The Australian Women's Register

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Karin MacDonald was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory, representing the electorate of Brindabella, in 2001 and was re-elected in 2004, retiring in 2008.

A member of the Canberra Liberals, Vicki Dunne was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory representing the electorate of Ginninderra from 2001 to 2020. She held the position of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 2012 to 2016.

Kelly Hoare was elected MHR (ALP) for Charlton, New South Wales in 1998.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Danna Vale was elected to the House of Representatives as the Member for Hughes, New South Wales in 1996. She became Minister for Veterans’ Affairs on 26 November 2001 and Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence from 2001 until 2003. From 1984 until 1988 Minister Vale was a full-time wife, mother and student. In 1988 she began practising as a solicitor and held this position until entering parliament.
She did not contest the 2010 federal election.

Bronwyn Bishop, Minister for Aged Care (1998-2001), was elected MHR (Lib) for Mackellar, New South Wales on 26 March 1994.

Janice Crosio was the first woman Cabinet Minister of New South Wales, and first woman to serve on the executive at all three levels of government – local, state and federal. She was elected to the House of Representatives (ALP) for the seat of Prospect, New South Wales, in 1990 and retired in 2004.

She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 30 December 1978 for services to local government.

Jill Griffiths Hall has enjoyed a distinguished career in local, state and federal politics in New South Wales, representing the Australian Labor Party. She has held the federal seat of Shortland since 1998.

Helen Coonan is a former Australian politician, who was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate representing New South Wales from July 1996 to August 2011. On 26 November 2001, she was appointed Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer in the Howard Government. She was re-elected in 2001 and 2007. From 2004-07, she served as Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.

Since leaving politics in 2011, Coonan has transitioned into the corporate world, and vouches for the seminal importance of the law, including legal training, legal practise and legal experience as a common thread underpinning her capacity to perform across a diverse professional and public landscape for a very long time.

Go to ‘Details’ below to read a reflective essay written by Helen Coonan for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Senator the Honourable Kay Patterson was elected to the Senate for Victoria in 1987. On 7 October 2003 she was appointed Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women. Her other ministerial appointments have included being Minister for Health and Ageing, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Prior to entering Parliament she was Principal Lecturer and Chair with the School of Behavioural Sciences at the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences.

Lorna Hayter studied agriculture at the University of Sydney. In 1927 she joined the New South Wales Department of Agriculture. During World War II Hayter was a member of the Women’s Australian National Services, and became Assistant Controller with the Australian Army Women’s Service. Later she hosted the Australian Broadcasting Commission weekly national program Farm and Home and became women’s editor of the Land Newspaper. On 31 December 1979, Lorna Hayter was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to agriculture and the community.

Ann Symonds was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1982 to 1998.

Joan Bielski was a long time activist for equality for women in employment, education and public life. A founding member of the Council for Civil Liberties, she was also a foundation member of Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) in 1972 and continued her active involvement throughout her life.

In 1988 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to women and girls education. In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for her services to women in politics and public life.

Joan Bielski was a long time supporter of the National Foundation for Australian Women.

Lisa Roberts is an exhibiting artist, community artist and interactive publisher. She has created films and animations, produced exhibitions, and been involved in several performances over a long career beginning in the early 1970s.

Audrey and her husband Jack D. Blake were prominent members the Communist Party of Australia. Both were particularly vocal during the Liberal Party’s assault on the CPA and Jack Blake wrote numerous articles and papers on the Cold War. Audrey was the first Secretary of the Eureka Youth League when it was formed during the Second World War.

Margaret Manion was a lecturer (1972-1978) before becoming a Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne in 1979, then Emeritus Professor in 1995. She was the first woman chair of the Academic Board from 1987 to 1988, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 1985 to 1988. She was a member of the Loreto Sisters and was awarded an AO in 1989 for services to the arts and education.

Of Lebanese descent, Marie Bashir became the first woman to be appointed Governor of New South Wales in March 2001. She was succeeded in the role in 2014 by General The Hon. David Hurley AC, DSC.

Bashir’s appointment was welcomed by both sides of politics and commended as “an inspired choice” because Bashir would be “a powerful advocate for the powerless”. In that role, Bashir departed from past practice. For Australian aborigines, Bashir launched an indigenous health initiative to support indigenous medicine and nursing students as well as supporting the progress of reconciliation. On the very day of her inauguration, Bashir agreed to become Patron of the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service, which addresses mental and social issues in the LGBT community.

Prior to her appointment she had a long and distinguished career in medicine. She was Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney. Bashir became an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1988 for her service to medicine, particularly in the field of adolescent mental heath. In 2001, the year she was sworn in as Governor, she was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

Throughout her career, Bashir combined work and family life. She was nominated Mother of the Year in 1971. She was married to Sir Nicholas Shehadie AC OBE, who passed away in 2018.

Pioneering Australian feminist Dr Anne Summers AO is a best-selling author and journalist with a long career in politics, the media, business and the non-government sector in Australia, Europe and the United States. Anne is a leader of the generation and the movement that has improved women’s rights in Australia. Her first book Damned Whores and God’s Police changed the way Australia viewed women. Her contribution has earned her community respect: she has received five honorary doctorates and in 1989 became an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to journalism and women’s affairs. She won a Walkley Award for journalism in the same year.

