The Australian Women's Register

Margaret Holt was World Champion in Tae Kwon Do in 1994. During the week of competition, she won three gold medals in an open competition that included men.

In 1992, she dressed as a man in order to compete in the knock-out Karate Championships, only revealing her true identity after she had won the title.

Bruna Romano migrated to Australia from Italy with her family in 1956. In 1967 she was awarded a Council of Legal Education Certificate from the Legal Education Committee of Victoria and was admitted as a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of Victoria in May 1968. In mid-1968 she became the first woman to establish a law practice in the ACT, and remained head of the firm Romano & Co. until 2003. She was active in a number of community organisations in Canberra until the 1990s and continued to practise as a family law consultant.

Helen McCue is best known as a co-founder of Rural Australians for Refugees (2001). A trained nurse educator she worked with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the Middle East in 1981, was then seconded to the United Nations Relief and Works Organisation (UNRWA) in Lebanon, and subsequently worked as a volunteer in refugee camps in Beirut 1982-83. In 1984 she co-founded the trade union aid body Australian People for Health Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA), and was its first Executive Director and regional adviser in South Africa and the Middle East until early 1994. She founded the Women Refugee Education Network (1996) and the Wingecarribee Community Foundation (2001), and was involved in the establishment of Wingecarribee Reconciliation Group (1997).

Merran Martin has taught English to migrants and refugees in Canberra since 1985. From 1973-75 she worked in the Department of Immigration teaching English in a migrant hostel, as a shipboard education officer, and in its Migrant Education Section in Canberra. Fluent in French and German from childhood she also taught English in Europe in the early 1970s. She is currently Education, Placement and Referral Officer, Special Preparatory Program Manager and Home Tutor Scheme Coordinator in the Adult Migrant English Program at the Canberra Institute of Technology.

Barbara Blackman was an author, music-lover, essayist, librettist, letter writer and patron of the Arts. Former wife of Charles Blackman, she worked for many years as an artist’s model. She conducted countless interviews for the National Library of Australia’s oral history program. In 2006, Blackman was presented with the Australian Contemporary Music 2006 Award for Patronage.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Jeannie Ferris was elected as a Senator for South Australia to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia in 1996. She died in office in Canberra from ovarian cancer in 2007. During her parliamentary career she was appointed Government Whip in 2002.

The youngest of four children, Connie Hobbs was born in Sydney, educated at St Benedict’s School, Broadway but destined for a life on the stage. She left school early, probably at age 11 to tour and train with J.C. Williamson’s company. Her last role was at the age of 93 in the television medical drama All Saints. In between times, she packed a lot of acting, across a variety of media and forms. She entertained troops during World War II, played Dolly Levi in The Matchmaker, the stage play that became the musical Hello Dolly and appeared in numerous radio plays and television programs, including Bellbird, A Country Practice, Father Dear Father and Brides Of Christ. Perhaps one of her best known rolls was that of Madge Allsop, Dame Edna Everage’s long-suffering bridesmaid in the film Les Patterson Saves The World.

According to Tony Stephens, who wrote her obituary for the Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Hobbs was diminutive, beautiful, rebellious and fiercely independent. She could not be persuaded to reveal her true age until she was 90.’ S

Hobbss is survived by her daughter, Marilyn, and three grandchildren, John, Alexander and Elizabeth.

A member of the Tasmanian Greens, Cassy O’Connor was elected to the Tasmanian Parliament in the House of Assembly as a representative for Denison in July 2008. She was elected in a recount after the retirement of Greens colleague, Peg Putt. She was re-elected in 2010.

Dr Judith Robinson-Valéry was a leading international figure in the study of French literature. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Sydney, staying at the Women’s College while Betty Archdale was in charge, and received her doctorate at the Sorbonne, Paris.

Robinson-Valéry was the first woman to be appointed a full professorship at the University of New South Wales, taking up her appointment in the foundation chair of French and as the head of the school of Western European Languages on 21 February 1963.

In 2005, she was awarded France’s highest decoration, the Legion of Honour (Chevalier).

Sue Walpole was appointed the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 1993, becoming well-known in the role. She assisted with education campaigns which were designed to make the Sex Discrimination Act more accessible and available to women. She held the position until 1997.

Elizabeth Bilney was a founding member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in the Australian Capital Territory during the mid-1970s and took a lead in the campaign for working mothers’ access to childcare. She made a significant contribution to the acceptance of the right of children to good care and the responsibility of government to support this in Australia.

Elizabeth also edited and managed the publication of The Heritage of Australia (1981) for Macmillan of Australia in association with the Australian Heritage Commission; she established the journalHeritage Australia for the Australian Council of National Trusts, and was publishing co-ordinator for the National Gallery of Australia, and publications manager for the National Library of Australia.

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.

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.

Elizabeth McKeahnie was a successful, independent pastoralist between 1882 and 1911, at a time when women generally did not run their own properties. She owned and operated Blythburn, an 810ha dairy and cattle property next to her parents’ property, Booroomba, near Tharwa. She usually worked the property singlehanded, when necessary employing only women to assist her. McKeahnie was also a poet, publishing poems in the local newspaper, particularly after the deaths of friends and relatives.

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.

A brilliant, prize-winning student in mathematics at the University of Melbourne, Betty Allan won a scholarship to carry out postgraduate studies in mathematics, applied biology, statistics and agriculture at Cambridge University where she studied at Newnham College. In Canberra in 1930 she was appointed to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Division of Plant Industry, as its first biometrician. During the 1930s she also lectured in Statistical Theory and Pure Mathematics at Canberra University College and in Agriculture at the Australian Forestry School. In 1940 following her marriage in April to Dr Patrick Calvert, an assistant research officer at the Division of Plant Industry, she was a victim of the marriage bar in the Public Service which prevented the employment of married women but was able to gain government approval to work until the end of the year. During the war she continued to lecture part-time at the Forestry School and to do part-time work for the Bureau of Census and Statistics. Following the birth of her son, Allan, in 1941 she was active in Canberra community organisations supporting mothers and children. She was secretary of the Canberra Nursery Kindergarten Society (1943-1944) and president of the Canberra Mothercraft Society (1944-1946). She died at the age of 47.

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.

Jan Brown was 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.

Yvette Berry was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory representing the seat of Ginninderra for the Australian Labor Party at the 2012 election.

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.