The Australian Women's Register

Gertrude Concannon was a highly successful Australian-trained lyric soprano. Later in her life she contributed to Australian music with equal significance through her teaching, composition, and encouragement of younger musicians.

Margaret Ogg is best known for her extensive political, social and feminist activities. Additionally she was a poet, writer and an accomplished musician, playing viola in the family quartet, as well as holding membership with the Musical Association. A staunch monarchist and anti-socialist, Ogg actively toured outback townships in Queensland promoting women’s suffrage, and encouraging pioneer women to become involved in state and national affairs. As founder, co-founder and member of many Queensland women’s organisations, she was consistently at the forefront of political and social campaigns to secure reforms for the Queensland’s women and children. Ogg remained an active member of the Brisbane political and cultural scene up until her death.

Patience Rosemary Thoms was elected as the eighth president of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women at the Eleventh International Congress (1968) in London, England and held that position until 1971. She was the first International President from Australia, and also the first from the Southern Hemisphere. She had previously served as Australian President from 1960-1964. She was the Women’s News Editor of The Courier Mail for twenty years from 1956.

Kate Cable was the longest serving postmistress in Australia. On 1 July 1927 she was appointed postmistress at Macrossan, on the Flinders Highway, west of Townsville, earning 15/- per week.

Kate outlived the official history records of the postal service of Queensland. Her 59 years service at the Macrossan post office officially ended when the exchange went automatic on 31 March 1986; however Kate continued to maintain her links with Australia Post and the district, acting as Community Mail Agent for the collection and distribution of mail. Her duties as a postmistress involved sorting incoming and outgoing mail, banking, money orders and operating the old cordless pyramid switchboard.

Estelle Thomson was a member of the Queensland Naturalists’ Club, contributing flowers, paintings and drawings to the club’s annual wildflower show. She published Flowers of Our Bush (1929), a guide to Queensland wildflowers, which described and illustrated coastal species. From 1929 to the 1930s Estelle ran a weekly ‘Wildflowers’ column in the Brisbane Courier, illustrated by her own line drawings. This was followed by her column ‘Nature’s Ways’ in the Telegraph which she maintained until 1950.

Additionally, Thomson lectured at women’s clubs and schools, illustrating her lectures with delicately hand-coloured lantern slides. During the 1940s Estelle gave a series of children’s talks on wildflowers on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and produced a series of paintings of poisonous plants for the University of Queensland’s Medical School. She deposited specimens in the Queensland Herbarium, including some collected on the Granite Belt and at Caloundra. Estelle was also an expert on Queensland birds.

Julie Attwood is an Australian Labor Party member (MP) of the Queensland Parliament for the seat of Mount Ommaney. She was elected 13 June 1998. Julie is currently Parliamentary Secretary to the Queensland Treasurer. Prior to her parliamentary career Julie was a manager at the Commonwealth Employment Service at Indooroopilly. She has a Graduate Diploma of Case Management and Client Service with Deakin University in Melbourne, Victoria.

Veronica Lesley (“Bonny”) Barry was an Australian Labor Party member for the seat of Aspley. She was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 2001 and was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education and Training and Minister for the Arts, Rod Welford. Barry lost her seat in the state election held 21 March 2009. Veronica is a registered nurse with over twenty years experience.

Anna Maria Bligh was elected as Premier of Queensland on 21 March 2009, thus becoming the first woman in Australia to be elected in her own right as Premier. She was sworn in as Premier of Queensland on 13 September 2007, following the resignation of Peter Beattie, and was then Queensland’s first female Premier, a position she held until Labor’s electoral defeat in 2012. She was appointed Deputy Premier of Queensland in July 2005 – the same month she celebrated 10 years as Member for South Brisbane. As Deputy Premier she was also Treasurer and Minister for Infrastructure, running the $33 billion Queensland State Budget and leading construction of the $9 billion South-East Queensland Water Grid.

She was formerly Minister for Finance, State Development, Trade and Innovation. Prior to that she was Queensland’s first female Education Minister spending almost 5 years overseeing the most significant reforms to the State’s education system including the introduction of a preparatory year of schooling and requirements for all young people to be “learning or earning”. During that time she also had responsibilities for the Arts portfolio, overseeing construction of the Millennium Arts Precinct. Following the election of the Beattie Labor Government in June 1998, her first ministerial responsibility was as Minister for Families, Youth and Community Care and Disability Services.

