The Australian Women's Register

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

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.

The Female Middle Class Emigration Society, founded by Maria Rye and Jane Lewin in 1862, was one of a number of organisations that emerged in the late nineteenth century and sought to tackle the perceived ‘surplus women’ problem in the United Kingdom. Like the Colonial Intelligence League, and the South African Colonisation Society, its aim was to assist unemployed, educated British women with emigration by finding them employment, usually as governesses or clerks, in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. These three organisations amalgamated in 1919 to form the Society for the Overseas Settlement of British Women.

The Female Orphan School was set up in George Street, Sydney, by Governor King in 1801 to house destitute young girls. When it was officially opened on 17 August, 1801, 31 girls aged between the ages of 7 and 14 were in residence. By 1829 the population had grown to 152 and included some Aboriginal children. On 30 April, 1850 the Male Orphan School, which had been relocated at Liverpool in 1823 was closed. The remaining residents moved to the Female Orphan School site at Parramatta and the two establishments amalgamated to form the Protestant Orphan School, which operated until 1886.

The Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia evolved from the seventeen individual congregations operating in Australia before 1981. It forms part of the world-wide network of Mercy Sisters. Catherine McAuley founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland in 1841. In 1846 the Sisters of Mercy came to Australia. Ursula Frayne, a friend of Catherine McAuley, arrived with six Sisters and settled in Perth , Western Australia, later moving to Melbourne. By 1954 the seventeen distinct autonomous groups had emerged through the processes of amalgamation and division. In 1953 eight of the autonomous groups formed the Australian Union of Sisters of Mercy, and in 1957 the remaining nine groups joined to form the Australian Federation of the Sisters of Mercy, which by 1981 became the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia. The Mercy Sisters describe this structure as ‘a unique mode of governance continuing to express the traditional Mercy thrust towards decentralisation and unity but giving a clearer sign of the equally strong concern for a deep unity of spirit.’ The Sisters of Mercy are committed to those most vulnerable in our society and wish to share God’s loving kindness with others.

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.

The Women’s Liberation Movement submission on equal pay was delivered in 1969 to the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission in Melbourne, by Sylvia Shaw.

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.

The Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement Inc (ALRM) is a not for profit organisation that provides legal service to Aboriginal people and their communities. Established in 1971, and incorporated in 1973, it exists to get social justice for Aboriginal people and their communities.

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.

Betty Preston was born in London, England. On leaving school she was apprenticed as a shop assistant. An organiser for the Conservative Party in the 1940s her political activism was sparked by joining the protest about the slow demobilisation of World War II soldiers, her husband Austin being included in their number. In 1952 the family migrated to South Australia and settled in Northfield, in suburban Adelaide, South Australia. In 1955 she was the first woman elected to the Enfield Council. Betty was also an active member of the Liberal Party and unsuccessfully nominated for the Legislative Council after moving to Brighton. Disenchanted with the political alternatives, Betty campaigned as an independent and on behalf of non-party organisations during the 1970s and 80s. She became a member of Grey Power, helping to form the Brighton Branch and accepting nomination as State President in 1991.

Anne-Marie Grisogono was born in Yugoslavia and migrated to Australia with her mother, a chemical engineer, who fostered her interest in science. Anne-Marie ‘discovered’ physics at Adelaide University and went on to attain a PhD in mathematical physics, as well as marrying, working part-time, and bringing up two children. Anne-Marie helped form the South Australian Branch of Scientists Against Nuclear Arms (SANA) in 1984 in response to the escalation of the arms race. Within days SANA identified their first project assessing scientific reports about residual plutonium contamination at Maralinga.

Alison Gent, née Hogben, was born at Rose Park, Adelaide and brought up by her widowed working mother. She attended Walford School and went on to gain an MA at Adelaide University. She married an Anglican priest in 1947 and they had five children. In 1970, Alison returned to part-time tutoring and saw publicity about the proposed Women’s Liberation Movement, and she became heavily involved in its activities. In 1980, the year that Alison and her husband separated, she began a discussion group about the ordination of women, her interest stemming in part from her personal frustration. She became involved in the Movement for the Ordination of Women, which began in Adelaide in 1984. She remains a committed Christian and feminist.

Barbara Hardy, née Begg, was born at Largs Bay, Adelaide. She attended Woodlands Girls’ School and began a science degree at Adelaide University aged 16. She married Tom Hardy in 1948. During the 1950s and 60s family and sport were Barbara’s chief interests, however camping holidays also awakened her concern for the environment. In 1972 she began voluntary work with the Conservation Council and in 1974 started a degree in earth sciences at Flinders University. With growing expertise as a lobbyist, Barbara assisted David Wotton, Shadow and then Minister for the Environment in the late 70s and early 80s. Her husband died in 1980. Barbara resigned from the Liberal Party so that her activism could be non-party based, and since then has applied her ‘patience, persistence and perspiration’ to many organisations and issues, including the Australian Heritage Commission, Landcare, the National Parks Foundation and the Science and Technology Centre.

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.

The South Australian International Women’s Day Committee was founded in 1938. Mrs Elizabeth M. (Betty) Fisher compiled the Women’s Roll of Honour for the 20th Century in 2001.