The Australian Women's Register

Meredith Hunter was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory representing the electorate of Ginninderra for the ACT Greens from 2008 to 2012. She was also Leader of the Greens for this period.

Liz Dawson trained and worked as a speech therapist and teacher and her early social activism related to school education. Later in life, she lobbied through the organisation Common Ground to provide permanent, safe and supported homes for the homeless and for low-income families in Canberra. She was nominated as Canberran of the Year and ACT Local Hero in 2012 and was awarded an Order of Australia Medal ‘for her tireless work providing for homeless individuals and their families’ in the Queen’s Birthday honours in 2013.

Liz Dawson was inscribed on the ACT Women’s Honour Roll in 2014.

Joan Kellett’s community activism focused on the education and welfare of children in the ACT. In 1977 she established one of Australia’s first after-school programs and a home for the Australian Early Childhood Association in the Majura Primary School, Watson. She served as Chair of the school board at North Ainslie Primary School and on the boards of Lyneham High School and Dickson College. For 30 years from 1984, she was an executive member of the ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations. Her dedication to the sport of swimming as an administrator and official, and her contribution to the Canberra community, was recognised by the award of the Order of Australia Medal in 2003.

Joan Kellet was inscribed on the ACT Honour Walk in 2018.

Described in obituaries as ‘a ruthless battler, hard to beat’, and ‘a fiery champion of the battlers’, Ethel McGuire was a founding member of the Australian Association of Social Workers. She married in 1953 requiring her to resign from her permanent position in the Commonwealth public service, but she returned as a full-time temporary officer by the early 1960s, eventually becoming Assistant Director of the Welfare Branch in the Department of the Interior. Ethel was the driving force in the establishment of social welfare services in Canberra and in 1963 was instrumental in the creation of the ACT Council of Social Service. She played key roles in numerous Catholic voluntary and professional activities including marriage guidance, adoption, the development of the Marymead Child and Family Centre and the formation of Catholic Social Services in Canberra. She was renowned for her formidable advocacy for people, especially children, in need.

Ethel Clarice McGuire was inscribed on the ACT Honour Walk in 2020.

Tracey Whetnall’s lifelong dedication to making a difference through supporting Aboriginal people was recognised by her inclusion on the ACT Honour Walk in 2020. She had been appointed the first Indigenous Official Visitor to the Alexander Maconochie Centre in 2011 and also conducted many cultural awareness workshops for staff of the Australian Federal Police and ACT Corrective Services.

Tracey Whetnall was inscribed on the ACT Women’s Honour Roll in 2020.

Lesley Taverner was recognised, together with her husband Owen and son John, for her contribution in managing and conserving the buildings and grounds of Manuka Pool in the Australian Capital Territory from 1955 to 2012 by their inscription on the ACT Honour Walk in 2016.

Lesley Taverner was inscribed on the ACT Women’s Honour Roll in 2016 following the Taverner family inscription on the ACT Honour Walk.

Kerry Reed-Gilbert was an Aboriginal author, editor, educator and activist. A number of books of her poetry were published in her lifetime. She also compiled and contributed to numerous anthologies, and produced non-fiction related to her work as an educator and consultant. Her memoir, The Cherry Picker’s Daughter was published in 2019, shortly after her death. Her friend and fellow Wiradjuri writer, Jeanine Leane described her as ‘the matriarch of First Nations’ Writing in Australia’.

Kerry Reed-Gilbert was inscribed on the ACT Women’s Honour Roll in 2019.

Born and educated in Athens, Helen Notaras arrived in Australia in 1927 with her maternal uncle and his family. Having worked in her uncle’s butcher’s shop in Sydney, she moved to Canberra in 1933 following her marriage to Harry Notaras. Their Highgate Café served as a focal point for the Canberra community and through the family’s property and development interests, in which she was influential, she contributed to Canberra’s growth and amenity. In 2005, the ACT Honour Walk recognised the Notaras Family for its long-term contribution to the Territory’s commercial and community life.

Helen Notaras was inscribed on the ACT Women’s Honour Roll as part of the Notaras family inscription on the ACT Honour Walk in 2005.

Pharmacist Liz Grant was a foundation member of the ACT Division of the Australian Liberal Party and was elected a Liberal Party member for the electorate of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) House of Assembly from 1979 to 1982. She maintained an active and prominent role in the Liberal Party for several decades thereafter, as well as close involvement in women’s affairs, health policy and social affairs in the ACT and nationally. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1987, a Life Member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia in 1991, and awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Monash University in 2005.

Alicia Payne grew up in Canberra, encouraged by her family to develop a strong sense of community service, and began volunteering from an early age. She trained as an economist at the University of Sydney, and worked on economic and social policy, focusing on poverty and inequality, beginning her career at the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling. She joined the Australian Labor Party in 2006 and worked as a political staffer to a senior federal ALP minister, shadow minister and opposition leader before entering politics herself at the 2019 election when she was elected to the seat of Canberra. She was re-elected in 2022.

Canberra-born Rachel Stephen-Smith was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory as a Member for Kurrajong in 2016, after a career in public policy across Federal and ACT Governments and non-governmental organisations. She was appointed a Minister in the Labor Government, holding portfolios in Community Service and Social Inclusion, Multicultural Affairs, Government Services, Employment and Workplace Safety, Urban Renewal, Health, Disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, and Children, Youth and Families. She has a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) from the Australian National University and a Master of Real Estate Development from the University of Maryland in the United States.

