The Australian Women's Register

Kate Doust is an Australian Labor Party member elected to the Thirty-sixth Parliament of Western Australia for South Metropolitan Region on 10 February 2001, 2005 (for term commencing 22 May 2005). She was re-elected 6 September 2008 for a term commencing 22 May 2009. Her portfolios have included, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council; Shadow Minister for Energy; Science and Innovation: from 26 September 2008 – present.

Cheryl Edwards was a Liberal Party of Australia member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. Elected to the Thirty-third Parliament of Western Australia for Kingsley (new seat) on 4 February 1989, she was re-elected in 1993, 1996, 2001. She did not contest the general election of 2005.

Judith Edwards was an Australian Labor Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia. She was elected to the Thirty-third Parliament of Western Australia for Maylands at the by-election on 26 May 1990, held to fill the vacancy consequent upon the resignation of Hon. Peter M’Callum Dowding. Re-elected in 1993, 1996, 2001, 2005 she did not contest the general election of 6 September 2008.

Louise Clare Pratt was born in Kalgoorlie in 1972. She attended Eastern Hills Senior High School in Perth, then studied arts at the University of Western Australia. Pratt became actively involved in student politics, eventually being elected state education officer for the National Union of Students in 1994. A member of the Australian Labor Party, she was elected to the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Western Australia in 2001, the youngest woman ever elected to the Council. She served until 2007, when she resigned after being assured of election at the 2007 federal election, having won first position on the Labor ticket, defeating incumbent Senator Ruth Webber in a pre-selection contest. She has been a Labor member of the Australian Senate since July 2008.

Cheryl Davenport was elected to the Thirty-third Parliament of Western Australia as the Australian Labor Party member in the Legislative Council. for South Metropolitan Region from 22 May 1989. She was re-elected in 1993 and 1996 and  retired 21 May 2001.

Carrard was a Hungarian-born virtuoso pianist who came to Perth, Western Australia, in 1941 and remained there until her death in 2000. She had studied in Hungary with Béla Bartók, and toured extensively as a concert pianist. In Australia, she had a long involvement with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and taught a legion of pupils, most famously pianist David Helfgott. She was awarded an MBE in 1976, and lived to the age of 102.

From 1974 to 1993 Margaret McAleer served in the Parliament of Western Australia. She was the first non-Labor member of the Legislative Council, and served as Whip from 1980 to 1993.

Meta Overman was a Dutch-born composer who studied piano and composition with leading figures in Rotterdam before emigrating to Western Australia in 1951. She earned accolades for her works, which included choral, instrumental, chamber pieces, ballets and operas. After lengthy sojourns in both Melbourne and Holland, she returned to Perth in 1978, where she remained until her death in 1993.

Pamela Buchanan was a parliamentarian who represented the Australian Labor Party in the Pilbara region of Western Australia from 1983 until 1992.

Grace Sydney Vaughan served in the Western Australian Legislative Council from 1974 to 1980. She drew on her extensive experience as a community and social worker to campaign on issues concerned with poverty, unemployment and welfare.

Winifred Piesse became the first woman to represent the Country Party in the Western Australian Parliament when she was elected to the Legislative Council for a six year term, beginning in May 1977. Her extensive experience in nursing ensured that health matters were high on her Parliamentary agenda. She was particularly concerned about issues affecting children and youth, and also urged the government to urgently fund research into breast cancer, especially its high incidence in young mothers.

Jennifer Fowler is an internationally renowned composer who was born in Bunbury, Western Australia. She works as a freelance composer in London, where she has lived since 1969.

June Craig was a member of the Western Legislative Assembly from 1974 until 1983, and served also as a cabinet Minister. In 1994 she received an Order of Australia (AM) for her long and distinguished parliamentary and community service.

Lyla Daphne Elliott joined the Australian Labor Party in 1955, and was a member of the Legislative Council in Western Australia from 1971 until 1986.

Ruby Hutchison was the first woman elected to the Legislative Council in Western Australia, and the first to take her place in any Australian Council. She was the only female member of the Chamber during this period. Her work enabled the introduction of the first law to enable women to serve on juries, and she founded the West Australian Epilepsy Association to fight discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities.

Norma Parker taught social work at both Sydney University and the University of New South Wales. She was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Sydney University, and was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 3 June 1972, for education and child welfare. The Norma Parker Correctional Centre for Women at Paramatta, New South Wales, is named after her.

