The Australian Women's Register

Joy Warren was a tireless fundraiser and patron of the arts in Canberra. She was the owner-director of Solander Gallery since 1974 and ran a public relations business geared towards the arts.

She had been an arts journalist and spent fifteen years with Canberra Repertory Society.

On 26 January 2001 Joy Warren was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the arts, particularly in the Australian Capital Territory.

Ivy Shore won the Portia Geach Memorial Art Award (Australia’s richest and most prestigious art award for women painters only) with her first entry – a portrait of Della Elliott- in 1979. She went on to win “Most Highly Commended” prizes in the ‘Portia’ three times thereafter, making her the top winner in the history of the award.

June Cochrane began nursing training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1950 and became a nurse educator after a chronic disability prevented her from continuing as a clinical nurse. For nineteen years she was the Principal Nurse Educator at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide. She was an active member of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation and council member of the Royal College of Nursing Australia, becoming its Executive Director in 1981. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1992 for services to nursing.

Ruth Hurn, née Derbyshire, was born in Melbourne. During the early years of World War II she was a Red Cross volunteer at the Port Lincoln Hospital. In 1945 she commenced training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH). In 1969 she was appointed Nursing Advisor to the Hospitals Department. During five years in this post, Hurn was associated with several developments in nursing education including the tertiary nursing course at Sturt College of Nursing in Adelaide. After retirement from the Hospitals Department she spent five years as Director of Nursing at the Berri Hospital.

Judith Wotherspoon was born in Melbourne and came to Adelaide with her parents at the age of eight. After nursing in Papua New Guinea, Britain and Canada, Judith studied at Flinders University for a Bachelor of Arts degree. Subsequently she worked in the field of community health and as a part-time lecturer at Sturt College of Advanced Education. Between 1982 and 1985 she was senior lecturer in nursing at the Darwin Community College, then went to the University of New South Wales to complete a masters degree in health planning. In 1988 she took up an appointment as lecturer in nursing at the South Australian Institute of Technology (now the University of South Australia).

Hilary Cranswick, née Hogarth, was born in Victoria. When her father enlisted in the war Hilary came with her mother and sister to live with relatives in Adelaide. Her father was killed during the war. She went to Britain in 1939 and held many wartime nursing positions including accompanying children of one of her employers to Canada when the blitz necessitated their evacuation. On returning to Australia in 1942 Hilary joined the Australian Army Nursing Service and had postings in Papua New Guinea and in New South Wales. She retired from nursing after her marriage.

Dorrie West went to school in Horsham, Victoria, before moving to Adelaide with her family. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Adelaide in 1921 and her teacher training. A teacher at Adelaide High School she left her position upon marriage in 1934, as was the custom of the time. During World War II she returned to teaching. She was an active member of both the YWCA and the Australian Federation of University Women. Following the death of her husband she joined the Lyceum Club and was President 1957-59. Her bequest to the University of Adelaide supports postgraduate scholarships for women and concerts at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide. Relatives remember Dorrie as being very engaging and encouraging.

Lois Mander-Jones grew up in Victoria and attended Presbyterian Girls College in Geelong. In 1940 she joined the Union Bank in Melbourne and then joined the Army. She was on General Blamey’s staff in Queensland. She became the personal assistant to the Director of Intelligence Brigadier John Rogers and also worked for Brigadier Kenneth Wills. On 9 June 1943 she married Evan Mander-Jones. Her husband went to New Guinea and returned to be the head of the Intelligence School. As couples could not work in the same unit she was transferred to Army Education. She became pregnant and was discharged from the army. She lost this baby and another child. Her husband was appointed Director of Education in South Australia. She had three sons and continued to work for the University. They spent a year overseas in 1959. She did a marriage guidance course and counselled for five years. Family commitments were dominant in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1965 she enrolled in a Diploma of Social Work and in 1968 she took a part time job as a research worker with the Institute of Technology. From 1970 to 1978 she worked as a part time supervisor and trainer of counsellors. Her husband died in 1975. In 1978 she started working at Flinders University as a part time social work demonstrator and she retired in 1982. She became involved with the Lyceum Club being Vice President and President and in 1993 Australian President of the Association of Lyceum Clubs. Mander-Jones was awarded honorary life membership in 1993.

