The Australian Women's Register

In her role as an agricultural scientist with the Department of Primary Industries Victoria, Maria Rose was one of the femocrats whose work was vital in both empowering rural women, and supporting initiatives of the Women in Agriculture Movement, particularly the First International Women in Agriculture Conference, for which she was Program Co-ordinator.

Annie Hitchcock, daughter of Wesleyan John Lowe, and wife and mother of Geelong businessmen and philanthropists George and Howard Hitchcock respectively, was a prominent, successful, and influential philanthropist and community worker in her own right.  She was Victoria’s foremost Methodist fundraiser, and led the Geelong and Western District Ladies’ Benevolent Association for forty one years, a period when it  became the leading organisation of its kind in regional Victoria.

Caroline Elizabeth Newcomb ran the early Port Phillip properties Boronggoop, then Coryule, in partnership with Ann Drysdale, from 1840 until after Ann’s death in 1853.  In 1855 she founded and became the inaugural president of the Geelong Ladies Benevolent Society, now Geelong and Western District Ladies Benevolent Society. In 1861 she married the Rev James Dodgson.

Anne Drysdale was a farmer in her own right in Scotland when she migrated to Australia for health reasons. She arrived in Melbourne on the Indus in 1840, and travelled down to Geelong, where she met her future partner Caroline Newcomb at the residence of Dr Alexander Thomson. In October 1840, the two women took up a 10,000 acre lease on the Barwon, known as ‘Boronggoop’, later extending it to Leep Leep. Their sheep run was a success, and in 1843 they obtained the Coryule run at Indented Head, purchasing the freehold in 1848, and subsequently disposing of Boronggoop. Anne Drysdale died at Coryule in 1853, aged 60. The township of Drysdale in Victoria is named for her

Clare Bishop graduated in catering and hotel management before joining the Department of Immigration in Canberra in 1970, serving in London 1971-74, Edinburgh in 1975-77 and New York 1977-80. After helping organize the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Melbourne in 1981, she was sent to Cologne to process refugees from Poland, and to the Philippines to process spouse applications. From 1984-86 she was First Secretary in the Australian Embassy in Vietnam, then Consul in New York to 1990. From 1993 until her retirement in 2000, she was responsible for overhauling all the Department’s forms.

Louisa Clifton was born in London in 1814 to Marshall Waller Clifton and his wife Elinor (Bell); she was the third of their fifteen children. Her father was descended from an aristocratic Nottingham family, and her mother Elinor was a Quaker. Louisa grew up in London, then Boulogne (France). In 1841 she travelled with her parents and several siblings to help found Australind, a new colony in the south-west corner of Western Australia. Marshall Waller Clifton was part of a company that had been formed in order to buy a tract of land on the West Australian coast, sub-divide it into allotments, and establish a new town, of which he would be the Chief Commissioner.

Louisa Clifton kept a diary (1840-41) in which she described the family’s departure from Capecure, France , the voyage on the “Parkfield”, and the settlement in Western Australia. As Lucy Frost noted, ‘to read the Australian section of the journal is to watch an orderly English gentlewoman learn to live with confusion.’ Louisa Clifton also sketched and painted, and the few works of hers that survive are a valuable historical record of the early colonial settlement in Western Australia. Her sisters Mary and Elinor also painted, and their brother William was a photographer.

On 1 June, 1842, Louisa Clifton married George Eliot, who was Government Resident for the district of Bunbury, where the couple then lived at Bury Hill. The Western Australian Company that Louisa’s father was so heavily involved in ceased operations in 1843. Its assets were liquidated, and Australind became a ghost town. The Eliots moved to Geraldton in 1870, where George took up a post as Registered Magistrate. Louisa died there in 1880.

Portia Bennett was born in Sydney in 1898. In 1913-14 she attended classes under Dattilo Rubbo at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales, then won a scholarship to Julian Ashton’s Sydney Art School, where she studied at night between 1915-1919. During the day she attended the Blackfriars Teachers College, where she taught art from 1921-5. In 1925 she married William Wallace and moved to Queensland and then, in 1932, came to Perth, Western Australia. Bennett helped found the Perth Society of Artists, working with Muriel Southern, Florence Hall and Margaret Johnson to establish a place for women artists in Western Australia.

