The Australian Women's Register

Fanny Elizabeth Hunt was the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Sydney, graduating in 1888. She was appointed as first headmistress of Ipswich Girls Grammar School in 1892. Fanny Hunt was in charge of the school from its opening in 1892 until 1901, when she resigned because of ill-health. Her family had relocated to Toowoomba and after a restorative holiday Fanny Hunt founded Girton College in Toowoomba in about 1905. In 1915 the family moved to Sydney and settled at Rose Bay. Fanny Hunt died in Sydney in 1941.

Estelle Cribb was a first day pupil at Ipswich Girls Grammar School (IGGS) in 1892. She was the first woman to study for a Master of Arts, with Honours in Mathematics, from the University of Sydney. She graduated in 1901. After obtaining an Honours Diploma in Education, she was appointed Mathematical Mistress at IGGS in 1903. She held the position for 35 years, retiring in 1938. Estelle Cribb was an active member of the IGGS Old Girls’ Association, serving as President for 12 years. She was much loved and when she died on 5 November 1947 a memorial fund was established by the Old Girls’ Association. In 1952 commemorative gates were unveiled at the front of IGGS, which still commemorate her

Writing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Rosa Praed covered many genres in her extensive bibliography, including books for children as well as adults. Rosa Murray-Prior began writing in her teens, contributing résumés and stories to the family’s handwritten Marroon Magazine. She married Englishman Arthur Campbell Bulkley Praed, and four years later Rosa and her husband returned to England, where she continued to write. Praed revisited Australia only once, however she continued to rework her memories, and published her autobiography My Australian Girlhood in 1902. Other biographical work included Australian Life; Black and White (1885). She maintained contacts with relations and friends in Australia until her death. Writing as Mrs Campbell Praed, she produced more than forty-five books over the next four decades, approximately half of which deal with Australian material.

Estelle Thomson was a member of the Queensland Naturalists’ Club, contributing flowers, paintings and drawings to the club’s annual wildflower show. She published Flowers of Our Bush (1929), a guide to Queensland wildflowers, which described and illustrated coastal species. From 1929 to the 1930s Estelle ran a weekly ‘Wildflowers’ column in the Brisbane Courier, illustrated by her own line drawings. This was followed by her column ‘Nature’s Ways’ in the Telegraph which she maintained until 1950.

Additionally, Thomson lectured at women’s clubs and schools, illustrating her lectures with delicately hand-coloured lantern slides. During the 1940s Estelle gave a series of children’s talks on wildflowers on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and produced a series of paintings of poisonous plants for the University of Queensland’s Medical School. She deposited specimens in the Queensland Herbarium, including some collected on the Granite Belt and at Caloundra. Estelle was also an expert on Queensland birds.

Educated in Liverpool, England, Mary Agnew moved to Queensland in late 1890 to join the Queensland Department of Public Instruction, taking the position of Kindergarten Instructor. Agnew was given the task of raising the standard of education for young children. Applying the methods of Friedrich Frobel, Agnew introduced a syllabus based on the importance of education through activity and play, stressing that young children could not spend long periods of time each day engaged in intellectual learning. Influencing departmental policy on infant and kindergarten work, it was only in the last years of her career that her revolutionary work in pre-school education began to be implemented.

The Lyceum Club Brisbane, founded in 1919, was directly modelled on the London Lyceum Club. It is a club for women interested in the arts, science, contemporary issues and the pursuit of lifelong learning. The club is apolitical and non-sectarian. Membership of the club is open to women who have university, conservatorium or other tertiary qualifications of a standard approved by the Management Committee; have published original work in literature, science, art or music; or have given important public service

Immigrating to Australia in 1856 to begin her career as a teacher, Margaret Berry was soon appointed to the position of headmistress and teacher trainer at Brisbane National School in 1860. She later moved to the Brisbane Girls’ Normal School, where she became the first headmistress, serving there for forty-three years. Taking a stand for female teachers and students in Queensland, Berry was the only female teacher to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Education in 1874. She also campaigned for the equal pay of female teachers, as well as stressing her faith in the ability of senior girls to undertake advanced scientific subjects.  Late in her career, she became an official examiner of female teachers.

Berry always expected the highest standards from her pupils and above all, she wanted her them to maintain a cultured mind and charming personality.

Julie Attwood is an Australian Labor Party member (MP) of the Queensland Parliament for the seat of Mount Ommaney. She was elected 13 June 1998. Julie is currently Parliamentary Secretary to the Queensland Treasurer. Prior to her parliamentary career Julie was a manager at the Commonwealth Employment Service at Indooroopilly. She has a Graduate Diploma of Case Management and Client Service with Deakin University in Melbourne, Victoria.

