The Australian Women's Register

At the Australian Labor Party’s annual conference on 1917, the constitution was amended to establish an official committee for women. The committee was responsible for ‘organising women industrially and politically’. The executive committee was elected at a conference held by the Labor women of Victoria, in March 1918.

Maggie Burrows commenced a law degree at Monash University, transferred to Arts and completed an honours degree in history in 1977. During this period she was active in student politics on the Public Affairs Committee, travelled to Thailand and collected Thai political posters. From 1976 her main interest was in the off-campus women’s liberation movement. She participated in voluntary work at the Melbourne Rape Crisis Centre in 1976; from 1978-79 was employed at the Western Region Women’s Refuge on issues such as domestic violence, public housing and tenancy law reform; 1979-81 Equal Access for Girls Project.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

The Victorian Branch of the Australian Local Government Women’s Association (ALGWA) was formed in 1963, after the earlier body, formed a decade earlier, had lapsed. It was particularly inspired by the belief that more women should be involved in local government partly because this arm of government was especially relevant to housewives and mothers. Phillipa Hallenstein became foundation president.

The Association was always non-party affiliated. Its objectives were to assist women’s knowledge and understanding of local government; to protect interests and rights of women in local government; to take action on women’s behalf; to encourage women to make a career in local government and to act in an advisory capacity to suitable women candidates for local government election.

Audrey Cahn was the first woman to complete the newly established agriculture degree at the University of Melbourne in 1928. Born to parents who were influential scientists themselves, she developed a life long interest in the field of nutritional science and went on to pioneer the academic field of dietetics. Regarded in the 1950s and 60s as a ‘soft science’ by the then university’s head of biochemistry, Victor Trikojus, Cahn fought a long battle for respect, one in which she was eventually supported by major funding bodies such as Nicholas Pty Ltd (Aspro).

Her research output in the field of nutritional biochemistry is well respected. Some of her studies undertaken during her time at the University of Melbourne (1947-68) included examining the physical properties and energy value of common dietary foods, so that she could compile calorie tables. She was an early proponent of the need to reduce fat intake and to substitute polyunsaturated fatty acids for saturated fats. With colleagues in the anatomy department, she participated in a 17-year longitudinal study of “Child Growth in Melbourne (1954-71)”. The study was compared with similar studies in the United States and Britain and found that Australian children were overweight and inactive compared with their peers elsewhere.

Cahn enjoyed a very long life, thanks, she said, to a combination of good luck and good genes.

The Australian Women’s Cricket Council (AWCC) first met in 1931 with delegates from New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland to promote women’s cricket, make rules, arrange national tours, and annual interstate matches.

Barbara Cameron, formerly Barbara Williams, was a member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in its formative years in the early to mid 1970s.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

The Australian Women’s National League (AWNL) was a conservative women’s organisation established in 1904 to support the monarchy and empire, to combat socialism, educate women in politics and safeguard the interests of the home, women and children. It aimed to garner the votes of newly enfranchised women for non-Labor political groups espousing free trade and anti-socialist sentiments, with considerable organisational success. At its peak, it was the largest and arguably the most influential women’s organisation in the country. By 1914 the AWNL claimed 52,000 members in three states. Closely associated with the United Australia Party, the financial and organisational support of the League was a key factor in the foundation of the Australian Liberal Party in 1944. At this point, the majority of members reconstituted themselves as the Women’s Section of the Liberal Party. The League continued in a much reduced state.

Mrs. Baker was Chairman of the Social Sub-Committee, Victoria Committee on the Status of Women.
(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Stephanie Baldwin née Clark attended the Agricultural School at Werribee in 1931.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Doris Beacham was born to George and Clara Beacham. George served in the First World War and returned in 1918. Doris had an enduring interest in art and sketching.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Gertie Berger joined the Royal College of Nursing Australia, Victorian Chapter and other nursing organisations and became active on their committees in the 1960s. Her special interest was nursing education whether in Day Study Classes or more formal post-graduate training.

