The Australian Women's Register

Mary Delahunty won the seat of Northcote (Legislative Assembly) for the Australian Labor Party, in a by-election in August 1998. She held the ministerial portfolios of Education, the Centenary of Federation, Planning, Arts and Women’s Affairs. Before entering politics, she was Managing Director of her own media consultancy company, also a former ABC journalist and long time member of the Journalist’s Union. She retired from politics at the state election in November 2006.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Sherryl Garbutt was elected to the seat of Greensborough in 1989 at a by-election following the death of Pauline Toner; the seat of Greensborough was abolished in the 1990 redistribution. She was the Member (ALP) of Parliament for the Bundoora electorate from 1992-2006 and held the portfolios of Environment and Conservation and Women’s Affairs from 1999-2002 and Community Services from 2002-06. She did not contest the 2006 election.

Lynne Kosky was elected Member (ALP) for Altona in 1996. On the election of the Labor Government at the 1999 Victorian state election, she held the portfolios of Finance, and later Post Compulsory Education, Training and Employment. After her re-election at the 2002 state election, she was appointed the Minister for Education and Training. She was re-elected at the 2006 state election and held the portfolios of Public Transport and Minister for the Arts. In January 2010 she resigned from the parliament, citing serious family health problems as the reason for her resignation. She died at Williamstown on 4 December 2014.

Edith Onians was a full-time volunteer (organiser and honorary secretary) from 1897 until her death in 1955 of the Melbourne Newsboys Society. She was the first woman Special Magistrate appointed to Children’s Court Melbourne in 1927, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 2 January 1933 for services to child welfare in Victoria.

Mervyn Davis commenced A Catalogue of Botanical Collectors and Delineators in 1955. She was elected first individual member and delegate for Australia to the International Federation of Landscape Architects in 1959, a position she held for ten years. Davis was the first woman elected a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Parks and Recreation in 1964, and in 1969 she was elected as the first Fellow of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.

On 14 June 1980, Mervyn Davis was appointed a Member of the British Empire for her work in the public service.

Vivienne Abraham was active in the Australian peace movement for several decades. She was Honorary Secretary of the Peace Pledge Union (1946-52), acting editor and editor of the ‘Peacemaker’ and Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (1982-89).

Anna Vroland was an activist and writer who campaigned for Aboriginal rights in the 1940s and 1950s.

Mrs Matenson has worked extensively on her family history and done genealogical research, publishing several booklets, the first in 1988, and won a certificate from the Tasmanian Government. Her second “A Melbourne Family 1848-1948” won the first prize of the Alexander Henderson Award 1989. Her most recent book was self published.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Sharman Stone was elected to the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament representing the electorate of Murray, Victoria in 1996. She was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage on 21 October 1998 and served in that capacity until October 2004, when she became Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration. She also served as Vice-President of the Executive Council. She was Minister for Workforce Participation from January 2006 until December 2007. She was re-elected in 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013 and retired at the 2016 Federal election.

A member of the Liberal Party of Australia, Judith Troeth was elected as a Senator for Victoria in the Parliament of Australia in 1993. She was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy from October 1997 until October 1998, when she moved to become Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. She held that position until October 2004. She retired at the 2010 federal election, but remained in the Senate until her term expired on 30 June 2011.

Vera Jennings was among the first group of 58 students to graduate in the Arts Honours course at the University of Melbourne in 1920-21. She was the only daughter of Ethel, née Crowther and James Davies Jennings (-1951).

Jennings then joined the English Department as a tutor (1927-) before becoming an Acting Lecturer ( -1938, March 1942- ), a Lecturer (1947-) and finally a Senior Lecturer (1951-). She retired on 28 February 1965.

A South African by birth, Gaye Tennent received her later education in London and at the University of Melbourne. Early crippled by poliomyelitis, she graduated B.A. (Hons) in 1930 and M.A. in English with a Dip. Ed. In 1934. She became a school teacher and later a tutor at Janet Clarke Hall, Vice-Principal at the Women’s College and tutor and lecturer in the University English Department.

Vida Goldstein ran for the Australian Senate in 1903. Though she was not elected, she was the first woman to be nominated for the Australian Parliament.

Margaret Manion was a lecturer (1972-1978) before becoming a Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Melbourne in 1979, then Emeritus Professor in 1995. She was the first woman chair of the Academic Board from 1987 to 1988, and Pro-Vice-Chancellor from 1985 to 1988. She was a member of the Loreto Sisters and was awarded an AO in 1989 for services to the arts and education.

