The Australian Women's Register

Margaret Peden completed a Bachelor of Arts (1926) and Diploma of Education (1928) at the University of Sydney, where she co-founded the women’s cricket club and served as president of the women undergraduates’ association. While working as sports mistress at Redlands School (1928-34), Peden helped to rebuild the New South Wales Women’s Cricket Association, serving as honorary secretary from 1928 to 1944. She captained every New South Wales women’s cricket team until 1938, with the exception of the 1930 team – that year she co-founded the Australian Women’s Cricket Council. She was secretary of the New South Wales Women’s Amateur Sports Council in 1932-37, and later vice-president.

It was Margaret Peden who organised in 1934 the first tour to Australia by an English women’s cricket team and, with her sister Barbara, set up Australia’s first indoor coaching centre in Sydney. Peden was appointed captain of the Australian team that year, and again in 1937. In 1950 she became an honorary life member of the Women’s Cricket Association, England.

In 1935, Peden married Maurice Ranald Emanuel. She gave birth to a son in 1938.

An only child, Christine Smith was educated at St Patrick’s Brigidine convent school, Cooma, and Sydney Church of England Grammar School for Girls, Moss Vale. Living at Berridale, near the snowfields, she learned to ski while still young and by 1962, was competing for Australia in the Commonwealth Winter Games in Switzerland. Two years later she was a member of the Australian team at the Winter Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria, and competed at the Australian National Alpine Ski Championships and the Thredbo Cup. She competed in the World Ski Championships in Chile in 1966, and was pre-selected for the 1968 Olympic Games at Grenoble, France, but the team was downsized and she did not compete.

For some years Smith taught skiing at Thredbo and other venues before establishing in 1974 an interior design business, Christine Smith Interiors Pty Ltd, specialising in bathroom accessories. In 1977 she married Wayne Arthur Garland, an advertising executive.

Smith’s business was not successful, and in 1979 she committed suicide in a motel at Crows Nest. She was buried at Berridale.

When Mollie Dive was a Sydney schoolgirl, a teacher one day told her ‘Mollie, you spend too much time on the oval.’ Mollie’s reply was a straightforward declaration of love for an activity that would remain a life-long passion. ‘I love sport,’ she said. ‘I just can’t help myself.’

An all-round sportswoman (she tried her hand at netball, squash, golf, tennis and lawn bowls) Mollie was known for her excellence on the cricket oval and the hockey field. She stayed involved with these sports as a coach and administrator long after her playing days were over. She was a New South Wales and Australian selector, President of the New South Wales Women’s Cricket Association and a member of the executive of the Australian Women’s Cricket Association. She was associated with the Sydney University Women’s Sports Association for fifty years

Her achievements and contribution to sport were recognised in 1987 when, as well as being awarded an Order of Australia medal for her services to sport, she was honoured by the naming of a grandstand after her at North Sydney Oval, a ground at which she never played!

Mollie played cricket with her family at home (her father played once for the New South Wales state team) but it was not a game she played formally until she went to Sydney University in 1932. She left university with Blues in cricket and hockey, a science degree and a cricketing reputation that eventually saw her obtain employment at the CSIRO, where she worked for most of her life, and captaincy of the Australian team that had the first ever Ashes win over England in 1948-49.

Leonora Wray became an associate member of the Australian Golf Club, and a council member of the New South Wales Ladies’ Golf Union (NSW L.G.U.), in 1904. She won the State ladies’ amateur championship every year from 1906 to 1908, and the Australian title in both 1907 and 1908, before a diagnosis of typhoid fever in 1909 took her away from the game for a decade. She made an impressive come-back in 1929, winning the national title and the mixed foursomes championship (with F.G. Murdoch). The following year she won the New South Wales championship, before winning the western open in 1931, and the northern open in 1931-32. Between 1907 and 1938, Wray was champion woman player of the Australian Golf Club ten times; and between 1924 and 1933, she was champion of the Royal Sydney Golf Club five times. She attended the inaugural meeting of the Australian Ladies’ Golf Union (A.L.G.U.) in 1921, serving as its secretary until 1923, and later, in 1954-59, as its president.