(Source: Historical Note University Melbourne Archives)

The Florence Nightingale Committee of Australia, Victorian Branch was initially formed c.1934 at the request of the Florence Nightingale International Foundation, London. It joined other committees in South and Western Australia. All state branches went into recess during World War II but reformed after the war. In December 1946 two representatives from each state branch met with reps. from the RANF Federal body and the Australian Red Cross Society to form a National Florence Nightingale Committee. The aims of the Victorian Branch were to co-ordinate post graduate education of nurses by funding scholarships, develop educational facilities and the Royal College of Nursing Australia.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Active in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs, Dulcie Bethune was a member of both the North Ringwood Women’s Liberation and North Ringwood Women’s Electoral Lobby (which later merged with the Maroondah WEL). She stood as a candidate for the Australia Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of Ringwood at the Victorian state election, which was held on 19 May 1973 and was an independent candidate for the Australian Senate at the federal election, which was held in May 1974. She stood again at the 1979 state election for the Australia Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of Warrandyte.

(Source: Historical Note University Melbourne Archives)

Annie Blamire was of the Blamire butchering family, High Street, Malvern. The shop belonging to her brother and sister-in-law was later converted to an antique shop – one of the earliest in the High Street area. Annie’s married name was Fraser.

Edith Bonney passed her University of Melbourne Matriculation examination in Algebra, Geometry, English, History, Arithmetic, Geography, and Elementary Physics held in November 1889, and received her certificate 29 March 1890.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Edith married Stewart Frank Wylie at ‘Cleffcote’ in Sandringham, Victoria, on 6 February 1907.

Marcus’s doctoral research was on the impact of Islam on the lives of Turkish women. She has published articles on racism, gender and sexuality in Australian culture. Also Marcus research interests include the Arrernte opposition to the damming of the Todd River in Alice Springs as well as collecting material on the life of Olive Pink.
(Source: Australian Garden History.)

Margaret Preston was the first woman to be commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to produce a self-portrait. In 1996 one of her hand-coloured woodcuts of a Western Australian banksia from 1929 was commemorated on an Australia Day postage stamp.

“Margarey is founding Editor of Australian Feminist Studies, founding Director of the Research Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of Adelaide, and author of a the biography of Catherine Spence Unbridling the Tongues of Women (1985). Other
publications include Debutante Nation: Feminism contests the 1890s, co-edited with Sue Rowley and Susan Sheridan (1993) and Women in a Restructuring Australia: Work and Welfare, co-edited with Anne Edwards (1995).
(Source: Passions of the first wave feminists, Susan Magarey.)”

Invergowrie Homecraft Hostel was established as the Homecraft Hostel in 1929 by the Association of Headmistresses of Independent Schools of Victoria (now the Association of Independent Girls Schools of Victoria). Their aims were two-fold: to provide girls on leaving school with a practical home-training; and to establish home and institutional management as a recognised profession for women. Mrs May Isabel Weatherly was the first Principal 1929-38, followed by Margaret Ellen Kirkhope 1938-1967 and Judith Secombe 1968-73. Administration of the school passed to the Invergowrie Council, formed from the Invergowrie Past Students Association, in 1967, when the Headmistresses Association no longer wished to run the Hostel. Dwindling enrolments and financial difficulties forced the Hostel’s closure in 1973

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Margaret Blackwood graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BSc in 1938 and MSc in 1940. During the Second World War she served with the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force and then was granted an ex-service postgraduate scholarship for Cambridge, where she gained a PhD for her work in plant genetics. In 1951 Blackwood returned to Melbourne and was a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne until 1974. She was then elected a member of the University Council and in 1980 became the first female Deputy Chancellor. She held both these positions until her retirement in 1983. She was appointed as a Member of the British Empire in 1964 for work in botany and was appointed a Dame (Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander) for her services to education in 1980.