In 2017, Anna Bligh was made a Companion in the General Division of the order of Australia ‘for eminent service to the Parliament of Queensland, particularly as Premier, to infrastructure development and education reform, as an advocate for the role of women in public life, and to the not for-profit sector’.

Leontine Cooper was Queensland’s most significant writer addressing the rights of white women during the movement for woman suffrage in that state. By the late 1880s she had emerged as one of the key activists who contributed to progressive movements in Australian political life and Australian feminism. Cooper wrote short stories for the Boomerang and in the mid 1890s edited Queensland’s only women’s suffrage newspaper, the Star. For a short time she edited Flashes, a society newspaper, and for a while wrote ‘Queensland Notes’ for Louisa Lawson’s feminist journal, the Dawn.

In 1889 Leontine Cooper led a breakaway group from the Woman’s Equal Franchise Association, which became known as the Queensland Woman’s Suffrage League. Cooper was concerned that the women’s suffrage movement should not be ‘captured’ by the Labor Party, and become subject to party politics. Leontine founded and served as inaugural president of the Brisbane Pioneer Club in 1899 which, like its London namesake, was a progressive women’s club.

Elina Emily Mottram was Queensland’s first and longest practicing female architect, establishing her own business in Brisbane in 1924.

Appointed as temporary lecturer in the department of dentistry, University of Queensland, in 1961, Mrs Marlay joined the department staff in 1965 as lecturer in oral biology. She was awarded a Ph.D. in 1969 for a study of the incident of dental caries in adolescent girls; her project also contributed to knowledge about tests of buffering capacity of saliva and the ability to predict dental caries increments. On 1 January 1971 Dr Marlay was made a senior lecturer.

Josephine Bedford worked tirelessly to improve the lives of impoverished woman and children in Brisbane. She was instrumental in founding the Crèche and Kindergarten Association in 1907 and the Playground Association in 1913. The Bedford Playground in Spring Hill commemorates Josephine’s outstanding contribution to Queensland children. Josephine volunteered with the Scottish Women’s Hospital when World War I broke out and served in Serbia for 12 months as head of the ambulance service. She was awarded the fifth class of the Order of St Sava by the King of Serbia.

Following the introduction of the Legal Practitioners Act of 1905, Agnes McWhinney became the first Queensland woman to be admitted as a legal practitioner in 1915. Agnes was also the first female solicitor to practise in Queensland.

Una Prentice (nee Bick) was the first woman law graduate admitted to the Bar of the Queensland Supreme Court, first woman admitted to the Bar of the High Court, and first female Commonwealth Prosecutor.

Estelle Cribb was a first day pupil at Ipswich Girls Grammar School (IGGS) in 1892. She was the first woman to study for a Master of Arts, with Honours in Mathematics, from the University of Sydney. She graduated in 1901. After obtaining an Honours Diploma in Education, she was appointed Mathematical Mistress at IGGS in 1903. She held the position for 35 years, retiring in 1938. Estelle Cribb was an active member of the IGGS Old Girls’ Association, serving as President for 12 years. She was much loved and when she died on 5 November 1947 a memorial fund was established by the Old Girls’ Association. In 1952 commemorative gates were unveiled at the front of IGGS, which still commemorate her

Olga Miller was a direct descendant and Elder of the Butchulla people of Fraser Island. She was an Aboriginal historian who wrote about and taught Aboriginal culture for over 40 years.

The entry was written in consultation with family members.

Celia Smith was one of the unsung heroes of the early Aboriginal rights movement, helping hundreds obtain their social welfare rights, taking up their cases with politicians and bureaucrats. As an early member of the Queensland Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (QCAATSI), Celia took over from poet Kath Walker as its honorary secretary. She was also a delegate to its federal counterpart, the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI).

From 1970 Celia wrote a regular column in the QCAATSI monthly newsletter in which she discussed issues of land rights, conditions on reserves, wages, and housing for Aborigines. She campaigned vigorously for a ‘yes’ vote in the successful 1967 referendum to empower the commonwealth government to legislate on Aboriginal affairs. She was often ‘on duty’ at the ‘tent embassy’ set up in 1974 at King George Square, Brisbane, to publicise the need for more Aboriginal housing in the city and to protest against the State’s repressive Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander Affair Act in 1965. In the 1970s Celia belonged to the Queensland branch of the Union of Australian Women, and kept the organisation informed of matters affecting Aborigines.

This entry has been made in accordance with the appropriate family protocols.

