The Australian Women's Register

The daughter of South Australian landscape painter Sir Hans Heysen, Nora Heysen was the first woman to win the Archibald portrait prize (1938) and the first women to be appointed as an Australian war artist on 12 October 1943. During her service Heysen completed over 170 works of art. Following the war she travelled to England and in January 1953 married Dr Robert Black, who was to become the Head of Tropical Medicine at the University of Sydney. On 26 January 1998 Nora Heysen was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her service to art as a painter of portraits and still life subjects.

Built by the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society as a meeting hall in 1887, the building now known as Storey Hall, located on the Swanston Street campus of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Melbourne, Victoria, has a long, colourful history that includes its importance as a site for women’s social and political protest. Notably, during World War I, the venue was leased to the Women’s Political Association, who scheduled public meetings and rallies. The organisation’s purple, white and green flag was hoisted on the roof of the building ‘as a symbol of the sisterhood of women.’ Various International Women’s Day Functions have been held at the venue subsequently.

In honour of the building’s importance to Victorian feminist activism, The Ashton Raggatt McDougall renovation in the 1990s made a feature of the feminist colours.

During World War II Elsie Byth was an executive and/or committee member of a number of organisations. President of the National Council of Women of Australia in 1944 and the National Council of Women of Queensland (1940-1945). She was vice-president of the Australian Comforts Fund in 1940 and the Women’s Voluntary National Register; member of the management committee for the Queensland Patriotic Fund; member of the War Saving committee and the War Accommodation committee. Married to solicitor George Leonard Byth (Len) in 1917, they had four children. Her hobbies included music, flowers and fine needlework.

The Housewives Co-operative Association (later the Housewives Association of Victoria) was formed in mid-1915 and soon became one of the largest women’s organisations in the state. The movement, reacting to the spiralling cost of living during World War I, initially aimed mainly at ‘bringing the producer and consumer into direct contact’ and providing discounted goods to members. In 1921, however, it also adopted a clear political objective: ‘To advocate the equal status of women and adequate representation on all boards and tribunals dealing with the home and the cost of living.’ From the 1930s the Association focussed more on the provision of training and information relating to household management and also became more involved in broader activism to improve the civil and political status of women and with other social reform causes.

The Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service (RANNS) was established in October 1942 and Miss Ina Laidlaw became the first matron. The number in the service never exceeded 60.

The Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial located at the Ballarat Botanical Gardens features a granite wall listing the names of Australian Prisoners of War (POW). The listing is by surname and initials and shown by war. Between the Boer War (1899-1902) and the Korean War in the 1950’s 34,737 Australian servicemen and women (59 World War II nurses) were incarcerated in POW camps.

Captain Kay Parker was one of the six army nurses and eleven civilians who were taken to Japan as Prisoners of War from Rabaul on 23rd January 1942.

Betty Jeffrey was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 8 June 1987 for service to the welfare of nurses in Victoria and ex-service men and women. Jeffrey was one of the members of the Australian Army Nursing Service who was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1942. Incarcerated in Japanese prisoner of war camps for three and a half years, after the war she wrote about the experiences in White Coolies (1954) which was later the basis for the film script Paradise Road (1999). After her return to Melbourne, and spending some time in hospital, Jeffrey and fellow survivor Vivian Bullwinkel travelled throughout Victoria raising funds towards a memorial for military nurses. The Nurses Memorial Centre was opened on 19 February 1950 and Jeffrey was appointed its first administrator. In 1986 she became the Centre’s patron.

Cecilia Downing was a leading figure in the Victorian women’s movement in the early twentieth century, spreading her activities and influence over an enormous range of organisations. The daughter of Isaac and Mary (née Morgan) Hopkins, Downing was born in London and came to Australia in 1858. She obtained her Teaching Certificate from the Training Institution in Carlton and taught at Portarlington before marrying John Downing in 1885. The couple returned to Melbourne in 1901. Although she had seven children, Cecilia became heavily involved in women’s groups and welfare work. She was one of Victoria’s first child probation officers (1907) and was an officer bearer with both the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Australian Women’s National League. From the 1920s, she devoted her energies to the Housewives Association (having become one of its earliest members in 1917) and served as its federal president from 1940-45 and Victorian president from 1938 until her death in 1952. On 8 June 1950 Cecilia Downing was appointed a Member of the British Empire for social welfare services in Victoria.

Before joining the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) in 1942, Catherine Frost (née Sommers) was a full time ballet student. She worked part time in the family cycle business as well as competing in track cycle racing and being a member of the New South Wales Flying Club. With the WAAAF she was a fabric worker. Following World War II Frost became a member of a number of community services including the Prince Henry Little Bay Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Camperdown and the Asthma Children’s Foundation, Sutherland. On 26 January 1997 Catherine Frost was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia and she received the Australian Sports Medal on 30 August 2000.

