The Australian Women's Register

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Judi Moylan was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament in 1993 as the Member for Pearce, Western Australia. She was re-elected in 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010. During the early period of the Howard Government, she held the Ministerial portfolios of Family Services from 1996-1997 and Status of Women from 1997-1998. She has been a strong advocate for the Human Rights of asylum seekers.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Jane Gerick was elected to the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Australia as the Member for Canning, Western Australia in 1998. She remained in Parliament for one term only, as she was defeated at the 2001 election.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Wendy Fatin was elected to the House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament as the Member for Canning, Western Australia at the federal election, which was held in 1983. She was the first woman from Western Australia to be elected to the House of Representatives. At the 1984 election, following an electoral redistribution, she won the new seat of Brand, which she held until her retirement in 1996. Her Ministerial appointments included Local Government from 1990-1991 and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women. In December 1991 she was appointed Minister for the Arts and Territories, remaining in that position until after the 1993 election.

Born, educated and married in Scotland, Amelia Macdonald migrated to Australia in 1887, living first in Sydney where, for nine years, she ran a tailoring business. In 1896 she and her husband, Alexander, moved to Perth, where she lived for the rest of her life.

Her own experience of losing her mother at an early age, along with that of her niece who was orphaned as a young woman, no doubt made her acutely aware of the precariousness of women’s fortunes, and how intricately connected they were to those of men. Macdonald spent all her adult life working towards untangling these connections and reforming the legal, educational and social structures that operated to oppress women and children.

Connected to the church (she taught Anglican Sunday School classes), she was also deeply influenced by the ideas of the Theosophists. Their guiding ideals of spiritual force, service, social reform, universal education and equal citizenship provided the platform for the Women’s Services Guilds Of Western Australia, an organisation Macdonald helped to establish in 1909. She was also important on the establishment of the National Council of women in W.A. and she supported the Workers’ Educational Association and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

Mary Renowden was the first government official in Broken Hill, New South Wales, serving as postmistress from 1 January 1886.

With her friend and colleague Norma Parker, Constance Moffit was largely responsible for convincing the Catholic Church in Australia to establish the Catholic Social Service Bureau. The Melbourne branch of the CSSB opened in 1936, Sydney in 1941, and Adelaide in 1942.

After working in the hotel and catering industry, Cecilia Shelley took on an active role in the Hotel, Club, Caterers, Tearooms and Restaurant Employees Union (HCCT&REU). She became secretary in 1920 and under her influence the HCCT&REU became one of the largest predominantly female unions in the country. Shelley was also an active member of the Australian Labor Party.

Deborah Hackett was the wife of Sir John Hackett, and, after his death, she married Sir Frank Moulden. It was Lady Hackett-Moulden who called a meeting in May 1920 to oversee the reestablishment of the South Australian Council of Women. She was also State Commissioner of the Girl Guides Association.

In 1923, Lady Moulden (as she became after her second husband was knighted) joined F.W. Young to form a syndicate to mine tantalite at Wodgina. She became Chairman of Directors of Tantalite Ltd in 1931. She also held interests in wolfram and beryl mines in the Northern Territory, and a partnership in the Minilya Pastoral Company. The University of Western Australia conferred an honorary LLD on Lady Moulden in 1932. In 1936 she married Justice Basil Buller Murphy.

May Holman was the first Labor Party woman parliamentarian in Australia. Representing the Legislative Assembly seat of Forrest, she was also the first Labor woman MP to serve more than ten years in parliament.

Bonnie Giles studied journalism in Western Australia in the 1920s but struggled to balance study, work and family and failed to complete her diploma. This did not, however, stop her from establishing an enduring career. She wrote under a variety of pseudonyms for the Perth Daily Mail the best known of which – ‘Mary Ferber’ – became a household name. For twenty years her column, which was essentially a ‘Dorothy Dix’ column, was a ‘Monday must for her admirers’. Giles also used her column and considerable community standing to advance philanthropic causes that were close to her heart. She retired from journalism in 1969.

Winner in 2001 of the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism, Estelle Blackburn spent six years researching and investigating the cases of two men convicted of killing women in Perth in the 1960s. As a result of the fresh evidence she gained and her book on the case Broken Lives the State Attorney-General agreed to reopen the two separate cases of the convicted killers.

Muriel Chase ( nee Cooper) was well known for her community work, philanthropy, journalism and photography. A foundation member of the Karrakatta Club and the Women Writer’s Club, she was social editress of the West Australian from 1903.

Catholic social worker Eileen Davidson worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration’s child search operation, and for the International Refugee Organisation, after the Second World War. She raised ₤70,000 for the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.