The Australian Women's Register

Whilst initially of fundamentally religious character — inherited from founding principles (i.e. Emma Robarts’ Prayer Union founded 1844) – the Young Women’s Christian Association of Melbourne (YWCA of Melbourne) began as other Young Women’s Christian Association’s – predominantly in response to urbanisation and the particular challenges this posed for women (particularly working women). The Association’s life span (before a name change in 1999) saw that focus shift in concert with changing economic and social issues; from urban challenges, to suburban ones and finally to state wide issues (hence the name change to Young Women’s Christian Association Victoria).

The Young Women’s Christian Organisation of Melbourne reclassified itself in 1999 as Young Women’s Christian Organisation Victoria (Y.W.C.A. Victoria). This name change signified a broadening of scope for the organisation which, since 1999 has tended to focus on social reform campaigns of a more vigorously political nature than its prior incarnation. Examples of this include: drug policy recommendation delivered to state and federal governments (2001); reconciliation marching (2001); asylum seeker and refugee action (2001-2004); and paid maternity leave campaigns (2001-2004.

Frances Gertrude Kumm (nee Cato), influenced by her mother F.J. Cato and sister Una Porter (nee Cato) – both ardent Young Women’s Christian Association supporters – joined the Young Women’s Christian Association’s National World Fellowship Committee in 1931 and was made president of the Young Women’s Christian Association of Melbourne (1943 – 1945).

Kumm held the office of National president from 1945 – 1951, visiting ‘all local associations’ throughout Australia during this time. She attended the World Young Women’s Christian Association Council meetings in China (1947) and Lebanon (1951) and was ‘for some time’ Vice President of the World Young Women’s Christian Association Council.

Instrumental in early Young Women’s Christian Association immigration committees, Kumm was elected to the Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council in 1949 and was President of the Victoria National Council of Women. She received an OBE in 1948 and made the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Jean Stevenson was General Secretary of the Melbourne Young Women’s Christian Association 1915-1919 and was Industrial Secretary of the National Young Women’s Christian Association for a time before resigning in 1922/24 [exact dates are disputed by sources]. She continued her work with the Young Women’s Christian Association at a local level, becoming General Secretary of the Auckland Association.

The Queen Victoria Women’s Centre was established in 1994 by an Act of Parliament, following the closure of the Queen Victoria Women’s Hospital in 1989. Community campaigning to save part of the site as a permanent monument to this historically significant landmark in Victorian women’s history, led by the Queen Victoria Hospital Action Group, was successful. The government agreed to hand over control of the central tower of the original building to the women of Victoria.

The Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Act 1994 – administered by the Minister for Women’s Affairs, established the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust and provides for the management, operation and use of the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre and for the ownership of the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre land. The centre offers a range of services and exists ‘to provide a physical and virtual space for the women of Victoria to reach their full potential, bring about social change and provide opportunities for women to be inspired for the future’.

Jean Rooney, whose father was a teacher, lived in Mt Gambier, Adelaide and Port Lincoln. Rooney attended Adelaide teachers’ Training College and worked in Unley and Nailsworth for four years. She married Cliff Rooney, a high school teacher, in 1935 and had two daughters.

Margaret Hodge was born in Adelaide in 1918. She subsequently moved to a Western Australian jarrah timber camp where her father was a teacher in a two roomed school. After his death, when she was nine, Hodge and her mother returned to Adelaide to live with relatives. She attended Presbyterian Girls’ School (now Seymour College) on a scholarship. Here she was particularly influenced by two of her teachers – in English and current affairs. On leaving school she taught at the Wilderness School.

Margaret married Scott Hodge in 1940 and had five children, including one who was born with spina bifida. She joined the Lyceum Club in 1971 and served in a number of official capacities over the years.

Sister Betty Harvey grew up in Broken Hill. She came to work with the Port Adelaide Central Methodist Mission in 1938 when she herself was in her thirties.

Mary Miller was born in Yorketown, South Australia and spent her childhood on Yorke Peninsula. Her work in munitions factories during World War II led to her involvement as an organiser in the iron workers’ union and a life-long commitment to the labour movement. In the mid-1950s she qualified as a primary school teacher and became active in child welfare and Aboriginal education.