Wray’s administrative skills were drawn upon frequently. She was captain-manager of the Tasman Cup touring team in 1937, and manager of the women’s team touring Great Britain in 1950. As well as president of the A.L.G.U., she was president of the NSW L.G.U. in 1957-65, and associates’ president of the Australian Golf Club.

Following her husband Ury, Naomi Wolinski took up lawn bowls in the late 1920s, playing at the Wollstonecraft Bowling Club. In 1930 she co-founded the New South Wales Ladies’ (Women’s) Bowling Association, serving as inaugural vice-president, honorary secretary (1931-32), and president (1933-58), and becoming a life-member in 1938. She also co-founded the association’s journal, (Women’s) Bowls News, and chaired its editorial committee for nearly ten years.

Wolinski used her influence in women’s bowling circles to organise fundraising and the production of clothing for servicemen during wartime. She was elected foundation president of the Australian Women’s Bowling Council in 1947, and was vice-president (1938-50) and president (1950-64) of the National Council of Amateur Sports Women of New South Wales.

In 1953 Naomi Wolinski was awarded Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation medal and in 1960 she was appointed M.B.E.

Isabel Letham is renowned throughout the surfing world as ‘the first Australian to ride a surfboard’, although she disputed this, preferring to describe herself as an early Australian female surfer who experimented with riding a board in the Hawaiian tradition. She did this in 1915 at the age of fifteen when the visiting Hawaiian surfer, Duke Kahanamoku, who was giving a surfboard riding exhibition at Sydney’s Freshwater Beach, invited her to ride tandem with him. Since then, her name has become legendary within the surfing world. She has been a source of inspiration for subsequent women surfers; Australian world champion, Pam Burridge, even named her first daughter Isabel in her honour.

Letham is less well known for the important role she played in teaching swimming to hundreds of young people in Australia and in the United States. In the 1920s she lived in San Francisco where she first taught swimming at the University of California and was eventually appointed to the position of Director of Swimming to the City of San Francisco in 1924. She returned to Australia to live in 1929, where she continued to teach swimming at Freshwater and Manly for many years. Letham was also important for introducing water ballet to Australia.

Pam Burridge was born in Sydney into a sport loving family who were active in the surf living saving movement at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Her mother and sister, Donella, loved to swim, her father was an accomplished distance runner but Pam loved surfing. She was given her first (homemade) surfboard in 1975 at the age of ten, entered her first competition (which she won) in 1977 at the age of twelve, won her first New South Wales State Championship in 1979 aged fourteen and was national champion the following year when she was only fifteen.

At this point, Pam was deemed a professional by virtue of the fact that she had been invited to surf in the elite Hawaiian North Shore events; the strict rules of the governing amateur body offered no leeway. So Pam went on the international circuit when she was sixteen and by the age of seventeen had earned her first of six runner-up finishes in the world championships. She eventually broke through in 1990, winning the world championship by what was then a record margin and becoming the first Australian woman to do so.

The consistency of Pam’s performance throughout the years prior to her claiming the title are even more remarkable when one considers what she overcame to achieve them. She spent the better part of the 1980s battling one personal crisis after the next, crises which can, arguably, be attributed to the unique challenges that confronted young women who dared enter the macho world of 1980s surf riding. She faced plummeting self confidence, which led to drug and alcohol abuse and an eating disorder. The fact that she was able to maintain an overall ranking of number two in the world throughout the 1980s, despite never being ‘at her best’ is testament to her extraordinary talent.

Burridge retired from competition in 1993 made a brief comeback in 1996, retiring again in 1999, ranked eighth in the world. Whilst the result was not one for the record books, Pam was nevertheless satisfied with the result; it proved that she still has it in her to match it with the best in the new world of women’s surfing.

