The Australian Women's Register

Eva Pethybridge was a women’s activist and advocate for peace with enduring associations with numerous women’s organisations. In 1946, she became Honorary Secretary of the Australian Women’s Charter, a group that was created in 1942 to consider problems concerning women in wartime. The charter was intended to embody the aims of women’s organisations and to establish equal opportunity, public welfare, status and remuneration. During the following decades Eva Pethybridge was President of the League of Women Voters of Victoria, committee member of the Australian Federation of Women Voters, member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the United Nations Association of Australia.

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.

Edith Moore was the daughter of Sir Thomas a’Beckett, Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria, and Isabella, daughter of Sir Archibald Michie. She married Sir William Harrison Moore, Professor of Law in the University of Melbourne and Constitutional Advisor to the Victorian Government in 1898. She was prominent in numerous organizations: the Travellers’ Aid Society of Victoria; the Country People’s Holiday Camps Association; the National Council of Women; the Housewives’ Association; the Women’s Rural Industries Company; the League of Women Voters of Victoria and other bodies. She continued to be active after the death of her husband in 1935. She died in 1974.

The New Housewives’ Association (NHA) was formed in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1946. A number of suburban branches, including Chatswood, were established. The NHA’s Central Committee adopted the Australian Women’s Charter seeking equal status for women, launched at the Australian Women’s Conference for Victory in War and Victory in Peace, 1943. The NHA’s progressive platform attracted Communist women to this working-class body. It campaigned for the reduction and strict control of prices, mainly of household commodities; equal pay for women and increased Child Endowment; and the establishment of municipal markets in order to bring cheaper goods to housewives. In 1949 the NHA supported trade-union demand for a 30 shilling increase in the Basic Wage. It published a journal, The New Housewife, and a magazine, The Housewives’ Guide. In 1950 the NHA National Committee moved to change the Association’s name to reflect a broader constituency beyond women in the home; this gave rise to a new organisation, the Union of Australian Women.

Marie Kirk was a leading figure in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union both in Victoria and nationally and helped to establish the Victorian Union in 1887. She held numerous executive positions in the organisation. She was also a strong supporter of women’s rights, a member of the Victorian Women’s Franchise League, and helped to establish the National Council of Women of Victoria in 1902. She supported equal pay, raising the age of consent for girls, and also took a keen interest in the welfare of women prisoners and in the kindergarten movement.

The Queen Victoria Club was established in 1901 as the Women’s Liberal League of New South Wales. In 1907 it changed its name to the Queen Victoria Club. It aimed to foster friendship between women, assist musical artists and promote the love of good music. As a way of achieving its aims, the Club held monthly ‘musicales’ under the patronage of the Governor’s wife and established two scholarships at the Sydney Eisteddfod, one for piano and the other for violin. It sponsored also, scholarships for violin and cello at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. From 1970 until 1994 the Club met in the rooms of the Girls Secondary Schools’ Club in the Gowings Building, Market Street, Sydney. The Club was dissolved in 1995, with the remaining funds used for the establishment of a piano scholarship at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

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.

A lobby group that promotes women’s sexual and reproductive health choices in relation to unplanned pregnancy, Children by Choice (CbyC) was established in 1972 as an offshoot of the Queensland branch of the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA), to offer family planning advice and counselling to women confronted by the reality of an unplanned pregnancy. At this time, legislation dating back to 1899 criminalised abortion and most Queensland women had to travel interstate to obtain one. This legal reality led to staff at CbyC expanding their range of activities to include offering counselling and medical referral services to doctors at St Anne’s Hospital in Sydney. By 1975 CbyC had developed a package deal with Ansett Airlines and Population Services International (PSI) to help women to travel to Sydney for abortions. It was not the original intention for CbyC to become an abortion referral service, but this became the Association’s best known activity at that early point in its history.

Despite having bricks thrown through the windows of their premises and their funding slashed periodically throughout the last three decades, CbyC have continued to provide essential counselling services to the women of Queensland. ‘The survival of Children by Choice has been a story of struggle and sacrifice.’

