The Australian Women's Register

The Zonta Club of Adelaide was officially chartered on April 17, 1969. Allthea Tebbutt was elected as the first president of the Club, alongside Board Members Irene Jeffries, Dr Catherine Ellis, Geraldine Little, Joyce Cupples, Brenda Coulter and Judith Hay.

The Panhellenic Women’s Movement was a broad-based, progressive women’s organisation established in 1977 in order to assist and represent Australian women of Greek heritage.

The National Fitness Council of South Australia was a government advisory body established in 1939 that alerted individuals to the importance of gaining physical fitness, and encouraged community interest in open space and the “Quality of Environment.” In 1976 the Council was taken over by the Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport.

The South Australian Women’s Amateur Sports Council was established with financial and administrative assistance from the National Fitness Council to promote the interests of sportswomen in South Australia, and to help formulate “a common policy on planning and development for women’s sport”. One of its most important initiatives, in cooperation with the National Fitness Council of South Australia, was the establishment of the Women’s Memorial Playing Fields on the corner of Shepherds Hill Road and Ayliffes Road, St. Marys.

The concept of a Women’s Memorial Playing Fields emanated from the concern from South Australia’s sporting women over the lack of playing areas available to them. Sports field for women had always been in short supply in Adelaide, but the situation was made worse by the rapid growth of women’s participation in sport in the post-war period.

This concern led to the formation of the South Australian Women’s Amateur Sports Council. With the help of the National Fitness Council they lobbied the government for resources and were eventually successful. In 1953 the Premier, the Hon. Tom Playford, granted the Council 20 acres of reserve land on the corner of Shepherds Hill Road and Ayliffes Road, St. Marys for a centre for women’s sport.

From 1953-55 the fields progressed and prospered. In 1956 to honour those who had died during war, a memorial drinking fountain was erected, and the grounds as a whole were dedicated to the South Australia Servicewomen who served in World Wars I and II. A ceremony remembering the nurses and other women in the services is held each February.

The work of early Trust members is commemorated in the naming of the Helen Black oval, the Gordon Brown oval and the May Mills Pavilion.

The Women’s Memorial Playing fields are the only dedicated women’s memorial of this type in Australia.

The Catholic Female Refuge in Adelaide was established in Mitcham in in 1856 to shelter girls who were in ‘moral danger’. Its ‘clients’ soon extended beyond girls to women who also needed support. In exchange for care and shelter, women and girls assisted with the sewing and laundry work which helped to provide an income for the refuge. Some women remained at there for years as ‘Magdalens’ working and praying with the nuns.

From 1868 to 1962 Josephite nuns ran the refuge, which moved to Norwood in 1872, and into new premises at Fullarton in 1901. The institution continues to function today as a women’s housing co-operative.

The Methodist Order of Deaconesses was established in 1942 as a result of the inability of the Methodist Church in Australia to implement the principle affirmed at the General Conference in 1929 that women who believed that they were called by God to a wider (professional) ministry in the Church than was available to them at that time, could offer as candidates for the ministry under the same regulations as men.

Its establishment led to marked changes in the opportunities available to women in the life of the church. Significantly, it offered structure, support and status for women’s ministry by providing a professional pathway. It created opportunities for women’s ministry at home, not just in international mission fields. By helping to create a context whereby men and women worked together, it enabled the Methodist Church to come to the view that women had a place in the ordained ministry.

The Women Lawyers’ Association of South Australia was incorporated in July 1998, although the need for a women’s association had been discussed well before then and was long in the making.

On 21st September 1988 a meeting was held at the Law Society to discuss forming a women lawyers group. Over 95 women attended and 60 more sent their apologies. This represented more than half of the women practising law at that time and clearly indicated that the concept of a women lawyers committee or group had considerable support.

The Women Lawyers Committee of the Law Society was formally established in April 1989. A volunteer committee took responsibility for running the section, which has continued to this day. Following the establishment of Australian Women Lawyers in 1997, the Women Lawyers Association of South Australia Inc. has operated as an independently incorporated body, although their activities remain intertwined with those of the Women Lawyers Committee of the Law Society.

