The Australian Women's Register

Bill’ Smith was a successful North Queensland jockey in the early 1900s. Viewed as small in statue and eccentric in behaviour, it was not until his death in 1975 that it was discovered that ‘Bill’ Smith was actually a woman, thus making her Australia’s first female jockey.

Edith Bryan was appointed head teacher of the school section of the Queensland Blind, Deaf and Dumb Institution in Brisbane, Australia, in 1901. In 1918 the Queensland government assumed responsibility for this charitable organisation and initially Edith retained her position with the institution.

Following an increase in class numbers as a direct result of introduction of the Blind, Deaf and Dumb Instruction Act of 1924, which made the education of deaf children compulsory, it was deemed appropriate in 1926 that a male should take control of the school. Edith retained charge of the deaf section of the school until she retired in 1937, after which she continued to work for the deaf community.

An active member of the Queensland Adult Deaf and Dumb Mission which she had helped to establish in 1902, Edith chaired a parent support-group which she had also promoted. The mission named Edith Bryan Hostel in her honour.

Ann Drew settled in Toowong, with her husband Richard Langler Drew in the early 1860s. Over the next four decades Ann advocated and helped administer an array of welfare institutions. Most importantly, in April 1871 she founded the Female Refuge and Infants’ Home (‘Mrs Drew’s Home’) for young single mothers and their babies. Initially funded by Ann and her friends, the refuge eventually gained government assistance, however, this funding was withdrawn in 1900.

As lady president of the Social Purity Society, Ann was involved in the establishment of Lady Musgrave Lodge (1891-1892) as a hostel and training place for immigrants and other ‘friendless’ girls. She also took part in agitation to repeal the Contagious Diseases Act of 1868 and held the position of secretary of the committee of the Lady Bowen Hospital from 1870 to 1879. In 1906 Ann Drew retired as ‘Foundress and Superintendent’ of the Female Refuge and Infants’ Home.

Ursula McConnel is recognised as an influential anthropologist of the Cape York Peninsula and a talented amateur photographer. McConnel used her photographs to illustrate publications of her research in magazines and ethnographic journals such as Oceania and Walkabout. She was also a collector of Indigenous artefacts.

Content added for original entry by Lee Butterworth, last modified 11 June 2009

As one of the first students of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown’s Australian tenureship, Ursula McConnel conducted ethnographic fieldwork as a participant-observer in western Cape York Peninsula between 1927 and 1934. She worked chiefly among the Wik peoples, particularly the Wik Mungkan based at Aurukun Mission. As part of her anthropological study McConnel amassed a substantial material culture collection of over five hundred artefacts. Together with Donald Thomson’s collection from the same area, it forms a unique record of Wik Mungkan material culture from that period. In 2006 a large collection of professional papers belonging to Ursula was discovered and donated to the South Australian Museum.

May Jordan McConnel was the first paid female union organiser in Queensland, elected Secretary of the newly-formed Tailoresses Union on 5 August 1890. The Brisbane Women’s Union met for the first time on 27 August 1890 and discussions focused on securing fair wages, fair hours and equitable conditions in the workplace for women. In Brisbane on 17 December 1893, May delivered an address to suffrage supporters, celebrating New Zealand women’s success in attaining the right to vote. In February 1894, a public meeting was held and the Woman’s Equal Franchise Association, a strong supporter of women’s suffrage, was founded. May was elected as Treasurer. In 1910, the McConnel family left Brisbane for the United States, leaving their Indooroopilly house, ‘Robgill’, as a gift to Queensland. This house became the Methodist Church’s first institutionalised home for orphans in the state – the original Queen Alexander Home for Children. The family never returned to Australia and May died in California in 1929.

Bonita Mabo was a prominent Indigenous and South Sea Islander activist. She was the wife of land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo.

Joan Kellett’s community activism focused on the education and welfare of children in the ACT. In 1977 she established one of Australia’s first after-school programs and a home for the Australian Early Childhood Association in the Majura Primary School, Watson. She served as Chair of the school board at North Ainslie Primary School and on the boards of Lyneham High School and Dickson College. For 30 years from 1984, she was an executive member of the ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations. Her dedication to the sport of swimming as an administrator and official, and her contribution to the Canberra community, was recognised by the award of the Order of Australia Medal in 2003.

Joan Kellet was inscribed on the ACT Honour Walk in 2018.

Bev Cains was a member of the Australian Capital Territory House of Assembly representing the Family Team for the electorate of Fraser 1979–1986. After self-government, she was unsuccessful in the 1987 election for the Federal seat of Canberra.  She also stood unsuccessfully for the ACT Legislative Assembly in 1989 and 1992. During her political career she was an ardent advocate and activist for conservative values.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Tara Cheyne was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory, representing the electorate of Ginninderra, in October 2016.  She was re-elected in October 2020. Cheyne was Government Whip from October 2016 to 2020 and has held various portfolios since 2020.

