The Australian Women's Register

Anne Godfrey-Smith was a poet, theatre director and producer, broadcaster, political activist, and scientist. After studying biochemistry at university, she moved into a career in the theatre starting at the Launceston Players in Tasmania. In 1954 she moved to Canberra and became the manager-producer of the Canberra Repertory Society. It was in Canberra that she made her name as a poet (under the nom de plume Anne Edgeworth), publishing the popular collections, Poems for Off-Duty Hours (2007), Turtles All the Way Down (2000), and Poems of Canberra (1997), among others. She was passionate about community work and was active in the environmental conservation movement, the women’s movement, anti-war campaigns and Indigenous rights’ advocacy. Later in life, she devoted a lot of time to community radio.

Dorothy Edwards was the first Tasmanian woman to be elected president of the Australian National Council of Women. It is significant that Edwards’ base was in the Launceston branch of the NCW, for her election thus had implications for the status of the NCW of Tasmania, based in Hobart and acknowledged in the ANCW constitution as the official state Council. Edwards held office in the Launceston Council as secretary and president before election to the ANCW presidency 1960-1964. Her period in office was notable for her forthright engagement with government on issues such as equal pay and for her enthusiastic promotion of the International Council of Women’s new ‘twinning program’ and, in particular, for fostering close relations between the Australian Council and the Councils of Thailand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Her presidency also saw the holding of an ICW regional seminar on international understanding in Brisbane in 1964. She went on to serve in the ICW as convenor for finance, vice-treasurer and vice-president, and travelled overseas regularly to executive meetings and triennial conferences until 1996. She was made an honorary vice-president of both the Launceston and Australian Councils (1974 and 1973) and admitted to ICW’s Committee of Honour (1979).

Dorothy Edwards was also the first woman to be elected to the Launceston City Council. She served as an alderman for 15 years and was mayor 1955-1957, the first woman city mayor in Australia. She was subsequently admitted as an Honorary Freeman of the City of Launceston (1984). She was also awarded an OBE in 1958 and a CBE in 1979, and was entered on the Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women in 2005.

Read more about Hannah Helen Aulby in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Zina Cumbrae-Stewart in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Catherine Duncan in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Pauline Fanning in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Virginia (Vig) Geddes in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Florence Gordon in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Jessie Isabel Henderson in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Anne Jolliffe in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Marilyn Lake in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Cynthia (Nolan) Reed in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Michelle Webb in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Read more about Gretna Margaret Weste in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Catherine Ann ‘Kate’ Warner AM is an Australian lawyer, legal academic, and the current (2015) Governor of Tasmania. She was sworn in as Tasmania’s twentieth-eighth Governor at Government House on Wednesday 10 December 2014.

In 2017, Kate Warner was made a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia ‘for eminent service to the people of Tasmania through leading contributions to the legal community, particularly to law reform, to higher education as an academic, researcher and publisher, and as a supporter of the arts, and environmental and social justice initiatives’.

Sally Sievers has been a lawyer in the Northern Territory since 1988, practising within government, in private practice and as a Relieving Magistrate from time to time. She was appointed the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner for the Northern Territory in January 2013. As commissioner, she has focused the Commission’s activities in the areas of race and disability discrimination and women’s equality, in particular the impact of discrimination against women and families.

Go to ‘Details’ below to read a reflective essay written by Sally Sievers for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Leah Cameron is a Palawa woman from Tasmania and the Principal Solicitor and owner of Marrawah Law, a Supply Nation certified Indigenous legal practice. Her primary areas of practice are native title, cultural heritage, future acts and commercial law.

Elizabeth Broderick AO was Australia’s longest-serving Sex Discrimination Commissioner, from 2007 to 2015. She was also Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination from 2007 to 2011.

A former head of legal technology at law firm Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst), where she practised for nearly two decades, she became the firm’s first part-time partner and later served as a member of its board. In 2001 she was named Telstra NSW Business Woman of the Year; she also received the Centenary Medal.

As Commissioner, Broderick instigated the, ‘Male Champions of Change’ strategy, to help advance gender equality in Australia. It has since been replicated across the country and achieved international prominence, thanks in part to Broderick’s subsequent appointment as Global Co-Chair of the Women’s Empowerment Principles Leadership Group, a joint initiative of the UN Global Compact and UN Women.

