The Australian Women's Register

Bennison Rodd is the daughter of Australian writers Kylie Tennant and Lewis Charles Rodd.

Val Plumwood was an eminent Australian environmental philosopher.

Dr Laura Forster was the first Australian doctor to head to the war in Belgium. She joined the British Field Hospital in Antwerp in September 1914.

Laura’s sister, Mrs H. E. Kater, provided funding to the Sydney University Women’s College in her memory, which was to provide for a series of lectures on hygiene. There was also a scholarship in her name.

May Victoria Brown was a miner, publican and business woman who played a pivotal role in the Northern Territories social and economic development, particularly in the areas mining industry. She was a flamboyant and outspoken woman who led a very colourful life.

Josephine Zammit emigrated to Australia from Malta with her husband Charles in 1952. In the late 1960s the couple became Australian representatives of the Malta Emigrants’ Commission and Josephine became involved in radio broadcasting as part of her welfare work with migrants. She was a pioneer of ethnic station 2EA in Sydney and continued her active involvement with ethnic radio broadcasting until the mid-1980s.

In 1978 she was awarded an MBE in the ‘ethnic community’ category, the first Maltese woman in Australia to be honoured in that way.

Grace Amelia Perry studied medicine at the University of Sydney. She had a home-based medical practice at Five Dock and served as an honorary physician at the Renwick Hospital for Infants and as an honorary paediatrician at the Fairfield District and South Sydney Women’s hospitals.

As a child, Grace had written poetry and three collections were published by Consolidated Press Ltd. She began writing poetry again in 1961 and the following year she joined the Poetry Society of Australia.

Grace was editor of Poetry Magazine from 1962-1964. After being expelled from the poetry society in 1964, she established a new Magazine Poetry Australia, which she edited until her death.

Perry won a medal at the New South Wales premier’s literary awards in 1985 and was appointed AM the next year. After failing to receive funding for two projects and feeling abandoned by her supporter, Grace committed suicide at her Berrima home on 3 July 1987.

Dr Isabel Ormiston had been working with the Red Cross in London before enlisting in the war effort in World War I. She worked at the Queen of the Belgians’ Hospital at Ostend and La Panne (1914-1915), the Wounded Allies Relief (W.A.R.) Hospital Montenegro (1916-1917), British Red Cross Depot Egypt (1916), and the W.A.R. Hospital Limoges.

Dr Ormiston was awarded the Montenegrin Red Cross and Orders of Danilo and the Nile. She later took up the position of Senior Lady Medical Officer, Egyptian Ministry of Education and in 1928 was awarded an MBE.

Paulette was one of three remarkable sisters who made history by becoming the first Australian women to own and run a film production company.

The trio were inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

Paulette was one of three remarkable sisters who made history by becoming the first Australian women to own and run a film production company.

The trio were inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

Paulette was one of three remarkable sisters who made history by becoming the first Australian women to own and run a film production company.

The trio were inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2001.

Jenny Morgan is a feminist legal scholar with a particular interest in theories of equality, reproductive issues, especially abortion law reform, and violence against women including sexual assault and the use by men of the provocation defence. She served as a member of the Committee for Gender Studies at the University of Melbourne from 1988.

In her Olympic debut in Rio de Janeiro, Lisa Darmanin took home silver in the mixed multi-hull Nacra 17 class alongside teammate and cousin Jason Waterhouse.

Rosemary Roebuck was the founder and first President of the Playgroup Association of N.S.W, a significant part of the newly emerging Australian playgroup movement that is still alive and well over 45 years later. She and her colleagues, with their young children, began organising and supporting playgroups from Balmain, New South Wales, in 1970, on a voluntary basis. Rosemary had previously trained as a pre-school teacher under Joan Fry, and worked in pre-schools and childcare. She spent some time working in early childhood in London before returning to Sydney with her husband, John, and first child. When her children were older she continued her career in early childhood.

Roslin Brennan Kemmis’s working life was committed to education in schools, TAFE/VET and universities, especially for disadvantaged people: Indigenous, prisoners, people with low levels of literacy. A Riverina resident for 40 years, she taught in secondary schools (full-time, 1972-1977), and kindergarten and primary schools (part-time, 1985-1988), and adult literacy (1989-1992). She also worked as a teacher in the Education Centre, Bendigo Prison (1983-1984). From 1978, she worked part time for Charles Sturt University (and its predecessor institutions), and full time as a Lecturer in Vocational Education and Training from 1997, then Senior Lecturer (2004). She was a member of the University Council 2000-2004, and Head of the School of Education (and Associate Professor) from 2008 until her retirement from full time work in 2012.

In 1987, with her then husband, the late Mark Brennan, she explored linguistic inequalities in the criminal justice system. Published as ‘Strange language: child victim witnesses under cross-examination’, this work had significant impact internationally and nationally on the language and treatment in courts of child victims.
As President of the NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations, 1992-1997, she was a fearless warrior, advocate and activist. She successfully advocated for the 40kpm school zones and the establishment of the Office of the Commission for Children and Young People. In 1999, she was appointed Member of the Order of Australia, for service to children and school education.

Between 1999 and 2006, she contributed significantly to research in vocational education and training (VET) including work on online pedagogies in VET, and apprenticeships and traineeships. In 2007, she was awarded the Carrick Medal for pioneering work embedding pathways from the VET to the university sector.

From 2013-2015, with Wiradjuri elders, Ros led the development and delivery of the ground-breaking CSU Graduate Certificate course in Wiradjuri Language, Culture and Heritage.

Chloe Esposito claimed Australia’s first medal in modern pentathlon when she won gold at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Heather George was a commercial photographer who began her career in Sydney, and also worked in Melbourne and regional Victoria. George was known for her industrial, fashion and outback photography.

Irene Brown was a self-taught, prize-winning amateur photographer from Hay, NSW. Her subjects included children at play, and everyday life in regional Australia.

Judith Fletcher is remembered for being one of the first women portrait photographers to work in Sydney (along with May and Mina Moore) and to establish her own studio.

Lucy Craigie was an amateur travel photographer who was active throughout Australia during the 1930s.

Elizabeth Nash-Boothby was a professional photographer known for her portraiture studies and her high society clientele.

Inspired by her newsreel photographer father, Adelie ‘Front Page’ Hurley is known as a pioneering woman press photographer; she was one of only three Australian women press photographers working in her time. She was fearless in pursuing her shots, and also fearless against the gender discrimination of her field, lasting over two decades in press photography. Her photographs include a diverse range of subjects, from army photography, vice squad busts, life at outback stations and taipan hunting.

Amelia Butler lived and worked in Tenterfield, NSW during the 1890s. Although she went on to become a successful studio photographer based in Sydney, Butler is best known for the photographs she took of Tenterfield and the surrounding districts in the 1890s.

Bernice Agar was a highly successful portrait photographer based in Sydney, whose work featured prominent Australian society figures. Agar was also an early fashion photographer. Widely published, her glamourous works were characterised by a strong preference for artificial light and crisp outlines. Her technique favoured strong frontal lighting. Few of her society portraits survive today.