The Australian Women's Register

Raised in a small farming community at Moulyinning, the Pearce sisters – May, Jean, Morna and Caroline – came to prominence in women’s hockey in that State from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s. May, Jean and Morna Pearce all went on to captain both State and national teams. Caroline ‘Tib’ Pearce played at State and national levels.

Louise Sauvage is a professional athlete and Paralympian who dominated the world of wheelchair track and road racing for well over a decade. Over the course of her career, Sauvage won nine Paralympic gold medals, four Boston Marathons, and was four times the winner of the 800m Wheelchair Exhibition Race at the IAAF World Athletic Championships. She holds world records in the 1500m, 5000m and 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Louise Sauvage was Australian Female Athlete of the Year in 1999, and International Female Wheelchair Athlete of the Year in 1999 and 2000.

Born in St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Emily Pelloe was educated at a private school in South Yarra before moving with her family to Western Australia. In 1902 she was married in Perth to Theodore Parker Pelloe, a bank manager. The pair had no children.

A member of the Perth Riding Club, Pelloe competed successfully in equestrian events in Sydney, Melbourne, Launceston and Perth. She made several long rides in New South Wales and Western Australia. In 1916 she turned her talents to the study of botany, and went on to produce a number of illustrated publications including Wildflowers of Western Australia. Some of her landscape watercolours were purchased by government departments.

From 1920, Pelloe was writing the ‘Women’s Interests’ column for the West Australian. She supported the Country Women’s Association, the Women Writers’ Club, and the Women’s Riding Club. A year after her death, Pelloe’s husband Theodore presented 400 of her wildflower paintings to the University of Western Australia.

Described as ‘the cornerstone of Australia’s golden era in women’s hockey’, Rechelle Hawkes was one of the world’s most highly decorated hockey players. She had her international debut in 1985 and retired in 2000, playing an Australian record 279 international matches and winning multiple gold medals in major competitions along the way. She won three Olympic Games gold medals (1988, 1996, 2000), two World Cups (1994, 1998) and five Champions Trophies (1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999). She was a member of the team that won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998. She is the most successful female player in international Hockey history

Hawkes had bad luck with injuries early in her career, but this did not stop her from taking her place in the team that won Olympic gold in 1988 in Seoul. In 1993, she was appointed team captain and led the team that compiled an unbeaten streak of 31 games leading into the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, and which eventually went on to beat South Korea 3-1 in the final.

After Atlanta, Hawkes took some time off the game to contemplate her future. She decided to go for Olympic gold one more time and was given the honour of reading the Athletes’ Oath at the opening ceremony in Sydney. Two weeks later, she played her last international game and claimed her third Olympic gold medal.

Hawkes was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Western Australian Hall of Champions in 2005.

Nancy Reardon was a gifted Tasmanian athlete who excelled in rowing and netball.

Priya Cooper was born with Cerebral Palsy and began swimming at a young age for therapy. In 1991, whilst swimming at a school carnival, Priya was selected to represent Wheelchair Sports Western Australia at the 1991 National Wheelchair Games, winning 9 gold medals. Priya debuted internationally at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona, winning three gold medals and two silver medals and breaking two world records. Her performances earnt Priya an Order of Australia Medal. She went on to further success at Paralympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000.

In 1995, Cooper was named the Paralympian of the Year, in 1999 she was acknowledged as Young Australian of the Year (Sport) edging out Pat Rafter and Ian Thorpe, who were both finalists.

In September 1960, seven months after the death of Mary Bertha Raine, the Sunday Mirror was reporting with incredulity that ‘The singing barmaid of a dilapidated outback New South Wales pub became the woman who left most of her £439,626 estate to the University of Western Australia Medical School. The bequest will bring her total gifts to the University to nearly £750,000’.

The Catholic Migrant Centre has been crucial to the provision of support services to immigrants to Perth for over twenty years.

Nance Loney, a once only candidate (ALP, New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Vaucluse, 1981), continues to take an active part in matters of politics and public policy.

Helen Corbett, of Yinggarda and Bibbulman descent, was educated in Carnarvon, Perth and Sydney. She was Director of Studies at Tranby Aboriginal Cooperative College in Sydney. She also worked as executive officer in the Western Australian Aboriginal Legal Service, the largest of its kind in Australia, operating 13 branches and providing legal services to over 48,000 Aboriginal people in that state.