Ruth Don was the first Senior Mistress of a Queensland high school, as well as the first female Principal of the Domestic Science High School and of Brisbane’s Office Training College. She also became the Queensland Teachers Union’s first female president. Ruth was founding president of the Forum Club in Brisbane.

Joan Innes Reid influenced many lives as a pioneering social worker and the first woman councillor (and deputy mayor) in Townsville, North Queensland. In 1953 she was the only practicing medical social worker in Queensland outside of Brisbane. Joan also actively involved herself in community work, helping to establish medical, humanitarian and cultural institutions in Townsville. In 1976 she joined the staff of the James Cook University and became the first woman to be awarded an honorary degree by the University in 1995. In 1984 Dr Innes Reid was made a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of her community work and in 1989 she received life membership to the Australian Association of Social Work.  The Joan Innes Reid prize in social work awarded by James Cook University is named in her honour

During World War II, Joyce Tweddell became a prisoner of war (POW) when she was captured, together with many other nurses, by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in February 1942. She was interned in Sumatra for three and a half years before her recovery from the camp at the cessation of the war.

She refused to accept the honour of an MBE in the early 1970s as she believed all surviving prisoners of war should have been awarded this honour.

During World War II, Sylvia Muir, along with fellow Queensland Joyce Tweddell, became a prisoner of war (POW) when she was captured, together with many other nurses, by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in February 1942. She was interned in Sumatra for three and a half years before her recovery from the camp at the cessation of the war.

In 1931, Ellen O’Donnell, along with Zara Dare, became Queensland’s first female police officer, serving with the service for nearly 31 years. As Ellen was never officially sworn in as an officer, she did not wear a uniform or receive officer’s wages. She also was never part of the superannuation scheme. Her duties were restricted to assisting lost children, escorting female prisoners, and working with victims of domestic and sexual violence. Queensland’s decision to allow female officers into the police service was extremely controversial, with opinions divided across the state.

Evelyn Evans was a young English girl from a well-to-do family, who while in Australia as part of a world trip, met and married station manager Charles Maunsell in 1912. They lived at Mulgrave Station which was located on the frontier of far north Queensland. Evelyn endured incredible hardship, with pioneering forcing her to endure hazards that pushed her far beyond the traditional female role; that of mother, wife and homemaker. Her courage and resourcefulness helped further the position and importance of women in colonial society.

The Queensland Women’s Electoral League (QWEL) was co-founded by Christina Corrie (wife of Brisbane mayor Leslie Corrie) in 1903. The Queensland Women’s Electoral League differed from the Women’s Electoral Franchise Association (WEFA) in that it was conservative, anti-socialist and pro private enterprise. Its membership was drawn from women in professions and wives of businessmen. Christina Corrie was one of the most well known women in Brisbane in the early 1900s and she used her notoriety to advance the causes of the many social, cultural and charitable institutions she supported.

Nellie Robinson was elected as Alderman to the Toowoomba Council in 1961. In 1967 she was elected mayor of Toowoomba, thus becoming Queensland’s first female mayor. Nellie served the state for 14 years. The Queen’s New Year Honours list in 1979 made her an officer of the Order of the British Empire for “distinguished service to local government”.

Alice Crist was a prolific writer of verse and short fiction, who published widely in the Australian secular and religious press including the Bulletin (Sydney) Worker, Steele Rudd’s Magazine, Home Budget, Toowoomba Chronicle, Catholic Advocate and Catholic Press. Crist wrote about her rural and domestic experiences, frequently celebrating the beauty of the bush and the virtues and struggles of Irish Australian pioneers. Crist was also a long-term member and vice-president of the Toowoomba Ladies Literary Society. Her Irish heritage intermingled with a unique Australian flavour and this contributed to the uniqueness of her poetry.

Mother Patrick Potter was born in Ireland and educated at Cloontagh National School and Longford Convent School. In 1866 she began her novitiate as a Sister of Mercy at Athy Convent, Kildare. Upon arrival in Australia in 1868, Mother Patrick joined the Queensland Sisters of Mercy congregation which had been established by Mother Vincent Whitty, making her profession of vows at Brisbane’s All Hallows Convent in 1869. Appointed to All Hallows’ school, Mother Patrick contributed greatly to the religious, academic and cultural development of the students. In 1879 she was elected to the administration of the Brisbane congregation of Sisters of Mercy, where she acted as Superior or assistant, for the next 48 years.