One of the oldest women’s clubs in Queensland, the Brisbane Women’s Club was formed in 1908 under the sponsorship of the Queensland Women’s Electoral League. Originally called the Women’s Progressive Club, the name was changed to the Brisbane Women’s Club in May 1912. Ardent feminist and women’s rights campaigner Margaret Ogg was one of the 59 founding members.

The objectives of the club were to provide a social centre for women workers in the cause of reform and to encourage free discussion on subjects of public importance, including social, political and municipal matters. The club lobbied the Brisbane City Council and the State Government for the betterment of the community. In an effort to improve the life of rural women, the club was instrumental in the establishment of the Queensland Country Women’s Association in 1922 and the Bush Book Club in 1921. The Brisbane Women’s Club celebrated its centenary in 2008 and continues to provide a social and cultural centre with a philanthropic charter.

Veronica Lesley (“Bonny”) Barry was an Australian Labor Party member for the seat of Aspley. She was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 2001 and was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training and Minister for the Arts, Rod Welford. Barry lost her seat in the state election held 21 March 2009. Veronica is a registered nurse with over twenty years experience.

After marrying John Hubert Fraser Fairfax in 1899, Ruth Fairfax and her husband moved to Longreach, and then later Marinya, in Queensland. She was heavily involved in her local community teaching at the Sunday school, whilst also supporting the Bush Brotherhood and other Anglican organisations. She was awarded the Belgian Medal ‘de la Reine Elizabeth’ for her local efforts during the First World War. At a meeting in Albert Hall, Brisbane, in August 1922, Fairfax was appointed the first State President of the Queensland Country Women’s Association.

Eleanor Constance Greenham was the first native-born Queensland woman to graduate in medicine. The first student to be enrolled at Ipswich Girls Grammar School in 1892, she excelled academically, graduating from the University of Sydney in 1901. Later that year she began work as a resident medical officer at Lady Bowen Hospital in Brisbane, before leaving to work in a private practice in 1903. Paving the way for other Queensland women in the field of medicine, the Queensland Medical Women’s Society elected Greenham to honorary membership in 1945, as well as being made an honorary member of the British Medical Association (Queensland Branch) in 1953 for fifty years of uninterrupted membership.

Elizabeth Brentnall was state president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Queensland from 1886 to 1899 and afterwards an honorary life president until her death in 1909. She first called for women’s suffrage in her presidential address to the WCTU annual convention in 1888. The WCTU formed a separate suffrage department in 1891.

Tania Major first came to prominence in 2004 as the youngest person elected to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. In 2007 she was named Young Australian of the Year. She spoke to opinion makers, the public and government about sexual violence and rape in the Aboriginal community, asking Prime Minister John Howard to help lift the “blanket of shame” that was preventing such assaults being reported.

Henrietta Willmore received no formal musical training, but overcame this to emerge as a proficient pianist, much in demand in musical circles. As an accompanist or soloist in numerous concerts, she introduced a widening repertoire of classical music, frequently in collaboration with her friend Richard Thomas Jefferies. Her long teaching career began in 1867 through economic necessity when her husband’s attempt to establish a printery ended in insolvency. Henrietta became music mistress at Mrs Thomas’s Academy for Young Ladies. She pioneered organ recitals and organ-based concerts in Brisbane. She toured South Africa in 1896. Her final appearances were chamber music recitals in Brisbane in 1911 with members of the Jefferies family and her protégé Percy Brier.

Willmore believed in women’s political rights and responsibilities; serving on the executive of several women’s organizations. The Willmore Discussion Club was formed in 1931 in her honour. She was awarded the Medal de la Reine Elisabeth, a medal instituted on 15 September 1915 and awarded to both Belgians and non-Belgians for services to Belgium and its citizens as a consequence of the 1914-1918 war. It was awarded particularly for relief of the suffering of the civilian population and the sick and wounded.

Ruby Hutchison was the first woman elected to the Legislative Council in Western Australia, and the first to take her place in any Australian Council. She was the only female member of the Chamber during this period. Her work enabled the introduction of the first law to enable women to serve on juries, and she founded the West Australian Epilepsy Association to fight discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities.

Mary Marguerite Leneen Forde was admitted as a solicitor in Queensland in 1970, one of only six women in her graduating class. After a distinguished legal career, she was appointed Governor of Queensland a position she held from 1992 until 1997. When she was appointed, she was only the second woman to hold the position of governor of an Australian state and the first to take on the role in Queensland. In 1998 Forde was appointed to Chair the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions. Her report was handed down in May 1999.

Go to ‘Details’ below to read an essay written by Leneen Forde for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Gertrude Concannon was a highly successful Australian-trained lyric soprano. Later in her life she contributed to Australian music with equal significance through her teaching, composition, and encouragement of younger musicians.

