The Australian Women's Register

Penny Wright, a member of the Australian Greens party, was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia representing the state of South Australia. She took her seat in the Senate on 1 July 2011.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Kelly O’Dwyer was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament at a by-election for the electorate of Higgins, Victoria, which was held on 5 December 2009, on the retirement of Peter Costello, former Treasurer in the Howard Government. She was re-elected at the election, which was held on 21 August 2010 and again in 2013, when the Liberal Party, in coalition with the National Party, won government. She was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer from December 2014 to September 2015, when she became Minister for Small Business and Assistant Treasurer.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Laura Smyth was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as Member for La Trobe, Victoria at the federal election, which was held on 21 August 2010.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Michelle Rowland was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament as Member for Greenway, New South Wales at the federal election, which was held on 21 August 2010. Before her election to the federal Parliament, she had served as a local government councillor and deputy mayor of Blacktown from 2004-2008.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Jill Hennessy was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of Victoria representing the electorate of Altona at a by-election, which was held on 2 February 2010. She replaced Lynne Kosky, who resigned from the parliament. She was re-elected at the state election, which was held on 27 November 2010 and again in 2014 when the Labor Party regained power. She currently holds the ministerial portfolios of Health and Ambulance Services.

Joan Heenan studied law in Western Australia in the 1930s, moving to Kalgoorlie after her marriage in 1937. She was a partner in the Heenan and Heenan law firm, and was the only permanent lawyer in Kalgoorlie during the war years. She is particularly remembered for her assistance to Italian internees during this period.

Pamela Burton, lawyer and author, was born and brought up in Canberra. Apart from working holidays in London in 1964 and 1970, Pamela has lived her life in the Canberra and the Bungendore district. After studying law at the Australian National University she worked on a range of cases involving environmental and social justice issues and has been involved in various government tribunals and committees. She was one of the first women to establish a legal firm in Canberra, following Mrs Bruna Romano and Margaret Elizabeth Reid. In 2010 Burton’s biography of the first woman high court justice, Mary Gaudron, was published.

Pamela Burton was interviewed by Kim Rubenstein for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia catalogue record.

Born in Germany in 1947 to Polish parents who had been forced by the Nazis into farm labour in Germany during World War 2, Maria Doogan came to Australia with her parents in 1950 under the International Refugee Organisation’s Displaced Persons scheme. In 1998 she became the first person to be appointed to the ACT Magistracy from a non-English speaking background. Maria Doogan is best known by Canberrans for her role as Coroner in the controversial Coronial Inquiry into the catastrophic 2003 Canberra bushfires.

Irene Bolger was Branch Secretary of the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) from 1986 – the year of the Victorian Nurses’ Strike – to 1989.

Dr Katy Le Roy is Parliamentary Counsel in the New Zealand Parliamentary Counsel Office. An expert in constitutional law, federalism, governance and Pacific legal systems, she has undertaken a number of consultancies for the United Nations Development Program. Le Roy was formerly Consultant Legal Counsel and Parliamentary Counsel for Nauru.

Katy Le Roy was interviewed by Kim Rubenstein for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

Larissa Behrendt, AO, is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman, born in Cooma, New South Wales, in 1969. She was educated at Kirrawee High School before studying law at the University of New South Wales and then at Harvard Law School. She was the first Indigenous Australian to graduate from Harvard Law School.

Behrendt was appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia on 26 January 2020for distinguished service to Indigenous education and research, to the law, and to the visual and performing arts.

Read more about Larissa Behrendt in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Millicent Chalmers graduated in law at Sydney University in 1952, at a time when very few women were studying and practising law. Undaunted, Millicent practised law until her children were born, then moved on to work in legal publishing. Upon moving to Millers Point she became involved in the Millers Point Resident Action Group, which has provided an active voice for conservation of Millers Point, Dawes Point and The Rocks. Among a host of other successful activities in the area, Millicent played an active part in the local group that set up the Darling House aged care hostel. In recognition of her significant contribution to her community, Millicent was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to the community and to aged care in the January 2010 Australia Day Honours.

Megan Davis is a Cobble Cobble woman from Queensland. She was educated at the University of Queensland and the Australian National University. In 2006, she became the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre at the University of New South Wales. In 2010, she became the first Indigenous Australian woman to be elected to a United Nations body when she was appointed to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Megan Davis was interviewed by Kim Rubenstein for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Pilot Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

In 1975 Valerie French became the first woman to sign the Western Australia Bar Roll and became the first woman to practise as a barrister in Western Australia. From that time, French’s professional appointments and legal career have continued to serve as a guide for women entering into the legal profession in Western Australia. Beyond her impact on the legal profession as a ‘first’ at the Bar, her substantive legal practice has also influenced Australian law and legal policy, particularly in the field of criminal justice.

Read more about Valerie French in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Valerie French was interviewed by Kim Rubenstein for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

Flos Greig was a remarkable pioneer whose determination to practise as a solicitor advanced gender equality in the legal profession in Australia in the early twentieth century. The first woman to be admitted to legal practice in Australia, Greig was at the vanguard of ‘the graceful incoming of a revolution’ as described by then Chief Justice Sir John Madden, as he presided over the ceremony granting her admission to the Victorian bar in August 1905 (The Advertiser, 1905).

