The Australian Women's Register

Sue Chilly is a staunch member of the Aboriginal rights movement, progressing reform both as an activist of groups such as the Australian Black Panthers, and as a field officer of the Department of Aboriginal and Island Affairs.

Marlene Cummins is one of Australia’s foremost blues musicians, a lifelong Aboriginal rights activist and the subject of Rachel Perkin’s 2014 documentary Black Panther Woman .

Alice Berry understood the problems of living in rural Australia and was committed to finding ways to improve the lives of women and children in rural areas. Through her work in the Country Women’s Association in Queensland, and in the Associated Country Women of the World, she made a lasting contribution to the provision of services in country areas. She was appointed to The Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander on 01 January 1960 for Service to country women.

Patricia Mackinnon joined the Royal Children’s Hospital Committee of Management in 1948, serving it in several offices before being elected to the presidency in 1965. She was appointed a Commander to the Order of the British Empire in 1972 and a Dame of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1977 in recognition of distinguished service to the community in hospital administration.

Annabelle Rankin was appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander on 13 June 1957 for political and public services. Rankin was the first Queensland woman to be elected a member of Federal Parliament when she became a Queensland Liberal Party Senator in July 1947. She held office for thirty-four years, during which time she served as Minister for Housing from January 1966 to March 1971.

Lisa Curry Kenny, the winner of 15 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze International medals, is the only Australian swimmer to have held Commonwealth and Australian records in every stroke except backstroke. She competed in three Olympics; Moscow in 1980, Los Angeles in 1984 and Barcelona in 1992. She is now one of Australia’s successful keynote motivational speakers and is a Director of Curry Kenny Group Pty Ltd.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal was born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, on Minjerribah (the Stradbroke Islands). Oodgeroo Noonuccal means Oodgeroo of the tribe Nunuccal; spelling variations include Nunuccal, Noonuckle and Nunukul. In 1970, Oodgeroo Noonuccal (under the name Kathleen Walker) was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for services to the community. She returned it in 1987 in protest against the forthcoming Australian Bicentenary celebrations (1988).

Anna Bage was a talented scientist who worked her way through the junior ranks of the Department of Biology at the University of Melbourne to became a forerunner of women in public life in Queensland to where she moved in 1914 to take up the position of lecturer in charge of biology in 1913. In 1914 she became principal of the Women’s College, a position she held for the next 32 years. She was committed to the cause of encouraging women to become tertiary educated and travelled widely throughout Queensland to promote her college to rural communities. She was a member of many women’s interest groups, and played a lead rolein the formation of the Queensland Women Graduates’ Association (later the Queensland Association of University Women). She was president of the Australian Federation of University Women in 1928-29.

Anna Bage’s interests were many and varied. A nature lover, patron of the arts and motoring enthusiast, Bage was also a member of several women’s sporting associations. She managed the first hockey team in Australia to travel interstate, from Melbourne to Adelaide in 1908, and was president of the Queensland Women’s Hockey Association in 1925-31.

She was appointed OBE – Officer of The Order of the British Empire (Civil) – 12 June 1941 for public service.

Essie Coffey was a Muruwari woman born in southern Queensland. She was co-founder of the Western Aboriginal Legal Service and served on a number of government bodies and Aboriginal community organisations.

Jean Sinclair Isbister (known as Clair) was a consultant paediatrician at the Royal North Shore Hospital, New South Wales, from 1949 and published many books on motherhood under the name Clair Isbister. She was appointed to The Order of the British Empire – Officer (Civil) on 1 January 1969 for services to medicine.

During World War I Grace Wilson was Principal Matron of No 3 Australian General Hospital serving in Egypt, Lemnos and France. She was appointed a Commander (Military) of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1919 for army nursing service in France. Grace Wilson was mentioned in dispatches five times as well as being awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal (2 May 1916) and the Florence Nightingale Medal.

Dr Nancy (Nan) Giese was a pioneer of education and the visual and performing arts in the Northern Territory. She was strongly involved in planning and setting up the first tertiary institutions and for ten years was elected Chancellor of the Northern Territory University, now Charles Darwin University.

