The Australian Women's Register

Marjorie Tipping was a prolific writer and historian of art and colonial Australia. In 1990, based on her many published scholarly works, she became the first woman to earn the degree of Doctor of Letters by examination from the University of Melbourne. Tipping’s books include Eugene von Guerard’s Australian Landscapes (1975) Ludwig Becker: Artist & Naturalist with the Burke & Wills Expedition (1978), Melbourne on the Yarra (1978) and Convicts Unbound: The Story of the Calcutta Convicts and Their Settlement in Australia (1988).

Tipping was the first woman president (1972-1975) and fellow (1968) of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. She was a member of the Victorian Council of the Arts and numerous other committees and community organizations, often in a voluntary capacity. Tipping was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (13 June 1981), for her contribution to the Arts.

Tipping was the patron of and one of the founders of the E W Tipping Foundation for Mentally Retarded Children and Adults, established in 1970. Tipping travelled on six continents; her interests included music, theatre, archaeology, Australiana, and Chinese art.

Source(s): Personal Communication (2002), Who’s Who of Australian Women, Who’s Who 2002.

A descendant of the Wergaia and Wamba Wamba people of western Victoria, Eleanor Bourke, née Anderson, formerly Koumalatsos, married Colin Bourke and had two children: Sia and Kelly. Eleanor and her family moved to Murraydale, near Swan Hill, Victoria in 1945. She attended primary and high school in rural Victoria and was awarded the degrees
Dip Arts Journalism (RMIT), BA Writing (CCAE), and MEdStud (Adelaide).

Eleanor’s work includes policy concerning Aboriginal people in both the Victorian and Commonwealth governments and academia. Positions held include: Associate Professor in Indigenous Affairs and the Director of the Aboriginal Research Institute, Faculty of the Aboriginal and Islander Studies, University of South Australia; Professor of Aboriginal and Islander Studies and Director of Aboriginal Programs at Monash University; member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Family Law Council and the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee; Fellow of the Australian College of Education; and Chair of the Yoorrook Justice Commission. She was a Co-Chair of Reconciliation Victoria for three years, Board Member for the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council for twelve years and a Board Member of Native Title Services Victoria. Her membership of community-based organisations include the Victorian Aboriginal Advancement League, the Victorian Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and Camp Jungai Cooperative Ltd.

Eleanor Bourke was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll for Women in 2010 and the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll in 2019 and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2022 for significant service to Indigenous heritage, to justice, and to education.

(Sources: Aboriginal Women by Degrees Mary Ann Bin-Sallik, ed. University of Queensland Press, 2000.)

Enid Derham was a poet and an academic who photographed her travels to Egypt, the Mediterranean, Europe, and England during 1927.

Margaret Jackson was born on March 17, 1953 in Warragul, Victoria, educated at Warragul High School and studied Economics at Monash and Business Administration at Melbourne University.

Margaret was chairman of Qantas from 2000 to 2007. She has been a director of Qantas since 1992 and her other directorships include ANZ since 1994.
Margaret is married to Roger Donazzan and they have 2 children.

(Source: Herd, Margaret (editor) Who’s Who in Australia, 2002 38th edition, Crown Content, Melbourne.)

[NB: the above biography was researched and written by Philida Sturgiss-Hoy]

Lorna Sisely, born in 1916 in Wangaratta, was educated at Wangaratta High School, Methodist Ladies College (Melb.) and Janet Clarke Hall University of Melbourne. She was a junior then senior Resident Medical Officer (RMO) at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne from 1942 until 1944. Later Sisely was founder and consultant surgeon at the Monash Medical Centre Breast Clinic. Among her other activities she was a member of the Anti-Cancer Council 1964 – 1981. On 14 June 1980 Lorna Sisely was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her service to medicine.

[NB: the above biography was researched and written by Philida Sturgiss-Hoy for Women’s History Month 2003]

An illustrator of many books on Australian plants, Betty Maloney and her sister, Jean Walker, studied art at Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT).

After teaching art at the National Fitness Council, Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and St Catherine’s School in Melbourne, she travelled to Europe.
With her sister she wrote Designing Australian Bush Garens and Australian Bush Gardens in 1966 and 1967.

The 86 watercolour illustrations used for the publication Proteaceae of the Sydney Region with Alec Blombery are in the Archives of the New South Wales State Library.

Also she illustrated books on mah-jong and thimbles – she maintained a collection of Victorian thimbles, was a co-founder, with her husband, of the Sydney Wagner Society and was involved with volunteer conservation groups, including the Society for Growing Australian Plants.

In the early 1990s her own garden at French’s Forest was approved by the National Trust as a Trust garden and she was presented with a terracotta plaque.

