The Australian Women's Register

Marina Berton was born at Mildura, Victoria in 1948 to Italian-born parents who had emigrated in 1937. Berton moved to Adelaide to attend Wattle Park Teachers College in 1965. Early in her teaching career she became involved in English language adult education for migrants, and more recently in developing Italian language education for second generation Italo-Australians. Throughout, Berton has been much involved with the Italian Federation of Emigrant Workers and their Families (FILEF), including six years as its President.

Joanne Willmot was born at Cherbourg, Queensland. Living at the mission and later attending a state high school at Ipswich raised her political consciousness. A mother at the age of 17, Joanne moved to Adelaide in 1971, bringing her baby with her. She began work as a secretary with the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM) where she experienced both the excitement of being at the hub of Aboriginal activism and her growing awareness of sexism. Joanne left ALRM in 1976 to care for her family but maintained involvement in many Aboriginal organisations before taking up full time employment again with the Women’s Information Switchboard in 1983.

Elizabeth Furner (formerly Laurenson and Guy) was born in London, England. Her parents separated when she was a child. Elizabeth married a soldier in 1941 and they emigrated to Australia in 1952 with their four year old son. They came to Adelaide, via Tasmania and Sydney, in 1961. It was at this time that Elizabeth began taking an interest in both writing and local government, stimulated by her disgust with discriminatory franchise laws. She joined the Australian Local Government Women’s Association, rising quickly to President of the South Australian Branch, and did much public speaking as well as standing for council in North Brighton. In the early 1970s Elizabeth founded the Brighton Writers’ Workshop from which the South Australian Branch of the Society of Women Writers was formed.

Jessie Goodes, née Tate, was born in Salisbury, South Australia. She attended St Peters Girls’ College and married in 1939. Experience working in her husband’s St Morris delicatessen meant that she was able to gain employment in a Salisbury grocery shop when she was widowed with three children. Jessie attended a local meeting arranged by the Apex Club in 1958 to form a South Australian branch of the Civilian Widows Association, and was elected President – first of the local sub-branch, and in 1959 of the state branch. Two weeks later she was in Sydney for the formation of the national body.

Christobel Oldfield, née McInnes, was born at Millicent, South Australia and grew up on a farm west of Lucindale. She began her education by correspondence and then attended local schools before finishing at Scotch College in Adelaide. She married in 1977 and had two daughters. Chris did further studies part-time and in 1985 breached the male bastion of the Greenways branch of the United Farmers and Stockowners to gain insight into issues she was studying in Psychology. She became politically conscious as a child when her parents were involved in a legal dispute over drainage rates, but assisting in her mother’s Lucindale shop gave Chris a wider understanding of the impact on families of the rural crisis. In July 1993 Chris and five other women formed Rural Women for Justice to educate outsiders and set up legal aid and mediation services.

Christobel was a 1994 nominee from South Australia for ABC Rural Woman of the Year

Diana Penniment, née Thomas, was born in Adelaide, South Australia. She attended Methodist Ladies College for her secondary education. Her family could not support further studies, so she worked in a bank until her marriage in 1956, when she moved with her husband into a two room cottage on his father’s property at Wirrega, near Bordertown. They had four children as the children grew up Diana became involved in public affairs, from school activities and craft groups to helping form a local branch of the Women’s Agricultural Bureau (WAB). Diana rose to State President of WAB in 1986. Highlights of her term included organising two international conferences. Diana also sat on the South Australian Rural Advisory Council. In 1991 she decided to focus on local issues and stood for the Tatiara District Council.

Kathleen Russell was born at Mount Gambier, South Australia. She came to Adelaide to live in 1936. Following the death of her husband in the late 1960s she became active in the Housewives Association and was Vice-President for a time. She died in Adelaide in 2005 at the age of 94.

Miriam Tonkin, née Brunning, was born in Melbourne, Victoria. She left school at 13 years of age to begin work. She was very active in the Eureka Youth League as a teenager and worked on the Communist Party’s Guardian newspaper. Married in 1950 she and her husband moved to Adelaide with their five young children in 1958. In the late 1960s Tonkin became involved in the peace movement and Women’s Liberation. Her belief in women’s right to control their fertility led to her involvement in organisations including the Humanist Society, the Abortion Law Reform Association and the Friends of the Pregnancy Advisory Centre. Tonkin qualified as a kindergarten teacher in the mid 1970s and became active in her union and in education reform as well.

Maria Luisa Sheehan, nee Drescher, was born in Italy. Her mother was widowed two years later. In 1945, when the region was occupied by Yugoslavia, the family moved to Trieste. Luisa’s mother married an English officer and in 1952 the family joined him in Khartoum. From there they emigrated to South Australia in 1955 where two of Luisa’s uncles had already settled. Luisa found work immediately and within two years married a fellow employee at Philips Electrical Industries. She left the workforce for 21 years while raising her family. In 1978 she returned to paid work as one of the six original staff members of the Women’s Information Switchboard. Luisa worked there as an information officer until her retirement in 1993.

