The Australian Women's Register

In March 1894 Margaret Cuthbertson was appointed to a three month trial as the first Female Inspector of Factories in Victoria. Having joined the public service six years earlier (she was employed as a Telephone Switch Operator in the Department of Postmaster-General on 25 July 1888) she was the successful applicant for a position that required someone capable of reporting on the sanitary arrangements, hours of labour, remuneration etc of all places where women were employed. She was also expected to visit the premises of outworkers and make occasional visit to rural and regional centres. She was the main conduit of information between women workers and the Chief Inspector of Factories.

Mary Swanton was an staunch labour activist who was particularly concerned about the conditions endured by working women. Born in Melbourne, she moved to Perth, Western Australia, in 1889 where she worked as a tailoress. She was a member of the Australian Native’s Association, a strong supporter of women’s suffrage and a founding member (secretary) of the Perth branch of the Australian Women’s Association.

In 1900 she became the foundation president of the Perth Tailoresses’ Union until its amalgamation with the Tailors’ Union in 1905. She was elected to the presidency of the combined union in 1910. Swanton was also a foundation member of the Karrakatta Club, and a friend and associate of reformist women such as Katharine Susannah Prichard.

A lifelong commitment to the cause of labour did not limit her criticism of the movement when it ignored women’s working conditions.

Elizabeth Austin was the benefactor of Melbourne’s Austin Hospital, and ‘a pioneer of female benefaction in Victoria’.

In 1912, Eliza Hall used her inheritance to establish the Walter and Eliza Hall Trust. Funds were distributed in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. A significant proportion of Victoria’s share went toward the establishment of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne.

Barbara Collie established the Collie Print Trust in 1967.

The Collier sisters – Annette, Alice and Edith – came to public notice in 1954 with the endowment of the £1.25 million Collier Charitable Fund. By 2007, the corpus of the fund was worth $88 million.

The Collier sisters – Annette, Alice and Edith – came to public notice in 1954 with the endowment of the £1.25 million Collier Charitable Fund. By 2007, the corpus of the fund was worth $88 million.

The Collier sisters – Annette, Alice and Edith – came to public notice in 1954 with the endowment of the £1.25 million Collier Charitable Fund. By 2007, the corpus of the fund was worth $88 million.

Deborah Halpern is one of Australia’s most celebrated sculptors, known for her wildly colourful mosaic work. One of Halpern’s biggest sculptures, Angel, stood in the moat of the National Gallery of Victoria for many years before it was moved to its current location on the bank of the Yarra River at Birrarung Marr.

Margarethe Von Puttkamer was the first nurse at Broken Hill, New South Wales.

Phyllis Gibb was the first teacher at the School of the Air in Broken Hill, New South Wales.

Mary Renowden was the first government official in Broken Hill, New South Wales, serving as postmistress from 1 January 1886.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Gail Gago was elected to the Legislative Council of the Parliament of South Australia at the election, which was held on 9 February 2002. She was re-elected in 2010. She holds the Ministerial portfolios of State/Local Government Relations, Status of Women, Consumer Affairs, and Government Enterprises. She acts also as Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure. Gail completed her secondary education at Shepparton High School, Victoria, her Tertiary education at Phillip Institute of Technology and Monash University.

Beryl Carmichael was an elder of the Ngiyaempaa people and served on the National Parks and Wildlife Advisory Council, the Western Lands Advisory Council, and the New South Wales Reconciliation Council. She lived in Menindee in far western New South Wales.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Rosemary Crowley was elected as a Senator for South Australia in the Senate of the Parliament of Australia at the federal election, which was held in March 1983. She served until 2002 and during her period in Parliament she held the portfolios of Family Services from 1993 to 1996 and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women from March to December 1993. A complete record of her parliamentary service, including a link to her first speech, can be found in the Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia (see below).

With her husband Rod, mosaic artist Julie Horsburgh owns Jarrah Mosaics at Broken Hill, New South Wales.

Edith Quin emigrated to Australia from England and, with her husband, was one of the first graziers in the Wilcannia district.

Sister Elsie Simper was the Matron of Warrawee Private Hospital in Broken Hill from 1933 until 1943, and was the founder of the District Nursing Service.

The Melbourne Working Women’s Centre was the first trade union women’s research and advisory centre in Australia. Established in 1975, under the auspices of the white collar union peak body, the Australian Council of Salaried and Professional Associations (ACSPA), it operated as an independent lobby and research group concentrating on women’s issues in employment. When the ACSPA amalgamated with the ACTU in 1979, so too did the Working Women’s Centre. It became defunct in 1984.

The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) was established in Melbourne in 1972 by Beatrice Faust. She was inspired by feminists in the United States who had been rating presidential candidates. The organisation quickly spread to Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra and in 1978 WEL Australia was formed as a coalition of state, territory and regional groups. Primarily a women’s political lobby group, WEL surveyed political candidates and their policies affecting women, wrote submissions and developed media skills for women to lobby for the inclusion of women in the area of government policy. Originally the WEL campaign was based on six demands: equal pay, equal employment opportunity, equal access to education, free contraceptive services, abortion on demand and free 24-hour childcare.

Established in 1896, the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne was the first women’s hospital in Victoria, operated for women by women. Originally housed in William Street, Melbourne, new premises were purchased with money raised by Victorian women contributing to Dr Constance Stone’s ‘Shilling Fund’. The hospital moved to its Lonsdale Street site in 1946. In 1989 it was relocated to the Monash Medical Centre at Clayton.

Established in 1896 as the Victoria Hospital for Women and Children, as a clinic in a local church hall, The Queen Victoria Hospital was one of three hospitals in the world founded, managed and staffed by women, ‘For Women, By Women’, for the benefit of poor women uncomfortable with male doctors. There were eleven female founding doctors led by Dr Constance Stone.

The hospital was funded by an appeal coinciding with Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. After three years, there were enough funds to move into separate premises, the old Governess Institute in Mint Lane. Known as the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women and Children, the name changed to the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital when the Queen died in 1901.

In 1946, the hospital moved into premises vacated by the Royal Melbourne Hospital on Lonsdale Street. In 1965, it became Monash University’s teaching hospital for obstetrics, gynaecology and paediatrics, at which point it became a ‘Family Hospital’ that treated and employed males.

In 1977 the hospital amalgamated with McCulloch House and was renamed the Queen Victoria Medical Centre. The years later , in 1987, it merged with Moorabbin Hospital and moved to Clayton. In 1991 it was involved with yet another merger, this time with Prince Henry’s Hospital, to form the Monash Medical Centre.

The Lyceum Club (Melbourne), established in 1912, was directly modelled on the lyceum clubs of England. Membership is restricted to women graduates and other women who had distinguished themselves in art, music, literature, philanthropy or public service.

Sybylla Feminist Press was established as a printing cooperative in 1976 and since 1982 has run a small publishing program producing titles that explore feminist and left perspectives. The publications include fiction and non-fiction by women, with a special interest in new writers and work that is innovative in style.

Spinifex Press is an independent feminist press, publishing innovative and controversial fiction and non-fiction by Australian and international authors.

It was established by Renate Klein and Susan Hawthorne in the early 1990s.

The Office of Women’s Policy, located in the Department of Premier and Cabinet provides strategic policy advice to the Victorian Government on issues of concern to women.

The Women’s Action Committee grew out of initial meetings held by Dr Zelda D’Aprano, Alva Geikie and Thelma Solomon in 1970. WAC’s campaigns highlighted the inequality of women’s pay scales by paying only 75% of the fares when riding on public transport. WAC incorporated itself into the growing Melbourne women’s liberation movement in mid 1972.