The Australian Women's Register

Contralto singer Madame Ada Crossley studied piano under Mrs Hastings of Port Albert and later Signor Zelman. She then sang with Madame Fanny Simonsen of Melbourne. Prior to leaving Australia in March 1894, to study in Europe, she gave farewell concerts in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. With Percy Grainger a member of her entourage, she toured Australia and New Zealand, returning to England via South Africa (1903-1904). Crossley returned to Australia for a series of concerts in 1908-1909. Once again Grainger was a supporting artist. During the First World War she sang at benefit concerts. After the war she reduced her professional engagements. Ada Crossley died on 17 October 1929 at Woodlands Park, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire.

Eleanor Glencross was the second woman to stand for the Victorian Parliament. She unsuccessfully contested the seat of Brighton in 1928 as an Independent Nationalist. She had previously stood for the Federal seat of Henty in 1922 and in 1943 the seat of Martin. A former general secretary, chief speaker and organizer of the Australian Women’s National League in 1920 Glencross became president of the Housewives’ Association of Victoria. In 1923 she became president of the Federated Housewives Association of Australia. During World War II she was prominent in patriotic activities as a member of the State advisory committee of the Commonwealth prices commissioner, the council of the Lord Mayor’s Patriotic and War Fund and of the executive of the Women’s Voluntary National Register.

Mrs Aeneas Gunn was the author of The Black Princess, published in 1905, and We of the Never Never, published in 1908. During and after World War I she worked tirelessly to support the servicemen of Monbulk, Victoria who she referred to as “my boys.” She was awarded an OBE in 1939, “in recognition of her services to Australian Literature and to the disabled soldiers and their dependents.” In 1948 she began to work on a book recording all the details of the volunteers from Monbulk who had served in the Boer War, the Boxer Rebellion and World War I. Gunn presented her completed manuscript to the Monbulk RSL in 1953 and the book, My Boys – A Book of Remembrance, was published for the first time in 2000.

Dr Penny Flett, who settled in Australia in 1965, was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2003 for service to the aged and disabled community through the Brightwater Care Group. Prior to becoming the Chief Executive Officer of the Brightwater Care Group on 23 July 1986 Flett worked in a variety of positions including four years with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). In 1974 she became the first woman in peacetime to hold a male rank and the first woman doctor to serve in the RAAF. Penny Flett was named Telstra Australian Business Woman of the Year in 1998.

After 21½ years Marie Fisher retired from the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps, Australian Regular Army (WRAAC ARA) on 23 July 1974 and was placed on the retired list. During her service she qualified and was promoted from Private to Captain having served in New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria. Following her discharge from the WRAAC Fisher returned to study at both the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) college and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where she was later employed before retiring in 1991 aged 65 years.

The Governesses’ Institute and Melbourne Home opened in Melbourne in 1863 with the aim of accommodating governesses, shop women, needlewomen and servants and to provide a central employment registry in a self-supporting institution. Its forerunner, the Melbourne Female Home, which opened in September 1857 in temporary premises in Collingwood, provided shelter only for newly arrived single female immigrants who were without friends in the colony. The Governesses’ Institute occupied a number of premises over the course of its existence in Little Lonsdale St. Melbourne, “Wynamo” in St Kilda and “Lovell House” in Caulfield. The governing body comprised a central committee, with nine local or suburban committees. A matron was employed to supervise the Home and its occupants. Strict rules applied; women were only admitted if they arrived on a week day, could pay a week’s board in advance and were without children. In 1863 Mrs Laura Jane a’Beckett was elected secretary of the management committee of six men and twenty-six women. It closed in 1936.

The Gentlewomen’s Aid Society was established in 1894 in the Williamstown home of Mrs John Clark, wife of the Reverend Clark, in an attempt to assist the many ‘gentlewomen’ who were left destitute as a result of the 1890s economic depression. Eligibility for membership rested on a recommendation from a committee member, a medical practitioner or a clergyman stating that the applicant was in genuine need of the Society’s assistance. The Society held two Sales of Work a year in a public hall to enable ‘those ladies who are dependent on their own exertions to sell their work’ and were either too frail or too old to battle the commercial world. The Society depended on donations and subscriptions to assist with operating costs. It remained in existence until 1989, when it was dissolved as a result of dwindling membership and declining demand for assistance the Society offered.

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.

After being exposed to ‘sweated labour’ conditions while working in the Melbourne clothing industry during the 1880s, Jean Beadle was inspired to dedicate her life to the betterment of conditions for women and children. Known as the ‘The Grand Old Lady of the Labor Party,’ she was a founding member of the Women’s Political and Social Crusade and the Labor Women’s Organization in Victoria (1898), Fremantle (1905) and Goldfields (1906). She was also a delegate to the Eastern Goldfields District Council of the State Australian Labor Party. Beadle was one of the first women appointed as a Justice of the Peace in Western Australia, sitting for many years on the Married Women’s Court. She was later appointed to serve as an honorary Justice on the bench of the Children’s Courts. An official visitor to the women’s section of the Fremantle Prison, Beadle also was instrumental in the building of the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women. She was secretary, of the King Edward Memorial Hospital Advisory Board, from 1921 until her death. In recognition of her dedicated service the hospital annually awards a Jean Beadle scholarship.

