Martin, Carol Anne

First Indigenous women to be elected to an Australian Parliament. In 2001, elected MLA (ALP) for Western Australian seat of Kimberley.

At the age of twelve, Martin was made a ward of the state. After her parents divorced she followed her mother, Rose Pilkington, to Broome. Here she worked as a social worker, after completing a business management course, although she had not completed her schooling. Martin moved north to Derby, where she met and married Brian Martin.
In 1992 she won a scholarship to study social work at Curtin University. Her husband and two children moved to Perth to be with her.
Before entering parliament Martin worked as a consultant providing support and counselling services for a number of community and interest groups.
Her interests include: fishing, camping, reading and spending time with her large extended family.

Sources: www.wa.alp.org.au/people/kimberley.html accessed 31/10/01;
www.federation.vic.gov.au/honour.html p. 134 accessed 31/10/01

Related Corporate Bodies

• EMILY's List Australia (1996 - )

  EMILY's List assisted Carol Martin, Member for Kimberley in Western Australia, to become the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to any Australian Parliament, in February 2001

See also

• Victorian Women's Roll of Honour: Women Shaping the Nation, 1 edn, Centurary of Federation Victoria, 2001, http://www.women.vic.gov.au/CA25666E00000B30/Images/CoFHR/$File/CoFHR.pdf. [ Details... ]
• Herd, Margaret (ed.), Who's who in Australia 2002, 38 edn, Crown Content, Melbourne, 2002, 2020 pp. [ Details... ]