The Australian Women's Register

Marie Bignold was a member of the Call To Australia Group (CTA). She was a member of the directly elected Legislative Council from 1984-1991; she was elected on 5 December 1984. Bignold was the first woman lawyer to take a seat in the Legislative Council.

Marie Fisher was a member of the Australian Labor Party. She was a Member of the directly elected New South Wales Legislative Council from 1978-1988. Date of Election 7 October 1978.

Anne Press had a parliamentary career that spanned two decades and the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Initially elected in 1959 as an ALP councillor, Press was soon expelled (in 1959) from the party following her vote against party lines when she voted against the Legislative Council Abolition Bill. She then became a member of the Independent Labour Group, to which she belonged for eight years. She joined the Liberal party in 1967, and was successfully re-elected to the council as their candidate in 1970. She retired from parliament in 1978.

Edna Roper was an ALP member of the New South Wales Legislative Council for over twenty years. She was elected in 1957 and then re-elected in 1970. She served as Deputy Leader of the Opposition between 3/12/1973 -13/5/1976 (2 years 5 months 11 days) and was Deputy Leader of Government between 14/5/1976 – 17/10/1978 (2 years 5 months 4 days). She was a delegate to the International Women’s Year conference in Mexico in 1975.

Amelia Rygate was an ALP Member of the New South Wales (NSW) Legislative Council between 7/9/1961 – 5/11/1978 (17 years 1 months 30 days). She was elected in 1961 and then re-elected in 1966. She retired from Parliament in 1978.

Virginia Chadwick was a member of the Liberal Party. She was a member of the directly elected Legislative Council. Dates of Election 7 October 1978 and 19 March 1988.
Parliamentary career highlights:
Minister for Family and Community Services, 1988-1990
Minister for School Education and Youth Affairs, 1990-1992
Minister for Education and Youth Affairs and Minister for Employment and Training, 1992-93
Minister for Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Minister for Tourism and Minister Assisting the Premier, 1993-1995
Opposition Whip, 1984-1988

Virginia Chadwick was the President of the Legislative Council 1998-1999. She was the first woman Opposition Whip and woman to gain ministerial appointment in a Liberal Government. She retired from politics on 5 March 1999 and was later granted the retention of title of “Honourable” for life.

On 1 July 1999 the Commonwealth Minister for Environment and Heritage, Robert Hill, appointed Ms Chadwick to a five-year term (later extended) as Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of the Great Barrier Marine Park Authority, a position she held until November 2007.

Ellen Webster was an ALP Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 26/11/1931 – 22/4/1934 (2 years 4 months 28 days), She was appointed by Premier Jack Lang.

Kayee Griffin was elected to the NSW Legislative Council on 22 March 2003 representing the Australian Labor Party. Before her election to the State Parliament, she served as a Canterbury Municipal Councillor from 1991-2003 and was mayor in 1995.

Amanda Fazio was elected to the NSW Legislative Council on 30 August 2000 and served until 2015. She was president of the Legislative Council from 2009-2011, and was an active member of the Australian Labor Party from 1977.

Lee Rhiannon was elected to the NSW Legislative Council on 27 March 1999 and served in that capacity until 2010, when she was elected to the Senate in the Parliament of Australia representing the state of new South Wales. She is a member of the Greens.

Meredith Burgmann was elected to the NSW Legislative Council on 25 May 1991. She was President of the NSW Legislative Council from 1999-2007 and a member of the Australian Labor Party.

Elaine Nile was a Member of the NSW Legislative Council from 19 March 1988 to 27 August 2002. She was a member of the Call to Australia Group.

Marlene Goldsmith was a Member of the NSW Legislative Council from 19 March 1988 to 5 March 1999. She was a member of the Liberal Party.

Dawn Fardell was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 2004 at a by-election as the independent member for Dubbo. She was re-elected in 2007, but was defeated at the 2011 election.
Before entering parliament, she served as a Dubbo City Councillor from 1999-2005.

A founder of the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service, Olive Brown was central in the fight to improve Aboriginal health services generally in the Canberra region.

A Ngambri-Ngunnawal elder, Matilda House has a long-established connection to Canberra and its surrounding regions as one of the traditional custodians of the land.