Irene Jeffreys was born in London, England. She migrated to Australia in 1922 with her parents. Determined from the age of 12 to be an accountant, Irene attended Adelaide Technical High school. She went to work at the age of 16 but studied for the Federal Institute of Accountants diploma at night at the School of Mines. In 1942 she was the first South Australian woman to qualify by examination for the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Irene’s accountancy practice and personal interests included much involvement in the Church of England, particularly the Church Missionary Society and the General Synod, where she pioneered the involvement of South Australian women. Irene supported the movement for the ordination of women and is herself licensed as a lay preacher. For many years she was involved with the National Council of Women. On 3 June 1978 Irene Jeffreys was appointed an Officer to the Order of the British Empire for service to the church, women, children and the aged.

Margaret Forte, née Johnston, was born in London, England. Her widowed mother emigrated to Wellington, New Zealand when Margaret was seven and supported her three children working as a teacher. Margaret’s education included three years boarding at a Friends’ School. Margaret worked as a journalist in Sydney and Vancouver before settling and marrying in Adelaide. She gave up working with the News in 1950 after the birth of her second child. Margaret quickly became involved in many voluntary activities, including the South Australian Peace Council. She became Secretary of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in the early 1960s.

Andi Sebastian has a diverse work background including having established the Women’s Information Service, been General Manager of the AIDS Council of South Australia, Manager of the Disability Complaints Service and Equity and Diversity Consultant at the University of Adelaide.

She now runs an independent business specialising in the management of diverse workgroups and interpersonal complaints in the workplace. She has two degrees from Flinders University, a Masters degree in Primary Health Care and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons).

She can be contacted via her business email address: andi.sebastian@d-q.biz

Mavis Cooper, née Price, was born in Bairnsdale, Victoria and grew up in Melbourne. She trained as a nurse and moved to Jamestown, South Australia after she met her future husband, a farmer, on holiday there. After joining the Country Women’s Association’s choir in 1957, she was soon an office holder in the local branch. She progressed from Branch President to State President in 1974 and then National President in 1977. Mavis Cooper was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 14 June 1980 for service to the Country Women’s Association.

Isobel Richardson was born in Indianapolis in the United States. The family moved to South Australia when Isobel was four years old and, by the time she began secondary school at the Walford Anglican School for Girls, had settled in Blackwood. Isobel trained as a nurse and specialised in infant welfare, working for many years with the Mothers’ and Babies’ Health Association. She became involved with the Oxford Group and Moral Re-Armament (MRA). The movement’s emphasis on self-knowledge, moral absolutes, the involvement of people of all faiths and nationalities, and working on a global scale responded to Isobel’s needs and interests. After her retirement Richardson worked at the MRA centre at Panchgani in India.

Beryl Miller was born in Geelong, Victoria. The daughter of British migrants she came to Adelaide after her marriage in 1945. She joined the Eureka Youth League at 15 and joined joining the Communist Party of Australia in 1952. She was involved with the Union of Australian Women, the Women’s International Democratic Federation and the Australian Peace Committee. She left the Communist Party and became a foundation member of the Socialist Party of Australia. Miller represented South Australia in 1964 when the Communist Party of Australia organised the first women’s delegation to Russia.

Lenore Bishop, née Wilson, was born in Mount Gambier, South Australia where her father was a butcher. After finishing high school she began working, first as a legal secretary, then as a journalist, and then with her husband in a hardware business. Lenore became heavily involved in community work during her three children’s school years. Following the retirement of Mount Gambier’s first woman councillor in 1959, Lenore was asked to stand. She was re-elected two years later unopposed. At this time she was one of very few women in local government. In 1964 Lenore nominated for mayor and was unopposed, becoming the first woman mayor in South Australia. Lenore retired from council in 1967 but returned as the region’s first woman alderman in 1972.

Anna Victoria Ey (née Oster) was born in Metz, Germany. The daughter of a Lutheran Pastor, she migrated to Australia in 1847. She married a paster Johannes M R Ey in 1861 and bore 13 children of which 7 survived. She lived in and around Lobethal, located 33 km from Adelaide, for the rest of her life.

Toni Turnbull, née Richmore, was born in Japan where her father was stationed. Toni went to school in several countries and matriculated at an Adelaide Catholic girls school. She began Science at Adelaide University before transferring to Medicine. In her fourth year Toni married, and in her final year her first child was born. Working for the Family Planning Association and in general practice, Toni became increasingly disturbed by the number of women seeking abortions for convenience. In the early 1980s Toni came to believe that God was asking her to speak out and she also became convinced of the extent of post-abortion grief.

