The Australian Women's Register

Paula Wreidt was elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly in February, 1996. She was appointed to the portfolio of Minister for Education in September 1998, which made her Tasmania’s youngest ever female member of Cabinet. After her re-election in July 2002, Paula retained her position as Minister for Education. She also gained new responsibilities as Minister for Women Tasmania and Leader of Government Business in the House of Assembly. Following the 2006 election Paula assumed the role of Minister for Tourism, Arts and the Environment.

Miles Franklin’s place in Australian literary history was assured when on her death in 1954, she made provision for an award for Australian literature. The Miles Franklin Award is the most prestigious for an Australian author to receive. Although she spent almost twenty-four years away from Australia, working mainly in Chicago and London, she was committed to pursuing the notion of the unique Australian perspective in literature. Despite her early success with the publication of ‘My Brilliant Career’ in 1901, she struggled to gain the recognition she believed she was capable of achieving. Nevertheless on her return to Australia in 1932 she entered the Sydney literary scene enthusiastically and had many of her works published.

Eleanor Mary Hinder (1893-1963) was a pioneer in the field of industrial welfare in Australia with her appointment as Superintendent of Staff Welfare for the department store, Farmer & Co. Ltd, in Sydney during WWI. She later achieved international prominence in this field. From 1926 to 1928, Hinder assisted in the development of the new industrial department of the National Committee of the Young Women’s Christian Association of China, in Shanghai . She held the position of Chief of the Industrial and Social Division of Shanghai Municipal Council from January 1933 until August 1942, when the Japanese occupation of Shanghai forced her repatriation to Britain. Hinder’s next appointment, from December 1942 to October 1944, was to the International Labour Organisation. in Montreal where she served as Special Consultant on Asian Questions., and she subsequently held several other positions with the United Nations. Outside of her professional life, Hinder was also involved with a numbers of women’s organisations.

Louisa Dunn was Treasurer of the Melbourne Ladies Benevolent Society for twenty-two years, from 1869 until 1891.

Millicent Preston-Stanley was a politician and first female member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, 1925-1927. She was involved in a wide array of women’s groups and issues and was President of the Feminist Club from 1919-1934 and 1952-1955. She was also Australian delegate for the British-American Co-operation Movement, 1936-1938. She married Crawford Vaughan in Sydney in 1934.

Ray Alberta Cross worked for the New South Wales Bush Nursing Association from 1937 until 1944.

Enrica Vanzella migrated to Australia in 1929 to join her father who was already in the country. In 1936 she married Bill Vanzella and moved to the family orchard, ‘Alta Villa’ in Batlow, New South Wales. Enrica was president of the Batlow Women’s Bowling Club, the Southern Highlands District Women’s Bowling Association and the Batlow and District Garden Club.

Barbara Curthoys was an important figure in the history of Communism, feminism, the peace movement and the campaign for indigenous rights in Australia. An activist in the middle of the twentieth century, she was ‘one of that small band of women who fearlessly campaigned for racial and social equality and world peace at a time when it was politically risky to do so’.

Marie Kohn was an active member and office bearer of the Victorian Federation of Catholic Mothers’ Clubs, later known as the Victorian Federation of Catholic Parents’ Clubs. She served as president in 1969, secretary from 1972 until 1976 and again during the 1980s. During the 1990s she served as the regional representative for Essendon. She was active also in the Catholic Women’s League.

Elizabeth Reid became a member of the Grail in 1938 after it was established in Sydney in 1937. As a member of this Catholic lay organisation, she worked to ensure that Catholic laywomen did play a greater role in the world.