Lady Elizabeth Bright, the daughter of Herbert Boyd and Annie (née Holden) Flaxman graduated from Melbourne University in medicine in 1937. She became a resident at the Queen Victoria Hospital for women and children. She moved to the Adelaide Children’s Hospital in 1939, met Charles Bright and was married in 1940. During the War Bright worked as a locum and did the medical examinations for the Women’s Australian National Service (WANS) recruits. She wrote “The Diary of a woman Doctor” for the Advertiser. She became the honorary medical officer for the Kindergarten Union of South Australia and was on the Social Welfare Committee of the Red Cross. Bright travelled extensively with her husband, Sir Charles Bright. She became patron of the South Australian branch of the Women Writer’s Association from 1982 to 1991 and in 1983 published a book written by her late husband called The confidential clerk about Charles Flaxman and George Fife Angas.

Helen Brookes was born in Melbourne and moved several times before settling in Adelaide in 1929. She started her working career at the Waite Institute with Dr Davidson. Later Brookes became a technical assistant and eventually senior lecturer as a systematic entomologist. Following her retirement, in 1982, she presented her insect collection to the Australian National Insect Collection in Canberra. Brookes was a member of the Lyceum and Minerva Clubs. In 1999, Year of the Older Person, Brookes was invited to a symposium in Canberra as an outstanding older woman scientist.

Elizabeth Hoffman grew up at the Cummeragunja Reserve in New South Wales. She moved to Melbourne in 1971, and started to work with the Aborigines Advancement League (AAL) as Matron of the Gladys Mitchell Youth Hostel. She was elected President of the AAL Management Committee three times, and at different times was Vice President and Treasurer, until taking up employment with the League as Director in 1976. She was the Chairperson of the Aboriginal Legal Service for three years, and the Chairperson of the Aboriginal Housing Co-operative. She also worked with the National Aboriginal and Island Women’s Council and the Women’s Council at Echuca, and was a member of the Steering Committee of the Aboriginal Housing Board and of the local Aboriginal Land Council. She also worked as a Commissioner with the Aboriginal Development Commission. In the early 1970s, she co-founded the Elizabeth Hoffman House, Aboriginal women’s refuge in Melbourne which in 1984 became Incorporated and independent of the AAL. She was one of the 250 women included in the Victorian Honour Roll of Women which was read out in Victoria’s Parliament House on 7 May 2001. She was awarded a National NAIDOC Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2006 and her collection of poetry To Our Koori Sons was published in 2009.

Frances Gertrude Kumm (nee Cato), influenced by her mother F.J. Cato and sister Una Porter (nee Cato) – both ardent Young Women’s Christian Association supporters – joined the Young Women’s Christian Association’s National World Fellowship Committee in 1931 and was made president of the Young Women’s Christian Association of Melbourne (1943 – 1945).

Kumm held the office of National president from 1945 – 1951, visiting ‘all local associations’ throughout Australia during this time. She attended the World Young Women’s Christian Association Council meetings in China (1947) and Lebanon (1951) and was ‘for some time’ Vice President of the World Young Women’s Christian Association Council.

Instrumental in early Young Women’s Christian Association immigration committees, Kumm was elected to the Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council in 1949 and was President of the Victoria National Council of Women. She received an OBE in 1948 and made the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Louisa Briggs, of Woiworung descent, was born on Preservation Island, Bass Strait. Around 1853 she and her husband, John, went to the Victorian goldfields. Then they worked as shepherds in the Beaufort district until 1871 when the family was admitted destitute to Coranderrk Aboriginal Station. There Briggs acted as nurse and midwife. In 1876 she was appointed matron and became the first Aboriginal woman to replace a European on salaried staff. She became the spokesperson for the residents and succeeded in securing the reappointment of the popular first manager. She fought the Aborigines Protection Board’s plans to sell Coranderrk and remove residents to other reserves, and gave evidence to the 1876 inquiry but was eventually forced off the reserve and moved to Ebenezer Aboriginal Station. After yet another inquiry in 1881 she moved back to Coranderrk where she was reappointed matron. When her sons were forced off the reserve under the Victorian Aborigines Protection Act 1886, she moved first to Maloga Mission, and in 1889 to Cummeragunja reserve. Late in life she moved to Barmah and finally to Cummeragunja where she died in 1925.