The Queensland Women’s Electoral League (QWEL) was an organisation formed in the last stages of the campaign to obtain woman suffrage for white women in Queensland. While the league claimed to have all women’s interests at heart, and that it was to be apolitical, it was very much a liberal-conservative organisation. Although its stated aims included the desire to ‘advance political knowledge among women’, they also included the desire to ‘encourage and preserve private enterprise, and to combat unnecessary interference by the State’. Labor women who attended the QWEL launch in 1903 left once the political agenda became obvious. They went on to form the Women Workers’ Political Organisation in opposition. The Women’s Christian Temperance Organisation, in response to this political wrangling, called upon its own members to avoid ‘the venom of party politics’ and concentrate on the task at hand.

The Catholic Women’s League State of Queensland was established in 1975. It developed out of the Catholic Daughters of Australia, Brisbane, which was established in 1927. The League aims to unite Catholic women in a common bond of friendship for the promotion of religious, intellectual and social work. Membership is open to all Catholic women who are considered eligible by the branch executive. The organisation operates within the state of Queensland at all levels; state, diocesan/regional and branch. It is affiliated with the Catholic Women’s League Australia Inc. and the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations.

Queensland Rural Women’s Network Inc (QRWN) was formed in 1993 to meet the needs of women in rural communities throughout the state. Since then it has grown considerably and runs a series of programs in regional centre’s as well as being involved at a national and international level.
The membership of QRWN is not restricted to women in primary industries. Members include those who work in related roles in the rural and regional communities, such as Department of Primary Industries and Queensland Health Department. We actively seek, and have, a large number of members who undertake a huge variety of activities in their communities.
“Our focus is on all rural women and their families”
QRWN aims to provide opportunities for the self-development of rural women as well as being a lobby group that undertakes action in all areas affecting rural women and families, when the necessity arises
Vision
“To bring together women to support and enhance rural families and communities by building networks of information, friendship and resources.”
Mission
Is to help all rural Queensland women, whether living on the land or in the towns, to contribute more effectively to their communities.
Aims
• provide a stimulating and interesting forum for discussions and debate on all issues affecting women
• provide a support system through networking in all areas of our state network with other groups throughout Australia and the world to improve country-city relationships
• encourage provision of services by government agencies and private organisations
• praise the status of all rural women
• promote the value and diversity of rural industries and communities
• encourage personal development and education in rural communities
Structure
QRWN extends over six regions under the management of Regional Directors – Northern, Western, Central, Wide Bay Burnett, South East and Border. The Management Committee, with representatives from all over Queensland, meets. There are a number of local branches operating.

The Bardon Women’s Club was formed in 1926 with the aim of providing a vehicle for community involvement for the women in this suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, as long as they were not Catholic. The initiative of Mrs. Vera Jones, a local mother and an ex-schoolteacher with a Masters of Science from the University of Queensland, the club was open to non-Catholic women who wanted to ‘widen their own horizons’, who wanted ‘a voice in the community’ and also needed some entertainment and ‘a social focus’. The club amended its constitution in 1996 to allow membership to non-Protestant women, in accordance with State government anti-discrimination legislation. It ceased operation in 1998.

The Women’s Voluntary National Register, Queensland State Council, was established by a gathering of representatives from Queensland women’s organisations at a meeting in Brisbane, Queensland on April 26th 1939. It was part of a federal government scheme to determine how many women would be able to provide ‘manpower’ and national service, if required, when the nation went to war. The list of organizations associated with the register provides evidence of the large number of women who were members of clubs and organizations in the interwar period.

The Australian Women’s Land Army, Queensland Division, was established in July 1942, to help ‘fight on the food front.’ Queensland women comprised almost one quarter of the nation’s enlistees for war on this front. At its peak, 3,000 women were members of the Australian Women’s Land Army, 700 of who came from Queensland.

The ‘Women’s Place Women’s Space’ steering committee was formed in 1989 with the aim of securing a building and funding to resource a women’s centre in Brisbane; a building that would provide ‘a space for women by women for women, in Brisbane’. An ex-director of the University of Queensland Health Service, Dr Janet Irwin, is credited with initiating the concept, which received the public support of 173 women’s organizations, representing 200,000 women throughout Queensland. The then Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Sally Anne Atkinson, gave the proposal her strong support

The Women’s Community Aid Association was established in the 1970s in order to lobby local, state and federal governments for funding to establish a Women’s Resource and Education Centre in Brisbane.

