The Australian Women's Register

Margaret Lurline Davey’s long standing service and commitment to community work and especially to women’s organisations, was first recognised in 1963 when she was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). Almost twenty years later in 1981 her efforts were again recognised when she was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

A Pitjantjatjara woman, Lowitja O’Donoghue worked for Aboriginal organisations or in Indigenous affairs for over 30 years. She was the Founding Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, 1990-1996. O’Donoghue was one of the most prominent members of the stolen generation.

In 2010 Australia’s national institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research, The Lowitja Institute, was named in O’Donoghue’s honour.

Dr Helen Mayo was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 3 June 1935 for her maternal and child welfare activities. She worked well past retirement age and established several children’s health facilities.

Fannie Eleanor Williams (known as Eleanor) was one of the first three staff members of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in 1920. She co-authored or authored more than fifty publications in her career and specialised in research on dysentery, influenza, hydatids and snake venom. She played a key role in the development of the first Australian blood bank. Not only a researcher, she was also responsible for the training of staff (including Sir Macfarlane Burnet) and, later in life, general organisation of WEHI. According to Sir Macfarlane Burnet and Dr Ian Wood, ‘she was the channel through which serological techniques developed in Melbourne’. Miss Williams was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross on 1 January 1917 for her bacteriological work in the Australian Imperial Force. She was appointed MBE – The Order of the British Empire – Member (Civil) – 13 June 1957, for her work at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

Lady Joyce Ethel Price’s outstanding contribution to the Girl Guides both in Australia and worldwide was first recognised at a commonwealth level in 1968 when she was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1977 she also received the Girl Guide Fish Award; and in 1978 her efforts were further recognised when she was appointed to the Order of St Michael and St George – Commanders (CMG).

Natascha McNamara was co-founder of the Aboriginal Training and Cultural Institute in Balmain, New South Wales, and president of the Aboriginal Children’s Advancement Society Ltd. She has also worked to reform the Aboriginal artefacts industry, and held an Adjunct Senior Research Fellowship with the Centre of Indigenous Development Education and Research (CIDEAR) at the University of Wollongong. McNamara was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 3 June 1978, for her work in Aboriginal education, and as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on 8 June 1992.

McNamara is Managing Director of Accord Cross Cultural Development. She is also a member of the Australian Press Council and the Council of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

A Kaurna woman, Gladys Elphick was born in Adelaide and brought up on the Point Pearce Reserve. Elphick’s life long work against discrimination and exploitation of Aboriginal people included her formation of the Aboriginal Women’s Council and, with others, a legal aid service, medical service and the Aboriginal Community Centre in Adelaide. Also well known as ‘Aunty Glad’, Elphick was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1971 for services to the Aboriginal community. In 1984, during National Aborigines Week, Elphick was named South Australian Aboriginal of the Year.

Horton (ed) (1994), Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia; Healey (2001), S.A.’s Greats.

A novelist, biographer and political candidate, Jeanne Forster Young passionately advocated proportional representation for women in parliament. She became president of the Democratic Women’s Association of South Australia.

Bessie Rischbieth’s interest in woman’s suffrage was aroused when she attended a suffrage meeting in London in 1908. A co-founder of the Women’s Service Guild of Western Australia in 1909, she was also co-founder and President of the Australian Federation of Women Voters (1921-1942). Rischbieth edited The Dawn, a women’s paper issued in Perth from 1914 to 1939. A talented craftswoman her art embroidery, beaten copperwork and word carvings were exhibited with the West Australian Society of Arts. In the later years of her life Rischbieth clashed with Jessie Street, whom she labelled a communist. Bessie Rischbieth was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her work with women’s movements.

Adelaide Creswell was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 15 March 1918 for services to the Red Cross Society. From 1914 to 1915 she was a member of the provisional committee of the Victorian Division of the Australian branch of the British Red Cross Society.

On 4 October 1918 Molly Barr Smith was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for services to the Red Cross in South Australia during the war.

Agnes Good was acknowledged for her work in Adelaide for the Red Cross Society through her appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 19 October 1920. Born and educated in England, and married there to Dr J E Good, she arrived in Adelaide before World War I and was an early member of the Australian Red Cross Society, South Australian Division, having joined it in August 1914. She became a member of the Division Council in 1917. Good had been a medical student before her marriage. She organised fund raising activities during the war and continued to work for the Red Cross Society afterwards. Her contribution was rewarded with life membership. Her other community interests included chairmanship of the Combined Charitable Organisations and of the Children’s Hospital Red Cross Canteen in 1927. She also assumed the role of official visitor to various hospitals in Adelaide.

