnic, Municipal and Community Affairs. In Opposition after 1992 she held various Shadow Ministerial positions and was the Australian Labor Party Whip in the Legislative Council before her retirement in 1999.

A member of the Australian Labor Party from 1971, Margaret Ray served as the member for Box Hill in the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian Parliament from 1982 to 1992. She was defeated at the state election, which was held on 3 October 1992.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Maureen Lyster served as the Member for Chelsea province in the Legislative Council of the Victorian parliament from 1985-92. She held a range of portfolios as Minister for Local Government from 1989-91, Minister for the Aged, 1989-90, Minister Assisting the Minister for Education 1990-91 and Minister for health 1991-92.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Lorraine Elliott served as the member for Mooroolbark in the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian Parliament from 1992-2002. She held the position of Victorian Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier for the Arts from 1996-99. She stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Liberal Party of Australia in the seat of Kilsyth at the 2002 state election, which was held on 30 November 2002.The seat of Mooroolbark was abolished in an electoral redistribution in 2001.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Inga Peulich served as the Member for Bentleigh in the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian Parliament from 1992-2002. Before her election to the Victorian Parliament she was a Councillor for the City of Moorabbin from 1990-93. She re-established her parliamentary career when she was elected as Member for the new Legislative Council Region of South Eastern Metropolitan at the Victorian state election, which was held on 25 November 2006. She was re-elected in November 2010, when the Liberal Party won government and again in 2014, when the Labor Party regained power.
She served as Parliamentary secretary for Education from December 2010 to March 2014 and Cabinet secretary from March to December 2014 in the Liberal government. As a member of the Opposition she is now Shadow Minister for Cultural Affairs and Scrutiny of Government.

Susan Davies served as the member for Gippsland West as an Independent in the Legislative Assembly in the Victorian Parliament from 1997-2002. She stood for re-election in 2002, but was unsuccessful. She had previously been a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and stood as the ALP candidate for Gippsland West in the 1996 state election, but resigned in January 1997. She rejoined the ALP to contest the federal election in 2004 for the seat of La Trobe, in which she was unsuccessful.

Although no longer involved in parliamentary politics, Susan remains active in the community that she served. In 2006 she was a Director of the Bass Coast Community Foundation, which she established in 2001, and in 2005 she initiated the Wonthaggi Energy Innovation Festival, which is an extension of the Wonthaggi Human Powered Grand Prix (of which she is a Patron and Management Committee Member.)

Susan Davies was National Manager of HIPPY Australia (HIPPY= Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters), with the Brotherhood of St Laurence. HIPPY is an early childhood enrichment program which works with refugee, migrant, aboriginal and other families helping parents improve their children’s “school readiness” skills. She left that position in 2008.

Since that time she has been living full-time and working on her small beef farm in Outtrim (South Gippsland, Victoria), and has continued as a Director on several boards, including West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (Victorian Government appointment), South Gippsland General Practice Alliance (Independent appointment) and since 2009, as Chair of Energy Innovation Co-operative Ltd. Energy Innovation Co-op works within South Gippsland/ Bass Coast and Cardinia Shires, to achieve the vision of “Energy self-reliant and zero carbon emission local communities”.

She also belongs to “Grow Lightly”, a local food-producer’s network focusing on sustainable local food production and sale plus Korumburra Landcare group, participating in indigenous re-vegetation projects along local waterways.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Maree Luckins served as the member for Waverley in the Legislative Council of the Victorian Parliament from 1996-2002. Before her election to the State Parliament in 1996, she was an unsuccessful candidate in the Legislative Assembly seat of Dandenong North at the election, which was held on 3 October 1992. She unsuccessfully contested the Legislative Assembly seat of Narre Warren in the Victorian state election, which was held on 30 November 2002.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Louise Asher held the Ministerial portfolios of Tourism and Small Business from 1996-99 in the Kennett Government, which was in power in Victoria from 1992-99. She served as the Member for Monash Province in the Legislative Council of the Victorian Parliament from 1992-99 and moved to the Legislative Assembly as the Member for Brighton in 1999 and was re-elected in 2002 and 2006. She held the positions of Shadow Minister for Industry and Employment and Major Projects from January 2004 to December 2006 and was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for Urban Water, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Shadow Minister for Tourism and Major Events from 2006-10. She was re-elected in 2010 and was appointed the Minister for Innovation, Services and Small Business as well as Minister for Tourism and Major Events in the new Liberal Government. In addition she retained the position of Deputy leader of the Liberal Party.

On the defeat of the Liberal Government in November 2014, and Asher’s re-election, she resigned as deputy leader of the Liberal Party.

A member of the Australian Labor Party since 1975, Elaine Carbines stood unsuccessfully in the Legislative Assembly seat of Bellarine at the Victorian state election, which was held on 30 March 1996. She was successful at her second attempt. She was elected as the Member for Geelong Province in the Legislative Council of the Victorian Parliament in 1999. She held the position of Parliamentary Secretary, Education and Training from March-December 2002, and was Parliamentary Secretary, Environment, from December 2002. She was an unsuccessful candidate at the November 2006 Victorian state election when the Legislative Council was re-organised into regions rather than provinces. She stood in the Western Victoria Region.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Helen Shardey was elected as the Member for Caulfield in the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian Parliament in 1996. She was re-elected in 1999, 2002 and 2006. In 2002 she was appointed Shadow Minister for Community Services, and in 2005 became Shadow Minister for Health.
Before her election to the State Parliament, Helen Shardey was an unsuccessful candidate in the Legislative Assembly seat of Box Hill at the Victorian state election, which was held on 1 October 1988.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Glenyys Romanes was elected as the Member for Melbourne Province in the Legislative Council of the Victorian Parliament in September 1999 and was re-elected in November 2002. She stood unsuccessfully for the Legislative Council Region of Eastern Victoria at the 2006 election, which was held on 25 November. Before entering Parliament she served as Councillor on the Brunswick City Council, 1991-94, as Mayor 1993-94, and as Councillor, Moreland City Council 1996-99.