The Australian Women's Register

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.

Katie Hodson-Thomas was elected to the 35th Parliament of Western Australia as the Liberal Party member for the new Legislative Assembly seat of Carine. She was re-elected in 2001, 2005, but did not contest the general election of 6 September 2008.

Margaret Quirk was elected to the Thirty-Sixth Parliament of Western Australia as the Australian Labor Party member for Girrawheen on 10 February 2001 in succession to Edward Joseph Cunningham (retired). She was re-elected in 2005 and 2008. She has been Shadow Minister for Police; Emergency Services; Road Safety from 26 September 2008.

Alice Rosman was an editor, journalist, novelist and writer. She is best known for her work as a novelist, under the pseudonym Alice Grant Rosman. She achieved success particularly in the United States of America and Canada during the 1920s and 1930s, where she was a best-seller for four consecutive years.

Elsa was a famous soprano and was well-known in Australia, Europe and America. She gave herself the professional name Elsa Stralia in honour of her country of birth, Australia.

Muriel Matters was an Australian born suffragist who is most well-known for her work on behalf of the Women’s Freedom League (WFL) in the United Kingdom.

Robyn Archer has established an international reputation as a cabaret artist and as an artistic director. She became the first woman to head a major Australian Arts festival when she was appointed Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival in 1998 and 2000. On 12 June 2000 she became an Officer of the Order of Australia ‘ for service to the development of cultural life within Australia and its resultant international recognition, through her contribution as an artistic director, performer and writer.’
She is currently the Creative Director of the Centenary of Canberra celebrations, which begin in March 2013.

Jenni Kemarre Martiniello OAM is an award-winning glass artist, poet, writer and photographer of Arrente, Chinese and Anglo-Celtic descent. Acclaimed for her glass works, she has been actively involved in professional and community education in Canberra throughout her career. Jenni founded the ACT Indigenous Writers Group in 1999. With fellow artist Lyndy Delian, she was instrumental in the foundation of the Indigenous Textile and Glass Artists (ITAG) group. Her advocacy for Indigenous artists, and her role in connecting them with other art organisations was pivotal in helping mitigate barriers due to discrimination against Indigenous Australians. Her leadership and advocacy continued through Kemarre Arts, a social enterprise she founded in 2006. It was the Australian Capital Territory’s first independent Aboriginal-run social enterprise and provided support to fellow Indigenous artists, offering writing and professional development. Through her internationally recognised art practice, creative writing and teaching, Jenni has a been a powerful cultural ambassador, educator, and activist. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to the creative and visual arts in 2022.

Jenni Kemarre Martiniello was inscribed on the ACT Women’s Honour Roll in 2010.

Aileen Ekblom was the first female mayor of Whyalla, serving from 1975 to 1991.

The Olive Pink Society was formed in 1988 and works to address issues of race and gender in anthropology. It publishes the Bulletin of the Olive Pink Society.

The Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden was established by the women of South Australia as a tribute to the pioneer women of the state in 1941. The garden was designed by landscape designer Elsie Cornish and the statue created by Ola Cohn was unveiled by Lady Muriel Barclay-Harvey on the 19 April 1941. The Memorial Garden was paid for by the Women’s Centenary Council of South Australia.