The Australian Women's Register

Marian Margaret Clarke was a journalist and “ABC weekly” staff writer.

Patricia Slater began her nursing training at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, in 1937. She subsequently undertook additional training in adult nursing at the Alfred Hospital, followed by a midwifery certificate at the Royal Women’s Hospital (1942) and an infant welfare certificate at the Karitane Home, Sydney (1947).

Patricia served as a lieutenant in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) from 1943 until 1947. She worked in hospitals in Victoria and Queensland and from 1945 to 46 she worked at the 2/4th Australian General Hospital and 2/1st Casualty Clearing Station on Morotai and Labuan islands, Netherlands East Indies.

After the war Patricia worked and travelled, before returning to Melbourne to teach nursing at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

In 1956 Patricia completed a diploma in nurse education from the Melbourne-based College of Nursing and in 1959 she was awarded a Centaur war nurses’ memorial scholarship to study in Seattle, United States of America, at the University of Washington (B.Sc. Nursing, MA, 1961). While overseas, she also won a Rockefeller fellowship (1961) to visit university nursing schools in North America and Europe.

Patricia became a fellow (1960) and a part-time lecturer (1963) at the College of Nursing in Melbourne, before taking over as director in 1965. In 1974 the college established Australia’s first undergraduate nurse-education course. Patricia was instrumental in transforming nurse education from a hospital-based system to instead include undergraduate courses within tertiary institutions.

With the amalgamation of the College of Nursing and the Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences in 1977, Patricia became the inaugural head of the school of nursing; a position which she held from 1977 to 1983.

Patricia was appointed OBE in 1975 and a fellow of the Australian College of Education in 1977.

Ethel Drus completed her MA in Cape Town, South Africa. She was a Research Fellow in the Department of Pacific History, Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University from 1953 to 1955. Ethel’s research focused on Fiji and British colonial policy.

Julie Janson is a playwright and novelist of Aboriginal descent, belonging to the Burruberongal clan of the Darug Nation of the Hawkesbury River, NSW.

Julie has had plays produced professionally in Australia, Indonesia and the United States of America. Her debut novel, The Crocodile Hotel was published in 2015.

Julie is also a senior researcher on the website A history of Aboriginal Sydney which was first published by the University of Sydney in 2014.

After completing a Master of Arts at Cambridge University, Judith Rodriguez taught English at La Trobe University from 1969 until 1985. In 1986 she was writer-in-residence at Rollins College, Florida. Judith took up a lectureship in writing at Victoria College in 1989 (which became part of Deakin University in 1993) where she continued to teach until her retirement in 2003.

Judith published her first poetry collection in 1962 as part of Four Poets, with the others being David Malouf, Rodney Hall and Don Maynard. In 1973 she published her first solo collection, Nu-Plastik Fanfare Red: and other poems.

Water Life (1976) won the inaugural South Australian Biennial Literature Prize in 1978, while one of Rodriguez’s most highly-regarded collections, Mudcrab at Gambaro’s (1980) received both the Sydney PEN Golden Jubilee Award for Poetry and the Artlook/Shell Literary Award in 1981.

Judith is also known for her poems about women’s experiences; the title poem of Witch Heart (1982), published by the feminist press Sisters, records a visit to Robyn Archer’s play about the often disastrous lives of famous women performers.

In 1994 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia, for services to literature, and also received the FAW Christopher Brennan Award.

Rhyll McMaster began writing poetry at an early age, with several poems published in the Bulletin whilst still in high school.

After moving to Hobart in 1967, Rhyll worked in the editorial office of the journal Australian Literary Studies, which was then based at the University of Tasmania.

After returning to Brisbane in c.1969, then moving to a rural area near Canberra, Rhyll settled in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales where she began writing full time.

Rhyll’s first collection, The Brineshrimp was published in 1972 and has since published a further six collections, including Washing the Money: Poems with Photographs, joint winner of the C. J. Dennis prize and winner of the Grace Leven Prize in 1986, and Flying the Coop: New and Selected Poems 1972-1994, joint winner of the Grace Leven Prize for 1995. Rhyll published her acclaimed debut novelFeather Man in 2007, winning the inaugural Barbara Jefferis Award.

Shirley Kral was a member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby, ACT Abortion Counselling Service. She was also involved with the A.N.U. Centre for Continuing Education.

Alexandra Cameron was a music teacher, music educator, administrator and founder of a number of music performance programs in Victoria. As the first Inspector of Music in Victoria and through her publications, she influenced and shaped Victorian music education in the second half of the twentieth century.

Bennison Rodd is the daughter of Australian writers Kylie Tennant and Lewis Charles Rodd.

Originally from Staffordshire, Mary Williams, a housemaid, was transported to Van Demien’s Land (Tasmania) in 1848 for stealing money. She was given a ticket of leave in 1850, which was renewed in 1852.

Val Plumwood was an eminent Australian environmental philosopher.

The ANU Club for Women Inc was established in 1961 by the Vice Chancellor’s wife, Lady Molly Huxley. It was formed to provide support to the families of academics, staff, and visitors coming to the University.

