The Australian Women's Register

Ethel Godfrey was Victoria’s first female dentist. She passed the Dental Board examination in November 1898 and received her registration on 8 February 1899.

Priscilla Wardle was a nurse in the Australian Army Nursing Service during the First World War.

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.

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.

Christine Fernon is the Online Manager for the National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.

Lily Brett’s family migrated to Melbourne in 1948 after her parents, Max and Rose, survived the Holocaust. During the 1960s Lily wrote for the rock magazine Go-Set and in 1989 she moved to New York.

Lily has published seven novels, eight volumes of poetry and four collections of essays. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Victorian Premier’s Award for Poetry in 1987 for The Auschwitz poems (1986).

Nancy Keesing’s first collection of poems, Imminent Summer, was published in 1951. Since this time she published numerous books, in addition to editing and writing reviews for various journals and major Australian newspapers. She was employed by the Sydney magazine the Bulletin from 1951 until the birth of her first child in 1956.

Nancy was involved in the Sydney branch of the English Association and served on the committee for a number of years. She was also actively involved in the Australian Society of Authors (ASA) from 1964, and in 1969 she was elected to the management committee. Nancy edited an anthology of members’ work, titled Transition, in 1970, and from 1971 to 1974 she edited the Society’s journal Australian Author.

In 1973 Nancy was one of eleven writers and academics appointed to the new literature board of the Australian Council for the Arts, which she chaired from 1974 to 1977. In 1979 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her services to Australian literature.

Maxine Poynton-Baker was a long-time friend of Sydney John Tomholt, an Australian playwright and critic.

Children’s writer Joan Phipson was educated at Frensham School, New South Wales, and was later invited back to work as a printer and librarian. There she established Frensham Press. Later Joan studied journalism, worked for Radio 2GB and Reuters London, and also served with the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force.

After meeting Colin Fitzhardinge during World War II, the pair married in 1944. Soon after she wrote her first award-winning novel, Good luck to the Rider, which won the Australian Children’s Book of the Year award in 1953. By 1994 Joan had written 30 books and today she is best known for her quintessentially Australian children’s books, which she produced during the 1950s and 1960s.

Joan Phipson was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1994 for service to children’s literature.

Charlotte Barnard was born in 1909 to parents Arthur Michael and Katie Terry. She was the sister of explorer and author Michael Terry (1899-1981) and Hilda Francis Terry.

Charlotte was also an author, producing two books: The last explorer: the autobiography of Michael Terry and The Prince’s men: a story of the Jacobite Rising of 1715 .

Writer Drusilla Modjeska has lived in Australia since 1971. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in history from the Australian National University and a PhD in history from the University of New South Wales.

Many of Drusilla’s published works have focused on the lives of women and have been in the form of both fiction and non-fiction. She has also taught in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the New South Wales Institute of Technology.

Rural Australians for Refugees (RAR) was established in numerous New South Wales towns in 2001, with public meetings in Bowral and Armidale. Further public meetings were held in Cootamundra and Lismore and groups were launched in Orange and Goulburn. RAR then spread to Victoria, followed by other Australian states.

The group was originally founded by Anne Coombs, Susan Varga and Helen McCue.

RAR consists of Australian citizens living in rural and regional areas who aim to change Australia’s policy on refugees and asylum seekers towards a more humane approach.

Today RAR:
– Aims to raise public awareness of the issues involving asylum seekers and refugees
– Writes letters to newspapers and politicians
– Meets members of parliament to challenge inhumane policies
– Provides practical help to local refugees
– Fundraises for asylum seekers and refugees
– Attends rallies and vigils

Ruth Helfgott was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1929. With the increased threat to Jewish people in Germany, Ruth’s father moved the family to Sydney in 1938. Here Ruth received formal dance training from Madame Getrud Bodenwieser. She danced briefly with the Borovansky Ballet and then joined Ballet Rambert during its Australian tour of 1947-1949. She left Australia with Ballet Rambert when the company returned to England.

In England, Ruth trained under Russian ballerina Vera Volkova before joining the Roland Petit company in Paris and then, after studies with Victor Gsovsky, the Marquis de Cuevas company.

Ruth returned to Australia in the early 1950s and joined the National Theatre Ballet. In 1953 she married Peter Frank and the following year she opened a ballet school in Northbridge and formed the Yongala Ballet.

In the 1960s Ruth choreographed a number of ground breaking ballets for Ballet Australia. The year 1967 saw her perform her own ballet at the Montreal Expo and attend classes at the New York City Ballet and the Martha Graham School of Modern Dance. At this time she also accepted an invitation to work as a guest choreographer at the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv. Later in 1967 Ruth formed the professional company, The New Dance Theatre, which was renamed Red Opal Dance Theatre in 1989.

Anne Catherine Whittle was born in Eastwood, New South Wales, to parents George and Jean (Duff). She attended Sydney Girls’ High School and Armidale Teachers College. In 1939 she married Roger Von Bertouch and, after moving to Tasmania, they both taught, and Anne also studied art at Hobart Technical College. The pair moved to Myall Lakes in 1951, followed by Newcastle, where Anne founded the Von Bertouch Galleries in 1963.

Anne was awarded honorary masters degrees by both Newcastle and New England universities. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 1979, Anne was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) ‘for service to the visual arts’ and in 2001 she was awarded the Centenary Medal ‘for service to the community’. The following year, Newcastle University awarded her an honorary doctorate of letters for service to both the arts and the community.

Anne Von Bertouch was also recognized in Newcastle as a Freeman of the City.

Vera Dwyer was the daughter of journalist George Lovell Dwyer and his wife Margaret Jafe (Shield). She was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 23 February, 1889.

From a young age she contributed regularly to the Australian Town and Country Journal. Her first book, With Beating Wings, was written when she was in her teens and was sponsored by author Ethel Turner.

In the 1930s Vera contributed articles to The Sydney Morning Herald and was a member of the Fellowship of Australian writers. Vera’s published works included children’s books, as well as adult fiction.

Vera married Captain Warwick Coldham Fussell at St Leonards, New South Wales, in 1915. They divorced in 1925.

Helen Blackburn developed a passion for aviation whilst living in America during the early 1940s. She gained her commercial licence in 1945 and later became the federal secretary of the Australian Women Pilots’ Association.

Helen’s other passion was shell collecting, which she undertook for a number of institutions. In 1984 she donated her extensive collection to the National Museum of Australia.

Ninette Dutton published a number of books on the Australian landscape and gardening which she often illustrated with her own botanical drawings. Ninette also studied art in both Europe and America, establishing herself as an enamellist and often holding exhibitions of her work.

Christobel Mattingley has published 45 children’s books, five biographical or history books for adults, as well as short stories, poems, articles and film scripts.

For her writing, Christobel has received numerous awards, including the Children’s Book Council of the Year Award, Younger Readers (1982), and Children’s Christian Book of the Year (1986). In 2017 her book Maralinga’s Long Shadow: Yvonne’s Story, was awarded the Young People’s History Prize in the NSW Premier’s History Awards.

In addition, Christobel has received two Honorary Doctorates; one from the University of South Australia in 1995 and the other an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Tasmania in 2015.

Christobel Mattingley has also been awarded an AM for service to literature, particularly children’s literature, and for community service through her commitment to social and cultural issues.

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.