The Australian Women's Register

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.

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.

Mary was known for her selfless work in the Brisbane community. She was a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and became founding secretary of the Brisbane Benevolent Society, which helped people in distress following the disastrous floods in south-east Queensland in 1893. She was honorary secretary (vice-president 1912-28) of the committee of Lady Musgrave Lodge, a home for nurses and single female immigrants. As Queensland representative for the Travellers’ Aid Society, she maintained contact with the British Women’s Emigration League. She served on the ladies’ management committee of the Hospital for Sick Children in 1894 – 1924.

Mary was president of the Young Women’s Christian Association of Brisbane (1902-12), honorary president to 1921, then honorary life president. She was vice-president of the Queensland division of the British (Australian) Red Cross Society during World War I and in 1921 patroness of St David’s Welsh Society of Queensland—Sir Samuel had been founding patron in 1918. Other organizations to which she contributed her intelligence and energy were the National Council of Women, the Brisbane City Mission, the Queensland auxiliary of the London Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Queensland Women’s Electoral League, the Protestant Federation, the United Sudan Mission and the Charity Organisation Society. In 1911 she was appointed a lady of grace of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem and was invested at Government House, Brisbane.

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.