Edith Hurman, after commencing her early education in Perth, finished her medical training at Sydney University in 1922 and overcame many obstacles in order to become the first doctor to set up private practice in Cudal, New South Wales in 1925. With Muriel Amanda Rodda, a trained nurse, she was instrumental in the establishment of the town’s hospital in 1928. Edith Hurman remained in Cudal and worked in that hospital until her retirement in 1961. She subsequently wrote a booklet entitled The beginnings, in 1980, in which she told the story of how the Cudal Hospital was established. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to medicine in New South Wales on 1 January 1966.

Teresa Brophy had a distinguished career as an anaesthetist in Brisbane, Queensland. On completion of her medical training in Brisbane and London, she held both academic and hospital appointments in Brisbane. In addition, she was vice-chairman of the Australian Resuscitation Council from 1976. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 11 June 1976 for her services to medicine.

Ruth Molphy, who completed her medical training in Brisbane and England, was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to medicine on 20 June 1987. She distinguished herself in the field of anaesthetics and medical administration at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and the Prince Charles Hospital Brisbane.

Jessie Vasey founded and became President of the War Widows’ Guild of Australia. For her work in the field of social welfare she was the recipient of both the CBE (8 June 1963) and OBE (8 June 1950).

Thalia Kennedy was educated at the University of Queensland, majoring in english, history and latin, and winning a University Blue for hockey. She joined the staff of the Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School in January 1942, as an english and history teacher, later being promoted to Deputy Principal and serving as Principal from 1965 to 1981. She introduced Thursday afternoon activities and computer education and appointed a student counsellor. In 1982 the Thalia Kennedy Centre was opened at the school. She was appointed MBE – Member of The Order of the British Empire (Civil) – 13 June 1981 for services to education and the community.

Ada Smith was appointed Typist in the Land Tax Branch, Brisbane in November 1911. She worked in various other positions, including Confidential Typist to the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation, Central Office, Melbourne (1921-1924) and Personal Typist to State Commissioner of Taxes, Queensland (1924-1942), retiring in December 1954. In recognition of her work in the Taxation Office she was awarded the Imperial Service Medal, 29 March 1955.

Vida Lahey began her art studies in Brisbane around 1903, before training at the National Gallery School, Victoria (1905-1906, 1909); she lived in London from 1915, moving to Paris after the war, where she studied at Colarossi’s Academy. She exhibited regularly in Brisbane and Sydney during the 1930s and 1940s, specialising in still lives, interiors and some landscape. Lahey had a strong commitment to the arts, teaching both adult and children’s art classes, and along with Daphne Mayo was heavily involved in raising funds for, and promoting, the Queensland Art Gallery. She served on the gallery’s Art Advisory Committee (1931-37) ‘and often argued for a proper purchasing policy and a qualified full-time director – which occurred only in 1949’. She was commissioned by the Gallery to write Art in Queensland 1859-1959 which was published in 1959 and remains ‘a basic text for Queensland art history’. According to Nancy Underhill, Lahey’s main contribution was ‘to encourage excellence and public involvement in the visual arts, especially in Queensland, and to serve as a point of contact between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne'(Heritage). Vida Lahey was appointed to The Order of the British Empire – Member (Civil), 1 January 1958, for services to art in Queensland. Her painting ‘Beach Umbrellas’ was featured on the 1996 $1.20 stamp for Australia Day.

Upon the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914, Annie Wheeler, a widow from central Queensland living in London, took it upon herself to improve the lines of communication between Queensland soldiers abroad and their loved ones Back home. Taking up residence near the Australian Army Headquarters and the Anzac Buffet in London, she endeavoured to contact all soldiers from central Queensland, be they injured, on leave or at the trenches. By keeping a detailed index card on each soldier, she corresponded with servicemen on the battlefield, forwarded packages and mail, whilst also providing comfort to those in hospital. Becoming known as the ‘Mother of Queensland’, by 1918 she provided reliable correspondence for over 2300 soldiers. Each fortnight Mrs Wheeler sent home detailed letters which were published in the Capricornian and the Morning Bulletin.

The Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia made her an associate member in 1920. In the same year, she was presented with an O.B.E.