SDN Children’s Services Inc. was the first organisation in Australia to provide all day care for children. The Sydney Day Nursery was established in 1905 in Woolloomooloo on the initiative of a group of young women with an interest in young children’s care and education as a result of their involvement in the Sydney Kindergarten Union. The organization aimed to ‘preserve family life, to educate mothers in child health and to save babies from death and from becoming State wards’. The Day Nursery catered for infants and toddlers ranging in age from a few weeks to three years. By 1927 the Association had established five centres. It changed its name in 1931 to become the Sydney Day Nursery and Nursery Schools Association Inc. and in 1934 it established the Nursery School Teachers Training College. It changed its name again in 1999 to become SDN Children’s Services Inc. This new name reflected an expansion of services for children other than centre based long day care.

The Federated Associations (later Association) of Australian Housewives was formed in 1923 and held its first national conference in 1926. Its purpose was to provide a link between the various state-based Housewives Associations. The first of these was established in Victoria in 1915. New South Wales followed suit in early 1918, South Australian and Western Australia in the 1920s and, after a couple of false starts, Canberra, Tasmania and Queensland in the 1930s. Each of these associations was broadly dedicated to representing the interests of housewives, through political lobbying as well as various efforts to help members keep their household costs down, including domestic advice and member discounts. Although their primary function was always to reduce the cost of living and to control ‘profiteering’, they very quickly proclaimed themselves to be political organisations, though always ‘non-party’. With the wider objective of gaining representation of women at all levels of government and public administration, and influencing public policy in the areas dealing with the home, women and children, their domain of interest rapidly came to include every sphere of public life, national and international.

With a combined membership of 115,000 by 1940-41, it was for a short time the largest women’s organisation in the country.

Travellers Aid Australia (previously the Travellers’ Aid Society of Victoria) is a non-profit, independent organisation, providing a range of services and assistance for travellers, including those with special requirements or in emergency situation. Founded in 1916, it initially offered support and protection for women and girls arriving in Melbourne from overseas, interstate and country Victoria. It was not until the late 1960s that they expanded their work to include men. The Society now assists travellers of either sex.

The National Travellers Aid Society of Australia was also founded in 1944, with Cecilia Downing, a long serving member of the Victorian Society, as its first president. Its purpose was to provide a link between the various state-based Societies. These are/were non-profit, independent organisations, providing a range of services and assistance for travellers, including those with special requirements or in emergency situation.

The first Travellers’ Aid organisation was formed in England in 1885 initially under the auspices of the London Young Women’s Christian Association. It aimed to assist girls arriving alone in London or other towns. The first Australian society was formed in Adelaide in 1887, again under the auspices of the YWCA (while this soon fell into abeyance a new society was formed in 1911). The Travellers Aid Society of Victoria was formed in 1916, the Travellers’ Aid Benevolent Society of Queensland in 1928, the Travellers Aid Society of New South Wales in 1938 and the Travellers Aid Society of Western Australia in 1944.

All of these Societies were initially dedicated to assisting women and girls who were travelling or migrating. It was not until the late 1960s that they expanded their work to include men.

The Housewives Association of New South Wales was founded in 1918 largely due to the efforts of the artist Portia Geach. Influenced by a meeting of a housewives’ association she had attended in New York in 1917, on her return to Sydney she formed and was first president of a similar organisation in her own state. The Association initially aimed to educate women in the principles of proper nutrition and to combat profiteering and rising food prices. It soon broadened its interests, becoming a considerable lobbying force on issues affecting women and children generally.

Kathleen Margaret Maria Sherrard, MSc, was a demonstrator and lecturer in geology at the University of Melbourne for over a decade in the years after World War I. She also published articles on palaeontology.

After her marriage and relocation to Sydney she served on a Commonwealth Committee on Nutrition, 1944-1945, and took an active role in many women’s organisations, particularly the Australian Federation of University Women and United Associations of Women, as well as scientific workers organisations.

