The Australian Women's Register

During World War I Grace Wilson was Principal Matron of No 3 Australian General Hospital serving in Egypt, Lemnos and France. She was appointed a Commander (Military) of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1919 for army nursing service in France. Grace Wilson was mentioned in dispatches five times as well as being awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal (2 May 1916) and the Florence Nightingale Medal.

Jean Sinclair Isbister (known as Clair) was a consultant paediatrician at the Royal North Shore Hospital, New South Wales, from 1949 and published many books on motherhood under the name Clair Isbister. She was appointed to The Order of the British Empire – Officer (Civil) on 1 January 1969 for services to medicine.

Essie Coffey was a Muruwari woman born in southern Queensland. She was co-founder of the Western Aboriginal Legal Service and served on a number of government bodies and Aboriginal community organisations.

Anna Bage was a talented scientist who worked her way through the junior ranks of the Department of Biology at the University of Melbourne to became a forerunner of women in public life in Queensland to where she moved in 1914 to take up the position of lecturer in charge of biology in 1913. In 1914 she became principal of the Women’s College, a position she held for the next 32 years. She was committed to the cause of encouraging women to become tertiary educated and travelled widely throughout Queensland to promote her college to rural communities. She was a member of many women’s interest groups, and played a lead rolein the formation of the Queensland Women Graduates’ Association (later the Queensland Association of University Women). She was president of the Australian Federation of University Women in 1928-29.

Anna Bage’s interests were many and varied. A nature lover, patron of the arts and motoring enthusiast, Bage was also a member of several women’s sporting associations. She managed the first hockey team in Australia to travel interstate, from Melbourne to Adelaide in 1908, and was president of the Queensland Women’s Hockey Association in 1925-31.

She was appointed OBE – Officer of The Order of the British Empire (Civil) – 12 June 1941 for public service.

Oodgeroo Noonuccal was born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, on Minjerribah (the Stradbroke Islands). Oodgeroo Noonuccal means Oodgeroo of the tribe Nunuccal; spelling variations include Nunuccal, Noonuckle and Nunukul. In 1970, Oodgeroo Noonuccal (under the name Kathleen Walker) was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) for services to the community. She returned it in 1987 in protest against the forthcoming Australian Bicentenary celebrations (1988).

Held in Brisbane in October 1982, the 12th Commonwealth Games attracted demonstrations from Aboriginal people and supporters, part of the campaign for land rights.

Lisa Curry Kenny, the winner of 15 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze International medals, is the only Australian swimmer to have held Commonwealth and Australian records in every stroke except backstroke. She competed in three Olympics; Moscow in 1980, Los Angeles in 1984 and Barcelona in 1992. She is now one of Australia’s successful keynote motivational speakers and is a Director of Curry Kenny Group Pty Ltd.

Annabelle Rankin was appointed to the Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander on 13 June 1957 for political and public services. Rankin was the first Queensland woman to be elected a member of Federal Parliament when she became a Queensland Liberal Party Senator in July 1947. She held office for thirty-four years, during which time she served as Minister for Housing from January 1966 to March 1971.

Patricia Mackinnon joined the Royal Children’s Hospital Committee of Management in 1948, serving it in several offices before being elected to the presidency in 1965. She was appointed a Commander to the Order of the British Empire in 1972 and a Dame of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1977 in recognition of distinguished service to the community in hospital administration.

Alice Berry understood the problems of living in rural Australia and was committed to finding ways to improve the lives of women and children in rural areas. Through her work in the Country Women’s Association in Queensland, and in the Associated Country Women of the World, she made a lasting contribution to the provision of services in country areas. She was appointed to The Order of the British Empire – Dames Commander on 01 January 1960 for Service to country women.

Hedwig Benz was the first full time interpreter at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital – a hospital for women – in Melbourne. Benz was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1972 in recognition of service to migrants in Victoria, for her work at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital. She played a valuable role in removing the responsibility from English-speaking children of migrants in liaising about their mother’s illness with hospital staff.

Sue Chilly is a staunch member of the Aboriginal rights movement, progressing reform both as an activist of groups such as the Australian Black Panthers, and as a field officer of the Department of Aboriginal and Island Affairs.