The Australian Pre-School Association, previously named the Australian Association for Pre-School Child Development, established in 1939, is the national association for the advancement of pre-school development. All major voluntary agencies in Australia who work in the field of pre-school education are affiliates. The Victorian branch was established in 1948 and is acknowledged as the representative voluntary pre-school body in the state. Its role is to make a co-ordinated approach to the state government when legislation related to pre-school groups is being prepared, when standards in pre-school centres are being negotiated or when requests for improved subsidies are under discussion. As a lobby group it has greatly strengthened the pre-school voice.

The second woman member of the House of Representatives, Doris Blackburn successfully won her late husband’s Federal seat of Bourke as an Independent Labor candidate in 1946. In an electoral redistribution the seat of Bourke was abolished and Blackburn contested the new seat of Wills at the 1949 and 1951 elections, but was unsuccessful on both occasions.

She was involved in the Free Kindergarten movement and numerous campaigns for better education, playgrounds and crèches. Blackburn was a member of the Women’s Political Association in Victoria, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the Women’s Prison Council and the Save the Children Fund. In 1957, with Doug Nicholls, she was a co-founder of the Aboriginal Advancement League and the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement.

Founded in 1896 (the first such council in Australia) the National Council of Women of New South Wales is a non-party, non-sectarian, umbrella organisation for a large and diverse number of affiliated women’s organisations. It functions as a political lobby group, particularly for the interests of women and children, attempting to influence local, state and federal government, and as a coordinating body to enable concerted effort on specific issues. The Council emerged as a largely middle-class women’s organisation and, until the 1940s at least, was a major focal point for such women’s activism. Although not overtly feminist, the Council has campaigned for a wide range of social and political reforms.

Sybil Irving’s friends and colleagues felt that her great contribution to the community, through her concern for the happiness and welfare of others, should not be forgotten.

A National Memorial Committee was formed to appeal for subscriptions. This brought response from all states and overseas.

A chain of memorials around Australia was planned – one in each capital city. The culmination was the unveiling, by Her Excellency Lady Cowen, of the memorial in Commonwealth Gardens, Canberra on 11 March 1979.

The Women’s Federal Political Association, the forerunner of the Women’s Political Association, was established in 1903, with Vida Goldstein as president, to educate women in political matters. Men were not excluded from membership. In March 1904 it changed its name to the Women’s Political Association of Victoria with the aim of organising more efficiently women’s votes in the interests of the home and children, of efficient government at all levels, and of improved social and industrial conditions. In an attempt to challenge the party ticket system, the WPA declared itself to be non party political and refused to affiliate with any political party, although its sympathies lay with the Australian Labor Party. Goldstein believed that party politics subsumed the interests of women. The WPA supported Goldstein in her attempts to be elected to the federal parliament and adopted a pacifist stance in World War One. It disbanded in 1919 when Goldstein travelled overseas.

The Women’s Peace Army was established on 15 July 1915 at the offices of the Women’s Political Association, in an attempt to mobilise the women in Australia who opposed all war, regardless of political party membership. It was to be a fighting body to destroy militarism ‘with the same spirit of self-sacrifice that soldiers showed on the battlefield’. ‘We war against war’ was the motto of the Women’s Peace Army. Their flag took the feminist colours of purple, green and white. The most well-known members were Vida Goldstein, president, Cecilia John and Adela Pankhurst. With autonomous branches in Sydney and Brisbane, the Women’s Peace Army projected a radical, militant image with its socialist anti-war ideology and attracted large numbers to its sometimes controversial public meetings. Other tactics included participation in peace demonstrations, support for peace candidates at elections, petitions to members of parliament and practical help to those disadvantaged by war. It participated in the anti-conscription campaigns of 1916 and 1917. With the end of the Great War, the Women’s Peace Army went into recess on 18 December 1919.

The National Council of Women of Tasmania was founded in 1899, in response to an invitation from the Countess of Aberdeen (then president of the International Council of Women) for Tasmania to be represented at the International Council of Women Congress in London that year. Its inaugural meeting, on the 20 May 1899 was organised by Mrs J. S. Dodds, wife of the Tasmanian Administrator. The initial committee also included Emily Dobson(wife of former Premier Henry Dobson), who was active in a large number of women’s groups, and who was later vice-president (1900-1903) and then president (1904-1934) of the Council.

It is a non-party, non-sectarian, umbrella organisation for a large and diverse number of affiliated Tasmanian women’s groups. It functions as a political lobby group, attempting to influence local, state and federal government. It provided a major focus for, predominantly middle-class, women’s activism until at least the 1940s. The Council has supported a wide range of social reform activities, particularly those related to education and to women’s, children’s and family welfare.

