The Australian Women's Register

Nancye Enid Kent Perry was born in Killara on 16 December 1918. She graduated in science from Sydney University and did postgraduate entomological research work in England. Perry later concentrated on her painting, working with the Heidelberg Art Group and others.

Studied Sydney University 1939-42; worked National Standards Laboratory, Sydney, 1943-4; postgrad. In agricultural economic entomology 1945; DSIR England 1947-50; CSIRO Melb. 1950-51; Walter and Eliza Hall Institute 1951-2; Fisheries and Game 1953-5; C’wealth Dept. of Health, Canberra and Tasmania 1955-7; married Warren Perry 16 November 1957; demonstrator in zoology for medical students at the University of Melbourne, 1958.

Lorelei Emmeline Booker (1906-1994) was born in Brisbane, daughter of Sidney North Innes and Caroline Matilda Noble. She was President of the League of Women Voters of New South Wales, 1964-1976, and founder and honorary editor of the League’s newsletter, Equality. The League was a state affiliate of the Australian Federation of Women Voters, formed in 1922 and dissolved in 1983. She was N.S.W. Board member of the A.F.W.V., 1945-1983, and both Honorary Secretary, 1963-1966, and President, 1976-1983, of the A.F.W.V. She was also honorary editor of the Federation’s journal, The Dawn.

Addie Viola Smith, lawyer and feminist, held various offices with the Australian Federation of Women Voters and the League of Women Voters (New South Wales) from the late 1950s until her death in 1975. She was Liaison Representative for the International Federation of Women Lawyers to the United Nations, 1952-1966. She was a member of the Australian delegation that attended the International Alliance of Women Congresses in Dublin, 1961, and Trieste, 1964. She served as Vice-President, 1968-1970, and was made an honorary life member in 1972, of the Australian Local Government Women’s Association.

Caroline Chisholm was famous for her work with new immigrants to New South Wales during the 1840s and 1850s, and later in the goldfields region of Victoria. She lobbied to ensure these people were provided with adequate accommodation and personally organised the often destitute young women to journey to rural areas in order to secure employment. Her benevolent crusade to better the lives of immigrants earned her the title ‘The Immigrants’ Friend’.

Charlotte Groom was a member of the Red Cross Women’s Service Corps in Western Australia for approximately 52 years.
She was also a short-term member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment and one of Adelaide’s first female stenographers.

In 1950, at the age of 83, Charlotte received a concussion in a bus accident, which saw a fellow Red Cross worker killed.

Ivy Lavinia Weber was the first woman to be elected to the Victorian parliament in a general election in 1937. She stood as an endorsed candidate for the Women Electors’ League of Victoria for the seat of Nunawading. As an active member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, she was encouraged to stand for parliament as an independent candidate to represent women. She was re-elected on two occasions, but resigned her state seat in 1943 to contest the federal seat of Henty as part of the League of Women Voters Women for Canberra Movement. She was unsuccessful on that occasion and in 1945 when she again stood for state parliament. She retired from politics after the second defeat.

Anne Fraser Bon had just turned twenty and was newly married when she arrived in Victoria, from Scotland, in 1858. Her husband, John, who was twenty-eight years her senior, was already well-established in pastoralism at Wappan Station in the Bonnie Doon area of south-eastern Victoria. Anne accompanied him to what was then a remote area and bore five children in quick succession. She was widowed at the age of thirty, in 1868, when John Bon died of a heart attack.

Unusually for a women, after her husband’s death, Anne Bon assumed management of the station. She was also unusual amongst her peers for her attempts to act on the behalf of the indigenous people of the region. A devout Presbyterian and humanitarian, Anne Bon supported Aborigines’ resistance to increasing state regimes of control and surveillance. While some of her ideas and goals for the ‘improvement’ of Aboriginal people now seem paternalistic and outdated, many members of indigenous communities nevertheless expressed gratitude for her assistance in thwarting if not defeating the diminution of Aboriginal entitlements and civil rights. It was a cause she remained actively committed to until her death in 1936.