Daphne Gum, a trained primary school teacher who developed an interest in working with children with disabilities, became the director of the Spastic Centre established by the Crippled Children’s Association of South Australia in 1946 at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. Following a temporary move to prefabricated classrooms at Kintore Avenue, the centre finally found a permanent and more spacious home in 1951 on the Anzac Highway at Ashford, and was known as the Ashford House for Cerebral Palsy Children.

Daphne Gum was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1960 for her work with children affected by cerebral palsy. She maintained her connection with her old school, the Methodist Ladies College, serving as president of the Old Scholars Association from 1979-1980 and wrote a history entitled A rich tapestry of lives, to celebrate the school’s ninetieth birthday.

Sister Deirdre Jordan was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) on 26 January 1989. She became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 1 January 1969 for services to education. The daughter of Clement and Helana (née Roberts) Jordan, Sister Deirdre Jordan was a member of the Religious Sisters of Mercy. In March 2002 she retired as Chancellor of Flinders University South Australia. Her association with Flinders University commenced in 1981 as Pro-Chancellor. A senior lecturer at Adelaide University from 1968 to 1988, Sister Jordan lectured in the field of sociology of education. She undertook study tours of Tanzania (1975), China (1976 and 1979), South America (1977 and 1980) to investigate bases for decision-making in structure of curriculum and education administration in developing countries.

Nelly Ludbrook, née Woods, was the first South Australian born palaeontologist to demonstrate the importance of palaeontology to the mining industry and founded what is now known as the Biostratigraphy Section of Mines and Energy, South Australia. Interested in geology and palaeontology from her undergraduate years at the University of Adelaide, where she completed Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees, she was able to pursue her interest in Cainozoic molluscs when she married Wallis Verco Ludbrook in 1935 and moved to Canberra. She had written a paper on the subject while working as a high school teacher at Mount Barker for which she was awarded the Tate Medal from the University of Adelaide. Her subsequent career included appointment as assistant geologist with the Commonwealth Government from 1942-1949, a period in London from 1950 at the Imperial College where she gained a PhD in geology and the DIC in palaeontology for a study of Pliocene molluscs from strata underlying the Adelaide Plains. On the death of her husband she returned to South Australia in 1952 where she was employed as technical information officer for the Mines Department, and in 1957 was appointed palaeontologist, a position she held until her retirement in 1967 as senior palaeontologist. She published more than 70 scientific papers and monographs, and at least 17 fossil species and one genus of fossil mollusc have been named in her honour. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1981 ‘for service to science’.

Margaret McPherson, educated in private schools in Adelaide and Melbourne, completed her tertiary education at the University of Melbourne and the Institute of Education London. Her teaching experience, included appointments at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Melbourne as Assistant mistress from 1943-48 and later as Head of the History Department from 1952-55. She spent the years 1950-51 teaching at the Girls’ High School Slough, England. She was appointed principal of Clarendon PLC Ballarat, Victoria in 1956 and remained there until her appointment as principal of Korowa Church of England Girls’ Grammar School in 1970. In addition to her duties of school administration, she served as president of the Association of Headmistresses of Independent Schools of Australia from 1970-73 and also as president of its Victorian counterpart from 1970-74. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1978 for services to education.

Margaret Sutherland’s life’s work as a composer saw her produce over 90 compositions and attain renown as a pioneer of ‘new music’ and of women’s involvement in music. Her only opera – the Young Kabbarli (1964), based on Daisy Bates – was the first Australian opera recorded in Australia.

Sutherland’s work promoting music and the arts included her years (1943-1956) as an initiator, organiser and secretary for the Combined Arts Centre Movement, a group which worked to promote the formation of a cultural centre in Melbourne after World War II, and her membership of many other councils and organising bodies such as the council of the National Gallery Association of Victoria (1950s-1960s).

Recognition of Sutherland’s prolific life as a composer and champion of the Arts in Australia has included an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Melbourne (1969), the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal (1977), and her appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 13 June 1970 and an Officer of the Order of Australia on 8 June 1981.

During World War II Dorothy Marshall was appointed by the Commonwealth government as South Australian superintendent of the Australian Women’s Land Army. Previously a schoolteacher she assisted with the School Patriotic Fund of South Australia and was foundation secretary of the Women’s War Service. Following the war Marshall became a camp welfare officer with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Following the dissolution of the UNRRA she joined the International Refugee Organisation (IRO) as a welfare officer in the British zone of Germany. For her services to child welfare, Marshall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire on 5 June 1952. Following her return to Adelaide she was appointed to the Department of Agriculture and initiated a bi-monthly bulletin WAB News.