The World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, New South Wales Commission, Women’s Work Department was established to organise exhibits of women’s work from New South Wales to be sent to the Columbian Exposition.

The Women’s Voluntary National Register was set up under the Commonwealth Minister for Defence to encourage women to register their capacities for the particular service they wished to give in doing war work

The ANZAC Fellowship of Women was founded in 1921 by Dr Mary Booth, with the object of fostering the commemorative character of ANZAC day as an inspiration to future generations. Booth remained president of the group until 1956. In 1930 a London branch was also established. From 1931-41, and again from 1950, the ANZAC Festival Committee was established to emphasise the value of the Arts in helping to foster the ANZAC tradition. The group also established the Empire Service Club for Boy Settlers in 1923, which organised welcome parties for ‘Dreadnought’ boys and represented the first welfare work instituted for them.

The Girls’ Secondary Schools’ Club was formed in Sydney in 1927, registered under that name in 1928 and incorporated as a limited liability company. It provided a meeting place in the city for members of the ex-student unions of, initially, ten independent girls’ schools. Membership rose from 400 in 1928 to 1800 after World War II. The club rooms were initially located in Castlereagh Street until 1930, when the Club relocated to the Gowings building in Market Street, Sydney, where it remained until its closure, due to falling membership and increased costs, in 1994.

The Sydney Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in 1882, at a meeting hosted by Mr Eli Johnson, a visiting American temperance lecturer. From 1884, other local Unions were started in suburbs of Sydney as well as in country areas of New South Wales. In 1890, a Colonial Union, to be known as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of New South Wales, was formed to embrace the whole colony. The local Union, however, was to remain as the important unit of power.

The Union is primarily dedicated to promoting total abstinence from alcohol and other harmful drugs and all members sign a pledge to this effect. However, under its broader agenda of ‘home protection’ and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, and in its belief that the dangers of alcohol could not be tackled in isolation, the group has pursued a very wide-ranging reform agenda mostly relating to the welfare of women and children. Importantly, influenced by its sister organisation in the United States, the Union became a major supporter of the campaign for women’s suffrage in Australia as it was believed that power at the ballot box was the only way to achieve their goals. While at its most influential in the years up to WWI, the movement continues today.

The West Australian Housewives’ Association was formed in 1920 for the purpose of protecting the interests of housewives. The final meeting of the Executive was held 3 April, 1984.

Ebenezer Mission Station began on 10 January 1859, with the school opening on 17 January with one pupil. Two other boys joined the school the next day. Sixty people were at the Mission station by the end of March. However, it was obvious that the Aboriginal people had no intention of staying there permanently. It was not until the middle of April that the three pupils came back to the school.
Despite these beginnings, with circumstances beyond their control, the Wotjobaluk and Wergaia from the area began to settle on the station and the 1901 report to the Board states that 40 people were registered as permanent residents. The schoolteacher, Miss Isabel Tyre taught 30 children.
In 1904, the Mission was closed and the Moravian Mission Board wrote to the Board for the Protection of Aborigines, thanking them for their support and asking the government to make a permanent reserve of the burial land because it had five of their missionaries buried there. The Lake Hindmarsh Land Act (1904) revoked the Reserve and the land was made available for selection, however, the cemetery was made a Permanent Reserve.
Ebenezer Mission was the home to many Aboriginal women, some of whom became prominent Aboriginal spokespersons.

Mavis Thorpe Clark was a prolific writer of children’s fiction who, in late life, also wrote for adults. In the process of researching her first adult book, Pastor Doug, the biography of Sir Douglas Nicholls, she created a large archive of letters and correspondence of relevance to indigenous scholarship.

Lena Santospirito was one of the first Italo-Australian women to assume a leadership role in the provision of welfare and community services to Melbourne’s Italian community. The Australian born daughter of Italian parents who migrated to Australia in the 1890s, Mrs Santospirito was the first woman (and layperson) to be appointed President of the Archbishop’s Committee for Italian Relief. She held this position between 1946 and 1955, a period that coincided with the beginnings of mass migration from Italy to Australia. Her energy and generosity in this role, as she combined it with her responsibilities as a wife and mother, were recognised by the Italian government in 1958 when she was awarded the Italian Star of Solidarity.