First Ladies: Finding Women in Public Record Office Victoria is an online guide to archival resources relating to women held at Public Record Office Victoria. Designed to assist researchers interested in women’s history and gender studies by suggesting strategies for ‘finding women in PROV’, First Ladies also provides information about other important resources relating to women in Victoria’s history. By linking these strategies to published material, and the Australian Women’s Archives Project’s online register, First Ladies provides a central access point that links together historical detail, archival resources, published resources and current information about women in Victoria.

The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissions is an independent statutory authority, accountable to the Victorian Parliament, that promotes equal opportunity and works to eliminate unlawful discrimination in Victoria. It helps people to resolve complaints of discrimination, sexual harassment and racial and religious vilification through a process of conciliation.

In addition to its complaint resolution service, the Commission offers information, education and consultancy services, conducts research and provides legal and policy advice.

The Commission has the power to refer unresolved complaints to the Anti-Discrimination List, which is in the Civil Division of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

Janet Clarke (née Snodgrass) was a society hostess and leading patron of good causes in Melbourne from the 1880s until her death. She was a member of the Charity Organisation Society, the Austral Salon, the Melbourne District Nursing Society, the Talbot Epileptic Colony committee, the Alliance Française, the Dante Society, the Women’s Hospital Committee, the Hospital for Sick Children and the City Newsboys’ Society. She helped to organise the Women’s Work Exhibition in 1907. Clarke’s influence was such that she became the first president of the National Council of Women of Victoria in 1902, and of the Australian Women’s National League in 1904.

Alice Marshall Moyle was an ethno-musicologist of high renown whose work is always referred to whenever Aboriginal music is studied in schools and tertiary institutions. A talented musician, she was prompted by a talk by A.P. Elkin, then Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sydney, to undertake a study of some recordings of Aboriginal music he had made. She was awarded the Master of Arts (Hons) for this work in 1957. She then undertook her own field trips to complete the first systematic attempt to identify and musically characterise the many different styles and genres of Aboriginal music found in northern and central Australia. Her doctoral thesis, awarded in 1975, was one outcome of this work.

Moyle was a founding member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) and became a Research Officer there from 1964 to 1965. From 1966-73 Moyle was AIAS Research Fellow in Ethnomusicology, based at Monash University and later a Research Fellow and Research Officer at the Institute in 1973 and 1974 respectively. Her work included the documentation of Aboriginal sound instruments, the history of Aboriginal music and dance through film, field recordings, archaeo-musicology, analysis, taxonomy, and the cataloguing and indexing of ethno-musicological material held in the Institute. She took a great interest in the preservation of recorded sound material and was the guiding force behind the establishment of the ‘Sound Archive’ at the (then) AIAS.

Moyle also played a key role in the establishment of the Musicological Society of Australia and in 1982-83 served as the Society’s National President. She was later instrumental in forming a branch of the International Council for Traditional Music in Australia. She became a Member of the Order of Australia – General Division on Australia Day 1977, was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities on 4 November 1994, and received a degree of Doctor of Music (honoris causa) from the University of Sydney in 1989 and another from the University of Melbourne in 1995.

The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (Victorian Branch) has its origins with the formation of the Sisterhood of International Peace in Melbourne in 1915. When the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was founded in Zurich in 1919, the Sisterhood reconstituted itself as the Australian section of this new organisation. The Victorian branch formally separated from the Australian Section in 1920, although considerable overlap continued between these two bodies.

Aside from campaigning for international disarmament and an end to all war, WILPF has taken action on a wide range of social justice issues.

Elspeth Young was a geographer who spent many years studying Indigenous communities in Australia and Papua New Guinea. After completing her PhD in human geography at the Australian National University in 1977, she was appointed to the position of Research Fellow in the ‘Aboriginal component in the Australian economy project’ led by Fred Fisk in the Development Studies Centre, ANU. In 1978, while working with Fisk, Young began a study of the newly established Aboriginal-owned pastoral enterprise at Willowra station, north of Alice Springs. Thus began her interest in Aboriginal land management from which she became one of the most influential champions of the Aboriginal English term ‘Caring for Country’.