After her death, a memorial plaque was erected at Mt Thompson Memorial Gardens in Brisbane, Queensland.

Writing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Rosa Praed covered many genres in her extensive bibliography, including books for children as well as adults. Rosa Murray-Prior began writing in her teens, contributing résumés and stories to the family’s handwritten Marroon Magazine. She married Englishman Arthur Campbell Bulkley Praed, and four years later Rosa and her husband returned to England, where she continued to write. Praed revisited Australia only once, however she continued to rework her memories, and published her autobiography My Australian Girlhood in 1902. Other biographical work included Australian Life; Black and White (1885). She maintained contacts with relations and friends in Australia until her death. Writing as Mrs Campbell Praed, she produced more than forty-five books over the next four decades, approximately half of which deal with Australian material.

Educated in Liverpool, England, Mary Agnew moved to Queensland in late 1890 to join the Queensland Department of Public Instruction, taking the position of Kindergarten Instructor. Agnew was given the task of raising the standard of education for young children. Applying the methods of Friedrich Frobel, Agnew introduced a syllabus based on the importance of education through activity and play, stressing that young children could not spend long periods of time each day engaged in intellectual learning. Influencing departmental policy on infant and kindergarten work, it was only in the last years of her career that her revolutionary work in pre-school education began to be implemented.

Immigrating to Australia in 1856 to begin her career as a teacher, Margaret Berry was soon appointed to the position of headmistress and teacher trainer at Brisbane National School in 1860. She later moved to the Brisbane Girls’ Normal School, where she became the first headmistress, serving there for forty-three years. Taking a stand for female teachers and students in Queensland, Berry was the only female teacher to give evidence to the Royal Commission into Education in 1874. She also campaigned for the equal pay of female teachers, as well as stressing her faith in the ability of senior girls to undertake advanced scientific subjects.  Late in her career, she became an official examiner of female teachers.

Berry always expected the highest standards from her pupils and above all, she wanted her them to maintain a cultured mind and charming personality.

Eleanor Constance Greenham was the first native-born Queensland woman to graduate in medicine. The first student to be enrolled at Ipswich Girls Grammar School in 1892, she excelled academically, graduating from the University of Sydney in 1901. Later that year she began work as a resident medical officer at Lady Bowen Hospital in Brisbane, before leaving to work in a private practice in 1903. Paving the way for other Queensland women in the field of medicine, the Queensland Medical Women’s Society elected Greenham to honorary membership in 1945, as well as being made an honorary member of the British Medical Association (Queensland Branch) in 1953 for fifty years of uninterrupted membership.

Elizabeth Brentnall was state president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Queensland from 1886 to 1899 and afterwards an honorary life president until her death in 1909. She first called for women’s suffrage in her presidential address to the WCTU annual convention in 1888. The WCTU formed a separate suffrage department in 1891.

Tania Major first came to prominence in 2004 as the youngest person elected to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. In 2007 she was named Young Australian of the Year. She spoke to opinion makers, the public and government about sexual violence and rape in the Aboriginal community, asking Prime Minister John Howard to help lift the “blanket of shame” that was preventing such assaults being reported.

Henrietta Willmore received no formal musical training, but overcame this to emerge as a proficient pianist, much in demand in musical circles. As an accompanist or soloist in numerous concerts, she introduced a widening repertoire of classical music, frequently in collaboration with her friend Richard Thomas Jefferies. Her long teaching career began in 1867 through economic necessity when her husband’s attempt to establish a printery ended in insolvency. Henrietta became music mistress at Mrs Thomas’s Academy for Young Ladies. She pioneered organ recitals and organ-based concerts in Brisbane. She toured South Africa in 1896. Her final appearances were chamber music recitals in Brisbane in 1911 with members of the Jefferies family and her protégé Percy Brier.

Willmore believed in women’s political rights and responsibilities; serving on the executive of several women’s organizations. The Willmore Discussion Club was formed in 1931 in her honour. She was awarded the Medal de la Reine Elisabeth, a medal instituted on 15 September 1915 and awarded to both Belgians and non-Belgians for services to Belgium and its citizens as a consequence of the 1914-1918 war. It was awarded particularly for relief of the suffering of the civilian population and the sick and wounded.