The Australian Women's Register

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)

The Society was formed at a meeting on 18 March 1863, held at the request of the Brighton Municipal Council, of the Brighton representatives on the Committee of the St. Kilda and Brighton Ladies Benevolent Society. Its chief object was to ‘relieve the wants of the poor, especially females’. The Society continues to assist in cases of hardship referred by government and other agencies.

(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)

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.

Nina Crone was Editor of the Australian Garden History Society journal, Australian Garden History, and a former headmistress of Melbourne Church of England Girls’ Grammar School (CEGGS). Crone worked in broadcasting, education and management in Australia, England and Switzerland. She was appointed a Fellow of the Australian College of Education and received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2000.

The editor of the publication Planting the Nation, Whitehead is described in the book as a ‘landscape architect specialising in historical research and analysis of parks and other public landscapes. She has undertaken heritage studies of many significant parks in Melbourne and Victorian regional centres, and is author of Civilising the City: A History of Melbourne’s Public Gardens (1997).’

Professor of Architectural History at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Harriet Edquist obtained her qualifications, a BA and a MA, from Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria. Her RMIT staff profile describes her research interests as ‘Australian architecture and design, particularly in late 19th and 20th century Melbourne; regionalism as an idea and practice; renaissance architecture and art, particularly 15th and early 16th century with an emphasis on perspectival theory and practice and the development of the interior’. Edquist’s publications include a book on the emigre German architect Frederick Romberg and a monograph on Harold Desbrowe-Annear.

The short profile on contributors in Planting the Nation states that Suzanne Hunt ‘is a social historian and a former museum curator, currently researching the sociology of gardening in Victoria. As Archives Coordinator for the Victorian Branch of the Australian Garden History Society (AGHS), she is working with the State Library of Victoria to build up the repository of material in the Garden History Archive established in 1999.’

Richards is described as a ‘retired landscape architect and professional historian with a special interest in West Australian landscape and garden history and heritage conservation. She has undertaken heritage studies for numerous sites in Western Australia, and is the author of War Memorials in Western Australia (1996) and Designed Landscapes in Western Australia (1998)’ in her personal outline listed in Planting the Nation.

Her personal summary in Planting the Nation states that Jennie Sim is a ‘landscape architect and garden historian who lectures in landscape architecture at the Queensland University of Technology and has undertaken conservation studies of historic parks and gardens. She completed her PhD thesis on designed landscapes in Queensland before 1940, and is a contributor to the Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens..’

Elizabeth Watkin is featured on the front of the Australian Garden History Society brochure. In an article titled ‘The Lady in White’ by Jo Reid (Watkins’s grand-daughter), she is described as an active member of the Red Cross and the local Benevolent Fund as well as being a foundation member of the CWA. ‘During the 1950s, she campaigned tirelessly, driving the efforts of a fund-raising committee to establish the Elizabeth Watkin Kindergarten.’ Reid states that ‘as a young woman, her grandmother indulged in oil painting; subjects were often flowers and fruit. There are screens featuring dahlias, hydrangeas, wallflowers, japonica, holly, wisteria, lilac, foxgloves, grapes and Blue Diamond plums.’

Joan Law-Smith was patron of the Australian Garden History Society (AGHS) from 1989 to 1998. Margaret Darling in her ‘Tribute to Joan Law-Smith’ in the society journal advises that Law-Smith designed the emblem for the AGHS. She was a botanical artist, a writer, an illustrator and a dedicated gardener and horticulturist with a good working knowledge of botany. Her books included: A Gardener’s Diary, Gardens of the Mind, The Uncommon Garden, The Garden Within and a Desk Diary for 1999 – Bird and Flowers – which was published in conjunction with the National Trust (Victoria) Women’s Committee.

The Olive Pink Botanic Gardens, located in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory were established in 1956 by their founder, anthropologist Olive Pink. Originally named the Australian Arid Regions Native Flora Reserve, an then the Olive Pink Flora Reserve, Miss Pink and her Warlpiri assistant gardeners worked for nearly two years to establish a public area for the appreciation of central desert native fauna.

Olive Pink lived in the Tanami desert in Central Australia with Aboriginal people for 36 years before starting work on a Floral Reserve at Alice Springs in 1956. Miss Pink worked on the development of the sixteen-hectare reserve with the assistance of Aboriginal gardeners until her death in 1975. The Olive Pink Botanic Garden opened to the public in 1985.

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 Flockton is remembered for her beautiful botanic illustrations. A species of eucalypt was named in her honour.

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.

Freelance oral historian, scholar, curator of photography and writer – children’s stories. In 1995 she won the Young Readers/Picture Book award from The Family Therapy Associations of Australia for Grandpa and Ah Gong. Her work deals extensively with the immigrant experience, especially that of immigrant women and their children. Loh is a former member of the Advisory Council on Multicultural Affairs
(Source: Left-Wing Ladies, Suzane Fabian and Morag Loh)

Bev Buckingham settled in Australia in 1967. She became the first female jockey in the southern hemisphere to win 1000 races. After a fall at the Elwick Racecourse (Hobart) in May 1998 she was wheelchair-bound, but regained her strength and mobility until she was able to walk again unaided.

“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.)”

Co-editor Women in a Restructuring Australia: Work and Welfare with Susan Magarey (1995).
(Source: Passions of the first wave feminists, Susan Magarey.)”