Maude O’Connell worked as a teacher and completed nursing training before becoming involved in social work. She was elected a Governor of the Carlton Refuge in 1909, and was an active member of the Tobacco Workers’ Union before founding “The Company of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament” (more commonly known as ‘The Grey Sisters’).

Ola Cohn was the first Australian sculptor to carve large commissions free-hand in stone. She created the statue for the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden in Adelaide, South Australia, and carved the famous Fairies’ Tree in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens. Examples of Ola Cohn’s work in bronze, stone and wood are in state and provincial galleries nationwide. On 1 January 1965, Cohn was appointed a Member of the British Empire for her work in the service of art, especially sculpture. Her studio home in Gipps St, East Melbourne, is now known as the Ola Cohn Memorial Centre.

Ellis Rowan was a botanical artist who had no formal art training. She received encouragement from her family and husband, Frederick Charles Rowan, whom she married in 1873, to develop her own style in painting wildflowers.
Her work was exhibited in both Australia and overseas for which she won a variety of art prizes.

Jean Blackburn was a feminist, socialist and staunch advocate of the critical importance of good quality teaching and resources in shaping children’s’ lives. After completing an economics major at the University of Melbourne in1940 she became a research assistant for the Department of Economics. A mother who experienced the isolation of suburban living, she worked with Winifred Mitchell in organising the New Housewives’ Association to help overcome this isolation.

She later completed a Diploma in Education and began her teaching career. In 1969 she was seconded as a consultant to the Committee of Enquiry into South Australian Education issuing the Karmel Report in 1973. This was the first of several such appointments. In 1983 she conducted a public enquiry into Victorian senior secondary education, issuing the Blackburn Report in 1985.

Anne Hunt attended Sacred Heart College, Geelong, Victoria, before completing a Science degree at the University of Melbourne.
She began her teaching career in 1978 as a teacher of Maths, Science and Chemistry with the Victorian Department of Education and later transferred to the Catholic schools sector. She also completed a degree in Theology at Yarra Theological Union. From 1983 to 1986 she was Deputy Principal of Loreto Mandeville Hall in Toorak, Victoria.

In 1987 Hunt travelled to the USA, where she completed a Masters degree in Educational Administration at Fordham University in New York City, and the next year a Masters degree in Theology at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.

Hunt returned to Australia in 1989 and became the first lay principal of Loreto Mandeville Hall. Once again she combined study with her career, completing doctoral studies in Theology in 1994 with the Melbourne College of Divinity. In 2002 Anne Hunt became the Rector of the Aquinas Campus of the Australian Catholic University.

Prior to completing her Science degree at the University of Melbourne, Butt attended Fintona Girls’ School, Balwyn, Victoria. In 1950 she became a Scientific Officer for the Defence Standards Laboratory (Vic), and in 1952 was appointed Assistant Mistress at Heathfield School, UK. From 1955 to 1959 she taught at Shelford CEGGS, before joining the staff at Fintona in 1960.

Elizabeth Butt became Headmistress at Fintona in 1963, retaining this position for 29 years until her retirement in 1991.

(Source: http://www.fintona.vic.edu.au/history.htm accessed 18/03/2002)

Fay Surtees Marles AM (née Pearce) is a former Australian public servant. She served as Victorian Commissioner of Equal Opportunity from 1977 to 1987 and Chancellor of the University of Melbourne from 2001 to 2004.

A former principal of Strathcona Baptist Girls’ Grammar School (1990-2001), Ruth Bunyan became a member (and then a director) of the Invergowrie Foundation Council, a philanthropic organisation that issues grants to community groups to advance girls’ education in Victoria.

Sylvia Walton, daughter of Ronald Ferguson and Ellen Betty Collis, was educated at both Sydney and La Trobe Universities. From 1982 to 1999 she was Principal of Tintern Anglican Girls’ Grammar School, following which she became Principal of the Tintern Schools (Ringwood East, Victoria), comprising Tintern Anglican Girls’ Grammar School and Southwood Boys’ Grammar School.

Walton was Deputy Chancellor of La Trobe University from 1997 and Chancellor from 2006 until 2011. She was also a member of the Invergowrie Foundation.

Christine Campbell was the Member for Pascoe Vale representing the Australian Labor Party in the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian Parliament from 1996. She was re-elected at the elections held in 1999, 2002, 2006 and 2010. She has held the ministerial portfolios of Community Services, Senior Victorians and Consumer Affairs. She retired from parliament in November 2014.

On 25 February 2003, Monica Gould was elected 18th President of the Legislative Council of Victoria. She was the first female to hold this position and retained it until November 2006.

In 1990 Joan Kirner was elected the first woman Premier for the State of Victoria. She held the position for two years but her legacy will extend for much longer. As the Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews said in a statement after her death:

“Through her decades of advocacy for gender equality, [Joan Kirner] fundamentally changed [The Victorian ALP] and our society. In the process, she raised a generation of Victorian Labor women – one of whom became Prime Minister…
She fought every day for fairness. Our state is stronger for her service and our lives are greater for her friendship. She was our first female Premier and because of her work, she won’t be the last.”