Gia to some and Ginny to others, Virginia Leigh served in the Australian Red Cross Field Force from World War II to 1974. She was awarded the Australian Red Cross Society Distinguished Service Medal in 1968. For many years Leigh was honorary secretary with the Victorian Council of Social Service. She was awarded an honorary life membership in 1969. Leigh joined the Hanover Centre committee of management, and became one of the first directors of Hanover welfare services company from 1972-73.

The Women’s Peace Group was formed in 1928, when a number of Western Australian women’s organizations, including Women’s Services Guild, YWCA, Labor Women, WCTU and others, got together to organize an Armistice Day celebration. Active for around five years, a decline in enthusiasm in the early 1930s was signalled by the failure of a conference on disarmament. In 1933 the group was reformed as a branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom by Lucy Creeth. The branch went into recess in 1947 but was re-established in 1952 by Nancy Wilkinson.

Feliska’ was born in the Russian city of Yvanpole in 1925. She was a teenager during the Second World War, old enough to remember witnessing the execution of local Jewish people after the German invasion. Of Polish descent, she escaped death but was transported to a German work camp where she was put to work in a factory for three years. She managed to escape by digging her way out of the rubble when the factory was bombed.

After the war, she married and had two children before making the decision to leave Europe. Her family arrived in Australia in January 1950 as part of the wave of migration that helped to develop Australian society in the post war period.

Catherina van der Linden was born in 1912 and grew up in Nigmegen, Holland where her father was a tailor. She married in 1940 soon after the outbreak of war. Her first child was born in 1943. Following the war her husband, who had been a Company Secretary, was unemployed and three children were born. Van der Linden reluctantly agreed to emigrate in 1955 after her father’s death. The family travelled in the luxurious ‘Johan Van Oltenbernavalt’ and were shocked by the accommodation at both Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre in Victoria and Woodside in the Adelaide Hills. Their longest stay was at the Glenelg hostel from whence Mrs van der Linden returned to Holland in 1958 with the children, vowing never to return. However she decided to reunite the family 18 months later and worked outside the home in clerical and nurses’ aide positions.

Sonia’ was born in Rzew in Russia and spent the first nine years of her life on the family farm. After her father’s death her mother moved the family to a city where she and her daughters worked in a factory. In 1941 Sonia was forced to go to Germany to work in a labour camp. At the end of the war she was alone, with a new name, and searching for a way out of Germany when she met her future husband, a Ukrainian. They married and decided to emigrate together with their young son on the ‘Jenny Rose Stewart.’ Following their stay at the Bonegilla Migrant Reception Centre in Victoria, the family remained in that state, moving to Mildura where Sonia worked as a farm labourer. They subsequently moved to Woodside in South Australia for one and a half years where Sonia’s daughter was born. The family then bought a block of land and built their own home. Sonia worked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital as a domestic, a position she retained for 30 years.

Gertrud Wilkins was born in Brno-Bruenn, southern Moravia in 1910, which after World War I became part of Czechoslovakia. Her mother had a millinery business and her father was a chartered accountant. She completed a two year teacher training course, followed by course for foreign students in London.

Following her short-lived marriage, at the outbreak of war in 1939, Wilkins was living and teaching at a boarding school in Prague. After the German occupation she escaped into Poland and on to London.

Her situation came to the attention of the South Australian branches of the Women Graduates Club and the League of Women Voters who sponsored her immigration. She sailed to Australia via New Zealand in 1940. Wilkins tried to get work with the Education Department but was ‘knocked back time and time again’. Her sponsors found her a job in a private kindergarten for a year, after which time she remarried and ‘suddenly overnight became…worthy to teach Australian children’.

She taught for two years at Adelaide High School before moving to the country. In 1971 Wilkins was accepted for Australian Volunteer Abroad teacher service in Papua New Guinea and Thailand in 1980. Fluent in several languages, Wilkins continued to teach English as second language to migrants.

Serafima Vidau was of Swedish descent but grew up with a foster family in Estonia. After finishing secondary school Serafima joined a step-sister in Finland and began training as a nurse. She returned to Estonia and married in 1931. Her first two sons were born before the war.

In 1942 the family travelled to Germany with the intention of migrating overseas. Instead she spent several years in displaced persons camps, with her husband often absent due to ill-health and work. Two more sons were born in 1943 and 1945 – the latter the night before the war ended. During the four years before they were able to migrate she returned to nursing.

The family arrived in Melbourne in December 1949 and spent some months in Victorian migrant camps before reuniting in Adelaide. Both Serafima and her husband got factory jobs and with the help of their eldest son’s pay were able to buy their own home in Woodville in 1952 – the same year that Serafima gave birth to her fifth son. Her husband died three years later and she returned to nursing to support her younger sons.