Margaret Lang was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 8 June 1950 for service with the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service. Lang was the founder and Matron-in-Chief of the Service during World War II. She had completed her training at Wangaratta District Hospital and the Women’s Hospital (later Royal), Melbourne. During World War I Lang served in Salonika with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). Other positions she held included being a Matron of a number of Victorian country hospitals, the Police Hospital and the Talbot Epileptics Colony in Clayton, Victoria.

A stenographer with the Department of Motor Transport, Eileen Price (née Lee) enjoyed dancing, surfing and roller skating before joining the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) on 6 June 1942. As a teleprinter operator, Aircraftwoman Lee was stationed at the Eastern Area Headquarters and the RAAF Station Canberra. After her discharge on 29 October 1945 she married Garnet George McLeod Price. The pair moved to Papua New Guinea when Garnet Price accepted a position as engineer with Guinea Air Traders.

Eileen Price returned to Sydney when she became pregnant, but her husband was killed in an aircraft accident and she raised their daughter, Catherine McLeod Price, with the help of her mother and by taking teaching positions with the Department of Technical Education.

Established in July 1940 The Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service (RAAFNS) personnel expanded from 45 in December 1940 to 616 in December 1945. Miss Margaret Irene Lang was appointed Matron-in-Chief and her staff’s conditions of service were similar to those of the Australian Army Nursing Service. The nurses were originally attached to Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) bases in Australia, and later in New Guinea and the Pacific Islands. With the Medical Air Evacuation Transport Unit (MAETU), established in 1944, nurses helped with aerial evacuation of casualties and were involved with the liberation of Prisoners of War from Singapore and other areas. The service was disbanded at the end of the war, but in 1948 a peace-time service was formed and RAAF nurses have served in the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War. They continue to attend to the sick and injured at RAAF hospitals.

The Victorian Children’s Aid Society, originally named the Presbyterian Society for Neglected and Destitute Children, was established with the aim of rescuing ‘neglected and destitute children’. Its officers comprised a president, two vice presidents, a secretary and a committee. Although an initiative of the Presbyterian Church, by October 1894, it became interdenominational and independent, with its name changed to the Victorian Neglected Children’s Aid Society. The Society took in children, the majority of whom required temporary assistance and were the children of the ‘deserving poor’, and placed them with families in the country, who cared for them and educated them. Older children were taught household or farm work. It decided upon another name change in 1920, to the Victorian Children’s Aid Society. In 1991 it became Family Focus and in 1992 it merged with other children’s organisations to form Oz Child-Children Australia.

Edith Baker undertook her nursing training at Memorial Hospital, Adelaide and then worked in South Africa and England before being appointed to the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service (RAAFNS) in 1941. Baker rose to the position of area matron before being discharged on 8 May 1944.

The funeral service for former Group Officer Betty Docker, aged 81, was held at the Royal Military College, Duntroon. Director of the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service (RAAFNS) Docker trained at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. She then joined the hospital staff before enlisting with the RAAFNS in 1944. During her time in the service she fought for change so married women could continue on as nurses and women could reach the highest ranks – something not allowed previously. After 28 years with the RAAFNS Docker retired in 1975 having been awarded The Royal Red Cross (2nd Class), 1968; Royal Red Cross, 1970; the Florence Nightingale Medal, 1971 and the National Medal in 1977.

Selina (also spelt Sulina) Sutherland was the first person in the State of Victoria to be licensed under the 1887 Neglected Children’s Act. The Act sanctioned private licensed individuals to remove children from unfit homes and take them under their own guardianship. The daughter of Baigrie and Janet (née MacDonald) Sutherland, Selina Sutherland was born in Scotland, spent some time in New Zealand before settling in Melbourne, Australia, in 1881. Initially she worked as a nurse and, along with Mrs Maria Armour, founded the Scots’ Church Neglected Children’s Aid Society in 1881. For the next 28 years Sutherland was involved with helping Melbourne’s poor. Following her death on 8 October 1909 a public appeal was held to erected a granite memorial for her grave.

The South Melbourne Ladies’ Benevolent Society began in July 1875, when the Emerald Hill Benevolent Society formally handed over its work to a committee of women and continued to operate for one hundred and seven years. It provided relief to destitute families in the area. It was acknowledged as ‘ one of the best managed societies of its kind’.

