The Australian Women's Register

Gwen Pinner was a significant figure in the medical profession in Canberra. In addition to her work as a radiologist, she conducted a tuberculosis survey of the Australian Capital Territories and Queanbeyan and was involved in the establishment of the John James Memorial Hospital. As a child, however, it was her role of presenting a bouquet to the Duchess of York at the opening of Parliament House in 1927 that created an enduring image.

Elizabeth Bilney was a founding member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in the Australian Capital Territory during the mid-1970s and took a lead in the campaign for working mothers’ access to childcare. She made a significant contribution to the acceptance of the right of children to good care and the responsibility of government to support this in Australia.

Elizabeth also edited and managed the publication of The Heritage of Australia (1981) for Macmillan of Australia in association with the Australian Heritage Commission; she established the journalHeritage Australia for the Australian Council of National Trusts, and was publishing co-ordinator for the National Gallery of Australia, and publications manager for the National Library of Australia.

Sue Walpole was appointed the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 1993, becoming well-known in the role. She assisted with education campaigns which were designed to make the Sex Discrimination Act more accessible and available to women. She held the position until 1997.

A member of the Tasmanian Greens, Cassy O’Connor was elected to the Tasmanian Parliament in the House of Assembly as a representative for Denison in July 2008. She was elected in a recount after the retirement of Greens colleague, Peg Putt. She was re-elected in 2010.

Dr Judith Robinson-Valéry was a leading international figure in the study of French literature. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Sydney, staying at the Women’s College while Betty Archdale was in charge, and received her doctorate at the Sorbonne, Paris.

Robinson-Valéry was the first woman to be appointed a full professorship at the University of New South Wales, taking up her appointment in the foundation chair of French and as the head of the school of Western European Languages on 21 February 1963.

In 2005, she was awarded France’s highest decoration, the Legion of Honour (Chevalier).

The youngest of four children, Connie Hobbs was born in Sydney, educated at St Benedict’s School, Broadway but destined for a life on the stage. She left school early, probably at age 11 to tour and train with J.C. Williamson’s company. Her last role was at the age of 93 in the television medical drama All Saints. In between times, she packed a lot of acting, across a variety of media and forms. She entertained troops during World War II, played Dolly Levi in The Matchmaker, the stage play that became the musical Hello Dolly and appeared in numerous radio plays and television programs, including Bellbird, A Country Practice, Father Dear Father and Brides Of Christ. Perhaps one of her best known rolls was that of Madge Allsop, Dame Edna Everage’s long-suffering bridesmaid in the film Les Patterson Saves The World.

According to Tony Stephens, who wrote her obituary for the Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Hobbs was diminutive, beautiful, rebellious and fiercely independent. She could not be persuaded to reveal her true age until she was 90.’ S

Hobbss is survived by her daughter, Marilyn, and three grandchildren, John, Alexander and Elizabeth.

The U3A Warrani Chorale is a choir for senior women organised by volunteers, which is affiliated with the University of the Third Age, Australian Capital Territory. It was established in 1998 by its musical director and conductor, Pixie Gray, OAM, and its piano accompanist, Barbara Hall, OAM, and provides tuition in vocal and choral techniques and musicianship to its members. It holds annual free public concerts, as well as regularly performing at events organised by a wide range of community organizations. Its repertoire is drawn from a range of musical styles such as madrigals, classical, modern and sacred music, spirituals, ballads, folk songs and jazz, all usually sung in four part harmony. In 2006 it participated in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Choir of the Year competition. Its name, ‘Warrani’, is derived from an Aboriginal word for ‘to sing’.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Jeannie Ferris was elected as a Senator for South Australia to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia in 1996. She died in office in Canberra from ovarian cancer in 2007. During her parliamentary career she was appointed Government Whip in 2002.

Inaugurated on October 10th, 1957, the Canberra Women’s Bowling Club was the first all women’s bowling club in Canberra. Prior to its formation, only the wives or sisters of Canberra City Bowling Club members could play the sport, so one aim of the women’s club was to open it to more participants.

Located on Wentworth Avenue, in the Canberra suburb of Kingston, the first green was installed in 1958 and the second in 1969. The clubhouse was officially opened on 25th February 1961. Until the opening of the Kingston green and clubhouse, members played on the Parliament House green, at the Canberra Bowling Club and on the private green at the Victoria Hotel in Queanbeyan.