Its aims are:
• ‘To provide a strong network and a means for affiliated groups to support each other, and
• To work together on matters of mutual interest or concern, as well as links with the wider community;
• To promote the best interests of women and their families and people in general;
• To confer and provide a two-way flow of information on issues related to the welfare of the family, the state and the Commonwealth;
• To work in every way for the application of equity, social justice (the Golden Rule) and improvements in quality of life in a sustainable environment, for everyone.’

Emily Dobson was a tour de force in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Tasmanian society. As the wife of the State Premier, Henry Dobson, she played a central role in multiple political and charitable organisations. She was vice-president of the Tasmanian section of the National Council of Women in 1899, and attended the first meeting of the International Council of Women in London that year. Dobson became president of the National Council of Women Tasmania in 1904 and held that position until her death. She was the first Australian to be elected vice- president of the International Council of Women at the Rome quinquennial in 1914.

The National Council of Women of South Australia is a non-party, non-sectarian, umbrella organisation for a large and diverse number of affiliated women’s groups.
Founded in 1902, with Lady Way (the Governor’s wife) as president, Its inaugural meeting was addressed by Catherine Helen Spence, who also became its vice-president. The initial group, however, foundered and became inactive around 1909. The Council was revived in 1920 with Lady Hackett as president.

The Council functions as a political lobby group, attempting to influence local, state and federal government. Like all National Councils of Women, it operates though a standing committee system whereby specific issues are brought before the Council and, if there is general agreement that a question should be taken up, a subcommittee is established to investigate the matter.

It provided a major focus for predominantly, middle-class, women’s activism until at least the 1940s. Although not an overtly feminist organisation, the Council has supported a wide range of social reform activities, particularly those related to education and to women’s, children’s and family welfare.

Its aims are:
1. To promote the interest of women and to secure their proper recognition in the community.
2. To educate and uplift the outlook of the community on the status of women, the importance of the family, and the nurture and upbringing of children.
3. To provide a bond of union between women’s organisations, and a means of co-ordinated expressions for the societies affiliated with the Council.
4. To represent the interests of women in general before Parliament, local governing bodies and the Courts.
5. To promote the moral and social welfare of the community.

Although the battle for woman suffrage began later in Australia than it did in Britain or the United States, success was achieved earlier. Concerted campaigns for woman suffrage in Australia date from the early 1880s and were supported by organisations and individuals representing a wide array of political and ideological platforms. In some ways, these campaigns signalled the start of women’s participation in the Australian political process. Although linked to and inspired by the international campaigns and context of the time, the Australian suffrage movement had its own distinctive, regional characteristics. Matters of race and class, of geographical proximity to Asia and the need to build a healthy white nation at the turn of the century, combined with universal concerns about justice and the rights of the individual to create a uniquely Australian movement.

Roberta Jull was the first woman to establish a medical practice in Perth in 1897. She became active in social welfare, public health and politics. In 1918 Jull became the first Medical Officer of Schools in the Western Australian Public Health Department and took a leading part in the infant health movement.

The daughter of Dr Roberta and Martin Jull, Henrietta Drake-Brockman married the then Commissioner for the far north west of Australia, Geoffrey Drake-Brockman on 3 August 1921. While in the north west she wrote articles for the West Australia under the pseudonym ‘Henry Drake’. The author of Men Without Wives, which won the Australian Sesquicentenary prize, Drake-Brockman also wrote for the theatre, and was co-editor, with Walter Murdoch, of Australian Short Stories. On 1 January 1967 Henrietta Drake-Brockman was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to Australian literature.

A member of the original Australian Women’s Army Service Officer’s School, Joan Bryce was appointed Assistant Commandant. She was discharged on 12 February 1946 with the rank of Lieutenant.

When established in 1981, Joan Bryce became the first patron of the AWAS Association of Queensland.

Dorathea Skov joined the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) after seeing an advertisement for girls interested in becoming army officers in 1941. Prior to enlisting Skov had been secretary of a variety of sporting bodies and suburban church groups as well as being interested in the YWCA. She became a member of the original Officer’s School and was later appointed Assistant Commandant Northern Command. Early in 1942 Captain Skov was one of the officers who interviewed candidates to enlist in the AWAS, visiting sixteen outback centres per week in the busiest period.

Dorathea Skov was the Queensland representative on the Sybil Irving Memorial Fund Committee.

Marj Oke’s first job was as a teacher in a one-room school. Upon her marriage in 1942, as was the policy of the time, she was suspended from teaching. Working at the Australian Jam Company, she encountered very poor working conditions. This experience propelled her to join the Food Preservers’ Union and become active in the Australian Labor Party. She stood as a candidate for the Australian Labor Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of St Kilda under her maiden name, Bennett, at the Victorian state election, which was held in 1943. In 1950, Oke became a founding and lifelong member of the Union of Australian Women. After returning to teaching in Moe, she campaigned for equal pay for women teachers, the abolition of the marriage bar and access to superannuation. Additionally, Oke formed a branch of the Aboriginal Advancement League and became, in 1992, a founding member of the Network for Older Women. On 10 June 1991 she was awarded an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia) for service to aged people, particularly women. Oke was included in the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in March 2002.