The Australian Women's Register

A self-taught anthropologist, Daisy Bates conducted fieldwork amongst several Indigenous nations in western and southern Australia. She supported herself largely by writing articles for urban newspapers on such topics as ‘native cannibalism’ and the ‘doomed’ fate of Indigenous peoples. Bates also published her work on Indigenous kinship systems, marriage laws, language and religion in books and articles. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for Aboriginal welfare work in 1934.

Bates’ birth year was changed from 1863 to 1859 on 16 January 2018 after consulting the references in Bob Reece’s work Daisy Bates: Grand dame of the desert and Susanna De Vries’ book Desert Queen: The many lives and loves of Daisy Bates.

Teacher, kindergarten activist, and philanthropist, Ada Mary a’Beckett was born in Adelaide in 1872. Throughout her career she worked as a demonstrator and lecturer in biology at the University of Melbourne as well as teaching at various schools throughout Victoria. She was very closely involved in the kindergarten movement, helping to establish the Kindergarten Training College in Kew. Ada was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 3 June 1935, and had a kindergarten named after her the following year. She died in 1948 in Melbourne.

Nancy Cato was an acclaimed author. She published several historical novels and biographies and two volumes of poetry. Cato was also a strong campaigner for environmental conservation.

Lillian Holt was a member of the first generation of Aboriginal high school and university graduates and had an impressive track record of full time work, study and concomitant achievements. She traversed new terrain in order that younger ones might follow.

Lillian worked or studied full time since the age of 17. She worked as an educator in Aboriginal affairs and education “25 hours a day, eight days a week”! She was appointed as a University of Melbourne Fellow in 2003 -2005, prior to that she was Director of the Centre for Indigenous Education, University of Melbourne.

Lillian Holt passed away on her birthday in February 2020, at the age of 75.

In 1919, Susan Benny was elected a member of South Australia’s Brighton Council, thus becoming Australia’s first woman politician. She held her seat for two elections and left local government after failing to become mayor in 1922.

Margaret Reid is the first woman to have been elected President of the Senate. She held this position for six years, from 20 August 1996 to 18 August 2002. In 2004 she was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia for her service to the Australian Parliament and the community.

Chris Gallus was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on 26 November 2001.

She was elected to the House of Representatives (Liberal Party) in 1990 for the seat of Hawker, which was later abolished, and for the seat of Hindmarsh in 1993 and subsequent elections.

Elected to the Senate for South Australia in 1984 (Liberal Party), Amanda Vanstone was appointed Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women on 30 January 2001.

Amana Vanstone was honoured with an AO in the Australia Day Honours list in 2020 for distinguished service to the Parliament of Australia, to the people of South Australia, and to the community.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Trish Worth was elected to the House of Representative of the Australian Parliament as the Member for Adelaide, South Australia in 1993. She was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing on 26 November 2001 in the Howard Government. She was defeated at the 2004 election.

Spence ran as a South Australian delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention in 1897, the first woman political candidate in Australia. She was also active in the Women’s Suffrage League and the South Australian National Council of Women.

Marcus’s doctoral research was on the impact of Islam on the lives of Turkish women. She has published articles on racism, gender and sexuality in Australian culture. Also Marcus research interests include the Arrernte opposition to the damming of the Todd River in Alice Springs as well as collecting material on the life of Olive Pink.
(Source: Australian Garden History.)

Margaret Preston was the first woman to be commissioned by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to produce a self-portrait. In 1996 one of her hand-coloured woodcuts of a Western Australian banksia from 1929 was commemorated on an Australia Day postage stamp.

While studying at the Adelaide School of Design under H P Gill, Principal, and Louis Tannert, Master of the School of Painting, Rosa Fiveash chose to specialise in painting Australian flora. She was commissioned by the conservator of forests, John Ednie Brown, to illustrate his Forest Flora of Australia and orchidologist R S Rogers to illustrate his works on South Australian orchids. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and the State Herbarium have a collection of her original flower paintings. It was Fiveash who introduced the art of china painting to Adelaide.

