The Australian Women's Register

Major Hilda Florence Meyer was appointed Assistant Controller Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS) Land Headquarters (L.H.Q) and she served in this capacity from November 1942 until August 1944. She attended the third Australian Women’s Services Administrative School in Melbourne, which was established in 1943, to gain advanced training in Army organisation and administration. Courses were held at the school between October 1943 and July 1945. Major Meyer was appointed Deputy Assistant Controller AAMWS Headquarters, Western Command, to administer the movement and placement of AAMWS in Western Australian medical units between 1944 and 1945.

Source used to compile this entry: From Blue to Khaki by Betty Mount-Batten p. 48

Before enlisting in the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC) in 1960, June Healy was a member of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corp. She attended the 9/60 Officer Cadet Course (OCS) and was then posted as Adjutant/Quartermaster at 31 WRAAC Barrack Melbourne and in 1962 to WRAAC School as Adjutant (CMF).

After her marriage to Major John Healy in 1963, June held an assortment of positions, usually in the area of training and office management, wherever her husband was posted. Also she worked as a volunteer on numerous Army Wives Committees and helped in setting up the first Thrift Shop at the Canungra Land Welfare Centre to assist in the funding of the local Girl Guides. In 1978 Healy became a member of the WRAAC Association and has served as the State vice-president and president of the ACT Association. From 1995 until 1999 she was National president. Since 1981 Healy has been a foundation member of the Defence Widows Support Group. This group assists defence widows whose husbands were not killed during war service, did not die of war caused disabilities and therefore do not qualify for a War Widows’ Pension. On 11 June 1990 June Healy was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to veterans. In 1994 she became a member of the War Widows’ Guild of Australia (ACT) and was State president from 1995 to 1998 and National president from 1998 to 2002.

In October 2002 June Healy joined the Australian Women in War Project representing the War Widows’ Guild of Australia.

Originally a ballerina in Perth, Western Australia, Joan Dowson served throughout World War II as a nurse. She continued her association with the Australian Red Cross throughout her life.

Sally Carlton was superintendent in Western Australia of the Australian Women’s Land Army during the Second World War.

Born in Perth, she attended Perth College and became a ‘Girl Friday.’ Later she joined the West Australian newspaper and was in charge of the file room. Here she hand indexed all news in the papers each day. After a failed marriage Carlton worked as the organising secretary with the Lady Gowrie Child Centre (Perth) in 1942. She responded to a newspaper advertisement seeking a person to organise the recruiting of women for the Western Australian Land Army. Involved with the Girl Guide movement, Carlton had conducted training sessions for the Women’s Australian National Services (WANS) officers. Initially supervisor she was later titled State Superintendent.

After the war, Carlton worked at the Princess Margaret Children’s Hospital as a social worker. As she wasn’t qualified she completed mature age matriculation and then tertiary studies at the universities of Western Australia and South Australia, while working full-time.

On 31 December 1960, Sally Carlton was awarded the Order of the British Empire – Member (Civil) for service to the Girl Guides Association in Western Australia.

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

Shirley Randell is an award-winning global mentor, educator, trainer, author, company director, public speaker, change activist, ambassador, patron, and campaigner for human rights. She is a long-time activist for gender equality and women’s empowerment in education, employment, public service and civil society in Australia, the Pacific, Asia and Africa.

Candy Broad was elected Member of the Legislative Council representing the Australian Labor Party for the Melbourne North Province at a by-election in 1999. She was appointed Minister for Energy and Resources, Ports in 1999 and was Minister for Housing and Local Government from 2002-2006 in the Labor Government. At the 2006 election, which was held in 25 November she was elected to the new Legislative Council Region of Northern Victoria and was re-elected in 2010, when the Labor government was defeated. She resigned from parliament on 9 May 2014.

Margaret Forrest was one of Australia’s early botanical artists, and the wife of Western Australia’s first Premier. She was born Margaret Elvire Hamersley in 1844, to Edward Hamersley and his French wife Anne Louise (Cornelis). They left London with their two young sons aboard the Shepherd, and arrived at Fremantle in 1837. Edward quickly acquired land around Perth and Fremantle, and became involved in viticulture and horse breeding. In 1843 the family made the first of two voyages back to Europe, and on this first extended sojourn, Margaret was born at La Havre, France, in October 1844. The Hamersley’s returned to the Swan River colony in 1850.

From an early age, Margaret Hamersley showed enthusiasm for watercolour painting, spending much time studying and sketching wildflowers. She later travelled on sketching trips with other noted botanical artists Marianne North and Rowan Ellis. She married John Forrest on 29 February, 1876 at St. George’s Cathedral, Perth, and became heavily involved in political life, accompanying her husband on overseas and interstate trips. Lady Forrest was an active member of Western Australia’s first society for artists and exhibited six wildflower watercolours in the Wilgie First Annual Exhibition of Paintings in 1890. She was a founding member of the Western Australia Society of Arts and the Karrakatta Club which was organised to broaden women’s outlook by bringing them in contact with the fine arts. After her death in 1929, her collection was bequeathed to the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1933.

Source: http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/forrest-margaret.html [accessed 15/03/2002] and Australian Garden History, vol. 7, no. 6, May/June 1996, p.12.

Elected in 2001, Margetts is a member for the Agricultural Region, in the Legislative Council of Western Australia(WA), representing the Australian Greens Western Australia Party. From 1993-1999 she was a Senator (The Australian Greens) for WA in Federal Parliament.

Prior to commencing her parliamentary career Margetts was a lobbyist and state co-ordinator for the People for Nuclear Disarmament (1988-1991).

Lawrence became Australia’s first woman State Premier (WA) on 12 February 1990. She began her parliamentary career by winning the seat of Subiaco for the Australian Labor Party in 1986.
She entered Federal politics on 12 March 1994, as the Member for Fremantle, and was appointed Minister for Human Services and Health and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women on 25 March 1994 until 11 March 1996. On 23 November 2001, Lawrence was appointed Shadow Minister for Reconciliation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, the Arts, and the Status of Women.

Lawrence is a supporter of numerous organisations and is Patron of the Western Australia Netball Association and a Foundation Committee Member of EMILY’S List.

She retired from the Australian Parliament at the 2007 general election, which was held in November 2007.

In the Queen’s Birthday list (8 June 1968) Dorothy Tangney became the first Western Australian born woman to be appointed Dames Commander of the British Empire for services to the Western Australia Parliament. She was a senator for Western Australia in the Senate of the Australian Parliament from 1943 until she retired in 1968.

Carol Anne Martin was the first Indigenous women to be elected to an Australian Parliament. In 2001, she was elected MLA (ALP) for the Western Australian seat of Kimberley.

Georgiana Molloy emigrated to Western Australia from England in 1830 and settled in Augusta. She collected and despatched seeds of local native plants to J. Mangles FRS who passed them to collectors in the UK. She was known for her detailed botanical descriptions.

In 1976 Joan Freeman became the first woman to be awarded the British Institute of Physics’ Rutherford Medal. She began her career at CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory during World War II, working on the production of a 10cm microwave radar set, and spent most of her working life at the British Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell.

Anne Levy was the first woman to preside in any house of any Parliament in Australia. She was elected to the South Australian Legislative Council in 1975 where she remained until 1997. In 1986 she became the President of the Legislative Council – the first woman to be a Presiding Officer of a House of Parliament in Australia. She held various Ministerial positions between 1989-1993, including first ever Minister for the Status of Women in Australia.