The Lady Musgrave Lodge Committee was the initiative of a group of Brisbane women who felt that there was a need to provide a good home for working women and girls in Brisbane. The committee raised and administered funding to support the lodge where respectable young women could ‘take rest or board while waiting a new situation.’ Primarily designed to be a first port of call for young emigrant women arriving in the colony, it was also a place to stay for local working women and girls between jobs. It was named for its first patron, Queensland Governor’s wife, Lady Lucinda Musgrave.

The Ithaca Benevolent Society was established in 1900 by a group of Brisbane women to relieve poverty and hardship amongst the ‘deserving poor’. With the passage of time, the interests of the society evolved to encompass more women-centred interests. They were particularly concerned with the interests of mothers and their children, and spokespeople at the time claimed the association was instrumental in campaigns that sought to set up systems of state aid for mothers.

The Association of Queensland Women’s Forum Clubs was established in 1947 to operate as a central administrative and supervisory body for the growing number of Women’s Forum Clubs that formed in Queensland after 1945. The first of these clubs was established in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1941, with the aim of fostering public speaking amongst women. The club maintained a non- party political, non-sectarian stance, and was unaffiliated with any other organizations, except The National Council of Women. The association still exists, under the name of Forum Communicators Association Inc. It acts as the umbrella body for twenty-three (in 2004) forum clubs across Queensland.

On July 22nd, 1941, a number of prominent Brisbane women called a public meeting of women to discuss the possibility of forming a club for women who were interested in learning public speaking skills. The idea was received enthusiastically by the assembled group, and the first Queensland Women’s Forum Club was established on July 30th, 1941. The first ordinary meeting of the new forum club was held on August 20th, 1941 in the blue room at the hotel Canberra. The Chermside Forum was established in the 1960s.

The Women’s Equal Franchise Association (WEFA) of Queensland was formed in February 1894, marking a timely revitalisation of the woman suffrage movement in that state. Its first president was Mrs Eleanor Trundle, and it represented women who were Labor in their politics. From the outset, the association linked its struggle for votes for women with the campaign against plural voting in Queensland. Once both these aims were achieved, in January 1905, the association held a ‘celebration social’ and disbanded itself.

A lobby group that promotes women’s sexual and reproductive health choices in relation to unplanned pregnancy, Children by Choice (CbyC) was established in 1972 as an offshoot of the Queensland branch of the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA), to offer family planning advice and counselling to women confronted by the reality of an unplanned pregnancy. At this time, legislation dating back to 1899 criminalised abortion and most Queensland women had to travel interstate to obtain one. This legal reality led to staff at CbyC expanding their range of activities to include offering counselling and medical referral services to doctors at St Anne’s Hospital in Sydney. By 1975 CbyC had developed a package deal with Ansett Airlines and Population Services International (PSI) to help women to travel to Sydney for abortions. It was not the original intention for CbyC to become an abortion referral service, but this became the Association’s best known activity at that early point in its history.

Despite having bricks thrown through the windows of their premises and their funding slashed periodically throughout the last three decades, CbyC have continued to provide essential counselling services to the women of Queensland. ‘The survival of Children by Choice has been a story of struggle and sacrifice.’

In July 2002, the Australian Workers Heritage Centre celebrated the opening of Stage One of its national $8 million project, Women in Australia’s Working History. The first stage is an exhibition, A Lot On Her Hands, featuring the working experiences of a diverse range of Australian women.

The McLeod Country Golf Club as founded in 1968 with the establishment of the first 9 holes. The 18 hole course was completed by 1972. Located in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, it is the only golf club in the southern hemisphere managed by female members. The club welcomes both females (Members) and males (Fellows) and has recently commenced a proactive program to encourage juniors.

The War Widows’ Guild of Australia was formed in 1945 in Victoria by the late Mrs Jessie Mary Vasey OBE, CBE, widow of Major-General George Vasey. In 1947 the Queensland State Branch was formed. The Guild aims to watch over and protect the interests of war widows by lobbying politicians and offering its members friendship, empathy and comfort in times of need, particularly in the loss of a partner. Its motto is as relevant today as it was at the Guild’s formation over 60 years ago:-

We all belong to each other
We all need each other
It is in serving each other
And in sacrificing for our common good
That we are finding our true life

(Extract from an Empire Day Message from His Majesty the late King George the Sixth in 1949).

In 1911, 32 women came together to form a Literary Society. They were intelligent, creative and active women who contributed significantly to the social and cultural life of Brisbane at the time. These women were not only writers but worked in many charitable, feminist and cultural spheres. They were travellers and observers. They contributed to the Comforts Fund in World War I and were active in women’s suffrage movements. Some held a prominent social status by virtue of their husbands’ occupations in academia, medicine, law, civil service and the professions, but – until recently – little was known of the contribution of the women themselves. Jean Stewart’s Scribblers: A Ladies Literary Society in Brisbane, 1911 was published in 2007 by Kingswood Press.