An Australian media personality, Libbi Gorr invented comic interviewer ‘Elle McFeast’ on ABC television’s Sweaty.

Janine Burke was a founding member of Lip, an Australian journal devoted to feminism and the performing and visual arts. She curated a number of exhibitions including Australian Women Artists: One Hundred Years, 1840-1940 (1975); Joy Hester (1981); and The Eye of the Beholder: Albert Tucker’s Photographs (1998). Burke is the author of several books and has been a board member of the Heide Museum of Modern Art since 1997. She received the Victorian Premier’s Award for fiction in 1987.

The Northern Territory gained their first female representative in Federal Parliament in 1998 when Patricia Crossin was chosen to replace the Hon. R. L. Collins, following his resignation. She was re-elected in 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010 but was replaced by Nova Peris as the preselected Labor candidate for the 2013 election. Prior to entering Parliament Crossin worked as Branch Secretary for the National Tertiary Education Union (NT Branch) from 1996 to 1998 after spending six years as the Union’s Industrial Officer. Between 1978 and 1989 she worked as a primary school teacher.

She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2023 for significant service to the Parliament of Australia, and to the community of the Northern Territory.

Margaret Blackwood graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BSc in 1938 and MSc in 1940. During the Second World War she served with the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force and then was granted an ex-service postgraduate scholarship for Cambridge, where she gained a PhD for her work in plant genetics. In 1951 Blackwood returned to Melbourne and was a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne until 1974. She was then elected a member of the University Council and in 1980 became the first female Deputy Chancellor. She held both these positions until her retirement in 1983. She was appointed as a Member of the British Empire in 1964 for work in botany and was appointed a Dame (Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander) for her services to education in 1980.

Elizabeth Watkin is featured on the front of the Australian Garden History Society brochure. In an article titled ‘The Lady in White’ by Jo Reid (Watkins’s grand-daughter), she is described as an active member of the Red Cross and the local Benevolent Fund as well as being a foundation member of the CWA. ‘During the 1950s, she campaigned tirelessly, driving the efforts of a fund-raising committee to establish the Elizabeth Watkin Kindergarten.’ Reid states that ‘as a young woman, her grandmother indulged in oil painting; subjects were often flowers and fruit. There are screens featuring dahlias, hydrangeas, wallflowers, japonica, holly, wisteria, lilac, foxgloves, grapes and Blue Diamond plums.’

Freelance oral historian, scholar, curator of photography and writer of children’s stories. In 1995 she won the Young Readers/Picture Book award from The Family Therapy Associations of Australia for Grandpa and Ah Gong. Her work deals extensively with the immigrant experience, especially that of immigrant women and their children. Loh is a former member of the Advisory Council on Multicultural Affairs
(Source: Left-Wing Ladies, Suzane Fabian and Morag Loh)

Co-editor Debutante Nation: Feminism contests the 1890s with Susan Magarey and Susan Sheridan (1993).
(Source: Passions of the first wave feminists, Susan Magarey.)”

Mrs. Baker was Chairman of the Social Sub-Committee, Victoria Committee on the Status of Women.
(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Stephanie Baldwin née Clark attended the Agricultural School at Werribee in 1931.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Doris Beacham was born to George and Clara Beacham. George served in the First World War and returned in 1918. Doris had an enduring interest in art and sketching.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Gertie Berger joined the Royal College of Nursing Australia, Victorian Chapter and other nursing organisations and became active on their committees in the 1960s. Her special interest was nursing education whether in Day Study Classes or more formal post-graduate training.

(Source: Historical Note University Melbourne Archives)

Active in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs, Dulcie Bethune was a member of both the North Ringwood Women’s Liberation and North Ringwood Women’s Electoral Lobby (which later merged with the Maroondah WEL). She stood as a candidate for the Australia Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of Ringwood at the Victorian state election, which was held on 19 May 1973 and was an independent candidate for the Australian Senate at the federal election, which was held in May 1974. She stood again at the 1979 state election for the Australia Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of Warrandyte.

(Source: Historical Note University Melbourne Archives)

Edith Bonney passed her University of Melbourne Matriculation examination in Algebra, Geometry, English, History, Arithmetic, Geography, and Elementary Physics held in November 1889, and received her certificate 29 March 1890.

(Source: Historical Note University of Melbourne Archives)

Edith married Stewart Frank Wylie at ‘Cleffcote’ in Sandringham, Victoria, on 6 February 1907.