A council member of the Invergowrie Foundation, Ruth Tideman was Headmistress of Lauriston Girls’ School, Armadale (Victoria) from 1983 to 2000.

On 26 January 2001 Ruth Tideman was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to education as the Headmistress of Lauriston Girls’ School and for providing advancement opportunities for teachers and pupils through the Invergowrie Foundation.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Bronwyn Pike entered the Victorian Parliament in 1999 as the Member for Melbourne in the Legislative Assembly. Her ministerial portfolios included Community Services and Housing. After the 2002 election she became Minister for Health. She was re-elected in 2006 at the state election, held on 25 November, and in August 2007 was appointed Minister for Education in the Brumby Government on the retirement of Steve Bracks as Premier.
She was re-elected in 2010, but the Labor Government was defeated. She resigned from parliament on 7 May 2012.

Prior to entering Parliament, she worked as a secondary school teacher, Director of Justice and Social Responsibility, Executive Officer and Union Official.

Vivian Bullwinkel was the sole survivor of the 1942 Banka Island massacre. Post-war, she was Matron of Melbourne’s Fairfield Hospital.

Pat Giles commenced her working life as a nurse. After completing a Bachelor of Arts as a mature age student, she was an Organiser with the Hospital Employees Union of Western Australia from 1974 until 1981. In that year Giles was elected as an Australian Labor Party (ALP) Senator for Western Australia, and held the position for twelve years. During this time she was directly involved in the United Nations Decade for Women meetings, leading the government delegation to Nairobi in 1985.

Giles was a founding member and inaugural convenor of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) WA in 1973 and was the first woman on the executive of the West Australian Trades and Labour Council. She was a member, later Chairperson, of the first Australian Council of Trade Unions Women’s Committee. In 2004 Giles completed her third and final term as President of the International Alliance of Women. In 2010, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.

On 11 June 2001, Haines became a Member of the Order of Australia ‘for service to the Australian Parliament and to politics, particularly as Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Democrats, and to the community.’

Haines was appointed to the Senate to fill a casual vacancy in South Australia in 1977. In 1986 she became the first woman to lead an Australian political party when she was elected leader of the Australian Democrats.

(Source: http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours_list/resultDetail.cfm?awardsID=709341 accessed 17/04/2002 and Emma Grahame in Australian Feminism: A Companion.)

Pru Goward served as Executive Director of the Office of the Status of Women from 1997. In July 2001 she became the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, appointed for a term of five years. In 2004 she was also appointed Commissioner Responsible for Age Discrimination.

In 2004 she was nominated by The Australian as one of the forty most influential Australians and by the Australian Financial Review as one of the country’s top cultural and industrial relations influencers. Her speeches have been reproduced in published collections and in 2001 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for her services to journalism and women’s rights.

In 2007 she stood successfully as a candidate for the Liberal Party of Australia in the seat of Goulburn in the Legislative Assembly at the New South Wales state election, which was held on 24 March. She was re-elected in 2011 and again in 2015 and is a minister in the Liberal state government.

Kate Deakin (1850-1937) was Alfred Deakin’s sister and close companion. She was tutor to his two eldest children and taught music at various times during her life.

On 1 June 1953 May Douglas was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in recognition for her service as Commissioner of Girl Guides in South Australia. She was also awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia on 26 January 1997 for service to veterans, particularly through the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps Association, and the Australia Remembers 1945-1995 Celebrations.

Orphaned at the age of five, Ethel Davidson grew up with her half-brothers and sisters – children from her father’s first marriage. After completing her nursing training at Adelaide Hospital, she worked in district and private nursing.

In 1904 Davidson became a reserve member of the Australian Army Nursing Service, enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force in 1914. During World War I she was stationed at Mena, Cairo, where she was mentioned in despatches. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal, 2nd class, for her nursing service in England and France. On 3 June 1919 Davidson was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Military) for services to army nursing.

After leaving the army, Davidson became matron of the military hospital at Keswick (SA), a post she held until her retirement in 1933. From 1922 to 1926 she was president of the Returned Army Nurses’ Association of South Australia. In 1924 the Association became a sub-branch of the Returned Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Imperial League.