Edith Ada Fry was born in England in 1858, the eighth child of James Kight and Amelia Fry and the youngest sister of Arthur Fry. When the family came to Sydney in the early 1870s they lived at “Sunnyholt”, Blacktown; after her father’s death in 1896 Edith moved with her mother and sister Katie to “Headingley” in Coogee and later to the North Shore. Edith was prominent in the early days of the women’s movement in New South Wales; in the early 1890s she joined the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales, was a member of its council and later honorary treasurer. It was during this time that she met Rose Scott, who became a close friend. A founding member in 1896 of the National Council of Women of New South Wales, she held various offices and was later appointed Honorary Life Vice-President. She was one of the Council’s delegates at the Quinquennial Meeting of the International Council of Women held in Rome in 1913. She was also a founding member of the Women’s Club in 1901, served on the Executive in its formative years and was made an Honarary Life Member. Edith Fry died in Sydney in 1940.

Mangiwa Sagiba was born and raised on Goulburn Island in the Northern Territory. She grew up in the bush, speaking the Aboriginal languages and was engaged in traditional activities from an early age. She was educated at the Methodist Mission School, where she learned to speak English. When she was 21, she went to Darwin to do three years’ teachers training, and made visits to Hawaii and Fiji. Later, she attended a university course in Brisbane to learn how to read and write her own language. She became Principal of the school on Goulburn Island, which educates mainly Aboriginal children from pre-school age up to, but not including secondary school standard.

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.

Pearl Gibbs was a major figure in Aboriginal political activism from the late 1920s to the 1970s. She was involved in organising the Day of Mourning on 26 January 1938 to protest the invasion; spoke for the Committee for Aboriginal Citizen Rights; supported Northern Territory Aborigines in their conflicts with a frontier ‘justice’ system; called for Aboriginal representation on the New South Wales Board; set up the Dubbo branch of the Australian Aborigines’ League with Bill Ferguson in 1946; became the organising secretary for a new Melbourne-based Council for Aboriginal Rights in 1953; was elected as the Aboriginal member of the Aborigines Welfare Board in 1954 and its only woman member; established the Australian Aboriginal Fellowship (with Faith Bandler) in 1956 and the first hostel for Aboriginal hospital patients and their families in Dubbo in 1960; and continued contributing to Aboriginal conferences throughout the 1970s.

Daisy Bindi was born probably around 1904 on the Western Australian edge of the Gibson Desert. She learned to do housework and to ride and manage horses while working on ‘Ethel Creek’ station from an early age. In the 1940s she organised a strike of Aboriginal workers on the stations near her, despite the threats by the police and Native Welfare Department that she would be removed from the area. Her initiative was largely responsible for spreading the strike to the further inland Pilbara stations; the strike changed the structure of labour relations in the north of the State. In the 1950s Daisy lived with others in a well-ordered collective, the Pindan Cooperative, the first Aboriginal cooperative formed in Western Australia. When she visited Perth for the first time in October 1959, she spent much time lobbying for a school for Pindan. Her later visit to Perth gave her the opportunity to associate with women who supported the Aboriginal cause at the Union of Australian Women.

On 25 February 2003 Judy Maddigan was elected the 32nd person, and first female, to hold the office of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria. She held this position until December 2006. The daughter of William Joseph and Bessie Irene (née Hurley) Todd, Judy was educated at Tintern Church of England Girls’ Grammar School before entering the University of Melbourne. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Graduate Diploma of Librarianship and a Masters of Librarianship and Information Services (Conservation and Archives). Prior to entering Parliament, Maddigan worked for the Commonwealth Public Service, was a Branch Services Librarian with the City of Maribyrnong and a Councillor with the City of Essendon. During this time she received the State ‘Clean Air Award’ by leading the campaign to ban incinerators in the City. Maddigan has a long history of involvement in local community groups including Women’s Organisations, the Essendon Historical Society and the Friends of Essendon Library. During the 1990s she was involved with the ‘Defend Public Libraries’ campaign which was organised to protect public libraries from the effects of compulsory competitive tending and amalgamations. An unsuccessful candidate for the Australian Labor Party at the 1992 state election, Maddigan was elected as a Member of Victorian Parliament to represent the Electoral District of Essendon in the Legislative Assembly in March 1996 and was re-elected in 1999, 2002 and 2006. She retired at the November 2010 election.