Read more about Flos Greig in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Edith Haynes was born in Sydney in 1876 and moved with her family to Western Australia in 1891. In 1900, having worked at her uncle’s law firm, she applied to the Barristers Board of Western Australia to sit the examinations necessary to practise as a lawyer. The board refused her request on the grounds that a woman was not a ‘person’ under the Legal Practitioners Act 1893. Haynes challenged the decision in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, but it was upheld; she was never admitted to practice. Edith Haynes died in 1968.

Emily Dorothea Pavy was an advocate for the welfare of factory workers before becoming a lawyer to pursue women’s issues. Known for her dedicated and meticulous work, Pavy was a trailblazer both as a sociologist and a lawyer.

Read more about Emily Dorothea Pavy in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Alice Pung was born in 1981 in Footscray, Victoria to Cambodian refugee parents. Her first book, the memoir Unpolished Gem, was published in 2006. In 2008, she edited Growing up Asian in Australia and in 2011 published her third book, Her Father’s Daughter. Pung is a lawyer and works as a legal researcher in the area of minimum wages and pay equity.

Kim Rubenstein (pronounced Ruben-steen), a leading legal academic, practitioner and professor at the Australian National University, is Professor and Director of the Centre for International and Public Law at the Australian National University, a position she has held since 2006. In addition she was the inaugural Convenor (2011-2012) of the ANU Gender Institute. She is Australia’s citizenship law expert and was one of the early instigators of feminist scholarly approaches to Australian constitutional law.

Read more about Kim Rubenstein in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Carol Schwartz is a Melbourne business woman who has been a leading figure in the Victorian not-for-profit and corporate sectors for roughly twenty-five years. She holds one of the country’s most diverse portfolios of board appointments. Schwartz studied law/arts at Monash University.

Read more about Carol Schwartz in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Born with a disability, Fiona Smith has tried throughout her life to use her ‘personal experiences to build bridges with other people whilst guarding against being typecast’ (Our Community Leaders website). A qualified barrister and mediator she has played a leading role in many community and government organisations including as Chair, Equal Opportunity Commission (Victoria) (2004 to 2008) and Executive Chair, Business Licensing Authority (Victoria). She is a patron of the Victorian Immigrant & Refugee Women’s Coalition, a Non-Executive Director of Yooralla and Policy and Research Advisor with Trust for Nature.

Alice Erh-Soon Tay was born in Singapore in 1934. She practised as a criminal lawyer before completing her PhD in Soviet Russia, and then arriving in Australia in the 1960s to take up a position at the Australian National University. Among the highlights of Tay’s distinguished career as an academic lawyer at the University of Sydney, was her appointment as president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), a position she occupied from 1998 to 2003.

Read more about Alice Erh-Soon Tay in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Patti Chong is a Perth based legal practitioner with thirty-five years experience in both private and public practice. Born and educated in Batu Pahat, in the state of Johore, Malaysia, she came to Perth in 1973, studied law at the University of Western Australia and graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Jurisprudence and a Bachelor of Laws in 1980. She was the only Chinese woman in her class, one of only four women in total. In 2006 she established her own practice, working in a wide variety of areas. She has a commitment to mentoring young lawyers and legal students.

Patti Chong was interviewed by Nikki Henningham in the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

Margaret Battye was the only child of Nellie May (née Robertson) and Charles Battye, a librarian. She graduated from the University of Western Australia (LL.B., 1931; B.A., 1933) and was admitted to the Bar in 1933. In June of 1933 she reputedly became the first woman to represent a client in a Western Australian court of law, and in so doing, according to the presiding magistrate, ‘created legal history’ by being the first woman to appear before him as a barrister. She won the case. From 1936 she practised on her own as a barrister and solicitor, and from 1939 worked for the Council for Civil Liberties.

Battye was active in several Western Australian women’s organisations, including the local branch of the Australian Federation of University Women, the Women’s Services Guilds, the Perth Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Karrakatta and the Soroptimist Clubs. She acted as honorary legal adviser to almost all the women’s organisations in Perth during the 1930s and 40s. She was also active in the Liberal Party of Australia’s Western Australian division and was given responsibility for the foundation of the State women’s committee. She chaired a national committee for the United Nations’ commission into the status of women

She became ill with Grave’s disease and passed away in 1949.

Elizabeth Hart was the second woman to be admitted a solicitor in Queensland and went on to enjoy a career that spanned five decades. She was a partner for thirty-four years and then a senior partner for twenty-one at the major Brisbane firm, Flower and Hart.

The Honourable Justice Annabelle Bennett AO was appointed a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia in 2003. She is also an additional judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT. Prior to joining the bench of the Federal Court, she was a barrister and then Senior Counsel specialising in intellectual property law. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2005. In July 2011 her Honour was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University by the ANU.

Justice Bennett completed her BSc (Hons) and PhD in Biochemistry (the latter in the Faculty of Vet Science) at Sydney University and later obtained her law degree at the University of New South Wales. Her interest in biological sciences has led to membership of the Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee, the Biotechnology Task Force, the Pharmacy Board of New South Wales and the Eastern Sydney Area Health Service. She is a member of several other boards and tribunals.

Ariel Couchman is a lawyer and women’s rights activist who works in the not for profit sector. She is (2015) the director of the Young People’s Legal Rights Centre (Youthlaw).

Go to ‘Details’ below to read a reflective essay written by Ariel Couchman for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.