Edith ‘Edie’ Robinson made Australian Olympic history in Amsterdam in 1928 when she became Australia’s first female Olympic track and field athlete. She took up running at the age of 14 (she ran for the St George Athletic Club in Sydney, New South Wales.) Selected to compete in the 100 meters, she did not make the final, but did run a personal best time in the semifinal, which she finished in third place. Robinson also ran in the 800 meters, but did not complete the race. Given that she had never trained for the event before, let alone competed in it, the fact that she made the 600 meter mark before withdrawing was an extraordinary effort.

Edith was a very popular member of the small team that travelled to Amsterdam, and because she had a background in dressmaking, she was popular and much in demand by male athletes who needed badges sown to their shorts!

She officially opened the Olympic athletes village in Homebush, Sydney on September 2, 2000.

Eileen Wearne became the second woman to represent Australia in athletics at the Olympic Games when she competed in the 100 meter sprint at Los Angeles in 1932. Unfortunately, she did not compete at her best in Los Angeles; she finished fourth in her heat in the time of 12.5 seconds which meant that she did not make the finals. On her return to Sydney, however, she continued to compete and won state and Australian titles throughout the 1930s. She and the first woman to represent Australia in athletics at the Olympic Games, Edith Robinson, enjoyed a healthy rivalry. In 1938, she represented Australia at the British Empire Games where she won a gold medal in the 4 X 100 yard relay and a bronze medal in the 200 meter sprint.

An extremely attractive young woman, so much so that, whilst in Los Angeles, she caught the eye of the U.S. media. In an article entitled ‘Future Weissmullers, Beautiful Amazons Keenly watched by Scurrying Studio Scouts’, a journalist noted that ‘scouts from the picture camps have been roving the practice fields ever since the first boatload of athletes was unloaded.’ One of those at training who they noticed was ‘Eileen Wearne of Australia’ who had ‘ a beautiful figure, a great deal of poise and a nice voice.’ Wearne’s looks, according to her teammates, were ‘ proof that athletic competition does not detract from the beauty or femininity of women.’

Wearne retired from athletics in 1940 but remained involved in the Olympic movement. She was an active member of the New South Wales Olympian Club and loved attending reunion lunches.

When Anne Sargeant was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987, she was only the third netballer to be accorded the honour. For the woman who began her netball career at the age of seven playing with the Forest Club in New South Wales, ‘there was not greater honour…To be considered an all-time sporting great and to be counted alongside people you have admired and looked up to all your life is the greatest accolade.’

Sargeant thoroughly deserved the accolade. From the age of 10, Sargeant represented her district, Manly-Warringah in New South Wales, where she captain/coached the team to six NSW titles in six years. She played for the NSW Open team from 1978, and was captain from 1982 until 1988, during which time the team won the national championships in 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988.

A top rated player, in 1978 Sargeant was selected in the NSW and Australian teams, touring England with the undefeated national squad.

Sargeant played in three World Championships, the last two as captain. In 1979 she helped Australia to equal first place with New Zealand in Trinidad and Tobago, and in 1983 Australia defeated New Zealand in Singapore. 1987, in Glasgow, Scotland, Australia finished third behind New Zealand and Trinidad & Tobago.

Sargeant played in the Tri-Test series against England and Trinidad and Tobago in 1981, and in 1986 led the team in another Tri-Test series against Jamaica and New Zealand.

Among many highlights of Anne’s career was a tour of Wales in 1985 when she captained an undefeated Australian side and posted a career personal best of three consecutive 100% shooting games. In that year, she was named the New South Wales Sportswoman of the Year. She was inducted into the NSW Hall of Champions in 1988 and awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia that same year for her service to netball.

After she finished playing and coaching, Sargeant continued to promote the sport as a writer and media commentator. Her talents as a public speaker are well known and recognised when she was awarded the 1992 Communicator of the Year Award by the Public Relations Institute of Australia.

In 2004, Anne Sargeant was named Sydney’s Greatest Ever Netballer.

