The Australian Women's Register

Merilyn Plant was a nominee for the ABC Rural Woman of the year Award in 1994. She and her husband run a Poll Hereford Stud Farm near Toowoomba, in Queensland.

Maryann Salvetti was state winner for Queensland of the ABC Rural Woman of the year award in 1997, representing the far northern region. She has roughly thirty years as a primary producer in the region; she and her family have produced maize, peanuts, potatoes, navy beans, mangoes, and over 10 different grasses (including sugar cane) and legume crops on their mixed farming properties near Tolga on the Atherton Tablelands. She is co-managing director and marketing manager for North Queensland Tropical Seeds, a wholesale, processing and exporting company supplying seed to both the domestic and international markets.

A sugar grower for twenty years, Maryann has expanded her interest and commitment to the industry beyond the farm gate. She has serves as the chairperson of Tableland Sugar Services, a director of Tableland Canegrowers Limited, Queensland Sugar Limited, a board member of the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations (BSES) and Tableland Contracting Services Pty Ltd, Tanita Pty Ltd and secretary/public officer of Tableland Sugar Pty Ltd. She played a crucial role in the construction of a sugar mill on the Atherton Tablelands which opened in 1998.

Maryann’s commitment to industry and community has been recognised in a variety of forums besides in the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award. She has been an Atherton Shire Australia Citizen of the Year and was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001. She won a bursary that enabled her to attend the Second International Women in 1998.

Sandy Paton was a regional winner of the ABC Rural Woman if the Year Award for the Queensland district of Capricornia in 1997. Then and now, her interest has been in the creation of sustainable futures and communities in regional and rural Australia. She has had a long-term commitment to Landcare Australia and has been constantly travelling in her region to promote it and to educate people on sustainable farming practices.

Having spent thirty years living in isolated regional communities in Queensland, Sandy has a broad understanding of the range of issues confronting rural and regional Queenslanders. She has many years experience working in paid and voluntary positions in community organisations. She has worked as a Community Sector Development Worker in the Rockhampton region, and was employed by Central Queensland University’s Institute for Sustainable Regional Development. She has served on several Ministerial advisory panels and boards.

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Leesa Vlahos was elected to the seat of Taylor in the House of Assembly of the Parliament of South Australia at the election, which was held on 20 March 2010.

A member of the Greens Party, Larissa Waters was elected to the Senate of the Australian Parliament representing the state of Queensland at the federal election, which was held on 21 August 2010. She took her seat in the Senate on 1 July 2011.
She became Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Australian Greens on 15 May 2025.

Shirley Eckford was nominated for the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award in 1995, for the Carpentaria district in Queensland.

She was a community stalwart in the Julia Creek area, having been awarded the Australia Day Citizens Award twice, the Queensland Day Community Service Award once and maintaining an extremely active profile in the community arts sector, including teaching pottery. In 2007, Julia Creek’s centenary year, she researched and published a history of the district that was launched by the then Governor of Queensland, Quentin Bryce. She was received an Order of Australia Medal in 2010 and continued to live in Julia Creek until her final years in aged care in Townsville.

Clair O’Brien was the State winner (for the Northern Territory) of the ABC Rural Woman of the Year Award in 1996. She is a pastoralist and community worker with a strong commitment to improving the lives of women and children in remote and isolated communities.

Alicia Coutts is an Australian medley, butterfly and freestyle swimmer. She represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2010 Commonwealth Games (New Delhi). In 2010 she was named the Telstra Australian swimmer of the year.

Brittany Elmslie was a gold medalist at both the London Olympic Games (2012) and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games (2014). She received a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to sport in 2014.

Titles/ Honours
• 2012 ACT Senior Australian of the Year
• 2009 Australia Council’s $10,000 Visual Arts Emeritus Medal
• 2005 New South Wales Premier’s Award for Script Writing for the documentary series, The Art of War 2004-2005
• 2004 HonDUniv (Queensland University) 2004
• 2003 Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities
• 2001 – Centenary Medal
• HonDLit (Curtin University)
• 1996: AO – Officer of the Order of Australia, in recognition of service to art and to the community as Director of the Australian National Gallery
• 1996 The Australian newspaper’s Australian of the Year
• 1996 HonLLD (ANU)
• 1995 HonDA (RMIT)
• 1990 AM – Member of the Order of Australia, in recognition of service to the arts, particularly in the field of arts administration and education
• 1988 Fulbright Scholar

Betty Churcher AO AM FAHA was director of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra from 1990-1997 where she was nicknamed “Blockbuster Betty” because of the large-scale exhibitions of famous artworks she organised to make art relevant and accessible to the community. Betty Churcher has been a pioneer and role model for women in the art world: she was the first woman to head a tertiary institution when she was Dean of the Art and Design School, Phillip Institute of Technology (now RMIT University), the first female director of a state art gallery when appointed to the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the first female director of the National Gallery of Australia.