The Hon. Diana Laidlaw was a Member of the South Australia Legislative Council for over 20 years. During that time she was Minister for Transport (1995-1997); Transport and Urban Planning (1997-2002); The Arts (1993-2002); the Status of Women (1993-2002). Prior to entering Parliament Laidlaw was an assistant to both a State Minister and Federal Parliamentarians.

The Golding Centre for Women’s History, Theology and Spirituality was established in April 2003 on the initiative of Dr Sophie McGrath and Dr Rosa MacGinley who understood the necessity of providing a sound academic basis for the Catholic Church’s response to the need for Catholic women to recover their history, theology and spirituality. The Centre comprises a three member team with members based on the campuses of McAuley-Banyo (Queensland), Mt Saint Mary (New South Wales), and St Patrick’s (Victoria). A multi-disciplinary centre, it is situated within the Institute for the Advancement of Research with outreach to the various appropriate Schools within the University faculties.

Peg Christian was the first veterinarian to establish a private small animal practice in the Northern Territory; she practiced part-time in Alice Springs from 1948-1951. Later she helped pioneer the development of Wombaroo, a replacement milk formula for orphaned marsupials.

Mary Newport was born and completed her primary and secondary education in Adelaide. She won scholarships to St. Aloysius College and Chartres Business College. Newport had the ability to go to university but the economic pressure (because her mother had died after a long battle with cancer when Mary was 12 years old) to work as great. When Newport was old enough, she joined the Commonwealth Public Service, first in the Taxation Office in Adelaide and then in Canberra. During her Long Service Leave in 1959, Newport worked at Australia House in London and the Australian Embassy in London. On her return to Australia, Newport was invited to work with the Press Secretary of the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies. Although, she was writing many of the Prime Minister’s statements, her salary was so minimal that the Government had to pay a subsidy to the boarding house where most public servants lived. When Sir Robert Menzies retired, the press team of Tony Eggleton and Mary Newport continued in the Prime Minister’s Department, first for Harold Holt, then Sir John McEwan, John Gorton and Sir William McMahon. During this time Newport completed a degree by part-time study at the Australian National University. When the Australian Labor Party came into Government in 1975, Newport returned to work in various Commonwealth Departments and assisted with various Commissions of Inquiries. From these investigations, Newport learnt a great deal about working conditions of public servants and the criminal activities within the Painters and Dockers Union. In 1988, she resigned from the Commonwealth Public Service to become the first national media officer for the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. She worked there until 1995. Mary Newport was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the community through the National Catholic Media Office, the Newman Graduate Association and for public service, on 26 January 1997. She also is a Dame of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Margaret Edith Atkins grew up at Kensington Park where she attended kindergarten and small private schools despite the cerebral palsy and received regular physiotherapy and speech pathology. After leaving school she enrolled in a playgroup course at the Kindergarten Training College and commenced voluntary work in kindergartens. She later worked as an equipment maker for the Kindergarten Union and designed and made toys. Atkins decided to return to study social work at university but was initially refused entry to the course at Adelaide University. She completed a Bachelor of Arts with Honours majoring in psychology. Atkins gained a full-time teaching position with the Education Department as a teacher of intellectually handicapped children and was also supervised by the Department’s psychologist to allow her to gain membership of the Australian Psychological Society. She was employed at the Woodville Special School where she developed innovative teaching methods and designed equipment. During her career Atkins held positions as Deputy Head at Strathmont Centre for Intellectually Retarded Children, Head of Barton Terrace and Kings Park special schools, and then in 1975 the Ashford Special School. She retired on the grounds of invalidity in 1977 and become a resident at the Julia Farr Centre. Here she was funded by the Centre to undertake research into leisure activities for the residents and was able to travel overseas. After her health improved Atkins felt that she needed to return to a more home-like environment and was able to move to an aged care facility. She then became very active in community activities and events, WEA and University of the Third Age. Margaret Atkins was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to education in special education on 26 January 1982.

Wise Women Wednesdays are an informal gathering for those interested in women’s issues, to exchange information, network and plan. There is a lunch (BYO) and a chat between 12.00 and 12.30 pm. A presentation by an invited speaker takes place from 12.30 to 1.15. After the presentation there is time for questions and discussion. These free events are held on the 2nd Wednesday of the month and are supported by the Centre for Research for Women, National Council of Women Australia, National Council of Women Western Australia (NCW WA), Women’s Electoral Lobby and Women’s Policy Office, although the latter is no longer involved. Now basically run by the NCW WA a second branch has been established in Mendurah, Western Australia.