Anne Clark was a foundation member of the New South Wales Women’s Basket Ball Association (NSWWBAA) in 1929, remaining an active member until her death in 1983. An all-round sportswoman, Anne participated in basket ball, hockey, physical culture from an early age, as a member of the City Girls’ Amateur Sports Association (the predecessor organisation to the NSWWBAA), which she joined in 1924. Her membership led to a lifelong association with the development of women’s basket ball (now netball) at local, state and national levels. Throughout her long career in netball, she held a range of executive positions on the board of the New South Wales Association (including the presidency for twenty-nine years) and the All Australia Netball Association. She received an All Australia Service Award in 1964.

In 1976, the Anne Clark Service Award was introduced in her honour. The award recognises individuals who have given at least ten years of outstanding service to netball in N.S.W. In 1983, the NSW State Netball Centre was named after her, in her honour.

In 1964, at the age of twenty-seven, Phyllis O’Donnell won the first ever world championship in women’s surfing. For her efforts, apart from the glory, she won $250, a surfboard and numerous packets of cigarettes.

When she entered the sport, it was dominated by men, some of whom, she recalls, would take aim at her while she was paddling out to catch waves. She was delighted how far the sport has come and how the position of women in it has improved. ‘The girls, especially on the pro circuit, are absolutely fantastic.’

The Ma Bendall/Phyllis O’Donnell Memorial Interclub Contest with other women’s clubs is competed for once a year.

Layne Beachely is a professional surfer from Manly in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. In 2007 she is regarded as the best female professional surfer in history, having won the World Championship an unprecedented seven times.

Kerry Saxby became the most prolific world-record breaker in athletic history in Melbourne in February 1991 when she set a new record of 11 minutes 51.26 seconds in the 3 kilometer walk event. This took her number of world bests to thirty, which was one better than the previous mark, created by the distance runner Paavo Nurmi. Her world records have been established across a range of distances and venues, sometimes at mixed competitions. Saxby regularly trained with and competed against men and believes this contributed to her success. In the decade of competition when she was at her peak, she never finished outside the top five, and was only disqualified for losing foot contact with the track once.

Saxby’s sporting achievements include representing Australia 24 times in major international competitions. She won 13 individual international medals, won a record 27 Australian National Championships, set 32 world records or world bests, and at 38 years of age she was the oldest athlete to win a medal at world level in 1999. She retired from competition in 2001, but not before achieving a very creditable 7th place in the 20 kilometer walk at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. In 2006, the Australian Institute of Sport selected her as one of their twenty-five ‘Best of the Best’.

Rosina Raisbeck enjoyed a successful career in London and performed on the club circuit across Australia in the 1960s, before joining the Australian Opera in 1971. She was still singing with the company at the age of 72.

Described as ‘one of our greatest and unluckiest’ athletes, Marlene Mathews set a world record of 10.3 seconds for the 100 yard sprint in 1958. Her best times for the 100 metres and 200 metres, set over forty years ago, would have won both titles at the 2005 Australian Athletics Championships were they repeated.

Having missed selection for the 1952 Olympic Games due to a leg injury, Mathews was selected for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Canada, only to be forced to withdraw from sprint events due to injury once again. Two years later, she was able to compete at the Olympic Games in Melbourne and won bronze in the 100 metres and 200 metres behind Australia’s Betty Cuthbert and Germany’s Christa Stubnick – though many expected her to win. Disappointingly, Mathews was not selected for the 4x100m relay team that year. The team, comprising Shirley Strickland, Norma Croker, Fleur Mellor and Betty Cuthbert, won gold. At a post-Olympics meeting, Mathews was part of a relay team that broke world records for both the 4×220 yards and 4×200 metres.

In 1957, Mathews set the inaugural world record times for the 440 yards and 400 metres. The following year she set her world record of 10.3 seconds for the 100 yards sprint (breaking the 10.4 second record held jointly by Betty Cuthbert and Marjorie Jackson) and of 23.4 seconds for the 220 yards (breaking Cuthbert’s 23.5 second record). She is reputed to have run a ‘wind-assisted 10.1 seconds’ in the 100 yards at the Australian titles. Mathews went on to win the 100 yards and 220 yards at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Wales in 1958. She ran in the relay team that won silver in the 4×110 yards relay. After making the semi-finals in the 100 metres at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960, Mathews retired from competition and took up an administrative role. She was an Assistant Manager of the Australian Olympic Team at the Olympics in Munich in 1972.