Merle Jackomos, of Yorta Yorta descent, grew up at Cummeragunja, New South Wales. During the famous walk-off of the Cummeragunja people who crossed into Victoria in 1939, Merle and her family were amongst those who stayed to make sure that the station was not closed and sold off by the government. She married Alick Jackomos in 1951, and became involved with the Aborigines Advancement League of Victoria. She helped found the National Aboriginal and Islander Women’s Council of which she became Victorian vice-president, and the Northcote Aboriginal women’s refuge. In 1972 she was elected to the Aboriginal Affairs Advisory Council. She was later appointed director of Aboriginal Hostels Ltd, and in 1981 was elected to the National Aboriginal Conference, of which she remained a member until its abolition in 1985.

Sarah Powell was State President of the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen’s Mothers’ Association for 25 years and was made Life President. She was decorated with the OBE in June 1943 for her services in this organisation. She founded the Croydon Branch and attended their annual meeting on her 92nd birthday five days before she died.

Bessy Cameron was educated at a ‘native institution’ (later known as Annesfield) at Albany, opened in 1852 by Anne Camfield, a teacher and governess. Bessy took her certificate of Proficiency with honours, and was sent to Sydney to attend a ‘model school’, where she became an accomplished pianist. In 1866 she returned to Albany to help Mrs Camfield in the school and was employed as church organist. In 1867 Bessy was sent to the Moravian Ramahyuck mission as a teacher. Not being able to marry a European man of her choice, she was transferred to Lake Tyers, were she married Donald Cameron, a Jupagilwournditch man from Ebenezer in 1868. Bessy lost her initiative and enthusiasm, which was reflected in a marked deterioration in her status. Her married years were spent moving from Ramahyuck to Lake Tyers and back, in a struggle to support her four surviving children. Her marriage deteriorated, and in 1887 Bessy fell seriously ill following another miscarriage. The rest of her life was spent battling to prevent the forceful removal of her children and grandchildren.

On 25 February 2003 Judy Maddigan was elected the 32nd person, and first female, to hold the office of Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria. She held this position until December 2006. The daughter of William Joseph and Bessie Irene (née Hurley) Todd, Judy was educated at Tintern Church of England Girls’ Grammar School before entering the University of Melbourne. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce, Graduate Diploma of Librarianship and a Masters of Librarianship and Information Services (Conservation and Archives). Prior to entering Parliament, Maddigan worked for the Commonwealth Public Service, was a Branch Services Librarian with the City of Maribyrnong and a Councillor with the City of Essendon. During this time she received the State ‘Clean Air Award’ by leading the campaign to ban incinerators in the City. Maddigan has a long history of involvement in local community groups including Women’s Organisations, the Essendon Historical Society and the Friends of Essendon Library. During the 1990s she was involved with the ‘Defend Public Libraries’ campaign which was organised to protect public libraries from the effects of compulsory competitive tending and amalgamations. An unsuccessful candidate for the Australian Labor Party at the 1992 state election, Maddigan was elected as a Member of Victorian Parliament to represent the Electoral District of Essendon in the Legislative Assembly in March 1996 and was re-elected in 1999, 2002 and 2006. She retired at the November 2010 election.

Marie Kohn was an active member and office bearer of the Victorian Federation of Catholic Mothers’ Clubs, later known as the Victorian Federation of Catholic Parents’ Clubs. She served as president in 1969, secretary from 1972 until 1976 and again during the 1980s. During the 1990s she served as the regional representative for Essendon. She was active also in the Catholic Women’s League.

Winnie Quagliotti was raised on Coranderrk Aboriginal station in Victoria, and moved to Dandenong in the late 1960s. She was a grand-niece of William Barak, chief of the Wurundjeri (Woiworung). As a spokesperson for her people, she was known throughout Australia. She was chairperson of the Aboriginal Housing Board, a founding member of the Dandenong Aboriginal Cooperative, and a founder of the Burrai Child Care Centre and the Aboriginal Family Aid Support Unit.

Mavis Thorpe Clark was a prolific writer of children’s fiction who, in late life, also wrote for adults. In the process of researching her first adult book, Pastor Doug, the biography of Sir Douglas Nicholls, she created a large archive of letters and correspondence of relevance to indigenous scholarship.