As a writer and editor, Peg Job contributed to a number of Australian newspapers and magazines. She published on subjects ranging from human rights to travel and literary criticism, and produced short stories, poetry and one novel, The Dying.

Marion Halligan was an acclaimed author of novels, short stories, reviews, essays and gastronomic writing.

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Dorothy Horsfield worked as a journalist in Australia and overseas. Her published novels include Dream Run (1992) and Venom (2006)

(This entry was sponsored by a generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Dorothy Buckland-Fuller was a sociologist and social activist of some longstanding, with a distinguished career in ethnic and multicultural politics, particularly as they impact upon women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She was a peace activist, an environmentalist, a feminist and committed to the cause of reconciliation with indigenous Australia.

Of Greek heritage, Buckland-Fuller had a long involvement with the Greek Community of New South Wales, and her valuable contributions were acknowledged in 2001 when she was granted Life Membership to the Council of the Greek Orthodox Community of Sydney and New South Wales. In 1974, she established the Australian-Migrant Women’s Association, an organisation designed to bring together immigrant and Australian-born women.

She was active in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, serving as president in 2002-4. As a sociologist, she taught and conducted action research. Her life has been a case of putting that theory to practice. In her own words, she was an ‘action oriented person’.

Dorothy Buckland-Fuller passed away in Sydney on 5 July 2019. She will be remembered for her words resounding in the ears of all those who knew her over her great life: “I will continue to work for equal rights for all and the betterment of our society for as long as I live”.

Francesca Merenda began work with Department of Immigration in 1969 as the first ever Italian speaking welfare worker. She was a member of the group appointed by Malcolm Fraser in 1977, and chaired by Sir Frank Galbally, to review post-arrival migrant programs and services.

Francesca Merenda had a long association with Co.As.It. Italian Association of Assistance, including as a member of the Board of Directors after the Association was incorporated in 1984.

Catherine Cunningham ran for the seat of Coogee, Sydney, in 1948. Her campaign was unsuccessful, but she continued to take a strong interest in politics at local, state and federal levels.

Only daughter of Sydney newspaper proprietor Sir James Reading Fairfax, Mary Elizabeth played an active part in Sydney society, lending her support to numerous charitable and women’s organisations from the RSPCA to the YWCA.

In 1970, The Australian Women’s Weekly published an article entitled ‘The Quiet Millionairess’. It was this same year that Vera Ramaciotti established the Clive and Vera Ramaciotti Foundation in memory of her brother – who died three years previously – and herself, with $6.7 million in proceeds arising from the sale of the Theatre Royal in Sydney, left to the siblings by their father Gustavo. The magazine claimed that Vera was ‘Australia’s least-known millionairess’ and ‘possibly the most private woman in Australia’, adding that she ‘physically shrinks from seeing her name in print’.

Mary Windeyer was president of the Women’s Suffrage League of New South Wales from 1891-1893, and co-founder of the Ashfield Infants’ Home and the Temporary Aid Society.

Born in Estonia in 1920, Lia Looveer came to Australia with her husband and daughter in 1949, settling in Sydney in 1952. She was an active member of the Estonian community in Sydney and was office manager for the Estonian weekly newspaper Meie Rodo, between 1956-1966.She was Secretary of the Captive Nations Council of New South Wales and Secretary General of the United Council of Migrants from Communist Dominated Europe in Australia in 1968.

Looveer joined the Liberal Party of Australia, New South Wales division, in 1955, and was a member of its Migrant Advisory Committee and of the federal Liberal Party’s Advisory Committee on Ethnic Affairs, 1976-1981, as well as a member of the State Council over the same period. She is a foundation member of the Ethnic Communities’ Council of N.S.W. Looveer was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1978 and received a Heritage Award from the Liberal Party of Australia, N.S.W. Division, in 2002.

Margaret Jones was Literary Editor for the Herald and worked as a journalist in the London and New York bureaus of John Fairfax Ltd, before becoming Foreign Editor for the Sydney Morning Herald in the 1970s. She reported from North Korea and North Vietnam, and was staff correspondent in Peking, China. Described as a ‘trailblazer for women journalists’, Jones wrote for the Herald newspaper for a total of thirty-three years.