Marlene Mathews became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1979 for her services to athletics, and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1999. A Trustee of the Sydney Cricket Ground, she is recognised in its Walk of Honour. Mathews was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985.

Ann Mitchell has been associated with women’s cricket as a player (state and national level), manager, coach, journalist, and administrator for nearly fifty years. She contributes regularly to cricket journals and has provided commentary for Sydney radio and ABC television.

She has also had a long association with women’s university sport, once again as a player and administrator. Most recently, as Executive Director of Sydney University Women’s Sport and Deputy Director Sydney University Sport, Mitchell has made a significant contribution to the status of women in sport, particularly by promoting gender equity in university sport. Over her lengthy career as a volunteer and employee in the sport industry, she has been instrumental in developing opportunities for women in university sports as well as non-playing roles including administration, coaching and sports medicine.

Through her representation on numerous sports boards including Women’s Cricket Australia, International Women’s Cricket Council and Australian University Sport, Ms Mitchell has raised the profile of women’s sport in the community.

In April 2010, Mitchell was made an Honorary Fellow of Sydney University in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, in recognition of her ‘extraordinary contribution to the University, to cricket and to Australian women’s sport for nearly five decades.’

Dorothy Roche became Australia’s oldest gold medal winner when she competed in the women’s fours at the Auckland Commonwealth Games at the age of 61 years and 10 months.

In 2006, Patricia Bridges was awarded the first ever life membership of the newly established golfing organisation, Golf Australia. It was a fitting tribute to her for her years of service to the sport. Throughout a career in golf administration that spanned four decades, she has held several positions on the executive of the Australian Ladies’ Golf Union, including president. In 1994, at the age of seventy-two, she was appointed Chairman of the Women’s Committee of the World Amateur Golf Council, the first Australian man or women to hold an executive position on an International Golf Committee. In the same year, she negotiated exclusively with Holden to sponsor the resurgence of the Women’s Australian Open Championship. The trophy for the winner of the Women’s Australian Open is named the Patricia Bridges Bowl, in her honour.

Patricia Bridges was respected for her organisational skills and her ability to move with the times. At an media conference in 2006 announcing the timing and whereabouts of the 2007 Women’s Open, organisers played a video of some of the up and coming women players. Bare midriffs were once banned in women’s golf but plenty were on show throughout the video. One shot showed images of a young woman with a tattoo on her lower back. ‘Good grief,’ muttered a member of the crowd. ‘Why not?’ responded Mrs. Bridges.

Zali Steggall was the first Australian to win an individual medal in the Winter Olympic Games.

Over the course of her swimming career, despite recurrent illness and injury, Petria Thomas won 3 Olympic Gold Medals, 3 World Championships, 9 Commonwealth Games Gold Medals, 13 Australian Championships, and 3 Pan Pacific Gold Medals. Her tally of eight Olympic medals (three gold, four silver, one bronze) is the best ever for an Australian woman, equal with Dawn Fraser and Susie O’Neill. Thomas was inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport Swimming Hall of Fame in 1996, and was crowned the AIS Athlete of the Year in 2001 and 2002. She currently resides in Belconnen, Canberra, with her husband Julian Jones.

Sarah (Fanny) Durack battled local swimming authorities to become the first Australian woman to compete at the Olympic Games. In 1912, at Stockholm, she won the gold medal in the 100 meters freestyle event, beating her compatriot and training partner, Wilhelmina (Mina) Wylie. She went on to break numerous world records until she retired from competitive swimming in 1921.

Ronda Kimble was a netball player who advanced through the ranks to become an All Australian netball umpire. She has been involved in the game of netball for nearly forty years, as a player, coach, umpire, administrator and archivist.