In 1983 Corbett co-founded the Committee to Defend Black Rights (CDBR), and became its national chairperson. The Committee was at the forefront of a national and international campaign which forced the federal government to establish the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Helen has represented the Committee at national and international meetings, and has travelled widely to advocate indigenous interests. She is also vice-president of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation and has received a number of awards and scholarships in recognition of her work.

Julie Tommy, of Innawongia descent, grew up on the Onslow Native Welfare Reserve where her family was relocated from their traditional land in the Tom Price/Paraburdoo area of Western Australia. Her primary school years were spent in a native welfare hostel near the Onslow Reserve, and she had little interaction with her family.

Tommy commenced a social work degree at Curtin University before working with the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (ACCA) from 1980 to 1986. She became Coordinator of the Agency and attended national conferences on child care.

Patricia Torres, of Yawuru, Nyikina, Bardi, Punuba and Walmatjarri descent, was born in Broome, Western Australia. She completed a secretarial training course, a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Diploma of Education.

Torres became a health worker with the national Aboriginal trachoma program in Western Australia. In 1978 she became a Legal Aid Field Officer with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, where she designed and conducted a statewide socioeconomic survey of Aboriginal families. She was a Curriculum Development Officer with the state Education Department in Hobart during 1981. Upon her return to Western Australia, she was appointed Secretary to the Kimberley Land Council at Derby. From 1982 to 1989 she worked for the federal Department of Education and Youth Affairs, serving in Broome, Darwin and Canberra.

Since then, Torres has concentrated on writing, art and community work. She has recorded Kimberley oral history, published a couple of bilingual children’s books which she also illustrated, created posters for national events and recordings of stories. She has worked with many Kimberley community organisations, including the Yawuru Aboriginal Corporation, Winarn Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, Magabala Books and the Broome Aboriginal Media Association.

Sally Morgan is a renowned Aboriginal artist and author of the award-winning My Place.

Mundja, of Kukatja descent, was born at Naaru in the Canning stock route area of the Great Sandy Desert in northern Western Australia. Her husband, a much older man, had several wives and caused her a leg injury which brought her ongoing trouble. In the 1940s her family moved out of the desert to Balgo.

Mundja spoke several languages from her area, and was a custodian of many songs, ceremonies and dances, especially women’s. She was one of the two women leaders in the important, partly secret Djuluru Dreaming complex that travelled through the Kimberleys and the Northern Territory. She travelled widely to ceremonial gatherings at places such as Yuendumu, Kintore, Christmas Creek, Jigalong and Wiluna, and to Broome and Derby, to renew contacts with relatives and create new friendships. She acted as an adviser on Aboriginal traditions in the local school, and was nominated as a local Justice of the Peace. She was also engaged in the women’s art movement at Balgo.

June Oscar, of Punuba descent, was born in 1962 at Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia. She was sent to Perth for her secondary education at the John Forrest senior high school. She left school at the age of 16.

After returning to Fitzroy Crossing, Oscar worked for the state community welfare and health departments. She later became a women’s resource officer with the Junjuwa community. She chaired the Marra Worra Worra resource agency until 1991, when she was appointed to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission for a two-year term as a commissioner.

She was a principal of Bunuba Productions, which made the film Jandamarra, based on the life of ‘Pigeon’, the leader of Punuba resistance against European settlement.

Doris Pilkington is the author of Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence; the story on which Phillip Noyce’s celebrated feature film is based.

Mary Ann Bin-Sallik has played a monumental role in the advancement of Aboriginal studies with a proliferation of posts in the tertiary sector. She has been part of government committees of inquiry into Aboriginal employment; discrimination in employment; and the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

In 2017, Mary Ann Bin-Sallik was made an Officer in the General division of the Order of Australia ‘for distinguished service to tertiary education as an academic, author and administrator, particularly in the area of Indigenous studies and culture, and as a role model and mentor.

Gloria Brennan, of Pindiini (Nyanganyatjara) descent, was born in 1948 in the eastern goldfields of Western Australia. She graduated in linguistics and anthropology from the University of Western Australia in 1978.

Brennan was one of the founders of the Aboriginal Medical Service and Aboriginal Legal Service in Western Australia. She continued her work in Canberra with the Equal Employment Opportunity Bureau of the Public Service Board. She was Aboriginal Australian delegate to the Second World African and Black Festival of Arts and Culture in 1977 and travelled extensively, making contacts with other indigenous people. She was also a classical pianist. Brennan died of cancer in 1985.

The West Australian Housewives’ Association was formed in 1920 for the purpose of protecting the interests of housewives. The final meeting of the Executive was held 3 April, 1984.