Summers is a former editor of Good Weekend who regularly writes an opinion column for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was a founder of the important feminist journal, Refractory Girl, in the 1970s.

Anne Boyd was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Music at the University of Sydney in 1990. Over twenty-five years earlier, in 1963, Boyd had commenced her studies in music at the same university with Peter Sculthorpe as her principal composition teacher.

Boyd was awarded a Commonwealth Overseas Scholarship in 1969 and, under the supervision of Wilfrid Mellers and Bernard Rands, she prepared a portfolio of compositions for her Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of York. In 1972 she was appointed Lecturer in Music at the University of Sussex, and held the position for five years. She returned to Australia in 1977 as a freelance composer before becoming Reader and founding Head of the Department of Music at the University of Hong Kong in 1981.

Boyd is a recipient of many awards including in 1996 an AM in the Order of Australia for service to music as a composer and educator. She featured in Facing the Music, a documentary about the University of Sydney’s Department of Music.

While completing her BA in Communications (Hons) at the University of Technology Sydney, Plibersek was women’s officer for the UTS Students Association. She campaigned against sexual harassment and instituted a number of measures to improve safety on campus. Before entering parliament, she worked with the Domestic Violence Unit and the New South Wales Ministry for the Status of Women. She was an electorate officer for Senator Bruce Childs and later Senator George Campbell. Plibersek was elected to Federal Parliament as the Member for Sydney in 1998, was re-elected in 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010. She is currently a member of the Ministry in the Gillard Government.

Margaret Preston was the first woman to be commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to produce a self-portrait. In 1996 one of her hand-coloured woodcuts of a Western Australian banksia from 1929 was commemorated on an Australia Day postage stamp.

Jackes was Head, Tropical Plant Sciences and Deputy Head, School of Tropical Biology at the James Cook University when she retired in 2018, having worked as a lecturer since 1973. She was earlier a member of the academic teaching staff of the University of New England and the University of Queensland. She is the author or co-author of refereed journal papers, refereed conference papers, miscellaneous papers, articles, posters etc and environmental consultancy reports. Her books include: Poisonous Plants in Northern Australian Gardens, Plants of Magnetic Island, A Guide to the Plants of the Burra Range and Plants of the Tropical Rainforest.

Director-General of the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Community Services (appointed by Faye Lo Po’ (qv) in 1998). Niland is the former President of the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, and founding co-ordinator of the NSW Women’s Co-ordination Unit.
(Source: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/lm/stories/s104362.htm accessed 01/02/02)

Beryl Ingold AO 2001, MBE 1979 is a former farmer from Cootamundra, New South Wales who has served on many state committees for the advancement of agriculture, education, women and the community. Born in Sydney on 4 March 1927, Ingold was educated at Cootamundra and gained a Bachelor of Applied Science, Agriculture, from the Riverina Murray Institute of Higher Education. She has been a member of the Riverina area consultative committee since 1996, Chair of the Orange Agricultural College of Sydney University since 1995 and the Riverina TAFE since 1994. Ingold is a life member of Country Women’s Association, patron of NSW Rural Youth since 1990.

The above biography was researched and written by Philida Sturgiss-Hoy for Women’s History Month (2002)

Stefania Siedlecky was one of the first two women medical officers to work at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW). A general practitioner with a particular interest in women’s health, she was influential in the development of the family planning movement in NSW, joining Family Planning NSW in 1971. In 1974 she helped set up the Leichhardt (NSW) Women’s Health Centre and the Preterm Foundation, two initiatives which brought safe legal abortion to NSW. From these beginnings, she developed a national, then international, reputation. In 1986 she joined the United Nations Family Planning Association (UNFPA) Special Advisory Committee on Women, Population and Development and in 1988 conducted a review of the UNFPA program in Zambia.

Simone Young is the Conductor and Music Director of Opera Australia. She was educated at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music.

Simone has been conductor Paris Opera, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin and Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera House (London) and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
She was Young Australian of the Year in 1987.

Simone is married to Greg Condon and has 2 daughters.

(Source: Herd, Margaret (editor) Who’s Who in Australia, 2002 38th edition, Crown Content, Melbourne.)

[NB: the above biography was researched and written by Philida Sturgiss-Hoy]

Along with her sister Harriet (q.v.), Helena was educated by her father Alexander Walker Scott, an entomologist and entrepreneur. After the publication of Australian Lepidoptera, the sisters were elected honorary members of the Australian Entomological Society.

Sprinter Marjorie Jackson-Nelson was commonly known as ‘The Lithgow Flash’, after the New South Wales town in which she was brought up. Jackson-Nelson became the Governor of South Australia on 3 November 2001. She won two Olympic gold medals (Helsinki 1952) and seven Commonwealth Games gold medals for athletics. Jackson-Nelson also founded the Peter Nelson Leukaemia Research Fellowship, for which she has fund-raised since 1977.