The Australian Women's Register

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Lindy Nelson-Carr was elected to the Parliament of Queensland as Member for Mundingburra in 1998. During her parliamentary carer she has served as a Minister in a number of portfolios and also as Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier and other Ministers.

A member of the National Party of Australia, Fiona Nash was elected to the Parliament of Australia as a Senator for New South Wales in 2004. She holds the position of Deputy Leader of the Nationals and Party Whip in the Senate. She was re-elected at the 2010 federal election.

A member of the Australian Greens Party, Rachel Siewert was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia as a senator for Western Australia in 2004. She holds the position of Australian Greens Whip in the Senate. She was re-elected at the 2010 federal election.

St Margaret’s Hospital, known initially as St Margaret’s Maternity Home, was founded by Gertrude Abbott in 1893. Located in Elizabeth Street in Strawberry Hills it was founded ‘to provide shelter and care for unmarried girls of the comparatively respectable class. In 1904 the hospital started an outpatients service, and in 1910 St Margaret’s Hospital for Women moved to its final location on Bourke Street in Surry Hills. The work of the maternity hospital and midwifery training was continued from this base until 1998. At its peak, St Margaret’s was the third largest maternity hospital in Sydney. The site was continually extended and rebuilt and specialist services and training courses added, including obstetric and gynaecology training of doctors.

St. Margaret’s Private Hospital was opened in 1946 to assist in the funding of the public facilities. St. Margaret’s Children’s Hospital operated from 1967-1979 for the specialist care of infants and children, particularly the intensive care needs of neonates.

St. Margaret’s Public Hospital closed in June 1993, followed by the closure of the Private Hospital in June 1998. The site of the Children’s Hospital, reused as the Gertrude Abbott Nursing Home, opened in 1982 and remains in operation

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Rosemary Kyburz was elected to the Queensland State Parliament as the Member for Salisbury in 1974 after an unsuccessful attempt in 1972. She was re-elected in 1977 and 1980, but was ultimately defeated at the 1983 election. While a Member of Parliament she married fellow parliamentarian Robert George Akers on 18 January 1981 and was the first sitting female member to give birth to a son in 1982.

Born and educated in Ireland, Geraldine Gibbons arrived in Sydney, New South Wales with her family in 1834. She and a sister joined the newly-arrived Sisters of Charity, and on 17 July 1847 Geraldine was professed as Scholastica, beginning work in the Female Factory at Parramatta. On 9 April 1848 she went to Sydney to establish a home for penitent women in Campbell Street. The home was moved to Carter’s Barracks in Pitt Street in March 1849.

At around the same time, the Archbishop of Sydney, John Bede Polding decided to found an order following Benedictine rules but suited to Australian conditions. He found a group of volunteers and requested Mother Scholastica to be superior of both orders. On 2 February 1857 she helped to establish the Community of the Good Shepherd which took the name of the Good Samaritan to avoid confusion with a similar congregation in Europe. She acted as a Novice Mistress and Superior for the Good Samaritans for nearly ten years, wearing the habit of the Charity order while living with the Good Samaritans. Both the Samaritans and the Sisters of Charity prospered under her leadership.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Marise Payne was appointed to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia, representing the state of New South Wales, in 1997. She was elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2007. She held various Shadow portfolios from December 2007 until September 2013, was Minister for Human Services (2013-15) and appointed Minister for Defence in September 2015.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Connie Fierravanti-Wells was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia representing New South Wales in 2004. She was re-elected in 2010 for a six year term.

Caroline Rowland was an English born, German trained nun of the Ursuline order who made profession in October 1873, taking the religious name Mary Cordula. A casualty of the 1877 Falk laws that dissolved and/or expelled teaching religious orders throughout the German Empire, she returned from Germany to England in 1878 where she helped to establish, in Greenwich, a school for girls which still flourishes under the Ursulines.

In 1882, after accepting an invitation from Bishop Elzear Torreggiani to come to Australia, twelve sisters, including Sister Cordula, arrived in Sydney, to join him in the vast diocese of Armidale in northern New South Wales. They arrived in the inland town on 12 September, 1882. Here they established a day and boarding school for girls which grew rapidly: St Ursula’s College, Armidale, drew its students from all over New South Wales and Queensland and even from Victoria. They also took responsibility for the parochial primary school which had existed under lay administration since the 1850s.

Sister Cordula proved herself to be an adaptable and energetic teacher, business woman and administrator. She held various offices in the religious community: treasurer several times after 1885, superior (1898-1904 and 1905-11) and mistress general of the boarding school (1911-19).

