The Australian Women's Register

Elizabeth Chipman was employed in various roles by the Antarctic Division of the Department of Science in Melbourne from 1954 to 1977. She visited Macquarie Island with the Australian Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) three times and was one of the first Australian women to set foot on the Antarctic mainland. Elizabeth was also the first female member of the ANARE Club.

Vicki Viidikas had her first poem, At East Balmain, published when she was 19 years of age. Since that time, Vicki had her poetry and fiction published in many literary magazines and later she also produced several collections of poetry.

In March 1942 the Australian Government passed the National Security (Employment of Women) Regulations which established the Women’s Employment Board (WEB). ‘The aim of the WEB was to encourage and regulate the employment of women in work usually performed by men’ during the Second World War. ‘From 1942 to 1944 the WEB set the wages, hours and conditions of over 70,000 female workers in Australian industries’ (Larmour, 1975).

The Honourable Justice Julie Anne Dodds-Streeton was educated at University High School and graduated with First Class Honours in history from the University of Melbourne. After working as a tutor in the History Department, Justice Dodds-Streeton completed an Honours degree in Law and for a time was employed as a senior lecturer at the Melbourne Law School.

Justice Dodds-Streeton took silk in 2001 and in July 2002 she was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Alongside Marilyn Warren and Rosemary Balmford, the three women sat together as Australia’s first all-female Full Court. She served as a judge in the Trial Division for over five years and as a Judge of Appeal for more than two years. In February 2012 Justice Dodd-Streeton was appointed a judge in the Federal Court of Australia. She retired from the Federal Court on April 1, 2014.

Justice Dodd-Streeton is currently the Judge in Residence at the Melbourne Law School and the Reserve Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Florence Higgs trained as an art teacher at the Royal Melbourne Technical College and subsequently worked as an art teacher in Victoria.

Later Florence moved to England where she studied lithography at the Central School of Art and Design in London. She was a member of the London Guild of Weavers and the Society of Designer-Craftsmen.

Sybil Mary Frances Craig was born in London in 1901 to Australian-born parents Matthew Francis Craig and his wife Winifred Frances (Major). Some time later the family returned to Melbourne and Sybil was educated at a school in St Kilda. In 1920 she began private art tuition and from 1924 to 1931 she studied at the National Gallery of Victoria’s school of painting.

Sybil held her first solo exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery in 1932. This was followed by further solo exhibitions in 1948, 1978 and 1982. In March 1945 Sybil became an official war artist. She was commissioned by the Australian War Memorial to record the work undertaken at the Commonwealth Explosives Factory at Maribyrnong.

Sybil Craig was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1981 ‘in recognition of service as an artist’.

The Australasian Women’s Association (AWA) was founded on September 3, 1900. It was a sister organisation to the Australian Natives Association (ANA) and was both a friendly society and a society that promoted national causes. The AWA ceased operation in 1964.

The Women’s Pioneer Society of Australasia is an organisation of female descendants of early colonial pioneers, government officials, military personnel, free settlers and convicts.

As its name suggests, the Federal District Women’s Bowling Association Past Presidents’ Association is comprised of the past presidents of the Federal District Women’s Bowling Association. The Association held its inaugural bowling match on Thursday 14 February, 1957.

Jennifer Compton was born in New Zealand and emigrated to Australia in the early 1970s. She has published several volumes of poetry, in addition to writing plays and short stories. In 1996 Jennifer was awarded the New South Wales Writers Fellowship and it was the first time the prize had been awarded to a poet.

Mardi Gething was the only Australian among 80 female pilots who flew with the Air Transport Auxiliary in Britain during World War Two.

Kathleen Gepp was involved in the Australian Red Cross and held various positions within the organisation including Honorary Public Relations Officer, the Junior Red Cross National Secretary and the National Director of the Junior Red Cross.

Vivienne Newson was both the vice-president and president of the United Associations of Women, Sydney.

Lady Jessie Powell Gepp was a member of both the Executive and the House Committee of the Austin Hospital, Heidelberg. She was also actively involved in Red Cross work in America during the First World War.

Libby Connors is an Associate Professor in the history department at the University of Southern Queensland. In 2015 her book, Warrior: a legendary leader’s dramatic life and violent death on the colonial frontier, won the inaugural Queensland Premier’s Award for a work of State Significance.

Eleanor (Nell) Rivett worked in girls’ education in India from 1907 to 1947 with the London Missionary Society. She was the secretary of the Bengal Women’s Education League and the Bengal Advisory Board on Women’s Education.

Eleanor was educated at the University of Melbourne and graduated with both a Bachelor and Master of Arts.

Journalist Sally Baker Clinch worked as a feature writer for the Sunday Sun and also as an assistant editor for Women’s Day.

Linda Jaivin studied Asian History at Brown University, United States, before continuing her study of the Chinese language in Taiwan. After living in Hong Kong and Beijing, Linda settled in Sydney as a writer and translator.

Linda is the author of eleven books and also writes essays and short stories. In 2014 she won the New South Wales Writers Fellowship.

Mary Maguire was the only child of her parents who lived in Cork, Ireland. Unfortunately Mary was charged with ‘petty thieving’ and her sentence saw her transported to Australia.

The Women’s Union Committee of the ACT was formed in 1976 and promoted the role of women and their interest in unions. Some of the Committee’s key areas of activity included petitioning for anti-sex discrimination laws to be introduced into the ACT, increased funding for child care and new child care centres.

Leslie Moira Henderson was born in Melbourne to parents Lina and Charles James Henderson. She graduated with a degree in arts and law from Melbourne University in 1920 and subsequently spent some time overseas. Leslie joined the Book Lovers’ Library (UK) in 1923 and in 1926 she became a partner and set out to reform the organisation.

In 1930 Leslie was appointed secretary to the Board of Social Studies, which eventually became affiliated with Melbourne University. During World War Two she worked in her brother’s legal practice and then served in the Navy, War Organisation of Industry and Defence departments, from which she retired in 1956.

Marceine la Dickfos was born in Brisbane in 1921. In 1942 she married Lt. Wesley D. Sweetser of the U.S. Army Air Corps and three years later Marceine and their son sailed to America to join Wesley.

Marceine received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theatre and drama at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and after being offered a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in 1966, she completed a Master of Arts degree.

The following year Marceine began studying at Cornell University after receiving an Arts and Humanities Fellowship. Whilst at Cornell, Marceine acted, directed and won awards for poetry, play production and play-writing.

On completion of her studies, Marceine and her husband spent a year in England before settling down in Oswego, New York.

Hilda Rix Nicholas made a significant contribution to Australian art in the period between the First and Second World Wars. Her art also achieved a high level of success and recognition in France.

Phyllis Boyd held strong views on the role of women as homemakers and was an advocate of motherhood. Phyllis was the Victorian president of the Australian Family Association and a member of its national executive, and later she became a founding member of the Family Council of Victoria.

Charys Else Young was born in 1898 to parents Margaret and Charles Ernest Young. Charys was an occupational therapist and an active church member.

Hazel Rowley was an influential biographer who wrote the award winning life story of Christina Stead, in addition to works on novelist Richard Wright, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.

Hazel completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in French and German at the University of Adelaide and later completed her PhD at the university in French literature. In the 1980s she received a position at Deakin University before moving to America in the 1990s, where she worked for a period of time at the Du Bois Institute at Harvard University.

Following her untimely passing in 2011, Hazel’s family and friends established the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship in order to support Australian writers working on biography projects.