Born and raised in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Patricia (Pat) Turner ‘s long association with Canberra began with a temporary position with the Public Service Board, leading to the Social Policy Branch of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA) in 1979. Joining the Australian Public Service (APS) in Alice Springs as a switchboard operator in the Native Affairs Department , she moved to Canberra in 1978, joining the senior executive ranks of the public service in 1985, when she became Director of the DAA in Alice Springs, N.T. (1985-86). Pat then became First Assistant Secretary, Economic Development Division in the DAA, and in 1989, Deputy Secretary. She worked as Deputy Secretary in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet during 1991-92, with oversight of the establishment of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and with responsibility for the Office of the Status of Women among other matters. Between 1994 -1998, Pat was CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, which made her the most senior Indigenous government official in Australia. After stints in senior positions at the Department of Health and at Centrelink, Pat Turner left the APS and Canberra in 2006, returning to Alice Springs with her mother to live. There, she has continued to advocate on the behalf of indigenous people, including taking on what she described as ‘one of the best working experiences of my life’ as CEO of National Indigenous Television (2006 -2010). (Interview) Other memorable experiences include the period when she was Festival Director of the 5th Festival of Pacific Arts in Townsville, Queensland (1987 -88) and when she held the Chair of Australian Studies at Georgetown University in Washington DC (1998-99). Turner holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Canberra where she was awarded the University prize for Development Studies.

Audrey and her husband Jack D. Blake were prominent members the Communist Party of Australia. Both were particularly vocal during the Liberal Party’s assault on the CPA and Jack Blake wrote numerous articles and papers on the Cold War. Audrey was the first Secretary of the Eureka Youth League when it was formed during the Second World War.

The Eureka Youth League was formed in 1941 with the aim of supporting the war effort while protecting the rights and conditions of women, youth and juveniles in industry.

By October 1942 the State Council of the League had announced its intention to ‘draw into its ranks the clearest thinking youth of our generation. We aim to help the labour movement win the youth for the advance to the new socialist order and to train our members to be honest, clear thinking and energic builders of the new socialist order.’

Post-war the League acted as an educational, social and political organisation, one highlight being the organisation of the Youth Carnival for Peace in 1952.

Margaret Manion was a lecturer (1972-1978) before becoming a Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne. She has been an Emeritus Professor since 1995. She was the first woman chair of the Academic Board from 1987-1988, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 1985-1988. Loreto Order SL, then Chair, appointed March 1979. She was awarded an AO in 1989.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Jenny Macklin was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament representing the electorate of Jagajaga, Victoria in 1996. She was re-elected in 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013. On 22 November 2001, Macklin was elected unopposed as Deputy Leader of the Federal Opposition and retained that position until November 2006. She was Shadow Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Science. With the election of a Labor Government in 2007, she took on the ministerial portfolio of Families, Housing, Community Service and Indigenous Affairs. She continued to hold that position after the 2010 election. Her final portfolios before the defeat of the Labor government in September 2013, were Disability Reform; Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.

Pioneering Australian feminist Dr Anne Summers AO is a best-selling author and journalist with a long career in politics, the media, business and the non-government sector in Australia, Europe and the United States. Anne is a leader of the generation and the movement that has improved women’s rights in Australia. Her first book Damned Whores and God’s Police changed the way Australia viewed women. Her contribution has earned her community respect: she has received five honorary doctorates and in 1989 became an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to journalism and women’s affairs. She won a Walkley Award for journalism in the same year.

Summers is a former editor of Good Weekend who regularly writes an opinion column for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was a founder of the important feminist journal, Refractory Girl, in the 1970s.

Lawrence became Australia’s first woman State Premier (WA) on 12 February 1990. She began her parliamentary career by winning the seat of Subiaco for the Australian Labor Party in 1986.
She entered Federal politics on 12 March 1994, as the Member for Fremantle, and was appointed Minister for Human Services and Health and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women on 25 March 1994 until 11 March 1996. On 23 November 2001, Lawrence was appointed Shadow Minister for Reconciliation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, the Arts, and the Status of Women.

Lawrence is a supporter of numerous organisations and is Patron of the Western Australia Netball Association and a Foundation Committee Member of EMILY’S List.

She retired from the Australian Parliament at the 2007 general election, which was held in November 2007.