Lena Santospirito was one of the first Italo-Australian women to assume a leadership role in the provision of welfare and community services to Melbourne’s Italian community. The Australian born daughter of Italian parents who migrated to Australia in the 1890s, Mrs Santospirito was the first woman (and layperson) to be appointed President of the Archbishop’s Committee for Italian Relief. She held this position between 1946 and 1955, a period that coincided with the beginnings of mass migration from Italy to Australia. Her energy and generosity in this role, as she combined it with her responsibilities as a wife and mother, were recognised by the Italian government in 1958 when she was awarded the Italian Star of Solidarity.

After her resignation from the committee in 1955, Mrs Santospirito continued her community work for various religious and charitable organisations. She passed away in 1983 and is remembered for her tireless work, her faith and the generosity she showed to so many people in Melbourne’s Italian community.

Elsie Morgan, wife of Theodore Herbert Morgan, a prominent member of the Australian Labor Party, was elected to the Sugar Board of Inquiry in 1930-1931 as the representative for Western Australia. At that time, she was the founder of the Housewives Association of W.A., President of the Consumers’ Vigilance Committee, and a member of the Executive of the Women’s Service Guild.

Edith Moore was the daughter of Sir Thomas a’Beckett, Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria, and Isabella, daughter of Sir Archibald Michie. She married Sir William Harrison Moore, Professor of Law in the University of Melbourne and Constitutional Advisor to the Victorian Government in 1898. She was prominent in numerous organizations: the Travellers’ Aid Society of Victoria; the Country People’s Holiday Camps Association; the National Council of Women; the Housewives’ Association; the Women’s Rural Industries Company; the League of Women Voters of Victoria and other bodies. She continued to be active after the death of her husband in 1935. She died in 1974.

Marie Kirk was a leading figure in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union both in Victoria and nationally and helped to establish the Victorian Union in 1887. She held numerous executive positions in the organisation. She was also a strong supporter of women’s rights, a member of the Victorian Women’s Franchise League, and helped to establish the National Council of Women of Victoria in 1902. She supported equal pay, raising the age of consent for girls, and also took a keen interest in the welfare of women prisoners and in the kindergarten movement.

Janet Clarke (née Snodgrass) was a society hostess and leading patron of good causes in Melbourne from the 1880s until her death. She was a member of the Charity Organisation Society, the Austral Salon, the Melbourne District Nursing Society, the Talbot Epileptic Colony committee, the Alliance Française, the Dante Society, the Women’s Hospital Committee, the Hospital for Sick Children and the City Newsboys’ Society. She helped to organise the Women’s Work Exhibition in 1907. Clarke’s influence was such that she became the first president of the National Council of Women of Victoria in 1902, and of the Australian Women’s National League in 1904.

Gabrielle Pizzi, fanatical Collingwood Football Club supporter and granddaughter of the colourful Melbourne, Australia, identity John Wren, was one of the driving forces behind the acceptance of indigenous art in the wider community. In the early 1980s, Pizzi argued that Aboriginal art should not be trivialised as ‘tribal’ or ‘primitive’ but, instead, should be regarded as an integral part of the modern movement. She made it her life’s mission to have Aboriginal art accepted as powerful contemporary art, bringing the dynamic works of artists including Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri and Emily Kam Kngwarray to world audiences by organising exhibitions in such unlikely places as Bangalore, Kiev and Jerusalem.

Pizzi began exhibiting Aboriginal art in Melbourne in the early 1980s, when there was still resistance to accepting it as a valid form of contemporary art. In 1987, she opened the Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi on Flinders Lane with an exhibition of cutting-edge Western Desert art. Unlike some later, exploitative dealers who capitalised on the boom she helped to create, Pizzi was known for her integrity. She always worked with art advisers from community art centres, ensuring that artists were paid correctly and new artists supported.

Nancye Enid Kent Perry was born in Killara on 16 December 1918. She graduated in science from Sydney University and did postgraduate entomological research work in England. Perry later concentrated on her painting, working with the Heidelberg Art Group and others.

Studied Sydney University 1939-42; worked National Standards Laboratory, Sydney, 1943-4; postgrad. In agricultural economic entomology 1945; DSIR England 1947-50; CSIRO Melb. 1950-51; Walter and Eliza Hall Institute 1951-2; Fisheries and Game 1953-5; C’wealth Dept. of Health, Canberra and Tasmania 1955-7; married Warren Perry 16 November 1957; demonstrator in zoology for medical students at the University of Melbourne, 1958.