Marlene Cummins is one of Australia’s foremost blues musicians, a lifelong Aboriginal rights activist and the subject of Rachel Perkin’s 2014 documentary Black Panther Woman .

Jessie Hockings (nee Miller) was a child when her family migrated to Australia from England. After leaving London on 31 July 1909, they arrived in Brisbane on 20 September 1909. They then travelled to a property at Dulacca in the Western Downs region of Queensland.

In February 1923, at the age of 23, Jessie Miller married Frank Hockings and almost immediately moved to Thursday Island, where Frank and his brother ran the Wanetta Pearling Co. World War 2 interrupted those operations and the family moved backed to continental Queensland to run a dairy farm at Springbrook, which they purchased in 1945. Sadly, Frank passed away in 1952, but Jessie remained on the farm for another thirteen years. She moved down to the coast at Southport in 1965.

Regardless of where she lived, the Queensland Country Women’s Association (CWA) was a constant feature of Jessie Hocking’s life. She was a member for roughly sixty years, maintaining a tradition that ran in the family. Her mother, Jessie Strathearn Miller, was president of Dulacca (Qld) CWA and a younger sister was the secretary-treasurer of the same branch. Jessie was a founding member of the Springbrook CWA in 1957 and a three-time president during the 60s to 80s. She was secretary-treasurer of the Thursday Island branch during her time up there.

As well as the CWA, Jessie volunteered at the Red Cross, an aged care residence, and the local hospital ladies’ auxiliary.

In 1982, a British Empire Medal for Meritorious Civil Service, which she received on her 82nd birthday, acknowledged Jessie’s community work, which she continued to do until well into her 80s.

Jessie Hockings passed away in 1991 and is sadly missed by her family and friends. Her legacy lives on in an educational bursary awarded every year by the Springbrook-Mudgeeraba CWA. Since 1992 the branch has presented a local primary school student with the Jessie Hockings Encouragement Award. The $200 bursary aims to help a family ease the financial burden of their child transitioning to high school. It represents her prevailing belief in the importance of a good education.

The Young Women’s Christian Association was established in Queensland in 1888 at Rockhampton.

In 2011, three Queensland branches amalgamted to form YWCA Queensland. These branches were Brisbane, Townsville, and Downs and SW Queensland (based in Toowoomba).

Established in 1875, Brisbane Girls Grammar School is one of Queensland’s original grammar schools.

The Queensland Ladies’ Golf Union was formed in October 1922 with representatives from all clubs.

Benita Willis is a long-distance runner who has represented Australia at the Commonwealth games twice and at the Olympics four times. In 2004, Benita won gold in the long race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Brussels.

Anita Walters (née Osmond) compiled the first Australian nutritional content of foods table. Called Tables of composition of Australian foods, Special Report Series 2, the report was published by the National Health and Medical Research Council in 1946.

After working in nutrition, Anita became Australia’s first female supervising examiner of patents in the early 1970s.

Kerry Snell is a campaigner for equitable access to mainstream services and ensuring that people with disability are well represented through diverse leadership.

Read an interview with Kerry Snell in the online exhibition Redefining Leadership.

Aunty Eleanor Harding was a passionate advocate for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, particularly in the areas of education and women’s issues.

Marceine la Dickfos was born in Brisbane in 1921. In 1942 she married Lt. Wesley D. Sweetser of the U.S. Army Air Corps and three years later Marceine and their son sailed to America to join Wesley.

Marceine received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theatre and drama at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and after being offered a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in 1966, she completed a Master of Arts degree.

The following year Marceine began studying at Cornell University after receiving an Arts and Humanities Fellowship. Whilst at Cornell, Marceine acted, directed and won awards for poetry, play production and play-writing.

On completion of her studies, Marceine and her husband spent a year in England before settling down in Oswego, New York.

Shayna Jack won a gold medal in the 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Georgia Bohl won a gold medal in the 4 x 100m Medley Relay at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Ashleigh Gentle won a gold medal in the Mixed Team Relay Triathlon at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.