On behalf of the Commission, Broderick also conducted the first independent Review into the Treatment of Women in the Australian Defence Force. Broderick was named overall winner of the Australian Financial Review and Westpac 2014 ‘100 Women of Influence Awards’ in acknowledgement of her achievements while in office.

Broderick is Principal of Elizabeth Broderick & Co., Senior Advisor to the Australian Federal Police Commissioner on cultural change and Special Advisor to the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Executive Director of UN Women on Private Sector Engagement. She serves on a number of boards and continues to advocate for societal change. In 2016 Broderick was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. She was also named 2016 New South Wales Australian of the Year. She has honorary degrees from the University of New South Wales and The University of Sydney, and the University of Technology Sydney.

Elizabeth Broderick was interviewed by Kim Rubenstein for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

After ten years as a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, and four years prior to that at Bennett & Co., Jenni Hill is now (2016) a partner at the Perth office of international law firm, Clifford Chance. She is a litigation specialist, representing clients in the energy and resources sectors, and advising on corporate and shareholder disputes and investigations.

Committed to promoting equality of opportunity in the legal profession, Hill was a joint winner of the Western Australian Women Lawyers Association Woman Lawyer of the Year award in 2011. When at Norton Rose Fulbright, she chaired a Workplace Flexibility focus group. She is on the board of CEOs for Gender Equity, an initiative of the Western Australian Equal Opportunity Commission launched in 2014 to promote gender equity in the corporate sector. A woman who is ‘astute at picking her battles’ and developing strategies ‘for the long term’, she intends to change discriminatory corporate cultures by asserting influence from within.

Jenni Hill was interviewed by Nikki Henningham in the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

Margaret Thornton is an acclaimed feminist academic in the field of feminist jurisprudence, discrimination, equal opportunity and gender studies at the Australian National University’s College of Law. She has degrees from the Universities of Sydney and New South Wales and Yale University. A prominent thinker and legal researcher, Thornton was the first female law professor to be appointed at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia; during her academic career she demonstrated a significant commitment to the development of La Trobe’s law school. Thornton founded the Feminist Legal Action Group and convened the first feminist jurisprudence conference in Australia. She has participated in numerous consultations with agencies such as the International Labour Organisation, and advised parliaments on legislation. She has also published widely. Motivated by social justice and a desire for equality, Thornton has been steadfast in her efforts to improve conditions for women in society, particularly in the workplace and in educational institutions.

Margaret Thornton was interviewed by Kim Rubenstein for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

Robin Banks is the (2016) Tasmanian Equal Opportunity Commissioner, a position she has occupied since 2010.

Robin Banks was interviewed by Nikki Henningham in the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

Magistrate Tamara Jago (appointed to the bench in 2016) holds the distinction of being the first woman in Tasmania to be made Senior Counsel. Honoured by the 2010 achievement, she understood her promotion to be an important one for Tasmanian women, but also believed it went a long way to dispelling the myth that Legal Aid lawyers are ‘second rate options’. Furthermore, having spent the bulk of her career working as a Legal Aid lawyer in north-western Tasmania, she believed her appointment proved there was talent in regional centres, and that moving to big cities in order to ‘make it’ wasn’t always necessary. Taking silk while working as a Legal Aid Lawyer in regional Tasmania, was ‘something special,’ said Jago, the mother of three young children. ‘At Legal Aid there are criminal lawyers that are just as good as anyone else or better.’

Tamara Jago was interviewed by Nikki Henningham in the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

Mabel Hookey was the first woman journalist in Tasmania. She was also a poet, a painter and an amateur photographer.

Patti Warn was the first female president of the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Labor Party.

Vivienne Rae-Ellis was born in Tasmania, however lived in England from 1987. She published books in many genres including children’s fiction, biography and adult fiction and she also conducted oral history interviews for the National Library of Australia.

Prior to her writing career, Vivienne worked as an actress, a newspaper columnist, a scriptwriter and a public relations officer.

Vera Dwyer was the daughter of journalist George Lovell Dwyer and his wife Margaret Jafe (Shield). She was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 23 February, 1889.

From a young age she contributed regularly to the Australian Town and Country Journal. Her first book, With Beating Wings, was written when she was in her teens and was sponsored by author Ethel Turner.

In the 1930s Vera contributed articles to The Sydney Morning Herald and was a member of the Fellowship of Australian writers. Vera’s published works included children’s books, as well as adult fiction.

Vera married Captain Warwick Coldham Fussell at St Leonards, New South Wales, in 1915. They divorced in 1925.