Luise Homann was born on 21 August 1837 in Hanover Germany. She married Wilhelm Wendtlandt, a Lutheran missionary on 13 July 1855 and had 4 children. They travelled widely, first to Madras then to South Africa, South America, England and then back to Germany. Wendtlandt died in 1861. After his death, Luise became a missionary in Germany. She remarried Ernst Homann 3 October 1867 and followed her husband to South Australia, where they worked at Hermannsburg Mission station.

Gaye Barnes, née Robinson, grew up in Angle Park, Adelaide where her parents ran racing stables. Within an eighteen month period, between the ages of 19 and 20, she had three abortions for personal convenience. This had a profound effect on her resulting in ‘a life-altering religious experience’ arising out of continuing depression. She later became determined to help others. In 1990 she and her husband Peter, also a Christian, sold their home to establish the non-denominational Genesis Pregnancy Support service at Marden.

Berthe Mathilde Fritsch (née Simpfendor) was born in 1896 in the Baranduda – Leneva District in Victoria, Australia. Her father was a Lutheran Pastor. She took over the housekeeping duties after her mother died in 1920. She married Walter Fritsch in 1922, moved to New South Wales then back to Victoria, before settling in Adelaide in 1938 at St Stephen’s. There she joined the Lutheran Women’s Guild, and the Lutheran Women’s Association of South Australia. Fritsch served on the Ladies’ Committee of Emmanuel College from 1942-1971 and represented the Lutheran Women’s Association at the Women’s Jubilee Convention in Canberra in 1951. In 1954 she went to Minneapolis, USA, to the LWF (Lutheran Womens’ Federation?) assembly. She had 5 daughters who all graduated from the University of Adelaide.

Helen Jericho (née Vogelsang) was born 20 August 1896 at Kapperamanna, an outpost of Bethesda Mission near the Birdsville Track. Her father was a lay missionary, and one of the founders of Bethesda Mission. She left the Mission after her father’s death in 1916, and married in 1920

Frieda Johanna Henriette Strehlow (née Keysser) was born 31 August 1875 at Geroldsgruen in Bavaria. She arrived in Australia 15 September 1895 and 10 days later married missionary Karl Strehlow to whom she bore 6 children. Visiting Germany, in 1911, she and Karl left all but the youngest there for their education and the family were then separated for many years by the war. She worked at Hermannsburg Mission for 28 years with the Aboriginal people there until Karl died in 1922. She then became housekeeper for Pastor R Held and then matron at the Lutheran College and Seminary in North Adelaide for 6 years. She returned to Germany in 1931 where she died in 1957.

Maria Elizabeth Jacob (née Auricht) was born 10 May 1841 in Klemzig, South Australia. She married Wilhelm G. Irrgang on 4 September 1862, who died in 1872. She then married Ernest Jacob on 24 May 1878. She worked with Aboriginal people at Bethesda Mission Station and died on 13 October 1924.

Anna Maria Vogelsang (née Auricht), was born 3 September 1855 at Langmeil (Tanunda). She wanted to become a missionary and in 1877 met Hermann Heinrich Vogelsang who was a missionary at Bethesda Mission Station. She worked at Bethesda and Kopperamanna Missions. Her husband died in 1913 and she later moved to Lowbank to be with her children. She died on 12 October 1945.

Cathy Picone was born in Moree, New South Wales in 1949. Cathy was brought up as a Catholic, and it seems that her Italian/Irish father’s faith and her parents’ different religious practices were a source of tension in her youth. Cathy’s father was a successful bookmaker and Cathy did her secondary schooling at a Catholic college in Armidale. After false starts in Medicine and Science courses, she studied Arts at Sydney University and graduated with a DipEd. Cathy moved to South Australia with her husband in 1973 and worked in suburban high schools. In the early 1980s she became determined to do community service that was ‘change-oriented’. She became involved in People for Nuclear Disarmament. Through this she was invited to join the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Elizabeth Nghia Bui was born in North Vietnam. Her family fled to South Vietnam in 1954 and settled in Saigon. Elizabeth entered the order of the Lovers of the Holy Cross and trained first as a teacher and then as a social worker. In 1975, at the time of the fall of Saigon, she was in charge of an orphanage which came under Communist control. Elizabeth escaped on board a fishing boat with 31 others in June 1976. After two weeks they were rescued and taken to Japan. From there Elizabeth decided to come to Australia. She was sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy and arrived in Adelaide in September 1976. Elizabeth helped to form the Indochinese Australian Women’s Association and for several years worked in a voluntary capacity to provide welfare services while the Association battled for funds.