The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Kathleen Trevelyan (nee Hayes) was an early chairman of the Discrimination Board and also served as an alderman at the Ku-ring-gai Council in the 1960s. Trevelyan attended New Zealand’s Epsom Girls’ Grammar in Auckland and studied Arts at Victoria College, Wellington. In 1938, she was appointed secretary of the Wellington branch of the Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children, also known as the Plunket Society. After coming to Sydney in the late 1930s, she worked in Chalfont Chambers, later becoming associate to Mr Justice (later Sir) Bernard Sugerman of the Land and Valuation Court. During her associateship, she undertook a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1959. On 29 February 1957, she became the seventh woman to sign the Bar Roll of counsel and to actively practise at the New South Wales Bar. She had a broad practice with an emphasis on family law. In time she became the head of chambers at Parramatta. In the 1960s, she was honorary secretary and then vice-president of the Women Lawyers’ Association of New South Wales.