In 1999 Marsha Thomson was elected Member of the Legislative Council (ALP) for Melbourne North Province at the Victorian state election. She served as the Minister for Information and Communication Technology and Small Business from 2002 until 2006. In 2006 she moved from the Legislative Council to be elected Member of the Legislative Assembly for Footscray. She held the position of Parliamentary Secretary, Industry and Trade from August 2007 until December 2010. She was re-elected in 2010 but the Labor Government was voted out of office. She was again re-elected in November 2014, when the Labor Party returned to power.

She is married to Federal Parliamentarian, the Hon. Kelvin Thomson MP, and is the mother of two children, Ben and Naomi.

Following the birth of her children, Beryl Beaurepaire became involved with charity work and the women’s organisations of the Liberal Party. She summarises her liberal feminist views as follows: ‘If you’re a feminist you believe in equal opportunities and rights for women, but you also believe that women accept equal responsibilities.’ (As cited by Emma Grahame in Australian Feminism: A Companion, OUP, 1998)

Dame Beryl passed away at her home in Mt Eliza, Victoria, on 24 October 2018.

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch was widely regarded as the ‘queen of Australia’s philanthropic community’. She was Patron of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Victoria and supported 110 charitable organisations annually.

In 1924 Florence Wallace (as she was then known) became Australia’s first certificated woman radio telegraphist and in 1924, the only woman member of the Wireless Institute of Australia. She was the founder and director of the Electrical Association for Women, established in 1934. In 1939 she founded and directed the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps, which later became the starting point for the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS). Rosemary Broomham wrote in the biography of Florence McKenzie in 200 Australian Women that altogether Mrs McKenzie trained over 10,000 servicemen in Morse, visual signalling and international code, and she trained 3000 women, a third of whom went into the Services. On 8 June 1950 Florence McKenzie was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her work with the Women’s Emergency Signals Corps.

Journalist Margaret Curtis-Otter, whose husband (Donald) was serving with the navy, enlisted in the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS) on 18 January 1943 and became second in charge of this service. She was one of the first 16 officers and became an adviser to the Naval Board after the war, as well as Acting Director WRANS, while Sheila McClemans attended the Victory Parade in London in 1946. Margaret Curtis-Otter worked with Naval Control, assisting with the assembling of convoys and arranging for the departure of merchant ships. Later she became one of the founders of the Naval Information Service, when she joined the Naval Office. In 1975 the Naval Historical Society published W.R.A.N.S. : the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service written by Margaret-Curtis Otter. On 2 January 1956 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her services as Commissioner of the Girl Guides Association.

Kitty McEwan was educated at Ormiston Ladies’ College and became a freelance journalist working with Australian Home Beautiful in 1929. Interested in the game of golf, she began writing about women and golf, for the Radiator in 1937 and the Sun News-Pictorial in 1938. She organised fund-raising for patriotic appeals during World War II. In June 1942 McEwan was appointed superintendent in Victoria of the Australian Women’s Land Army, a position she held until March 1946. After the war she returned to journalism, writing for the Sun News-Pictorial from which she retired in 1966. Kitty McEwan served as honorary publicity officer and an executive member of the National Council of Women Victoria and a councillor of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. She died on 17 August 1969, aged 75 years.

Clare Stevenson was appointed Director of the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force on 9 June 1941. Thus she became head of the first Women’s Service formed in Australia for ground-staff duties with an armed force. After the war Stevenson returned to her executive position with Berlei Ltd. Also she became involved with community work. For forty years she was affiliated with the Services Canteens Trust Fund. Clare Stevenson, with a group of friends, helped initiate the Scholarship Trust Fund for Civilian Widows’ Children. She also helped establish the Kings Cross Community Aid Centre as well as the Carer’s Association of New South Wales. On 11 June 1960 Clare Stevenson was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for social welfare services on behalf of ex-servicewomen. On Australia Day 1988 she received the Member of the Order of Australia award for service to the community and to the welfare of veterans.

Kathleen Deasey was appointed assistant-controller Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS), Southern Command in November 1941. Prior to joining the AWAS, Deasey was lady superintendent at Melbourne’s Ladies College, Melbourne. Following World War II, Deasey worked with the Department of Immigration, after which she studied at the Sorbonne, Paris. Later Deasey returned to teaching and was a senior tutor in education at the University of Melbourne and then became Principal of St Ann’s College, University of Adelaide.

The youngest child of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Sir Keith Murdoch, Janet Calvert-Jones follows the family tradition, established by both of her parents, of being involved in business as well as philanthropy.