The Australian Women's Register

Susan Alberti became a board member of the Western Bulldogs AFL team in 2004 and in 2013 she was elected to the position of Vice President. She resigned from the Vice Presidency at the end of 2016. Susan was instrumental to the establishment of a women’s AFL for the Western Bulldogs.

Susan provided substantial financial support to ensure the staging of the first AFL-sanctioned women’s match at the MCG in 2013. She has also been a long-time supporter of the Victorian Women’s Football League (VWFL).

After her daughter, Danielle, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in the 1980s, Susan has been a generous financial supporter of medical research into Type 1 diabetes.

Susan is a former President of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Chairman of the St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research Foundation. She holds many other honorary philanthropic positions.

Susan has been awarded three Australian Honours: Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1997; Office of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2007; and Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2016. She was also a finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards in 1997 and 2009.

Millicent Bryant was the first woman in the in Australia to gain a pilot’s license.

Diane Fahey has published twelve collections of poetry, in addition to numerous anthologies published in both Australian and international publications.

Professor Marian Simms is internationally prominent for her work in the fields of gender studies and political science, ethics governance and Indigenous research policy. She has held senior academic and administrative roles in Australia and New Zealand and has long-standing interests in research culture and governance in New Zealand, Sweden, South Africa and Australia. She is a former president of the Australasian Political Studies Association (APSA), a former editor of the Association’s journal, and has published prodigiously. Marian has attended the Women’s Caucus of APSA from its inception. From 2011 to 2016 she was Executive Director for Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences at the Australian Research Council.

Professor Carole Pateman is a British-born political scientist and academic who is internationally renowned for her contribution to feminist political theory and democratic theory. Carole taught in Australia from 1972 to 1990, during which time she played a central role in introducing feminist critique to Australian political science. In 1979, she and Marian Sawer co-founded the Women’s Caucus of the Australasian Political Studies Association (APSA) to improve the status of women in the profession of political science and make women visible in the political system.

The Women’s Caucus of the then Australasian Political Studies Association (APSA) was established in 1979. It was set up to improve the standing of women in the political science profession and to promote the study of women and politics. The annual general meeting of the Women’s Caucus is held during the annual conference of APSA. A representative serves on the APSA Executive. The caucus conducts regular reviews of the status of women in the profession and of the extent of the successful implementation of APSA’s policy that the study of women should be integrated into all politics courses.

Mona McLeod was a professional photographer working in Bairnsdale, Victoria, where she ran her own studio. Many of her photographs of local events, including the Black Friday bushfire (1939) were published in local newspapers.

Roslin Brennan Kemmis’s working life was committed to education in schools, TAFE/VET and universities, especially for disadvantaged people: Indigenous, prisoners, people with low levels of literacy. A Riverina resident for 40 years, she taught in secondary schools (full-time, 1972-1977), and kindergarten and primary schools (part-time, 1985-1988), and adult literacy (1989-1992). She also worked as a teacher in the Education Centre, Bendigo Prison (1983-1984). From 1978, she worked part time for Charles Sturt University (and its predecessor institutions), and full time as a Lecturer in Vocational Education and Training from 1997, then Senior Lecturer (2004). She was a member of the University Council 2000-2004, and Head of the School of Education (and Associate Professor) from 2008 until her retirement from full time work in 2012.

In 1987, with her then husband, the late Mark Brennan, she explored linguistic inequalities in the criminal justice system. Published as ‘Strange language: child victim witnesses under cross-examination’, this work had significant impact internationally and nationally on the language and treatment in courts of child victims.
As President of the NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations, 1992-1997, she was a fearless warrior, advocate and activist. She successfully advocated for the 40kpm school zones and the establishment of the Office of the Commission for Children and Young People. In 1999, she was appointed Member of the Order of Australia, for service to children and school education.

Between 1999 and 2006, she contributed significantly to research in vocational education and training (VET) including work on online pedagogies in VET, and apprenticeships and traineeships. In 2007, she was awarded the Carrick Medal for pioneering work embedding pathways from the VET to the university sector.

From 2013-2015, with Wiradjuri elders, Ros led the development and delivery of the ground-breaking CSU Graduate Certificate course in Wiradjuri Language, Culture and Heritage.

Olga Dougall is known for her portraiture, commercial and magazine work.

Pegg Clarke was a Pictorialist photographer who ran her own successful photography business until the 1950s. Clarke is known for being the only woman to be included in the First Exhibition of the Australian Salon of Photography in 1924.

Joan Barbara Isaacson is a professional photographer who worked with the Army Public Relations section of Australian Women’s Army Service, and was later known for her portraiture of children.

Lilian Louisa Pitts (L.L.P.) was a professional photographer working in northern Victoria. L.L.P was known for her thematic photographic albums, her postcards, and for capturing the life of the community in which she lived.

Mabel Arblaster was a professional portrait photographer who worked in Eaglehawk, where she opened a studio.

Mabel Hookey was the first woman journalist in Tasmania. She was also a poet, a painter and an amateur photographer.

Mattie Hodgson worked as a retoucher, colourist, and camera operator from the mid-1920s. She worked in Western Australia and London.

Miss Robinson was the manager and proprietor of the Melbourne branch of an American photography firm which operated in the 1860s.

Born into a wealthy, artistically inclined Western Australian family, Constance Birmingham studied painting before training as a photographer In London, with some of the leading photographers there at the time. Birmingham became a respected professional photographer specialising in portraiture, specialising in the photography of mothers and children. She died at the age of 80 in Perth.

Elizabeth Nash-Boothby was a professional photographer known for her portraiture studies and her high society clientele.

Ada Armytage was the daughter of the wealthy pastoralist Charles Henry Armytage who owned Como House during the period 1865-1959. Her photographs document life within the stately house and amongst the social elite of the times.

Inspired by her newsreel photographer father, Adelie ‘Front Page’ Hurley is known as a pioneering woman press photographer; she was one of only three Australian women press photographers working in her time. She was fearless in pursuing her shots, and also fearless against the gender discrimination of her field, lasting over two decades in press photography. Her photographs include a diverse range of subjects, from army photography, vice squad busts, life at outback stations and taipan hunting.

As well as for her photography, Amelia Bunbury was noted for her hand carved furniture and for her work as a horse breeder. Bunbury’s amateur photographs document life on a remote station in Western Australia; her photography includes images of Aboriginal people living in the area that echo the conventions of anthropological photography of the time. She exhibited her work in Melbourne and was published in a number of Western Australian newspapers.

Amelia Butler lived and worked in Tenterfield, NSW during the 1890s. Although she went on to become a successful studio photographer based in Sydney, Butler is best known for the photographs she took of Tenterfield and the surrounding districts in the 1890s.

Bernice Agar was a highly successful portrait photographer based in Sydney, whose work featured prominent Australian society figures. Agar was also an early fashion photographer. Widely published, her glamourous works were characterised by a strong preference for artificial light and crisp outlines. Her technique favoured strong frontal lighting. Few of her society portraits survive today.