Ella Simon went to school on Purfleet Aboriginal reserve, New South Wales, until the age of twelve. She then worked in Gloucester and Sydney, but returned to Purfleet in 1932 to nurse her sick grandmother, Kundaibark. She married Joe Simon in the mid-1930s, and they travelled around New South Wales, helping Aboriginal people. In 1957 Ella was granted her ‘certificate of exemption’ from the restrictions imposed by the Aborigines Welfare Board. In 1960 she formed a branch of the Country Women’s Association on Purfleet reserve and became its president. She opened the Gillawarra gift shop selling Aboriginal artefacts. She improved the living conditions on Purfleet, by supplying new stoves and introducing electricity. She continued caring for Aboriginal children and the sick. In 1962 she was named Lady of Distinction by Quota and appointed a justice of the peace. She dictated her life story for the book Through My Eyes during 1976-78.

Julia Bensusan was founding secretary of the Sydney Foundling Institution, later renamed the Infants’ Home, Ashfield. She served on the Board from 1874 until her death in 1878. All members of the first committee were described as ‘ women of prominence in Australia… who tried to use their influence to improve social conditions’.

Barbara Fawkes was chief education officer and examiner for the General Nursing Council for England and Wales; principal tutor sister at the Middlesex Hospital, London; and president of the International Council of Nurses. Granted a fellowship by the Red Cross to study in America, Fawkes obtained a BSc in Nursing at Columbia University. Sponsored by the Florence Nightingale Foundation she toured Australia and New Zealand in 1953 studying Australia’s hospitals and nurse training methods. She was made a Fellow of the New South Wales College of Nursing and a Life Governor of the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1984. She received an OBE for her services to nursing. Fawkes visited Australia on many occasions and lived in Melbourne in her retirement in the 1980s, while continuing to serve on medical boards and participate in conferences.

Eve Fesl is a former discus champion of Victoria and Queensland and a Queensland netball representative. In 1988 she received the Order of Australia Medal for her work with the ethnic community and maintenance of Aboriginal languages. She gained her PhD with her sociolinguistic study on language policy and implementation.
Fesl has been a local councillor for Nunawading, Victoria, and a member of a number of national bodies including the Advisory Council on Multicultural Affairs, the National Museum of Australia’s Aboriginal Advisory Committee, the Aboriginal Literature Board and the Aboriginal Arts Board of the Australia Council.
In 1981 she became the first Aboriginal woman to be appointed Director of the Aboriginal Research Centre at Monash University, the position she currently holds. She also lectures in Koori and language studies, and she became an associate professor in 1992. In 1993 she published Conned! A Koori Perspective, a political history of the invasion and settlement of Australia from the Aboriginal point of view. She is author of numerous articles, book chapters, etc.

Louisa Briggs, of Woiworung descent, was born on Preservation Island, Bass Strait. Around 1853 she and her husband, John, went to the Victorian goldfields. Then they worked as shepherds in the Beaufort district until 1871 when the family was admitted destitute to Coranderrk Aboriginal Station. There Briggs acted as nurse and midwife. In 1876 she was appointed matron and became the first Aboriginal woman to replace a European on salaried staff. She became the spokesperson for the residents and succeeded in securing the reappointment of the popular first manager. She fought the Aborigines Protection Board’s plans to sell Coranderrk and remove residents to other reserves, and gave evidence to the 1876 inquiry but was eventually forced off the reserve and moved to Ebenezer Aboriginal Station. After yet another inquiry in 1881 she moved back to Coranderrk where she was reappointed matron. When her sons were forced off the reserve under the Victorian Aborigines Protection Act 1886, she moved first to Maloga Mission, and in 1889 to Cummeragunja reserve. Late in life she moved to Barmah and finally to Cummeragunja where she died in 1925.