Julie Anthony has gained recognition as one of the most popular entertainers in Australia. She consistently won awards such as Female Variety Performer of the Year, Entertainer of the Year and Most Popular Female Performer during the 1970s and 1980s. She was lead singer in ‘The Seekers’ from 1989-1991 and performed at the 2000 Olympic Games, which were held in Sydney. A versatile performer, she has played the leading role in musicals such as Irene and the Sound of Music. She is particularly appreciated for her performance of the Australian National Anthem, ‘Advance Australia Fair’ at national sporting and other occasions. On 31 December 1979, she was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her services to entertainment and in 1989 Member of the Order of Australia.

Amy Grace Wheaton was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 8 June 1939 for her work as Director of the South Australian Board of Social Studies.

Constance Muriel Davey, psychologist, was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1955 for education. Davey’s special interest was ‘mental efficiency and deficiency’ in children, on which she completed a doctorate at the University of London in 1924. Davey was the first psychologist in the South Australian Education Department, with responsibility for all services for special needs children. Davey also taught at the University of Adelaide and helped establish the social work course at that institution. She was a member of the League of Women Voters, president from 1943-1947, and was elected a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 1950. Her study, Children and their law-makers, was published in 1956.

Adelaide Laetitia Miethke began training as a teacher in 1899, and soon became active in women teachers’ and union affairs. She was the first woman vice-president of the South Australian Public School Teacher’s Union in 1916, and in 1924 gained both her Arts degree and her position as the first female inspector of high schools. She was South Australian state president of the National Council of Women from 1934, and national president, 1936-1942. Miethke was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 February 1937 for her role as President of the South Australian Women’s Centenary Council, particularly in organising the Pageant of Empire on 27-28 November 1936. Miethke went on to work with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and establish the School of the Air for outback children.

Fanny Kate Boadicea Cocks was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 3 June 1935 for her role as ‘Principal of the Women’s Police’ in South Australia. According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, Cocks began her career as a schoolmistress and sub-matron before entering the State Children’s Council (South Australia) and being appointed as the State’s first probation officer for juvenile first offenders. In 1915 Cocks became South Australia’s first woman police constable. She was concerned with issues such as adolescent sexuality and alcoholism, prostitution, domestic violence and self-defence. Her care for homeless girls led to her involvement in the Methodist Women’s Welfare Department as a volunteer superintendent for fifteen years after her retirement in 1935. She made a bequest to the Methodist home for babies, which was later re-named the Kate Cocks Babies Home.

Silver Moon has been a political activist since 1968, and was active during the Anti-Vietnam War Moratoriums and anti-apartheid demonstrations in the 1970s. She became active in the women’s movement while still at high school. She has spent her life as a peace and environmental activist and as an anarchist-feminist activist.

Deborah McCulloch was an English teacher and later a lecturer at Salisbury College of Advanced Education. She became involved in the women’s movement in 1971. She was a member of Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) when it started in South Australia. She was appointed as the first Women’s Adviser to the Premier of South Australia in 1976 by Don Dunstan.

Connie was born in Coventry, England in 1925 to a working class family. She migrated to Whyalla, South Australia with her husband, Bill and their son.

Connie became active in the Anti-War Movement during the Vietnam War, when her son was a teenager, a newspaper announcement regarding conscription being the trigger.

This involvement lead to her joining the Women’s Liberation Movement, where she was part of the core group that established the Women’s Liberation Centre at Bloor Court, Adelaide and a counselling service as part of the centre. She also helped set up the first Women’s Shelter in Adelaide and the Christies Beach Shelter, in suburban Adelaide.

Connie was a member of the Tuesday Afternoon Group, a group of older women interested in women’s issues. She was a poet and writer with the Adelaide based, Friendly Street Poets from its inception and has been published in many of the Friendly Street Poet anthologies, as well as in journals, magazines, and newspapers. She also published two collections with Friendly Street Poets, Other Ways of Looking c1988) and Earthdweller. Ugly as a Boxer’s Glove was also published about Connie’s life, as a text spoken by Connie and edited by Marg McHugh.

Trained in Adelaide, Dr Ethel Ambrose applied to the Poona and Indian Village Mission established by Tasmanian evangelist Charles Reeve. Ambrose worked at the mission hospital in Nasrapur from 1905, moving to Pandharpur in 1909 where she led fundraising efforts for a hospital. By the time of her death in 1934, the mission’s medical program had reached over 300 Indian villages.