Bennett’s preference for architecture over painting as a career is reflected in her fascination with the city and modern recently constructed buildings, and she painted many watercolour studies of the architecture around Perth. This was also in keeping with a Modernist aesthetic – the city as centre for commerce, leisure and display – and a concomitant rejection of traditional pastoral landscapes as subjects for study. Bennett also used conventions of perspective but chose unusual vantage points, which allowed the foregrounding of certain objects which added an abstract quality to works that were highly realistic. As Dr. Sally Quin, curator of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, observed, “Portia Bennett claims a unique place as observer and interpreter of the city.” Bennett died in Perth in 1989, aged 91.

Elise Blumann was an important figure in the Perth, Western Australian, art world.

Ada Laura Goodman was the daughter of Canon George Goodman, of Christ Church Geelong, who was an early member of the Anglican Church in Australia, and, together with his wife Margaret, a philanthropic worker. Miss Goodman was Honorary Secretary of the Geelong District Nursing Society from its inception in 1906 until her death in 1931, and also vice-president of the Geelong & Western District Ladies’ Benevolent Society. In the latter capacity she was superintendent of the Austin Cottages for many years. She was a member of the Geelong Church of England Girls’ Grammar School Council, and was organist and Sunday School teacher at Christ Church, where she was involved with all the clubs and societies. Miss Goodman was also Honorary Secretary of the Baby Health Centre from its establishment in Geelong in 1917.

Jacqueline Watkins was an Australian Labor Party member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. She was elected to parliament on 19 February, 1983 and served until 6 February 1993.

Iris Francis was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1913, into a family with a long history of involvement in the arts. Her grandfather and father (who died when Iris was a week old) had sketched and carved, and her aunt, Pansy Francis, was an accomplished woodcarver. Iris studied at Perth Technical College, gaining a diploma in commercial art, after which she worked at Gibbney & Sons, a commercial art firm. In 1935 she was offered a permanent position at Perth Technical College, where she taught for twelve years until marrying Thomas Wilkinson. During World War II, Francis made topographical maps from aerial photographs for the army. She was also an accomplished cellist.

Francis was a member of the Perth Society of Artists, the West Australian Women’s Society of Fine Arts and Crafts, and the Studio Club, a group of six or seven women who met weekly to paint together and constructively critique each others’ work. They also exhibited together regularly, and Francis’s first exhibition was at the Newspaper House Gallery, Perth, in 1934. She worked in a variety of media, including oils, watercolour, ceramics, and linocuts. Melissa Harpley described her as ‘a fearless experimenter with technique and medium, subject-matter and modes of representation’, noting that ‘her clear graphic style was strengthened by her work as a commercial artist, as well as her ongoing experiments with the language of modernism.’ Iris Francis died in Perth on June 2, 2004.

Kay Hallahan was the first woman to sit in both houses of Western Australian Parliament. An Australian Labor Party member she was elected to the Legislative Council of Western Australia on 19 February 1983. She served until 13 January 1993. She switched to the Legislative Assembly when she was elected 6 February 1993, serving until 14 December 1996.

Judyth Watson was an Australian Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia.  Elected on 8 February 1986, she served as member for Canning until 4 February 1989, when she was elected member for Kenwick. Watson held this seat until 14 December, 1996.

Alannah MacTiernan was elected to the Thirty-Fourth Parliament of Western Australia as the Australian Labor Party member for the East Metropolitan Region (Legislative Council) on 6 February 1993 for a term commencing on 22 May 1993. She resigned on 21 November 1996. She was then elected to the Thirty-Fifth Parliament for Armadale on 14 December 1996 in succession to Hon Elsie Kay Hallahan (retired). MacTiernana was re-elected 2001, 2005, and 2008. She served as the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure from 16 February 2001 – 6 September 2008.

Robyn McSweeney was elected to the Legislative Council of the Thirty-sixth Parliament of Western Australia for as the Liberal member for the South West Region on 10 February 2001. She was re-elected in 2005 (for term commencing 22 May 2005) and again on 6 September 2008 for term commencing 22 May 2009. She has held the following portfolios: Minister for Child Protection; Community Services; Seniors and Volunteering: 23 September 2008 – present (November 2009)  and the Minister for Women’s Interests: 9 February 2009 – present (November 2009).