The Canberra Women’s Bowling Club’s closure in 1992 was occasioned by dwindling membership and inflation. Membership peaked during the 1960s at about 136 and later dropped to 46.

The ANU Women’s History Group operated from 1982 to 1987. The Group held regular meetings and talks on various aspects of Women’s History. It also sent out monthly newsletters which kept members in touch with other activities, for instance, the Feminism Year at the Humanities Research Centre of the ANU in 1986.

Merran Martin has taught English to migrants and refugees in Canberra since 1985. From 1973-75 she worked in the Department of Immigration teaching English in a migrant hostel, as a shipboard education officer, and in its Migrant Education Section in Canberra. Fluent in French and German from childhood she also taught English in Europe in the early 1970s. She is currently Education, Placement and Referral Officer, Special Preparatory Program Manager and Home Tutor Scheme Coordinator in the Adult Migrant English Program at the Canberra Institute of Technology.

Helen McCue is best known as a co-founder of Rural Australians for Refugees (2001). A trained nurse educator she worked with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the Middle East in 1981, was then seconded to the United Nations Relief and Works Organisation (UNRWA) in Lebanon, and subsequently worked as a volunteer in refugee camps in Beirut 1982-83. In 1984 she co-founded the trade union aid body Australian People for Health Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA), and was its first Executive Director and regional adviser in South Africa and the Middle East until early 1994. She founded the Women Refugee Education Network (1996) and the Wingecarribee Community Foundation (2001), and was involved in the establishment of Wingecarribee Reconciliation Group (1997).

Margaret Holt was World Champion in Tae Kwon Do in 1994. During the week of competition, she won three gold medals in an open competition that included men.

In 1992, she dressed as a man in order to compete in the knock-out Karate Championships, only revealing her true identity after she had won the title.

On August 6 2005 hundreds of women (and a few men) from all around Australia gathered in Canberra to celebrate the 30th anniversary of International Women’s Year (IWY) and the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration on Women in the United Nations Charter.

Organised by the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW), UNIFEM Australia, the Jessie Street Trust, and the Jessie Street National Women’s Library, and supported by a host of sponsors the event celebrated 30 years of achievements by women and for women, in Australia and worldwide. Participants got a centre stage view of IWY events, including the Mexico Conference, and some keyhole glimpses of how that year and what flowed from it has changed the lives of women around the world.

Highlights of the day included ‘snapshot’ talks with Sara Dowse and other speakers, recreating the events of IWY and reflecting on the present and future. Australian journalist Maxine McKew compered the formal reception and Elizabeth Reid, who led the Australian delegation to the 1975 Mexico Conference, reprised the speech she gave to that historic conference.

Glenda Hiroko Gauci was the first Asian Australian woman appointed as an ambassador in the Australian diplomatic service.

The review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants was established by Cabinet decision and announced by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Malcolm Fraser, on August 31, 1977. Established in order to ensure that the changing needs of migrants were being met by available resources, the review was conducted under prime ministerial authority in order to circumvent some allegedly obstructionist senior bureaucrats in the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. The first meeting of the Review Group, which was chaired by Mr Frank Galbally, C.B.E, was held on 1 September 1977. The committee of review consulted widely, seeking submissions from individuals and organisations, government and non-government. Advice from migrant community groups was actively sought.

The report brought down by the review group, Migrant Services and Programs, was submitted to
the Prime Minister on 27 April 1978 and tabled by him on 30 May 1978. It was made available in Arabic, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese. In it, the Review Group came down with a total number of fifty-seven recommended improvements to
programs and services involving expenditure of about $50 million in such areas as initial settlement and education, especially the teaching of English, with emphasis placed on the role of ethnic communities themselves, and other levels of government, to encourage multiculturalism.

Of particular significance to migrant women was recommendation number 43, which stated ‘the implementation of the general recommendations of the Report, which have been framed in recognition of the special problems of migrant women, should take particular account of their needs’.

Conducted at a time, according to the committee, when Australia was ‘at a critical stage in the development of a cohesive, united, multicultural nation’, the Galbally review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants marks an important development in the evolution of Australian official policy towards settlers from one of assimilation to multiculturalism. Its pointed reference to the needs of women also marked a moment when ethnic and gender politics connected.

