The Australian Women's Register

Australian women have had an active role in Australian politics since Henrietta Dugdale formed the first Australian women’s suffrage society in 1884. Just over ten years later, in 1895, South Australian women became the first Australian women eligible to vote. When the Commonwealth Franchise Act was passed in 1902, all women (except for Aboriginal women) were eligible to vote for, and sit in, Federal Parliament.

In 1921 Edith Cowan became the first woman to be elected into any Australian Parliament when she was elected to the Legislative Assembly as a member for West Perth. In 1943, Dame Enid Lyons and Senator Dorothy Tangney became the first women elected into the Commonwealth parliament, with Lyons to the House of Representatives as a member of the United Australia Party and Tangney to the Senate as a member of the Australian Party.

As of January 2019, there are 45 (30%) women in the lower house and 30 (39.47%) in the upper house, meaning women only make up a third of all people in the Commonwealth Parliament.

Methodist Ladies’ College (MLC), Kew, is one of the country’s leading independent girls’ schools.

According to their website, MLC ‘was founded in 1882 as a ‘modern school of the first order’ with buildings that formed ‘a collegiate institution for girls unsurpassed in the colonies’.’ Founded by the Wesleyan Methodists, the goal was to provide ‘a high-class Christian education for girls’ which was resemblant to that available to boys at that time.

Kerry Snell is a campaigner for equitable access to mainstream services and ensuring that people with disability are well represented through diverse leadership.

Read an interview with Kerry Snell in the online exhibition Redefining Leadership.

Professor Helen Milroy is a descendent of the Palkyu people of the Pilbara region in Western Australia. She is currently Winthrop Professor and Director of Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health at the University of Western Australia and a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with the Specialist Aboriginal Mental Health Service for the Department of Health in Perth. In 2019 Professor Milroy became the Australian Football League’s first Indigenous commissioner.

Cornish immigrant Mary Wills Grigg selected and was granted a Mallee leasehold of land in 1885 in Victoria, and farmed sheep in Boort until her death at the age of 70.

Dulcie Gladys Flower was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on Australia Day 2019 ‘for significant service to the Indigenous community, and to the 1967 Referendum Campaign’.

When Diana Travis was 19, her grandfather, Sir Doug Nicholls, drove her to Canberra to take part in the 1967 Referendum. On Australia Day 2019, she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) ‘for service to the Indigenous community, particularly to the 1967 Referendum Campaign’.

Currently, Travis is involved in native title work and is an active participant in the Victorian treaty process.

Anne Martin was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on Australia Day 2019 ‘for significant service to the Indigenous community, and to higher education’.

Muriel Bamblett was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on Australia Day 2019 ‘for distinguished service to the Indigenous community of Victoria as an advocate for the self-determination and cultural rights of children’.

Lou Bennett was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on Australia Day 2019 ‘for significant service to the performing arts, particularly to music, and to the Indigenous community’.

Sister May Bartlett joined the Australian Army Nursing Service on 12 June 1915. In 1919 she was awarded the Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class. She worked at Perth Hospital for many years.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have made a significant contribution to their countries and communities that have often gone unacknowledged.

This entry is an ever-growing record of resources and entries on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in the Register.

Lady Gladys Nicholls was a prominent Aboriginal activist for the Aboriginal community in urban Melbourne from the 1940s to 1970s. Alongside her husband Pastor Doug Nicholls, Gladys was an inspiration to many.

Following the death of her husband, Captain Albert Yates, MID, in action with the AIF on the Western Front in 1918, English-born war widow Grace Yates began running a boarding house in Sydney. Her business was subsidised by the Repatriation Department and enabled her to supplement her war widow’s pension and the allowances for her young children. She continued taking paying guests until 1923. Her subsequent movements are unknown, it is possible she returned to England.

Read a longer essay on Grace Yates in the online exhibition War Widows of the ACT: A Forgotten Legacy of World War I.

The Friendly Union of Soldiers’ Wives and Mothers was founded by Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, wife of the Governor General, Sir Ronald Crauford Munro Ferguson, later Lord Novar, soon after the beginning of World War I.

The object of the organisation was:

The promotion of a friendly feeling amongst the relations of members of the A.I.F., and the giving of mutual help and advice in any trouble or difficulty arising in connection with the Members’ affairs.

To mark the centenary of Australia’s Federation in 2001, the Victorian Women’s Trust curated an exhibition entitled ‘Ordinary Women, Extraordinary lives’. The exhibition showcased the lives and stories of many influential Victorian women.

Alma Thorpe is a Gunditjmara woman and an early Aboriginal rights activist. In 1973 Alma was central to the establishment of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service. She is a life member of the Aboriginal Advancement League and is currently Elder in Residence at Deakin University’s Institute of Koorie Education.

Artist Jessie Traill was one of the most influential Australian painters and etchers of the inter-war period.

Dr Liz Rushen is a Senior Research Associate in the school of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies within Monash University’s Faculty of Arts. Liz was awarded her PhD in 1999 by Monash University and has also authored several other books on the migration of single women to Australia. Currently Liz holds the position of Chair of the History Council of Victoria and is a member of the Professional Historians’ Association of Victoria. She is also the former Executive Director of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

Perry McIntyre has been involved in Irish history and genealogy since the late 1970s. Perry has served on the History Council of NSW and was the Council’s president in 2005 and 2006. She was a councillor of the Society of Australian Genealogists for twenty years and has also served as a councillor for the Australian Catholic Historical Society and the Royal Australian Historical Society.