Iris Clayton was taken to the Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls in the 1950s, and from there sent to work as a servant in Canberra. At the age of 18 she was allowed to return home where she married. She returned to Canberra in 1977 to work at AIATSIS, first as a library assistant and later on the switchboard, where she stayed for a number of years. She was awarded a grant to research the Wiradjuri births, deaths and marriages, and her findings have been deposited at AIATSIS.

From 1991, Clayton worked as a health worker at the Winnanga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service in Canberra. She was involved in community issues and served as a council member of the ACT Cultural Council. She influenced a generation of Canberra school children by becoming a regular visitor to ACT schools, sharing her stories and explaining her culture.

Iris Clayton died on 5 July 2009 at Bega, New South Wales, after more than a decade of recurrent health problems.

Merle Jackomos, of Yorta Yorta descent, grew up at Cummeragunja, New South Wales. During the famous walk-off of the Cummeragunja people who crossed into Victoria in 1939, Merle and her family were amongst those who stayed to make sure that the station was not closed and sold off by the government. She married Alick Jackomos in 1951, and became involved with the Aborigines Advancement League of Victoria. She helped found the National Aboriginal and Islander Women’s Council of which she became Victorian vice-president, and the Northcote Aboriginal women’s refuge. In 1972 she was elected to the Aboriginal Affairs Advisory Council. She was later appointed director of Aboriginal Hostels Ltd, and in 1981 was elected to the National Aboriginal Conference, of which she remained a member until its abolition in 1985.

Bronwyn Bancroft completed a Diploma in Visual Arts at the Canberra School of Arts in 1980, and then moved to Sydney where she became involved with the Aboriginal Medical Service’s Fashion Show in 1985. Following the success of the fashion parade, she opened the shop ‘Designer Aboriginals’ in Rozelle, as an outlet for her own designs and the designs of other Aboriginal artists. In 1990 she moved from retail to wholesale production of fabrics in order to concentrate on painting and design. Her work was exhibited in Paris at the Printemps Fashion Parade in 1987, and also in London at the 1989 Australian Fashion: The Contemporary Art exhibition. In 1989 her paintings were included in nine exhibitions. Her first solo exhibition of paintings was held in Sydney in 1989, and in 1991 she collaborated with Sally Morgan to produce an exhibition of prints at the Warrnambool Art Gallery, Victoria.

Sarah Powell was State President of the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen’s Mothers’ Association for 25 years and was made Life President. She was decorated with the OBE in June 1943 for her services in this organisation. She founded the Croydon Branch and attended their annual meeting on her 92nd birthday five days before she died.

Barbara Hanrahan was an artist, printmaker and writer. She was born in Adelaide in 1939 and lived there until her death in December 1991. Hanrahan spent three years at the South Australian School of Art before leaving for London in 1966 to continue her art studies. In England she taught at the Falmouth College of Art, Cornwall, (1966-67) and Portsmouth College of Art (1967-70). From 1964 Hanrahan held a number of exhibitions principally in Adelaide and Sydney, but also in Brisbane, Canberra, Perth, London and Florence. Hanrahan’s novels include The Scent of Eucalyptus (1973), The Peach Groves (1980), The Frangipani Gardens (1988) and Flawless Jade (1989).

Ene-Mai Reinpuu left Estonia with her parents as refugees fleeing the threat of Soviet invasion, arriving in South Australia in 1949. Ene-Mai married Villi Reinpuu, also from Estonia and they had two children.

Reinpuu has had a life long involvement in ethnic community and multicultural organisations. She has served as secretary (1967-1986) and president (1987 – ) of the Estonia Society of Adelaide. She was honorary secretary of the Council of Estonian Societies in Australia 1976-1978, 1985-1987 and 1994-1996. Reinpuu was chosen as an Australian representative at the “Kongress of Estonia” held in Estonia in 1990. She has been vice-chairperson of the Estonian Cultural Festival of Australia and a member of the organising committee since 1958. She served as a member of the Council of Baltic Women (affiliated with National Council of Women), was the Estonian community representative on Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia, and founding member of the Friends of the Estonian Museum.