After her resignation from the committee in 1955, Mrs Santospirito continued her community work for various religious and charitable organisations. She passed away in 1983 and is remembered for her tireless work, her faith and the generosity she showed to so many people in Melbourne’s Italian community.

The Women’s Abortion Action Campaign was established in Sydney in 1972 as one element of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Its main focus was to mobilize support for the repeal of abortion laws, which involved primarily public meetings, demonstrations and conferences. It also lobbied members of parliament before elections and disseminated information about the legal status and availability of abortion.

Truganini was the daughter of Mangana, chief of the Bruny Island people. A survivor of The Black Wars that accompanied European settlement in Tasmania, her life epitomises the story of colonial encounters in Tasmania, the clash of two disparate cultures and the resistance and survival of indigenous Tasmanians.

After losing her mother, her sister and her prospective husband at a young age, all of them the victims of colonial violence, Truganini worked hard in the early 1830s to unify what was left of the indigenous communities of Tasmania. An intelligent, energetic and resourceful woman, she worked with white authorities to protect other survivors of The Black Wars who had been forcibly removed from their homelands. In 1830 George Augustus Robinson, a Christian missionary was hired to round up the rest of the indigenous population and he settled them on Flinders Island. Truganini and her husband, Woorrady, helped Robinson in this venture in the hope that removing them would protect them from further violence. Unfortunately, the shock of resettlement, combined with the unsanitary conditions the people were forced to live in, proved fatal and the resettlement program did not work. The result was the virtual annihilation of the one hundred or so people left – mainly due to malnutrition and illness.

Truganini went with Robinson to Port Phillip in 1839 where a similar settlement was attempted with mainland nations, again with disastrous results. This time, having learnt from the Tasmanian experience, Truganini joined with the Port Phillip people when they resisted Robinson’s plans but she was captured and sent back to Flinders Island.

In 1856 there were only a few remaining indigenous survivors left in Tasmania, Truganini among them, who were taken to Oyster Bay. By 1873, except for Truganini, all of the people taken there had died. Truganini was moved to Hobart where she died in 1876. She had no known descendants.

Even in death she was not left in peace. Her skeleton was on display in the Tasmanian Museum from 1904 to 1907. It was not until 1976 that her remains received a proper burial. Aboriginal rights workers cremated Truganini and spread her ashes on the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, close to her birthplace.

Despite being labelled as such for many years, Truganini was not the ‘last Tasmanian Aborigine’, as the population of mixed descent Aboriginal people living in Tasmania readily attests to. Nevertheless, the story of her life and death remains immensely important, not only as a symbol of the plight of indigenous Australians, but as an example of the insensitivity of museum practices.

Diane E. Barwick was born in Canada in 1938. She arrived in Australia in 1960, and received her doctoral degree from the Australian National University, Canberra. Her work on the history of Aboriginal communities in Victoria (particularly Coranderrk, Framlingham and Lake Tyers) resulted in a number of publications, including her book Rebellion at Coranderrk, published posthumously in 1998. She contributed many articles, book chapters, pamphlets, manuscripts and photographs to Aboriginal scholarship, and was the co-founder of the journal Aboriginal History, which she also edited from 1978 to 1982. She was also actively involved in a number of Aboriginal issues, and was on the Aboriginal Treaty Committee.

Throughout her career, she worked to make history more accessible to Aboriginal people through genealogies and biographies. In 1984 she published a journal article, “Mapping the Past: An Atlas of Victorian Clans, 1835-1904”, which was a major reference for the compilation of a large Aboriginal biographical index at the AIATSIS. Her work was stopped short by her death in 1986.

Joy Lindrum Gillan is a writer and member of The Society of Women Writers (Australia). Lindrum Gillan was President of New South Wales Branch of the Society, 1984-1986, and Federal President of the Society, 1986-1988.