Beryl Splatt was educated at the University of Melbourne, where she was awarded an MSc. A Carnegie Grant enabled her to undertake postgraduate study at Middlesex Hospital, London in 1938. She worked as a biochemist and metabolist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital from 1923 to 1964 and also demonstrated in clinical biochemistry at the University of Melbourne from 1940 to 1961. She served as a committee member on the Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service 1940-1960, as a member of the Royal Melbourne Hospital Clinical School 1957-1961 and as the first president of the Association of Hospital Scientists of Victoria. She was appointed MBE – Member of The Order of the British Empire (Civil) – 1 January 1965 for her work in the Biochemistry Department at Melbourne Hospital.

Catherine Martin was a journalist for the West Australian newspaper from 1957, specialising in medical reporting. She was born in the United Kingdom but emigrated to Western Australia and lived there for most of her life.

Author Monica Starke writes in the publication The Alexandra Club:

“The honour of being the first women’s club in Australia belongs to the Karrakatta Club, founded in Perth in 1894… The inspiration for the club came from Dr Emily Ryder, a visiting American who was so impressed by the standard of the books studied by the St George’s Reading Circle and the members’ ability in debate that she suggested the formation of a club modelled on the Education Clubs that were popular with American women. A well-attended meeting, convened by two distinguished members of the teaching profession, unanimously voted to form a club on the lines explained to them by Dr Ryder. Sociability would not have been ruled out as an aim but Dr Ryder obviously envisaged an active role in public affairs for the new club since she warned that ‘ridicule would be cast on the club but they must make up their minds to live down opposition and ignore ridicule’. With this attractive future predicted for it the Karrakatta Club set off bravely with thirty-eight foundation members and four departments: hygiene, literature, arts and, as an afterthought, because of the continuing battle for the enfranchisement of women, legal and educational.”

Champion sprinter and hurdler, Shirley Strickland (as she was then known), became the first Australian female to win an Olympic medal in a track and field event at the London Olympic Games in 1948.

Shirley de la Hunty was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) on 26 January 2001 for service to the community, particularly in the areas of conservation, the environment and local government, and to athletics as an athlete, coach and administrator. She had been appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) (MBE) for services to athletics on 1 January 1957.

Elizabeth Hansen was a foundation member of Perth’s oldest Aboriginal community organisation, the Coolbaroo League, formed in the 1940s. She has been a long-time campaigner for Aboriginal rights and was vice-president of the New Era Aboriginal Fellowship and Treasurer of the Aboriginal Rights League and Old People’s Home.

Hansen won the Western Australian Citizen of the Year Award in 1976, and was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire for ‘Aboriginal welfare’ on 31 December 1979.

Rita Samson attended Miss Parnell’s School (now St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls), Claremont, Western Australia. She married Robert Bruce Laurie and the couple moved to Melbourne where they stayed for 28 years and raised two sons. Following the death of her husband, Laurie returned to Western Australia to stand in as Mayoress of Fremantle for the deceased wife of her brother Frederick Samson, Mayor of Fremantle. A Mayoress was needed for the upcoming Royal visit, and Laurie retained the position until her brother retired in 1972. She was appointed an Officer to the Order of the British Empire on 10 June 1967 for services as Mayoress of Fremantle. In 1976 she launched the Fremantle Port Authority’s new pilot ship the Sir Frederick Samson.

On 12 June 2000 Beryl Grant was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to nursing and to the community through the support and development of services and programmes for children and families, particularly in rural and remote areas of Australia. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 1 January 1976 for services to nursing.

Mildred Manning was a full-time staff member at Wesley College (Perth) from 1930 until her retirement in 1970. The College named the biology laboratory in the then new science block after her in December 1963. On 1 January 1964 Mildred Manning was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) (MBE) for services to education in Western Australia.

Erica Underwood was the first woman Deputy Chairman of Council at the Western Australian Institute of Technology, the first psychologist trained in Western Australia, an ABC broadcaster and a founder of the University radio station 6 NR. [1] She was appointed to The Order of the British Empire – Member (Civil) on 31 December 1977 for services to radio, education and the community.

Gertrude Ruston was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 13 June 1970 for services to the community. Ruston was state secretary of the Women’s Service Guild for over six years, convener of the committee for Mentally Retarded Children, vice-president of the Slow Learning Children’s Group and Honorary life member. She served as a member on the Western Australian committee on Access for Disabled for many years and assisted in the producing of the Guide to Perth for the Handicapped. One of her most outstanding services was the establishment of the Citizens Advice Bureau in Perth. Ruston also was involved with the establishment of Council of Social Service of Western Australia, Citizens’ Advice Bureau and Perth Emergency Housekeeper Service.

On 10 June 1961, Ida Spencer was appointed a Member to the Order of the British Empire for services to the Country Women’s Association in Western Australia.