Ethel Trounson was a granddaughter of William Ginn, one of Canberra’s well-known pioneers, who lived in what is now known as Blundell’s Cottage. She grew up at the Canberra Park homestead and worked as a children’s nurse to the Crace family in the early 1920s.

Sue Doobov moved to Canberra in 1965 from Brisbane. She was a leader of the Jewish community in Canberra, as well as the Executive Officer of the Council on the Ageing ACT at a time when it assisted in the establishment of many service organisations. Sue is recognised as the instigator of the University of the Third Age (U3A) in Canberra. She retired to Israel in 1998.

Yvonne Bain was a woman who respected tradition while enjoying new challenges. She was passionate about education, for herself and for others. She was appointed to the governing council of Griffith University, and to a range of national and state advisory committees on aspects of education. Griffith University awarded her an honorary doctorate of the University in 1998. Bain was also passionate about the rights of women, working for decades in the Queensland National Council of Women and the National Council of Women of Australia. She served as the national president 1991-1994. In 1990, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for service to women’s affairs, particularly through the National Council of Women. During her presidency of NCWA, Bain persuaded the Australian Bureau of Statistics to include the categories of work in the home and volunteer work in the national census data, allowing the calculation of the value of unpaid work within national productivity. This is perhaps her most lasting contribution to the Australian women’s movement.

Anne Hamilton was the second Queensland president of the Australian National Council of Women. She held office between 1964 and 1967, having already served as president of the Queensland Council from 1961 to 1964. Her period as state president was notable for successfully hosting the ANCW triennial conference and the International Council of Women regional seminar on international understanding in Brisbane in 1964. As national president in the ensuing 3 years, she set up the twinning relationship between the Australian and Thailand NCWs-a program initiated by the ICW to encourage ‘reciprocal relationships between N.C.Ws of contrasting economic patterns’. Her period in office also saw continuing lobbying of the federal government for the lifting of the marriage bar on the employment of women in the Commonwealth public service (achieved in 1967), for equal pay, and for seeking Australia’s re-election to the UN Status of Women Commission (achieved in 1967). As president, she also encouraged state NCWs to include welfare of Aborigines in the considerations of their standing committees, succeeded in persuading the government to include the portrait of an outstanding Australian woman on the new $5 note, and agitated for liberalising the means test for pensions with the aim of its eventual abolition. Hamilton represented the ANCW and the ICW at the International Federation of University Women conference in Brisbane in 1965, and led the ANCW delegation to the ICW triennial conference in Tehran in 1966.
Hamilton’s other major interest was the propagation and growth of Australian plants, and she served as president of the Society for Growing Australian Plants, Queensland from 1965 to 1966.

Dr Laurel Macintosh served for nearly 40 years as an ophthalmic surgeon in Brisbane hospitals, working all the while for women’s rights and as a community activist. In her professional life, she chaired the Queensland Branch of the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists. Her community work took her to the presidency of both the National Council of Women of Queensland (1977-1979, 1994-1996) and the National Council of Women of Australia (1979-1982), and to membership of state, national and international committees with the capacity to influence government. An achievement of which she is proud is the winning of the case for late night shopping for Brisbane and Ipswich in Queensland’s industrial court in December 1978.

Judith Parker was an activist for human rights over a period of 50 years, with a special interest in the rights of women and children. She was particularly active in the National Councils of Women, at state, national and international levels, and was only the second Western Australian to hold the national presidency (2000-2003). She was responsible for winning the right to hold the International Council of Women triennial conference in Australia (in Perth) in 2003, the first time Australia had hosted this event. Judith Parker was also very active in the United Nations Association of Australia. In 2004, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia and, in 2009, she was invested as a Dame Commander in the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Knights Hospitaller, honouring her for her services to women and human rights.

Gwen Roderick was the first Western Australian woman to be elected president of the National Council of Women of Australia – 63 years after it was founded. She brought to the presidency a passion for efficient management that served the association well during a difficult period in terms of its relationship with government.

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

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

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

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

Read more about Anna Elizabeth Haebich in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

Ernestine Hill travelled extensively around Australia photographing and writing about the varied landscapes and people she encountered. She is particularly well known for her photographs of Aboriginal people.

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

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

Read more about Aila Inkeri Keto in our sister publication The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia.

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