She was well loved and much admired, and developed a reputation as a fair and broadminded person. Her friendly manner endeared her to the members of her own religious community as well as to the wider local community.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Suzanne West was chosen by the Parliament of New South Wales as Senator for that state in February 1987 in the Senate of the Parliament of Australia, on the resignation of Senator D. McLelland. She was defeated at the July federal election. In 1990 she was elected to the Senate again and remained there until her retirement in 2002. She served as Deputy President and Chair of Committees of the Senate from 1997-2002.

A member of the Australian Democrats, Vicki Bourne was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia representing New South Wales in 1990. She served in the Senate until June 2002, when she was defeated at the general election of 2001. During her period in Parliament she held the position of Party Whip from 3 September 1991 until 30 June 2002.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Jocelyn Newman served as a Senator for Tasmania in the Senate of the Australian Parliament from 1986 until 2002, when she resigned. She held the Ministerial portfolios in the Howard Government of Social Security from 1996-98; Family and Community Services from 1998-2001. She held the portfolio of Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women for two separate periods, from 1996-97 and from 1998-2001.

Robina Cowper was a religious worker and woman’s activist with a talent for public speaking. A trained teacher, she and her husband, Charles, were members of the Augustine Congregational Church in Hawthorn throughout the 1890s.

By 1901, she had become a member of the Collins Street Independent Church and became fully immersed in the administrative life of the church, becoming one of its delegates to the Congregational Union in 1912. In 1913 she was elected to the union’s home mission committee and the women’s home mission committee executive. She was the first woman on the Congregational Union executive committee (1922-25) and a founding member of the executive of the Congregational Women’s Association in 1923.

In all her activities she advocated women’s rights and this advocacy extended beyond the church. She was recognised as an energetic and effective public speaker and preacher was invited to do so regularly. She lobbied the government on a variety of social issues on social justice issues such as the need for more women in the police force, protection of children, and temperance. She was an organiser for the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. In 1928 she was appointed a special magistrate of the Children’s Court in Melbourne, Victoria.

Cowper had dealings with representatives from all church denominations and maintained that the Congregationalists led the way when it came to the representation of women. The other denominations, apparently, were ‘pickled in sex as to their ideas’.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Shirley Walters was elected to the Senate of the Australian Parliament to represent Tasmania in 1975. She was re-elected in 1977, 1983 and 1987 and retired in 1993. She was the first woman to represent Tasmania in the Senate, and was known for her social conservatism. Her father, Sir Eric Harrison, served as the inaugural deputy leader of the Liberal Party under Sir Robert Menzies.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Jann McFarlane was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as the Member for Stirling, Western Australia. She was re-elected in 2001, but was defeated at the 2004 election.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Leonie Short was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as the Member for Ryan, Queensland, at a by-election held on 17 March 2001. She was in parliament for a few months only, as she was defeated at the federal election, which was held in November 2001.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Sharon Bird was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as the Member for Cunningham, New South Wales, in 2004. She was re-elected in 2007 and in 2010.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Louise Markus was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as the Member for Greenway, New South Wales, in 2004. She was re-elected in 2007. In 2010 she stood as a candidate for the seat of Macquarie in New South Wales and was successful.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Yvette D’Ath was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as the Member for Petrie, Queensland, in 2007. She was re-elected in 2010.

A member of the National Party, Kay Hull was elected to the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Australia as the Member for Riverina, New South Wales in 1998. She was re-elected in 2001, 2004 and 2007. She held the position of Chief Whip for the National Party. She did not contest the 2010 federal election. Before her election to the federal Parliament, she served as a Councillor and Deputy Lord Mayor of the City of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.

In June 2021, Hull was awarded an AO for distinguished service to rural and regional communities through health, skills development, and agricultural organisations.

Originally a member of the Australian Democrats Party, Cheryl Kernot was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia as a representative for Queensland in 1990. She was elected leader of the Party in 1993, remaining in that position until her defection to the Australian Labor Party in 1997. She was elected to the seat of Dickson Queensland in the House of Representatives in 1998, but was defeated at the 2001 election.

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.

Darriea Turley is chair of the National Rural Women’s Coalition and a member of the Premier’s Council for Women. Darriea was the first HIV/AIDS worker in the Broken Hill region. Elected to local government in 1995, she has served on numerous local and state government boards and ran for mayor in Broken Hill in 2004. In 2008, she was nominated for New South Wales Woman of the Year. Darriea currently works as Community Engagement Manager for the Greater Western Area Health Service.

The Broken Hill Munitions Annexe opened in 1942 for the manufacture of wartime munitions and employed dozens of Broken Hill women.

For over fifty years, union policy in Broken Hill prohibited married women from taking on paid employment unless they were professionally trained. Clerical and retail positions were to be kept open for young unmarried women or widows.

Selina McHugh was the first woman blacksmith in the Broken Hill district.

Constance Caskey was a pastoralist who lived with her husband and four children on a remote pastoral property near Menindee, New South Wales.