Joan Winch grew up in Fremantle, Western Australia. In 1977 she gained a Bachelor of Applied Science in Nursing at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University). She went on to study midwifery and child care, becoming a triple certificated sister.

Since 1975 she has been continually involved in the Perth Aboriginal Medical Service. In 1982 she started up a mobile unit, driving around the Swan Valley fringe dwellers’ camps, servicing medical needs and assisting Nyungars to hospitals. In 1983 she founded the Aboriginal Health Workers Program, Marr Mooditj college, in Perth, integrating traditional Aboriginal approach to health and healing with western medicine.

Joan Winch was awarded her PhD in Aboriginal Studies from the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in May 2011. On the recommendation of each of her examiners, she also received a commendation from the Chancellor. Her PhD was executively approved on the 11th of May, four weeks before her 76th birthday. Her doctoral thesis presented a history of Marr Mooditj using an auto-ethnographic approach.

Dr Winch was named WA Citizen of the Year in 1986, State and National Aboriginal of the Year in 1987, and in the same year received the World Health Organisation Sasakawa Award for Primary Health Care Work on behalf of Marr Mooditj. She served as Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Studies between 1999 and 2001. In 2008 she received Curtin University’s John Curtin Medal for her services to the community.

Shirley McPherson was born in 1948 in Perth, Western Australia. A champion schoolgirl athlete, she also excelled academically and won a teaching bursary on completing her leaving certificate at Dominican ladies college, Dongara. She completed a three-year accountancy course at the Western Australia Institute of Technology in 1967 and, in 1974, opened her own tax consultancy business in Perth. When the family moved to Geraldton, she worked as a tax agent there.

She was appointed a commissioner of the Aboriginal Development Commission in 1983 and became full-time chairperson in 1986. Despite the commission’s growing budgets and staff levels, McPherson’s nine fellow commissioners were dismissed by Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Gerry Hand, in 1988, and she only retained her position because it was an appointment made by the Governor-General. The new commissioners twice passed motions of censure against her.

Disappointed, McPherson resigned in 1989 and returned to Western Australia. She resumed accountancy and also worked as a consultant on Aboriginal affairs to the state government.

The Zonta Club of Perth, a women’s service club, was founded in 1971. It is part of Zonta International, a world-wide organisation of business and professional women working together to advance the legal, political, economic and professional status of women. Zonta clubs support Zonta International service and award programmes, and also provide support for local community projects by fundraising or active involvement, particularly those dealing with women’s issues such as economic self-sufficiency, legal equality, access to education and health, and eradication of violence.

The Zonta Club of Sydney was chartered in 1966. Originally part of District 16, the Zonta Club of Sydney now belongs to District 24.

Bessy Cameron was educated at a ‘native institution’ (later known as Annesfield) at Albany, opened in 1852 by Anne Camfield, a teacher and governess. Bessy took her certificate of Proficiency with honours, and was sent to Sydney to attend a ‘model school’, where she became an accomplished pianist. In 1866 she returned to Albany to help Mrs Camfield in the school and was employed as church organist. In 1867 Bessy was sent to the Moravian Ramahyuck mission as a teacher. Not being able to marry a European man of her choice, she was transferred to Lake Tyers, were she married Donald Cameron, a Jupagilwournditch man from Ebenezer in 1868. Bessy lost her initiative and enthusiasm, which was reflected in a marked deterioration in her status. Her married years were spent moving from Ramahyuck to Lake Tyers and back, in a struggle to support her four surviving children. Her marriage deteriorated, and in 1887 Bessy fell seriously ill following another miscarriage. The rest of her life was spent battling to prevent the forceful removal of her children and grandchildren.

Daisy Bindi was born probably around 1904 on the Western Australian edge of the Gibson Desert. She learned to do housework and to ride and manage horses while working on ‘Ethel Creek’ station from an early age. In the 1940s she organised a strike of Aboriginal workers on the stations near her, despite the threats by the police and Native Welfare Department that she would be removed from the area. Her initiative was largely responsible for spreading the strike to the further inland Pilbara stations; the strike changed the structure of labour relations in the north of the State. In the 1950s Daisy lived with others in a well-ordered collective, the Pindan Cooperative, the first Aboriginal cooperative formed in Western Australia. When she visited Perth for the first time in October 1959, she spent much time lobbying for a school for Pindan. Her later visit to Perth gave her the opportunity to associate with women who supported the Aboriginal cause at the Union of Australian Women.

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.