The Australian Women's Register

Donna Urquhart won a gold medal in the Squah Mixed Doubles at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Gillian Backhouse won a gold medal in the Mixed Team Relay Triathlon at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Playworks was established in 1985 and identified itself as the national women’s performance writing network. The aim of the organisation was to increase the number of women writing for performance. In late 2006 the Australia Council for the Arts consolidated both Playworks and the Australian National Playwrights Centre (ANPC) and a new organisation, PlayWriting Australia, was established.

Carole Fay Deagan was involved in many women’s and children’s issues, particularly the matter of child care.

Ashlee Ankudinoff won a gold medal in the 4000m Team Pursuit at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Natasha Scott won gold medals in the Lawn Bowls Triples and Fours at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Doris Chadwick was born in 1899 to parents Sheldon Western Chadwick and his wife Annie. Her father was a former editor of the Daily Examiner and the Newcastle Morning Herald.

Doris held a Bachelor of Arts degree and originally trained to be a secondary teacher, however she relinquished those duties to undertake journalistic work for the New South Wales Education Department. Doris was the assistant editor of the Department’s School Magazine from July 1924 to 1948 and editor from 1949 to 1962.

Elizabeth Harrower grew up in Newcastle, New South Wales, and lived in London from 1951 to 1959. After returning to Sydney, she worked for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Sydney Morning Herald and for a publishing firm. Throughout her life, Elizabeth has written a number of novels and short stories.

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.

The Pakies Club was founded in 1929 by Mrs Augusta (‘Pakie’) MacDougall, wife of theatre director Duncan MacDougall. The club operated on two floors at 219 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, and was a meeting place for artists and writers.

The café, a Little bit of Paris, boasted colourful modernist décor and was known for monthly ‘international’ nights featuring aspects of the culture and cuisine of a particular country.

A journal entitled Urgewas produced by Club members between 1933 and 1935.

Augusta (Pakie) Macdougall was born in 1875 to parents Clara Ann and quarryman Benjamin Quiddington Poole. After attending Leichhardt Superior Public School, Augusta trained as a nurse at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, from 1902 to 1903.

Augusta was the first student at Duncan McDougall’s elocution school and the pair married in London on November 3, 1904. Whilst in London, Augusta joined the Women’s Social and Political Union and also obtained a diploma from the London College of Music. Together Duncan and Augusta edited two anthologies, The Quaint Comedy of Love, Wooing & Mating (1907) and The Bond of Music (1907). In 1913 the family moved to the United States of America, before returning to Sydney in 1920. There Augusta was the secretary of the Playbox Society, which Duncan had established in 1923.

After the pair separated in 1928, Augusta opened the Pakies Club in order to support herself. Sadly Augusta passed away on 8 May, 1945, after being hit by a military truck on Elizabeth Street. Her son, Robin, managed the Pakies Club until 1966.

Alexandra Eade won a gold medal in the Gymnastics Floor Exercise at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

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

Australian poet Chris Mansell worked as an editor and poet in Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, Chris continues to write, perform and edit, in addition to holding writing classes.

Delta, Chris’s first collection of poetry, was published in 1978 and since this time she has also written short prose, plays, and a children’s book titled Little Wombat. Her work has been shortlisted for numerous awards and prizes, and she has held various writing and editing residencies.

Chris co-founded the literary magazine Compass Poetry and Prose in 1978, which she edited until 1987. She taught creative writing at the University of Wollongong from 1987 to 1989 and from 1989 at the University of Western Sydney. Chris then attended the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA) Playwright’s Studio.

Since the late 1980s Chris has been involved in poetry publishing. She was one of the founders of Five Islands Press and since 2002 she has run the independent poetry press PressPress.

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

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 .

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.

Jill Hellyer was born in Sydney in 1925 to parents Harold and Ruby Hellyer. After the death of both parents and her brother Allan, Jill went to live with her aunts Elsie and Krissie, in Seaforth, New South Wales.

She attended North Sydney Girls’ High School and studied English under Huldah Turner, who had a great influence on Jill’s life. From age 11 Jill began writing poetry and as a young woman she joined the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW), later becoming secretary of the Sydney branch. In 1948 Jill married Conrad Stephan and together they had three children, Linda, Allan and Laurence.

Alongside Walter Stone (FAW president), Dal Stivens and Alex Sheppard, Jill co-founded the Australian Society of Authors (ASA). She was the Society’s first executive secretary, from 1964 until 1971. For her poetry, Jill won the verse prize in the 1963 Grenfell Henry Lawson Arts Awards and the Poetry Magazine Award in 1965. In 1969 she published her first collection of poems, titled The Exile, and the following year she accepted a Commonwealth literary fellowship and thus resigned from her ASA position. She published a novel, Not Enough Savages in 1975.

Jill was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2006 ‘for service to literature as a poet and as a supporter of Australian writers through the Australian Society of Authors’.

Cheryl Creatrix and her former husband, Robert Adamson, were heavily involved in the Poetry Society of Australia and together they co-edited the Society’s journal, New Poetry. Cheryl also published the journal, in addition to editing Prism Books.

Nancy Edith Fullarton was born in Temora, New South Wales, in 1913, to parents John and Lilian Fullarton. She attended Sydney Girls’ High School and later Sydney Technical College as an art student. After her studies, Nancy worked as an artist in Sydney before turning to a career as a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Her first book, The Alphabet from A to Z, sold 50,000 copies.

In addition to children’s books, Nancy also produced comic strips. In 1948 her comic strip Frisky was published in a three-month trial in the Sydney Morning Herald and afterwards it became a permanent feature in the comic strip supplement of the Sunday Herald. Nancy also wrote and illustrated a comic-strip version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories.

Nancy moved to London with her daughter Christina in 1955 and there she continued producing comic strips. During her retirement, Nancy worked on programs and publicity and designed costumes for the London Ballet Theatre.

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.

Joan Kingsley-Strack was, for a time, secretary of the Aboriginal Citizenship Committee. She joined the Aborigines Progressive Association (APA) and alongside its leaders Pearl Gibbs and Bill Ferguson, called for the abolition of the Aborigines Protection Board.

Joan was also an artist, specialising in china painting.

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.

Lynette Therese Day was the recipient of over 50 Australian literary awards and produced a number of published works, including The spirit of a Scot: an anthology of the poetry of Lynette Therese Day.

Gwen Friend, sister of artist Donald Friend, was a partner with Fifi Banvard in the theatrical company Fifi Banvard Productions. Gwen was responsible for set design, props, lighting, costumes and make-up. The company played a season at the Theatre Royal in Hobart, from July 1950 to March 1951, to great acclaim.

Plant biochemist Adele Millerd was one of Australia’s first female Fulbright Scholars.