The Australian Women's Register

Carmen Lawrence became Australia’s first woman State Premier (WA) on 12 February 1990. She began her parliamentary career by winning the seat of Subiaco for the Australian Labor Party in 1986.

She entered Federal politics on 12 March 1994, as the Member for Fremantle, and was appointed Minister for Human Services and Health and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women on 25 March 1994 until 11 March 1996. On 23 November 2001, Lawrence was appointed Shadow Minister for Reconciliation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, the Arts, and the Status of Women. She retired from the Australian Parliament at the 2007 general election, which was held in November 2007.

Lawrence is a supporter of numerous organisations and is Patron of the Western Australia Netball Association and a Foundation Committee Member of EMILY’S List.

Carmen Lawrence was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2022 for distinguished service to the people and Parliaments of Australia and Western Australia, to conservation, and to arts administration.

In the Queen’s Birthday list (8 June 1968) Dorothy Tangney became the first Western Australian born woman to be appointed Dames Commander of the British Empire for services to the Western Australia Parliament. She was a senator for Western Australia in the Senate of the Australian Parliament from 1943 until she retired in 1968.

Margaret Blackwood graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BSc in 1938 and MSc in 1940. During the Second World War she served with the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force and then was granted an ex-service postgraduate scholarship for Cambridge, where she gained a PhD for her work in plant genetics. In 1951 Blackwood returned to Melbourne and was a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne until 1974. She was then elected a member of the University Council and in 1980 became the first female Deputy Chancellor. She held both these positions until her retirement in 1983. She was appointed as a Member of the British Empire in 1964 for work in botany and was appointed a Dame (Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander) for her services to education in 1980.

Marcus’s doctoral research was on the impact of Islam on the lives of Turkish women. She has published articles on racism, gender and sexuality in Australian culture. Also Marcus research interests include the Arrernte opposition to the damming of the Todd River in Alice Springs as well as collecting material on the life of Olive Pink.
(Source: Australian Garden History.)

Margaret Preston was the first woman to be commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to produce a self-portrait. In 1996 one of her hand-coloured woodcuts of a Western Australian banksia from 1929 was commemorated on an Australia Day postage stamp.

“Margarey is founding Editor of Australian Feminist Studies, founding Director of the Research Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of Adelaide, and author of a the biography of Catherine Spence Unbridling the Tongues of Women (1985). Other
publications include Debutante Nation: Feminism contests the 1890s, co-edited with Sue Rowley and Susan Sheridan (1993) and Women in a Restructuring Australia: Work and Welfare, co-edited with Anne Edwards (1995).
(Source: Passions of the first wave feminists, Susan Magarey.)”

Mrs. Baker was Chairman of the Social Sub-Committee, Victoria Committee on the Status of Women.
(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Stephanie Baldwin née Clark attended the Agricultural School at Werribee in 1931.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Doris Beacham was born to George and Clara Beacham. George served in the First World War and returned in 1918. Doris had an enduring interest in art and sketching.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Gertie Berger joined the Royal College of Nursing Australia, Victorian Chapter and other nursing organisations and became active on their committees in the 1960s. Her special interest was nursing education whether in Day Study Classes or more formal post-graduate training.

(Source: Historical Note University Melbourne Archives)

Active in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs, Dulcie Bethune was a member of both the North Ringwood Women’s Liberation and North Ringwood Women’s Electoral Lobby (which later merged with the Maroondah WEL). She stood as a candidate for the Australia Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of Ringwood at the Victorian state election, which was held on 19 May 1973 and was an independent candidate for the Australian Senate at the federal election, which was held in May 1974. She stood again at the 1979 state election for the Australia Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of Warrandyte.

(Source: Historical Note University Melbourne Archives)

Annie Blamire was of the Blamire butchering family, High Street, Malvern. The shop belonging to her brother and sister-in-law was later converted to an antique shop – one of the earliest in the High Street area. Annie’s married name was Fraser.

Edith Bonney passed her University of Melbourne Matriculation examination in Algebra, Geometry, English, History, Arithmetic, Geography, and Elementary Physics held in November 1889, and received her certificate 29 March 1890.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Edith married Stewart Frank Wylie at ‘Cleffcote’ in Sandringham, Victoria, on 6 February 1907.

Ada Booth graduated B.Sc. in April 1943; and B.A.(Hon) in 1961. She was appointed Laboratory Assistant in 1942; Part-time Demonstrator in Physics 1953; Senior Demonstrator in 1955; Assistant Lecturer in 1961 and Lecturer in 1974. She retired from the Physics School on 31 January 1987.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Dorothy Buchanan is the daughter of William Ridgeway. She married Rod Buchanan, a member of the family who created Buchanan & Brock Ship Repair Pty. Ltd.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Burns graduated BA (Hons) in Psychology at the University of Sydney, where she was Secretary of the World University Service (WUS) Committee, was a post- graduate student and tutor at Monash University, and worked in the Department of External Affairs in Bonn and elsewhere before joining La Trobe University. She was ASCM representative on the Australian committee of WUS 1965-1966, National International Officer for the Australia c. 1967-1969 and c. 1972-1976. WUS grew out of the European Student Relief Scheme in post-war Europe in 1920, launched at a meeting of the World Student Christian Federation in Switzerland. An attempt is being made to revive WUS, now moribund, by B.Dyster, University of New South Wales.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Maggie Burrows commenced a law degree at Monash University, transferred to Arts and completed an honours degree in history in 1977. During this period she was active in student politics on the Public Affairs Committee, travelled to Thailand and collected Thai political posters. From 1976 her main interest was in the off-campus women’s liberation movement. She participated in voluntary work at the Melbourne Rape Crisis Centre in 1976; from 1978-79 was employed at the Western Region Women’s Refuge on issues such as domestic violence, public housing and tenancy law reform; 1979-81 Equal Access for Girls Project.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Audrey Cahn was the first woman to complete the newly established agriculture degree at the University of Melbourne in 1928. Born to parents who were influential scientists themselves, she developed a life long interest in the field of nutritional science and went on to pioneer the academic field of dietetics. Regarded in the 1950s and 60s as a ‘soft science’ by the then university’s head of biochemistry, Victor Trikojus, Cahn fought a long battle for respect, one in which she was eventually supported by major funding bodies such as Nicholas Pty Ltd (Aspro).