Subsequently, she became the first geographer to have worked on Northern Territory land claims, contributing to the successful claims to Ti Tree and Mt Allen (1980-85). Her professional expertise was also usefully employed while she was a Senior Research Fellow (1982-1985) in the North Australia Research Unit of the ANU in Darwin. At this time, Young contributed to the East Kimberley Impact Assessment Project led by Nugget Coombs and a study on Aboriginal mobility.

Young made a significant contribution to a variety of professional organisations. She was a Council Member of the Institute of Australian Geographers (1987-1992); editor of Australian Geographical Studies (1989-1992); holder of the IAG Professional Services Award for 1998; Member and then Chair of the National Committee for Geography; Treasurer and member of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Australian Social Science Organisations; and Chair of the Australian Antarctic Naming and Medals Committee.

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 Travellers’ Aid Society of New South Wales was officially founded in 1938. Its origins, however, reach back to the late 1880s when the Young Women’s Christian Association of New South Wales and the Salvation Army jointly formed a Travellers’ Aid Committee. It is a non-profit, independent organisation, providing a range of services and assistance for travellers, including those with special requirements or in emergency situation. Initially offering support and protection for women and girls arriving in the city from overseas, interstate or the country by the late 1960s they expanded their work to include men. The Society now assists travellers of either sex.

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.

The Progressive Housewives Association, New South Wales, was formed in 1947 by Portia Geach and other women who had been expelled from the Housewives Progressive Association of New South Wales in 1941. Their expulsion resulted from clashes with the then chairwoman of directors, Eleanor Glencross, and accusations that the association had been working with Meadow-Lea Margarine Company. Geach became foundation president, remaining in this position until 1957. Its main purpose is to act as a lobbying force representing the interests of the homemaker, and women and children more broadly, to government.

Artist and feminist, Portia Geach was born on 24 December 1873 in Melbourne, Victoria. She studied design in 1890-92 and painting from 1893 to 1896 at the Melbourne National Gallery schools. Late in 1896 she won a scholarship to the schools of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, where she studied for four years. She also worked in Paris and exhibited in England, Paris and New York. On her return to Australia she held numerous exhibitions first in Melbourne and then in Sydney when she moved there with her family in 1904.

On her return to Sydney from a visit to the United States of America in 1917 Portia, influenced by a meeting of a housewives’ association she had attended in New York, founded and was president of the New South Wales Housewives’ Association. It aimed to educate women in the principles of proper nutrition and to aid them in their struggles against profiteering and rising food prices. In 1928 she reorganised the association as the Housewives’ Progressive Association. For many years she was also president of the Federated Association of Australian Housewives.

Elsie Morgan, wife of Theodore Herbert Morgan, a prominent member of the Australian Labor Party, was elected to the Sugar Board of Inquiry in 1930-1931 as the representative for Western Australia. At that time, she was the founder of the Housewives Association of W.A., President of the Consumers’ Vigilance Committee, and a member of the Executive of the Women’s Service Guild.

Jennie Baines was a prominent feminist and socialist in both Britain and Australia. Born in Birmingham, the daughter of a gunmaker, she was sent to work in a factory when she was just 11. She soon joined her parents in their Salvation Army work. She married George Baines in 1888 and had five children. In 1905 she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union, becoming a full-time organiser. She was imprisoned 15 times and in 1913 was smuggled out of the country to Melbourne with her family. Once there, she worked for the Women’s Political Association and joined the Women’s Peave Army. With Adela Pankhurst Walsh she campaigned tirelessly against the war and conscription. She also joined the Socialist Part in 1917. In the years after World War One she continued to work in both the Labor and Socialist parties.

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.

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.

The Australian Women’s Guild of Empire was founded in 1928 by Adela Pankhurst Walsh. It was modelled on and affiliated with the London based Women’s Guild of Empire.
The Guild initially raised money for working class women and children hit by the Depression. It also advocated the need for industrial cooperation, and Pankhurst frequently spoke out against strikes. It was a conservative, patriotic organisation which developed strong anti-communist sentiments.

Gay Davidson was the first female political correspondent for a major newspaper in Australia, the first woman President of the Australian Commonwealth Parliamentary Press Gallery, and a great mentor and friend to a vast array of journalists, not least women taking advantage of the openings to them in that profession during the 1970s and 80s.

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.