The Australian Women's Register

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.

Miriam Strickland Chisholm was born in 1901 to parents Frank Kerr and Jane Adela (Strickland) and she had three siblings. The family lived at the estate ‘Kippilaw’ in Goulburn, where they regularly held ‘picnic races’.

Miriam was an amateur historian, photographer and secretary of the Scottish-Australian Clan Chisholm Society of New South Wales. Her photography was displayed at many small exhibitions throughout the 1930s, particularly at those of the Society of Arts and Crafts. In 1937 Miriam’s photograph titled ‘Ruses Farm’ was purchased by the Mitchell Library, after being on display at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition at the National Art Gallery.

Kerry White was a student at the University of Wollongong, as well as a tutor and lecturer at the institution in Australian literature and children’s books. In 1989 she left the university to focus on bibliography and writing.

During her career, Kerry has served on the board of the Poetry Australia Foundation and has been a judge for a number of literary awards, including the Children’s Book Council of Australia Children’s Book of the Year Awards. She has also published widely for Australian and international journals.

In addition to the resources listed below, Kerry White donated a significant number of Australian children’s books to the National Library of Australia (see NLA Bib ID 6193099).

Helen Blackburn developed a passion for aviation whilst living in America during the early 1940s. She gained her commercial licence in 1945 and later became the federal secretary of the Australian Women Pilots’ Association.

Helen’s other passion was shell collecting, which she undertook for a number of institutions. In 1984 she donated her extensive collection to the National Museum of Australia.

Ninette Dutton published a number of books on the Australian landscape and gardening which she often illustrated with her own botanical drawings. Ninette also studied art in both Europe and America, establishing herself as an enamellist and often holding exhibitions of her work.

Eleanor Cullis-Hill was a pioneer Australian female architect who worked in Sydney after the Second World War. She received her initial architecture training at the University of Sydney during the 1930s.

Hilda Abbott was the first president of the Northern Territory Division of the Red Cross. She was also an author, broadcaster, and an interior decorator.

Bene Gibson Smyth was an Australian composer of songs for children.

Christian pacifist Margaret Holmes founded the NSW branch of the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom in 1959. Together, Margaret and WILPF NSW campaigned for issues such as Aboriginal rights, apartheid, chemical and biological warfare, the Vietnam War, prison reform, US bases and nuclear arms. Margaret was also an advocate for environmental issues.

Miriam Hyde was one of the Australia’s leading pianists and composers of the twentieth century.

Helen Bainton was a musician for thirty years for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Both her mother and father, Edgar Leslie Bainton, were musicians.

Helen was first taught by her father, before becoming a graduate of the Royal College of Music. She had received a scholarship to the College for five years. Helen broadcast a number of recitals with the BBC and taught at Downehouse School, Newbury. In Australia she taught singing at the Pymble Ladies’ College and played violin in the New South Wales Conservatorium Orchestra.

Jean Stevenson was a poet and friend of Dame Mary Gilmore. She received an honourable mention in an essay competition. ‘Mary Gilmore: Dreamer and Doer’, through the Henry Lawson Memorial and Literary Society in Melbourne, in 1939. She worked as a typist at the Australian Forestry School in Canberra, the Department of Defence in Melbourne and the Department of Air in Penrith, moving to Woodford in the Blue Mountains in 1955.

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

Juliet Schlunke grew up on a sheep and wheat farm in Temora, New South Wales, until she was 16. Schlunke went to Sydney in 1967 and studied art at various technical colleges and John Olsen’s Bakery Art School.

In 1976, having travelled in the United States and Europe, she settled in Madrid. Schlunke began painting fabrics in 1981 and has worked with decorators in Madrid, Studio Bach in Geneva, Paris and Provence.

Myrtle Rose White was an author who published a small number of works, including No Roads Go By, which was an account of life at Lake Elder, South Australia.

Myrtle produced two sequels to her debut publication; Beyond the Western Rivers in 1955 and From That Day To This in 1961.

Although she also wrote three novels, only For Those That Love It (1933) was published.

As a ballet dancer, Joan Gadsdon toured with the Kirsova Ballet and, from 1944, with Edouard Borovansky’s company in Australia.

Joan emigrated to London in 1947 and danced with the Metropolitan Ballet. She also performed in The Boy Friend on the West End for a number of years.

After her retirement from dancing, Joan worked as a portrait artist and art teacher.

Marian Margaret Clarke was a journalist and “ABC weekly” staff writer.

Ruth Pearce-Jones was a Sydney Soprano singer. She studied in both Austria and London before returning to Australia in 1939 with a signed contract with the Australian Broadcasting Commission. She went on an inter-state tour lasting eight weeks.