Ethel Davidson never married and died on 21 April 1939. She is buried in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) cemetery, West Terrace, Adelaide.

During her career Ruth Gibson served on the University Public Examinations Board, the Technical Schools Curriculum Board and the Social Studies Committee. As well she was a foundation member and honorary treasurer of the Australian College of Education, a member of the foundation committee of the St Ann’s College and a president of the South Australian Women Graduates’ Committee. Over many years Gibson was a committee member or office-bearer in the National Council of Women of South Australia; the National Council of Women of Australia; the International Council of Women; the Royal Flying Doctor Service (SA Section); the Adelaide YWCA; The Adelaide College of Education; the Status of Women Commission; the Soroptimists’ Clubs; the SA University Women Graduates’ Association; the Australian Association United Nations; the Good Neighbour Council; St Ann’s Women’s University College; the Junior Red Cross; the Australian Broadcasting Commission; the Churchill Scholarships Foundation; and the National Fitness Council.

During World War II Gwenneth Gehan served with the Australian Women’s Army Service, having been a member of the Women’s Australian National Services previously. Upon completion of the Officers’ Training Course she was posted to the Quartermaster’s Department, Victoria Barracks, Sydney. Later she transferred to the Recruit Training School, Killara and towards the end of 1942 accompanied a draft of Signalwomen to Queensland. At the time of her discharge on 23 April 1946 Gehan held the rank of Major.

Mary Tenison Woods (née Kitson) was the first woman to graduate in law in South Australia. She was admitted to the bar on 20 October 1917. Her application to become a public notary in 1921 led to a change in the law: the existing Act did not include women as ‘persons’.

When Mary married in 1924 her partners did not wish to work with a married woman. Mary left the firm and formed a new partnership in 1925, in what may have been the first female practice in Australia. In the mid 1930s, Mary moved to Sydney and worked as a legal editor.

Following the failure of her marriage to Julian Tenison Woods, she moved to Sydney with her son, where she worked as a legal editor. In 1941 she became a member of the Child Welfare Advisory Council (NSW), held many honorary positions and served on a number of boards. Mary lectured at the university on legal aspects of social work and wrote several legal textbooks on a range of subjects.

In 1950 Tenison Woods was appointed chief of the office of the status of women in the division of human rights, United Nations Secretariat, New York. During her term two major conventions were adopted: the Convention of the Political Rights of Women (1952), the first international law aimed at the granting and protection of women’s full political rights, and the Convention of the Nationality of Married Women (1957) which decreed that marriage should not affect the nationality of a wife.

On 13 June 1959 Mary Tenison Woods was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for public service, especially with the United Nations. Previously she had been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 8 June 1950 for services to child welfare.

Edith Baker undertook her nursing training at Memorial Hospital, Adelaide and then worked in South Africa and England before being appointed to the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service (RAAFNS) in 1941. Baker rose to the position of area matron before being discharged on 8 May 1944.

Margaret Berry’s distinguished career in the Australian armed forces began in October 1941. She was one of the original officers of the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS) and was in charge of the first AWZS training school at Mt Lofty. Other posts included being Assistant Controller with the Tasmanian Line of Command Area, the Second Australian Army and the 4th Military District.

Upon leaving the AWAS in 1947 with the rank of major, Berry travelled to Britain and joined the Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC). Commissioned with the rank of captain, she is thought to be the only Australian woman to have achieved this. Her experiences in the WRAC included:

• company command in Northern Ireland,
• commanding officer in Kent,
• promotion to lieutenant-colonel with a posting to Egypt where she commanded a WRAC battalion of 400 women,
• service as adviser to the Commander-in-Chief on matters relating to women,
• a tour of duty to Cyprus, including the 1956 transfer of the WRAC to Cyprus.

Margaret Berry returned to Australia in 1958 and devoted much of her time to caring for her mother and then her brother. She died in the same North Adelaide street she was born in, in September 2000.

Her family remembers her as ‘an incredibly worldly woman, always up to date yet timeless.’