The Australian Women's Register

Amy Grace Wheaton (born in Gawler, South Australia in 1898 as Amy Grace Priest) originally trained as a teacher, and completed BA and MA degrees while teaching in various high schools in South Australia. She married Ralph Wheaton in 1925, and spent the next 10 years in Europe, undertaking post-graduate studies in social sciences at the London School of Economics, as well as travelling extensively. Wheaton became the first Director of the South Australian Board of Social Studies (established in 1935 as the Board of Social Service Study and Training). She held this role, which entailed directing the professional education for social workers in Adelaide, for 23 years. Wheaton was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 8 June 1939 for this work. She was instrumental in the acceptance, in 1942, and the ongoing development, of the Diploma of Social Science at the University of Adelaide. Wheaton was President of the Social Worker’s Association of South Australia, and from 1946 vice-president of the Australian Association of Social Workers. In the same year she was co-founder and vice-president of the South Australian Council of Social Service. Wheaton also taught and worked overseas, including in America and Pakistan, in the late 1950s. She died on 12 February 1988, in her ninetieth year.