Originally membership of the Club consisted mostly of wives of academics, past Vice Chancellors’ wives and professional officers of the ANU. Today, however, members include all staff, as well as those who have a close association with the ANU.

The Club has various sub-groups, including: the Monday Group; the Bushwalking Group, the Morning Book Reading Group; and the Evening Book Reading Group.

Maev O’Collins received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne, followed by a Doctorate of Social Work from Columbia University, New York. She taught social work and sociology at the University of Papua New Guinea and was appointed Professor of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology in 1979.

Maev was awarded an MBE in the Papua New Guinea honours list in 1987. At her retirement in 1989, she received the title of Emeritus Professor. Maev is currently an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change at the Australian National University.

Professor Heather Booth is the country’s first female professor of demography. Her research specialties include human mortality modelling and forecasting how long people will live, as well as population ageing, and the socio-demography of longevity.

Dr Laura Forster was the first Australian doctor to head to the war in Belgium. She joined the British Field Hospital in Antwerp in September 1914.

Laura’s sister, Mrs H. E. Kater, provided funding to the Sydney University Women’s College in her memory, which was to provide for a series of lectures on hygiene. There was also a scholarship in her name.

Grace Amelia Perry studied medicine at the University of Sydney. She had a home-based medical practice at Five Dock and served as an honorary physician at the Renwick Hospital for Infants and as an honorary paediatrician at the Fairfield District and South Sydney Women’s hospitals.

As a child, Grace had written poetry and three collections were published by Consolidated Press Ltd. She began writing poetry again in 1961 and the following year she joined the Poetry Society of Australia.

Grace was editor of Poetry Magazine from 1962-1964. After being expelled from the poetry society in 1964, she established a new Magazine Poetry Australia, which she edited until her death.

Perry won a medal at the New South Wales premier’s literary awards in 1985 and was appointed AM the next year. After failing to receive funding for two projects and feeling abandoned by her supporter, Grace committed suicide at her Berrima home on 3 July 1987.

Dr Alice Benham was a doctor who served during World War I.

Gwen Luly attended the University Practising School (later became University High School) from 1911 to 1913.

In 1919 Gwen started her nursing career at the Alfred Hospital, where she undertook postgraduate studies and became the Senior Sister of Operating Systems. She graduated in 1922.

In 1929 Gwen set up St Clement’s Private Hospital in Southey Street, St. Kilda. However, in 1939 Gwen cancelled the hospital’s registration and spent the war years running the Altona Air Raid Precautions.

The Melbourne Women’s Walking Club was formed in 1922 by a group of young women excluded from the men-only Melbourne Walking Club. The Club pioneered treks with packhorses supplied by the mountain cattlemen who also acted as guides. In 1936 three members walked the Barry Mountains, the first women to do so.

Over the years their dress changed from long skirts to short skirts to riding breeches (then the only acceptable form of trousers for women). Finally in the 1930s they defied all conventions by wearing specially tailored shorts. World War 2 curtailed activities and led to a decline in the 1950s, but the club rallied and grew again. Later, groups began to travel further afield, both interstate and overseas. Recently there has been an influx of new members and the club continues to provide a wide variety of activities.

Marie Charlotte Bage was best known through her association with the National Council of Women of Victoria, of which she was an inaugural member and treasurer for more than 20 years. She was a member of the International Council of Women and in 1900 she joined the committee of the Convalescent Home for Women at Clayton, and the Parents’ National Education Union. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children also interested her from their beginnings. For many years she was a member of the City Newsboys’ Society and of the Charity Organisation Society.

In 1909 she was the honorary treasurer of the Victoria League of Victoria, and was a member of the council. She was also a member of the Field Naturalists’ Club, the Forest league, the Arts and Crafts Society, and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria. She was one of the first members of the Alexandra Club and a foundation member and one-time treasurer of the Lyceum Club.

She was the mother of Miss Freda Bage, principal of the Women’s College, Brisbane University, and Miss Ethel Bage, who, after a distinguished career at the Melbourne University, took over the control of a motor garage in Kew on the death of her friend, Miss Alice Anderson. Mrs Bage’s only son, Robert, was a member of the Mawson Antarctic Expedition in 1911. He served in the Royal Australian Engineers, and was killed at Gallipoli on May 7, 1915. Her husband, Edward, died in 1891.

Eliza Tuckwell was a very successful business woman and landowner in the Northern Territory. She was one of the few Territory women to pay taxes on her income in 1884 when the South Australian parliament imposed taxes on income. Also, at the age of 59, Eliza was on of 82 women who enrolled to vote after the franchise was granted to South Australian and Territory women in 1894.

Lu Moo experienced life in Darwin for more than eighty years, living through three major cyclones and a war. More familiarly known as Granny Lum Loy, she was a well-known figure of the Darwin community.

Ellen Ryan held licences for hotels in the Northern Territory from 1878, becoming a wealthy and successful business woman in her own right. She had a reputation as one of the Northern Territory’s best hostesses, organising a variety of entertainment for her hotel patrons and local residents.

Ellen was one of the 82 Territory women who enrolled to vote after the franchise was granted to South Australian and Territory women in 1894.