The Australian Women's Register

By the turn of the twentieth century women were visible and active participants in all major Australian art schools, including the National Gallery School in Melbourne, where female students far outnumbered males.

The Unemployed Girls Relief Movement was established by Muriel Heagney and Jessie Henderson in 1930. The Movement existed for two years and throughout this time it successfully supplied work and other services to between 10,000 and 12,000 women.

The Victorian Women Citizens’ Movement was established in 1922 for the purpose of lobbying for women’s right to stand for the Victorian Parliament.

In August 1945, the League of Women Electors, the Victorian Women Citizens’ Movement and Women for Canberra merged to become the League of Women Voters.

In 1902 “Merton Hall” was purchased by the Church of England, and henceforth the school was known as the Melbourne Church of England Girls Grammar School.

In 1893, Misses Hensley and Taylor purchased a red-brick house in Domain Road, South Yarra, for the purpose of establishing a school, which they named Merton Hall. Due to overcrowding, a new school was built on Anderson Street, South Yarra, and the buildings were officially opened on 16 December 1900.

In 1902 Merton Hall was purchased by the Church of England. Merton Hall was retained as the name of the boarding-house only, with the school renamed as the Church of England Girls Grammar School.

Founded by Cam Nguyen, the inaugural meeting of the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association (AVWA) was held on 15 January 1983.

Previously called the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Welfare Association, the word ‘Welfare’ was dropped from the name of the organisation in 2007.

The foundation stone for the University Women’s College at the University of Melbourne was laid in 1936 by Lady Margaret Huntingfield. The college opened its doors to students the following year.

In 1975 the University Women’s College changed its name to University College and male residents were first enrolled.

The Victorian Trained Nurses Association was first constituted in 1901.

According to a newspaper article in The Argus on 6 July 1901, the objectives of the Association were:

1. To establish a system of registration for trained nurses.
2. To promote the interests of trained nurses – male and female – in all matters affecting their work.
3. To establish a uniform systems of training and examination for nurses.
4. To afford opportunities for discussing subjects bearing on the work of nursing.
5. In due course to arrange for schemes that will afford to nurses a means of providing an allowance during incapacity for work caused by sickness, accident, age, or other necessitous circumstances.

In 1904 the title of “Royal” was granted to the Victorian Trained Nurses Association by His Majesty the King.

At the Annual Meeting of the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses Association in 1934, a vote was held resulting in the Association’s name being changed to the Royal Victorian College of Nursing.

In 1975 the Royal Victorian College of Nursing amalgamated with the Royal Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch).

The Royal Women’s Hospital, which was originally known as the ‘Melbourne Lying-in Hospital and Infirmary for Diseases of Women and Children’, was founded in August 1856. The aim of the founders was to provide a place where ‘underprivileged women could give birth and receive proper medical and nursing attention’.

Women’s Electoral Lobby Victoria was established in Melbourne on 27 February 1972 when Beatrice Faust organised a survey of candidates for election, alongside ten other women.

The Women’s Hospital was granted the prefix ‘Royal’ in 1954, becoming the Royal Women’s Hospital.

In 2016, the two Tintern Schools campuses – Tintern Girls Grammar School and Southwood Boys Grammar School – came together on the one campus. The school was renamed Tintern Grammar.

Florence Marjorie Hughes was born in 1898 in Malvern, Victoria. After graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1922, Hughes worked at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. She left Australia for the United Kingdom in 1927 working at many hospitals and traveling to Italy before returning home. Records indicate she must have travelled again to the United Kingdom to receive her Diploma of Anaesthetics in 1939 or 1940.

Hughes continued to work at the Alfred until around 1942. After this year, Hughes entered into private practice on Collins Street in Melbourne. Her contributions to anaesthetics are relatively unknown, however, she gained postgraduate qualifications which enabled her to share new knowledge in Australia.

Women with Disabilities Victoria (WDV) is an organisation of women with disabilities, for women with disabilities.

The goals of WDV are to influence government and policy, engage and empower women with disabilities and to educate and build the capacity of service systems and organisations to be accessible to women with disabilities.

Methodist Ladies’ College (MLC), Kew, is one of the country’s leading independent girls’ schools.

According to their website, MLC ‘was founded in 1882 as a ‘modern school of the first order’ with buildings that formed ‘a collegiate institution for girls unsurpassed in the colonies’.’ Founded by the Wesleyan Methodists, the goal was to provide ‘a high-class Christian education for girls’ which was resemblant to that available to boys at that time.

Cornish immigrant Mary Wills Grigg selected and was granted a Mallee leasehold of land in 1885 in Victoria, and farmed sheep in Boort until her death at the age of 70.

To mark the centenary of Australia’s Federation in 2001, the Victorian Women’s Trust curated an exhibition entitled ‘Ordinary Women, Extraordinary lives’. The exhibition showcased the lives and stories of many influential Victorian women.

Alma Thorpe is a Gunditjmara woman and an early Aboriginal rights activist. In 1973 Alma was central to the establishment of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service. She is a life member of the Aboriginal Advancement League and is currently Elder in Residence at Deakin University’s Institute of Koorie Education.

Artist Jessie Traill was one of the most influential Australian painters and etchers of the inter-war period.