For service to child development, in particular as the director of the Lesley Cox School of Music, Movement and Drama, and to the community, Lesley Cox was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 26 January 1998.

Cox was introduced to Dalcroze Eurhythmics by Heather Gell. Dalcroze Eurhythmics was established by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) a Swiss composer and pianist who, in the early years of the twentieth century, researched the effect of human movement on musical perception, and the impact of musical elements on movement technique. He called his approach to music education ‘Eurhythmics’. It means, literally, “good rhythm”. Cox went to Sydney to study with Gell during the 1940s and again in 1957 to complete her Licentiate. She established the Lesley Cox School of Music, Movement and Drama and published books and sound recordings on the subject.

Heather Gell was a pioneer of eurhythmics and a dance teacher. After obtaining the Diploma of the Kindergarten Training College, Adelaide, in 1918, she studied at the London School of Dalcroze Eurythmics for two years. Gell returned to Adelaide to set up her own studio in 1923. She became a specialist in Eurhythmics and taught at the Kindergarten Training College. In 1930 Gell returned to London to study for the Licentiate degree at the Royal Academy of Music. On her return she was appointed to the Elder Conservatorium.

In 1934 Gell directed the Girl Guides’ farewell to Lady Zara Hore-Ruthven and in 1936 the ‘Heritage’ pageant for the State’s Centenary celebrations. She returned to London in 1937 before settling in Sydney where she established the School of Music and Movement. From 1938 she began presenting “Music Through Movement”, a weekly radio broadcast for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which lasted 27 years. Gell stayed in Sydney until her retirement, establishing the Dalcroze Society of Australia and the Dalcroze Teachers’ Union.

Heather Gell was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire services to music on 31 December 1977. She returned to Adelaide in 1982 and died in 1988. In her Will, she left a bequest to be used to establish, assist, and promote Dalcroze Eurhythmics in Australia. The Heather Gell Dalcroze Foundation is the result.

Dr Susan Beal has been investigating the circumstances surrounding Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) for more than 20 years. Beal who grew up in Sydney, New South Wales, studied medicine at Sydney University and specialised in paediatrics. She married in 1959 and had five children between 1960 and 1970. The family moved to South Australia in the early 60s. Dr Beal began working at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital as research registrar in neurosurgery and then running the Cerebral Palsy Clinic. In 1970 she was asked to investigate the incidence of SIDS in South Australia. Since then Dr Beal has been involved in research and public awareness campaigns that have led to a dramatic decrease in deaths. Between 1973 and 1990 she visited more than 500 families who had lost babies to cot death, and in 1986 was able to show that the rate of death was highest among babies who slept face-down. She is credited with being the first person anywhere to argue publicly against babies sleeping on their stomachs, and in the countries that have heeded her advice, including Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, the incidence of SIDS has almost halved. Dr Susan Beal was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday honours list, 1997, for service to medicine, particularly in the fields of paediatrics and SIDS research.

Peg Gooden was born in 1900. Her father died when she was young so she and her mother lived with her grandparents in North Adelaide. She went to St Peter’s Girls’ School. In 1923 she married Harvey Lawton and they lived at Lower Mitcham and joined St Columba’s Church in Hawthorn. Harvey Lawton died in 1930 and she married Lance Gooden in 1935. During World War II Peg joined the Comforts Fund committee and worked on the sock table. Music played a large part in Gooden’s life and she played at Lyceum Club lunches. She was also an active member of the Bowden Kindergarten Committee which helped underprivileged children.

Thelma Johnston was born in 1908 at Norton Summit and attended Norton Summit School until she was 12 years old. The family then moved to Adelaide and she went to the Methodist’s Ladies College. Johnston was interested in craft work such as china painting, jewellery, enamelling and spinning and weaving and during World War II did work for the Red Cross shop and afterwards the “Acorn” craft shop. She and her husband were members of the Royal Yacht Squadron and Legacy. During the war she set up a kindergarten for children sent down from the islands because of the fear of a Japanese invasion. She was also involved with Flower Day and coordinated the Lyceum Club flower roster for 4 years and worked for many years for Meals on Wheels.