The Supreme Court of South Australia is the superior court of the State and is a court of both law and equity. It deals with the most important civil cases and the most serious criminal matters. In its appellate jurisdiction, the Supreme Court reviews and determines errors which may have occurred in other courts of the State and interprets and expounds the law for the guidance of other courts. The court was set up by ordinance of 7 Will. IV c.5 on 2 January 1837, five days after the Colony of South Australia was founded. Its first sitting was held on 13 May 1837.

The Magistrates’ Court of South Australia was established by the Magistrates Court Act 1991. The Court handles the greatest proportion of litigation in the State. It has four jurisdictions: Civil (General Claims); Civil (Minor Claims); Civil (Consumer and Business) and Criminal.

The inaugural Composing Women’s Festival was held in Adelaide in September 1991. The Festival was founded by composer Becky Llewellyn and it brought Australian female composers together for the first time.

Founded in July 1988, the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League was at the forefront of the campaign for womens’s right to vote.

The Queen Victoria Hospital was the name given to the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital in 1966. The hospital provided maternity and women’s health services, and also operated as an adoption agency. In March 1989 the Queen Victoria Hospital merged with the Adelaide Children’s Hospital to form the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children.

The Queen Victoria Hospital merged with the Adelaide Children’s Hospital in 1989 to form the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children. In 1995 the centre was renamed the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

The current Women’s and Children’s Hospital was given its name in 1995, after previously being called the Adelaide Medical Centre for Women and Children.

The centre is located in North Adelaide, South Australia.

In 1939 The Queen’s Home was renamed the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital. Seven years later, in 1946, it was declared a public hospital under the provisions of the Hospital Benefits Act.

In 1966 the hospital was renamed The Queen Victoria Hospital.

The Queen’s Home was officially opened on 24 May 1902 – Queen Victoria’s 83rd Birthday. The hospital was established as a private maternity hospital and from 1917 unmarried women were admitted for the first time.

In 1939, the hospital was renamed the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital.

The Advanced School for Girls opened in Adelaide in 1879. It was the first state secondary school for girls in Australia.

In early 1908 the Advanced School for Girls amalgamated with the Pupil Teacher School and the Grote Street Model School to form the Adelaide Continuation School. The school was renamed Adelaide High School in July of the same year.

In 1951 the school was split into two parts to form the Adelaide Boys’ High School and the Adelaide Girls’ High School.

The Queen Adelaide Club was founded in 1909 by Mrs Margaret Annie Box. The Club, which was named after Queen Adelaide, was established as ‘an exclusive residential club for social and non-political purposes’.

Previously known as the School for Mothers Institute and Baby Health Centre, The Mothers’ and Babies’ Health Association (MBHA) was officially established in c.1927. The aim of the Association was to reduce infant mortality by providing expert advice to mothers. During the 1930s and 1950s the Association was known for having baby health trains which took clinics to small, isolated communities. In 1980 the MBHA was renamed the Child, Adolescent and Family Health Services and in 1995, it was renamed again to Child and Youth Health.

The Adelaide School for Mothers was established in 1909 by Dr Helen Mayo and Miss Harriet Stirling. In 1915 the school was incorporated and renamed the School for Mothers’ Institute Inc.

The School for Mothers Institute Inc. was renamed the School for Mothers Institute and Baby Health Centre in 1921. It was again renamed in 1927 to the Mothers’ and Babies’ Health Association.

Formerly the Adelaide School for Mothers, the School for Mothers’ Institute Inc. was established in 1915 after the original organisation became incorporated. In 1921 the School was renamed the School for Mothers’ Institute and Baby Health Centre.

In 1951 the Adelaide High School was split to form the Adelaide Boys’ High School and the Adelaide Girls’ High School.

The schools were amalgamated again in 1976 after a drop in enrolment numbers caused by the re-zoning of high schools in the metropolitan area and changes in the demography of the city. By 1979 all of the students were housed at the West Terrace Campus.

The Methodist Ladies’ College in Malvern, South Australia, was opened on Saturday 12 April 1902. The college moved to the Way College building in Wayville for the beginning of the 1904 school year.

In 1977 the school was renamed Annesley College after the Congregational Union of Australia, the Methodist Church of Australasia and the Presbyterian Church of Australia merged to form the Uniting Church.

In 1977 Methodist Ladies’ College Adelaide became Annesley College after the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches merged to form the Uniting Church.

The Wesleyan Ladies’ College was opened on 27 January 1886.