Her research output in the field of nutritional biochemistry is well respected. Some of her studies undertaken during her time at the University of Melbourne (1947-68) included examining the physical properties and energy value of common dietary foods, so that she could compile calorie tables. She was an early proponent of the need to reduce fat intake and to substitute polyunsaturated fatty acids for saturated fats. With colleagues in the anatomy department, she participated in a 17-year longitudinal study of “Child Growth in Melbourne (1954-71)”. The study was compared with similar studies in the United States and Britain and found that Australian children were overweight and inactive compared with their peers elsewhere.

Cahn enjoyed a very long life, thanks, she said, to a combination of good luck and good genes.

Barbara Cameron, formerly Barbara Williams, was a member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in its formative years in the early to mid 1970s.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Jenny Cheney was Professor Michael White’s graduate research assistant in the Department of Genetics from December 1960 to White’s retirement at the end of 1975. Cheney also co-authored an article with Professor W.R. Atchley entitled “Morphometric Differentiation in the Viatica Group of Morabine Grasshoppers”.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Elected in 2001, Margetts is a member for the Agricultural Region, in the Legislative Council of Western Australia(WA), representing the Australian Greens Western Australia Party. From 1993-1999 she was a Senator (The Australian Greens) for WA in Federal Parliament.

Prior to commencing her parliamentary career Margetts was a lobbyist and state co-ordinator for the People for Nuclear Disarmament (1988-1991).

Miss Marjorie Connor was born in Colac, Victoria in 1906 and died in Balwyn on 7 May 1991 aged 84. She was educated by a governess an later attended Lauriston before training as a nurse at the Alfred Hospital 1925-1928. After graduation she worked in the private consulting rooms of a dermatologist who used radium. She sustained some radium burns to the hand. From 1945-1972 she was the Executive Secretary of the Royal Victorian College of Nursing. Both it and its successor the RANF Vic. Branch awarded her Honorary Life Memberships. After her retirement she became the Hon. Secretary/Treasurer of the Florence Nightingale Committee Vic. Br. until shortly before her death.

(Source: Historical Note University Melbourne Archives)

Isabel Clifton Cookson was born in Melbourne in December 1893 and educated at Hambledon Ladies’ College and later at the Methodist Ladies’ College before entering the University of Melbourne where she graduated B.Sc. in 1916. She tutored at Newman and was appointed as Lecturer in Botany “including evening”) for 1930 and remained associated with the Department until her death on 1 July 1973, when she was still a Research Associate. She visited Europe for the first time in 1925, and in 1929 studied at the University of Manchester under Professor Lang, a specialist in fossil plants. In 1948 she received a Leverhulme Research Grant and in 1952 attended the 40th session of the Indian Science Congress.

Coppel (née Service) was an Arts student at the University of Melbourne and the Womens’ Vice-President of the SRC. She graduated L.L.B in 1924 and in the following year married Elias Coppel (lecturer in law). Marjorie Coppel (author of modern history texts for secondary schools) was an active member of “The Catalysts”, an association of intellectual, professional and artistic women who met regularly for dinners at the Lyceum Club.

(Source: Historical Note University Melbourne Archives)

Joan Coxsedge was the first Labor woman to be elected to the Victorian Legislative Council as the Member for Melbourne West Province in July 1979. She served until 1992. While in office she wrote and produced the newsletter, Hard Facts For Hard Times, from her Footscray office, in which she offered a left view of current local, national and international events.

(Source: Historical Note Melbourne University Archives)

In 1998 Mirka Mora was awarded the title of Honoured Artist, by the Lord Mayor and councillors of the City of Melbourne, ‘in recognition of lifelong achievement in the arts which has made an outstanding contribution to the life of this city’. Born in Paris, France, Mora with her husband Georges and son Philippe arrived in Australia in 1951. Over time their cafes and restaurants, The Mirka Café, the Balzac and the Tolarno were renowned for the bohemian style of the time. In 1999, a retrospective of her work was shown at Heide Museum of Modern Art and her autobiography Wicked but Virtuous: My Life was published in October 2000.

A fourth-generation Chinese Australian, Shun Wah is known for hosting ABC & SBS programs Studio 22, The Big Picture, Image, Eat Carpet, The Noise and Media Dimensions.
In 1996, she was nominated for an AFI award in ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role’ for acting debut in Floating Life.
She is the co-author with Greg Aitkin of the publication Banquet: 10 Courses to Harmony.

(Sources: http://www.amida.com.au/profiles/1001.diffe.html accessed 18/02/02; http://www.anu.edu/pad/community/literary/pastlitevents/Text/shun-wah.html accessed 18/02/02 and http://www.thei.aust.com/isite/cellfloatlife.html accessed 18/02/02)