Andrea Mitchell was elected to the Thirty-Eighth Parliament of Western Australia as the Liberal Party member for the Legislative Assembly seat of Kingsley on 6 September 2008 in succession to Judith Hughes who she defeated. She has been a member of the Joint Standing Committee on the Commissioner for Children and Young People from 13 November 2008.

Helen Morton was elected to the Legislative Council of the Thirty-seventh Parliament of Western Australia as the Liberal Party member for East Metropolitan Region on 26 February 2005 (for term commencing 22 May 2005). She was re-elected 6 September 2008 for term commencing 22 May 2009. She has served as parliamentary Secretary to the Ministers for Water and Mental Health: 23 September 2008 – present (November 2009).

Margaret Quirk was elected to the Thirty-Sixth Parliament of Western Australia as the Australian Labor Party member for Girrawheen on 10 February 2001 in succession to Edward Joseph Cunningham (retired). She was re-elected in 2005 and 2008. She has been Shadow Minister for Police; Emergency Services; Road Safety from 26 September 2008.

Ljiljanna Ravlich was elected to the Legislative Council of the Thirty-fifth Parliament of Western Australia as the Australian Labor Party member for East Metropolitan Region on 14 December 1996 for term commencing 22 May 1997. She was re-elected in 2001, 2005, 2009 (for terms commencing 22 May).

Michelle Roberts was elected to the Thirty-Fourth Parliament of Western Australia as the Australian Labor Party member for the Legislative Assembly seat of Glendalough at the by-election held on 19 March 1994 to fill the vacancy consequent upon the resignation of Dr Carmen Mary Lawrence. The electorate was abolished in the redistribution of 1994.  She was elected to the Thirty-Fifth Parliament for Midland (new seat) on 14 December 1996 and subsequently re-elected in 2001, 2005 and 2008.

Rita Saffioti was elected to the Thirty-Eighth Parliament of Western Australia as the Australian Labor Party member for the new Legislative Assembly seat of West Swan on 6 September 2008.

Sally Talbot was elected to the Legislative Council of the Thirty-seventh Parliament of Western Australia as the Australian Labor Party member for South West Region on 26 February 2005 (for term commencing 22 May 2005). Se was re-elected 6 September 2008 for term commencing 22 May 2009.

Wendy Duncan is a National Party of Australia candidate who was elected to the Legislative Council of the Thirty-Seventh Parliament of Western Australia for Agricultural Region on 29 January 2008 to fill vacancy upon resignation of Hon Murray Criddle. She was re-elected 6 September 2008 for term commencing 22 May 2009. She has served Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Regional Development and Lands, and Minister Assisting the Minister for State Development as well as Minister Assisting on Country Transport.

Giz Watson was born Elizabeth Mary Watson at Eastleigh, England, in 1957. She migrated to Australia with her family in 1967, completing her secondary education at Penrhos College. She graduated from Murdoch University with a degree in environmental science in 1981, after which she worked as a self-employed builder. She joined the newly formed Greens (Western Australia) in 1990, and worked as convenor and co-convenor of the party until her election to the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Western Australia for the North Metropolitan Region in 1997. She was re-elected in 2001, 2005 and 2008.

Sue Ellery, a current (2009) Western Australian Parliamentarian, has served since 2001 in the Legislative Council for the Australian Labor Party.

Legislative Assembly, Independent. Janet Woollard was elected to the Thirty-Sixth Parliament of Western Australia as an independent member of the Legislative Assembly in the seat of Alfred Cove on 10 February 2001 in succession to Hon Douglas James Shave who she defeated. She was re-elected in 2005 and 2008.

Legislative Council, Liberal Party of Australia. Donna Faragher is a Liberal party of Australia candidate elected to the Legislative Council of the Thirty-seventh Parliament of Western Australia for East Metropolitan Region on 26 February 2005 (for term commencing 22 May 2005). She was re-elected 6 September 2008 for term commencing 22 May 2009. She has held the portfolios of Minister for the Environment and Minister for Youth from 23 September 2008 till the present November 2009).