Margaret Ogg is best known for her extensive political, social and feminist activities. Additionally she was a poet, writer and an accomplished musician, playing viola in the family quartet, as well as holding membership with the Musical Association. A staunch monarchist and anti-socialist, Ogg actively toured outback townships in Queensland promoting women’s suffrage, and encouraging pioneer women to become involved in state and national affairs. As founder, co-founder and member of many Queensland women’s organisations, she was consistently at the forefront of political and social campaigns to secure reforms for the Queensland’s women and children. Ogg remained an active member of the Brisbane political and cultural scene up until her death.

Patience Rosemary Thoms was elected as the eighth president of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women at the Eleventh International Congress (1968) in London, England and held that position until 1971. She was the first International President from Australia, and also the first from the Southern Hemisphere. She had previously served as Australian President from 1960-1964. She was the Women’s News Editor of The Courier Mail for twenty years from 1956.

Mary was known for her selfless work in the Brisbane community. She was a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and became founding secretary of the Brisbane Benevolent Society, which helped people in distress following the disastrous floods in south-east Queensland in 1893. She was honorary secretary (vice-president 1912-28) of the committee of Lady Musgrave Lodge, a home for nurses and single female immigrants. As Queensland representative for the Travellers’ Aid Society, she maintained contact with the British Women’s Emigration League. She served on the ladies’ management committee of the Hospital for Sick Children in 1894 – 1924.

Mary was president of the Young Women’s Christian Association of Brisbane (1902-12), honorary president to 1921, then honorary life president. She was vice-president of the Queensland division of the British (Australian) Red Cross Society during World War I and in 1921 patroness of St David’s Welsh Society of Queensland—Sir Samuel had been founding patron in 1918. Other organizations to which she contributed her intelligence and energy were the National Council of Women, the Brisbane City Mission, the Queensland auxiliary of the London Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Queensland Women’s Electoral League, the Protestant Federation, the United Sudan Mission and the Charity Organisation Society. In 1911 she was appointed a lady of grace of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem and was invested at Government House, Brisbane.

Kate Cable was the longest serving postmistress in Australia. On 1 July 1927 she was appointed postmistress at Macrossan, on the Flinders Highway, west of Townsville, earning 15/- per week.

Kate outlived the official history records of the postal service of Queensland. Her 59 years service at the Macrossan post office officially ended when the exchange went automatic on 31 March 1986; however Kate continued to maintain her links with Australia Post and the district, acting as Community Mail Agent for the collection and distribution of mail. Her duties as a postmistress involved sorting incoming and outgoing mail, banking, money orders and operating the old cordless pyramid switchboard.

Trained in Adelaide, Dr Ethel Ambrose applied to the Poona and Indian Village Mission established by Tasmanian evangelist Charles Reeve. Ambrose worked at the mission hospital in Nasrapur from 1905, moving to Pandharpur in 1909 where she led fundraising efforts for a hospital. By the time of her death in 1934, the mission’s medical program had reached over 300 Indian villages.

With her husband, clergyman Mervyn Archdall, Martha pushed for the establishment of a deaconess institution at Balmain, New South Wales, in 1885. Bethany was opened in 1891 with Canon Archdall as director. It was Martha who opened a parish school, and by 1900 Bethany had schools at Balmain, Lewisham, Dapto and Bega.

Louisa Ardill was matron-superintendent of the Home of Hope for Fallen Women (later the South Sydney Women’s Hospital) in New South Wales.

The Women’s Theatre Group was active in Adelaide from 1975 to 1989. The group wrote, produced, directed, scored, performed and built the stage for their productions. They performed cabaret and theatrical works. All-women productions were a first in Adelaide. The women worked through a collective. They won the Adelaide Festival Centre best production award for ‘Redheads Revenge’ in 1978.

Other productions included ‘Christobel in Paris’ 1975, ‘Caroline Chisel Show’ 1976, International Women’s Day Concert and ‘Chores 1’ in 1977, ‘Chores 2’ and ‘I want I want’ 1979, ‘Out of the Frying Pan’ 1980,’ Onward to Glory’ 1982, ‘Margin to Mainstream’ and ‘Women and Work Women and Paid Work’ 1984, ‘Sybils Xmas Concert ‘1985, and 1989 ‘Is this Seat Taken?’, this last show explored relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women. The group included the Women in Education Theatre Group and the Feminist Theatre Group.

The Adelaide Women’s Liberation Movement Archive was established in 1984 by a concerned group of women who wanted to preserve the history of what was called the second wave of feminism. With the aid of the Community Employment Program and the feminist community, memorabilia was collected along with the papers of a variety of groups and individuals. The material was collected from late 1969 through to 2008.