The Australian Women's Register

Bene Gibson Smyth was an Australian composer of songs for children.

Poet and publisher Marjorie Pizer founded the Pinchgut Press with her husband in 1947.

Marjorie was also a psychotherapist for more than 50 years.

Eleanor Cullis-Hill was a pioneer Australian female architect who worked in Sydney after the Second World War. She received her initial architecture training at the University of Sydney during the 1930s.

Lady Mildred Watt’s obituary in the Canberra Times reports that she obtained a university medal in philosophy at Sydney and was a highly literate writer. She was also a Russian scholar and translator, who at one time translated a book on Australian foreign policy written by a Soviet official into English. Her manuscript was then donated to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Lady Mildred Mary Watt was the wife of Sir Alan Watt, a diplomat and public servant, and together they had four children.

Best-selling author Mem Fox has written over 40 children’s books and five non-fiction adult books. Her first book, Possum Magic, was released in 1983 and is still in publication today.

As an Associate Professor, Mem taught literacy studies at Flinders University, South Australia, for 24 years. She has been the recipient of numerous honours and awards and has received three honorary doctorates.

Hilda Abbott was the first president of the Northern Territory Division of the Red Cross. She was also an author, broadcaster, and an interior decorator.

Virginia Spate was born in the United Kingdom, moving to Australia with her family in 1951. She holds Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and Masters degrees from the University of Melbourne and a PhD from Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania.

Virginia Spate returned to the UK in 1967, where she was a teacher for the Inner London Education Authority, the Bath Academy of Art and the Central School of Art. She was appointed to the Department of Art History at Cambridge University in 1970 and in 1979 became Power Professor of Fine Art at the University of Sydney, a position, she held until her retirement in 2003.

During this time, Virginia Spate secured a home for the large collection of contemporary art purchased through the Power Bequest, which became known as the Museum of Contemporary Art. She organised or contributed to a number of major exhibitions, notably The Revolutionary Decades: French Painting 1760-1830 (1980-81); Dreams, Fears and Desires (1984); Claude Monet, Painter of Light (1985-6); Monet and Japan (Canberra 2001). She has published books on John Olsen, Tom Roberts and Claude Monet.

Virginia Spate was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities in 1981. She was honoured with the award of a Centenary Medal in 2001, the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2003 and Companion in the Order of Australia 2018.

Win Olive was heavily impacted by the events of the Second World War, particularly as most of her male friends were deployed overseas to fight. This experience motivated Win’s later anti-war activities, as well as her defence of the environment, her concern for Indigenous people and their fight for justice, and her decision to embark on the journey of the Pacific Peacemaker.

The Pacific Peacemaker sailed around the Pacific in protest of nuclear weapons, specifically the launch of the Trident nuclear submarines in North America. Setting sail in December 1981, the journey took the yacht’s eleven crew members nine months. The voyage was documented in the film The Land My Mother by David Roberts and Win also published a book about their journey, titled Voyage of the Pacific Peacemaker.

Judy Horacek majored in fine arts and English literature at the University of Melbourne. After travelling, Judy returned to university to complete an honours degree, followed by a Diploma of Museum Studies. As she was unable to secure employment as a museum curator, Judy decided to become a cartoonist. Over the years she has created illustrations for Meanjin, the Age, the Australian, plus many others.

Bronwyn Thomas was an artist, art teacher and gallery director who had a particular interest in Chinese culture.

JoAnne Page is a dance notator who has primarily worked in contemporary dance.

Gay Bilson was the chef and co-owner of Berowra Waters Inn, a restaurant located on an estuary of the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales. After the Berowra Waters Inn close in 2005, Gay opened the restaurant Bennelong, at the Sydney Opera House.

Gay’s book Plenty: digressions on food was named 2005 Age Book of the Year.

Romola studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1953 to 1955, followed by a year of study at the University of Western Australia where she became a medical artist. Romola held her first solo exhibition at the age of twenty-one, at Perth’s Skinner Galleries, in 1959.

Romola has won the Claude Hotchin Prize and also the Helen Rubinstein Portrait Prize (1960). She is the former director and art consultant of Molongolo Press.

Miriam Hyde was one of the Australia’s leading pianists and composers of the twentieth century.

Helen Bainton was a musician for thirty years for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Both her mother and father, Edgar Leslie Bainton, were musicians.

Helen was first taught by her father, before becoming a graduate of the Royal College of Music. She had received a scholarship to the College for five years. Helen broadcast a number of recitals with the BBC and taught at Downehouse School, Newbury. In Australia she taught singing at the Pymble Ladies’ College and played violin in the New South Wales Conservatorium Orchestra.