Ethel Osborne and her husband William, who had been appointed professor of physiology and histology at the University of Melbourne, migrated to Australia in 1904. Osborne, a foundation member of The Catalysts, visited the Lyceum Club while travelling through London. At the inaugural meeting of the Lyceum Club in Melbourne she was elected vice-president. Back in England during World War I Osborne worked with the British Ministry of Munitions of War. Here she conducted investigations for the Health of Munition Workers’ Committee and the Industrial Fatigue Research Board. Upon her return to Melbourne she was invited to report to the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration on the conditions of employment of women workers in the clothing industry, for a case which won some workers a 44 hour week. Osborne then studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, practising at the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women and Children, the (Royal) Melbourne Hospital and privately. Osborne became a foundation member of the Emily McPherson College of Domestic Economy council, serving as treasurer, vice-president and president. When the college’s new premises were opened in 1927, its hall was named after her. Before retiring, in 1938, Osborne represented Australia at the Pan-Pacific Women’s Conference (Honolulu 1928 and 1930), attended the Congress on Industrial Accidents and Diseases (Geneva) the International Congress of Industrial Relations (Amsterdam), the Disarmament Conference (Paris) and investigated employment problems in Yorkshire.

Jessie Webb became the first female teacher at the University of Melbourne when she joined the History Department. A prominent figure in women’s organisations she was a founding member of the Catalysts, the Lyceum Club, the Victorian Women Graduates Association, and the Women’s College. Webb, who completed two major overseas trips, is permanently commemorated in the name of the History Department Library at the University of Melbourne.

The Princes Ida Club was established on 21 July 1888 and intended to “promote the common interests of, and to form a bond of union between the present and past women students” of the University of Melbourne. The women students’ club took its name from Tennyson’s ‘The Princess’ and their colours were lilac and daffodil. The activities of the Club included social functions, debates, and literary discussions. In 1915 the Club merged with the University Union Women’s Representative Committee.

The Children’s Welfare Association of Victoria (CWAV), established in 1912, is the co-ordinating body of non government child welfare agencies in Victoria. It is the peak body for over eighty community organisations delivering child and family support and welfare services. It aims to promote and protect the needs and rights of children and their families; to represent the needs of children and the agencies that assist them, to governments and other organisations; provide co-ordination and communication between welfare agencies and promote high standards in welfare programs. It attempts to meet these aims through holding conferences, producing publications and conducting research projects.

The Catalysts’ Society developed out of the meetings of nineteen women with intellectual interests who planned to establish a Lyceum Club in Melbourne in 1910. The meetings proved so enjoyable that the women decided to meet on a regular basis while waiting for the Lyceum Club to be established. The nineteen original Catalysts held their first dinner meeting on 24 September 1910 at Sargent’s Café. At that meeting they elected Ethel Osborne as president and Alice Michaelis and Jessie Webb as joint secretaries. They adopted the name of ‘The Catalysts’. At their second meeting they chose their motto ‘Changing but Unchanged’. Enid Derham presented the first paper on ‘The works of Thomas Hardy’, which was followed by discussion. This format for the monthly meetings continues today.

On 1 July 2003 a dedication of a WRANS Memorial, formally recognising Harman as ‘The Birthplace of the WRANS,’ was held. The WRANS Memorial HMAS Harman is dedicated to those who have served in the Woman’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) and those females who have and are currently serving in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN).

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) of Western Australia was founded in 1892, inspired by the visit of Jessie Ackerman, the second world missionary of the American Union. The group is primarily dedicated to promoting total abstinence from alcohol and other harmful drugs and all members sign a pledge to this effect. Under its broader agenda of ‘home protection’ and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, however, it has been involved in wide range of social and political reform activities mostly relating to the welfare of women and children. Importantly, influenced by its sister organisation in the United States, the WCTU 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 still continues today.

Mary Tenison Woods (née Kitson) was the first woman to graduate in law in South Australia. She was admitted to the bar on 20 October 1917. Her application to become a public notary in 1921 led to a change in the law: the existing Act did not include women as ‘persons’.

When Mary married in 1924 her partners did not wish to work with a married woman. Mary left the firm and formed a new partnership in 1925, in what may have been the first female practice in Australia. In the mid 1930s, Mary moved to Sydney and worked as a legal editor.

Following the failure of her marriage to Julian Tenison Woods, she moved to Sydney with her son, where she worked as a legal editor. In 1941 she became a member of the Child Welfare Advisory Council (NSW), held many honorary positions and served on a number of boards. Mary lectured at the university on legal aspects of social work and wrote several legal textbooks on a range of subjects.

In 1950 Tenison Woods was appointed chief of the office of the status of women in the division of human rights, United Nations Secretariat, New York. During her term two major conventions were adopted: the Convention of the Political Rights of Women (1952), the first international law aimed at the granting and protection of women’s full political rights, and the Convention of the Nationality of Married Women (1957) which decreed that marriage should not affect the nationality of a wife.

On 13 June 1959 Mary Tenison Woods was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for public service, especially with the United Nations. Previously she had been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 8 June 1950 for services to child welfare.