A member of the Greens Party, Jo Clay was elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly as one of the five members for Ginninderra on 20 October 2020. She is the ACT Greens spokesperson for Arts and Culture, the Circular Economy and Transport, Active Travel and Road Safety. She has served on several committees, including as chair for the Planning Transport and City Services since December 2020, Environment, Climate Change and Biodiversity from December 2021, and as chair of Health and Community Wellbeing.

Suzanne Orr was first elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly in 2016, representing Labor in the electorate of Yerrabi. She was re-elected in October 2020.  Following her secondary schooling, Orr worked for a decade in the hospitality and tourism sector. Having gained degrees from the Australian National University and the University of Canberra, she worked as an urban planner before election to the Assembly.

Rebecca Vassarotti was elected as a Greens member for the seat of Kurrajong in the ACT election of October 2020 and was subsequently appointed Minister for the Environment, Parks and Land Management, Minister for Heritage, Minister for Homelessness and Housing Services and Minister for Sustainable Building and Construction. In March 2024, following a ballot of Party members, she was elected Deputy Leader of the ACT Greens. She stood in the 2024 election but was not re-elected.

The Canberra Women’s Liberation Group was formed in June 1970 after two women from Sydney Women’s Liberation spoke to eight female anti-Vietnam War activists, who decided to meet on a weekly basis on Wednesday evenings, to discuss their own form of oppression. The weekly meetings continued until 1976. One of its founding members was Julia Ryan. Their meetings were held in different houses in Canberra suburbs until 1975, when they shared Canberra Women’s House with the Women’s Electoral Lobby and the Abortion Counselling Service.

The Women’s Studies Program was established at the Australian National University in 1976 as the result of activism and political pressure applied by students who were connected to the Women’s Liberation movement. In the first instance, the program’s key aims were to explore the position and representation of women in Australian and other societies, the forces producing female subjectivity and women’s experiences of femininity. Moving the examination of these questions into the academy was an important step in the development of a feminist critique of existing disciplines and institutional structures and the development of feminist scholarship in general.

The ACT Women’s Consultative Council was established in 1989 by the then chief minister Rosemary Follett to advise the chief minister on the status of women and women’s issues. It ceased operation in 2001.

Beryl Women’s Refuge was the first women’s refuge for women and children escaping domestic violence in the ACT. It provided accommodation and a range of legal, welfare and health services to a diverse range of clients.

The National Social Welfare Commission was created by the Whitlam Labor Government in 1972. It was abolished in 1975 following the election of the Fraser Liberal-National Party Government.

As Chair of the Commission, Marie Coleman introduced the Australian Assistance Plan..

Marie Coleman was Director from 1975.

The Family Support Program was a youth refuge program introduced under the Office of Child Care when Marie Coleman was Director.

The first National Women’s Conference was held in Canberra in 1990. It was organised by Marie Coleman and other members of the National Foundation for Australian Women.

Canberra Mothercraft Society (CMS) was established in 1929, one of many women’s organisations at the time which formed around the National Council of Women in the Australian Capital Territory to meet the needs of public servants being transferred to the new capital city, and of workmen engaged in building it.

The federal government (Whitlam) appointed the International Women’s Year National Advisory Committee to oversee the distribution of government funding for projects between 1974 and 1976 associated with the United Nations-proclaimed International Year of Women (1975). Australia’s activities for the International Year of Women were also supported by a secretariat under Elizabeth Reid, the women’s advisor to the Prime Minister. Reid also convened the committee. Membership included Ruby Hammond, Irene Greenwood, Caroline Jones, Margaret Whitlam and Shirley Castley.

The committee attracted criticism from some activists in the Women’s Liberation movement over spending priorities. However, seed and grant funding assisted the development of many important organizations and publications including the Working Women’s Centre and Dr Kay Daniels’s Women in Australia An Annotated Guide to Records.

The federal government replaced the National Women’s Advisory Council with the National Women’s Consultative Council in 1984. The NWCC produced its last report in December 1992 and in late 1993 it was replaced by the Australian Council for Women.

The National Women’s Round Table is an annual meeting convened by the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women. The Round Table was first held in 1994. It replaced the National Women’s Consultative Council as the primary direct mechanism for women’s input into government. For the first three years, the Round Table was held twice each year for one day, with just over 50 organisations represented. Meetings were held in Parliament House during sitting weeks to facilitate participants’ access to Parliamentarians.

In 1997, the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, Jocelyn Newman, changed the arrangements to two day meetings, once each year.

Sources: http://www.capow.org.au/AWOC/story.htm and http://www.nwjc.org.au/pamelaslist.htm

AWOC is a conference for representatives of Australian women’s organisations. It replaced the traditional ‘Pre-Round Tables’ which were generally held on the days preceding the National Women’s Round Table (NWRT). It brings the input of organisations not participating in the NWRT to that forum.

The inaugural AWOC was organised by the National Women’s Justice Coalition, the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia, Women’s Electoral Lobby Australia and the YWCA, with program input from representatives of national women’s organisations on Pamela’s List.

Sources: http://www.nwjc.org.au/pamelaslist.htm and http://www.capow.org.au/AWOC/story.htm