In 1977, when the Galbally review of Post-Arrival Migrant Programs and Services was announced, Senator Margaret Guilfoyle wrote to the Prime Minister advising him of the specific problems and special needs of migrant women. In June of that year, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser asked the Office of Women’s Affairs to set up an Interdepartmental Working Group Taskforce on Migrant Women. Officers from the following department were involved:

• Immigration and Ethnic Affairs
• Social Security
• Employment and Industrial Relations
• Productivity
• Health
• Education
• School’s Commission

Under extremely trying conditions, including endless delays caused by the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations, the taskforce completed its report in November, just making the deadline to be considered by the Galbally Review. Among other things, the report recommended that ‘wherever possible action should be taken to provide services through or in co-operation with ethnic organisations and migrant women’.

The report was regarded as a valuable resource for implementation of Recommendation 43 of the Galbally Report.

The Marian Eldridge Award is a national award to encourage an aspiring female writer to undertake a literary activity such as a short course of study, or to complete a project, or attend a writers’ week or a conference. There is no age limit.

The award was established in 1998 under the auspices of the National Foundation for Australian Women, as a legacy of Marian Eldridge (1 February 1936 – 14 February 1997), an acclaimed short story writer, a novelist, poet and teacher who spent most of her creative writing years in Canberra, where inter alia she was instrumental in establishing the ACT Writers’ Centre.

In the last months of her life she planned a gift to establish a professional development award to nurture writers. She said that the recipient should not be established but someone whose writing showed promise, and that the writing need not be fiction. Marian said that “when trying to assist aspiring writers ‘every little bit helps’ and that such recognition would be an important milestone in a developing literary career.

An Advisory Group selected by Marian Eldridge’s family decides each year on guidelines for applicants, assesses applications and selects the recipient of the award.

The first four competitions ($1000 cash prize) were confined to residents of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and New South Wales (NSW), and brought in a total of 78 applications. The winners of those competitions of were:
•Sarah St Vincent Welch (1998)
•Julie Simpson (1999)
•Rose de Angelis (2000)
•Elanna Herbert (2001)

A wider Advisory Group has since been established, which now includes representatives from the National Library of Australia, the School of Creative Communication at the University of Canberra and the ACT Cultural Council. From its fifth year, the award was open to applicants throughout Australia. National competition winners have been:
•Annah Faulkner (2002/2003)
•Caroline Lee (2005).

The award amount is currently $1500.

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) was a division of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. It was established early in 1987 to advise the Prime Minister directly on issues relating to Australian multicultural society. The purpose of the office was to be that of a ‘bridge-builder’, linking community and government to further the policy of multiculturalism. To that end, it had a liaison and Community Information Branch and a Policy and Research Branch. The focus of the community information program was on building upon research undertaken and evaluating ongoing projects. Although most staff were located in Canberra, there were Regional Coordinators in each State and in the Northern Territory, so there was some attention to decentralised services.

In early 1995 the functions of the OMA were to be transferred to the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. For administration purposes, OMA officially ceased to be part of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on 26 January 1995.

Marian Eldridge was an acclaimed short-story writer, novelist and poet, and was instrumental in establishing the ACT Writers Centre. Her legacy is the Marian Eldridge Award to nurture promising women writers.

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Marion Halligan was an acclaimed author of novels, short stories, reviews, essays and gastronomic writing.

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Seven Writers was a group of Canberra-based women writers who met regularly to debate and critique one another’s work.

This entry was sponsored by a generous donation from Christine Foley.

Penny Sharpe was elected to the NSW Legislative Council on 11 October 2005 for the balance of the term of service of Hon. C. M. Tebbutt (resigned). She is a member of the Australian Labor Party. She was re-elected in 2011. In 2015 she resigned to contest the Legislative Assembly seat of Newtown but was unsuccessful. She was then re-appointed to the Legislative Council to fill her own vacancy.

Cheryl Hill was well known and respected in Canberra. She was a Liberal Party member in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly election for Bulli in 1991 and in the House of Representatives election for Fraser in 1996. The following year she stood as an Independent in the Fraser by election. She resigned from the Liberal Party prior to the by-election of 1997, because of the party’s attitude to race and immigration. In August 2002, Cheryl Hill was named as a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary club of Canberra South.