Anna Maria BUNN

Born 1808, Died 19 September 1889

Also known as: née Murray

1838 — Author of first nov­el pub­lished in Aus­tralia, The Guardian: a Tale (by an Australian).

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Khadhraa GLEN

First South Aus­tralian Mus­lim to be award­ed a gold medal for the Duke of Edin­burgh Award.

June NOBLE

June was named the 2008 Cen­tralian of the Year. 

June has also has served as an Alice Springs Town Coun­cil Alder­per­son and Deputy Mayor.
She is a vol­un­teer at the…

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Patricia Anne BRENNAN

Born 15 April 1944, Died 6 March 2011

Also known as: née Wilkinson

The Mel­bourne Syn­od of Aus­trali­a’s Angli­can Church first called for women priests in 1974. The foun­da­tion of the Move­ment for the Ordi­na­tion of Women by Dr Patri­cia Bren­nan and…

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Dorothy Evelyn Lettie BELLAMY

Born 1907, Died 1984

Also known as: née Oliffe, Paddy, Dorothy Evelyn Letty

1940s — First woman to dri­ve alone between Ade­laide and Alice Springs.
1947 — First woman in Alice Springs to actu­al­ly reg­is­ter a busi­ness — the first exclu­sive wom­ens’ store in…

Elizabeth MacARTHUR

Born 14 August 1766, Died 9 February 1850

Also known as: née Veale

Co-Founder of the Aus­tralian Wool Indus­try. With hus­band John, estab­lished ​“Eliz­a­beth Farm” at Par­ra­mat­ta, Syd­ney, New South Wales.Imported meri­no sheep from Cape o Good…

Ruby Dawn PRIOR

Born 1925

Also known as: née Vivian, Dawn

1998 — Had been a fundrais­er for the Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor Ser­vice for 44 years.
1992 — She was award­ed the Order of Aus­tralia, for ser­vices to the Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor Ser­vice Auxilliary…

Nicole Mary KIDMAN

Born 20 June 1967

Acclaimed Aus­tralian actress, win­ner of an Acad­e­my Award for Best Actress for her por­tray­al of Vir­ginia Woolf in the film The Hours (2002). In 2003, Kid­man received a Star on the…

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Thelma Dawn OWEN

Also known as: Dawn

Pro­pri­etor of Pol­ka Dot Fab­ric Shop in Alice Springs for 33 years. She opened the shop, with Edna Maskell, 20 Feb­ru­ary 1964.

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Agnes McWHINNEY

Born 25 September 1891, Died 4 August 1987

Also known as: Agnes Osborne

1915 — Agnes McWhin­ney was the first woman to be admit­ted as an attor­ney and to prac­tice law in Queensland.

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Maxine MacDONALD

Also known as: née Darrow, Mrs Mac

The dri­ving force behind the Kim­ber­ley’s Fos­sil Downs Sta­tion. When her hus­band Bill died in 1963, she car­ried on sin­gle­hand­ed­ly man­ag­ing the station.

Before marriage,…

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Lucy SHAW

Born 1898

Ruby Violet PAYNE-SCOTT

Born 28/05/1912, Died 25/05/1981

First woman radio astronomer.

1930’s — One of a hand­ful of women to earn a degree in Physics from Uni­ver­si­ty of Sydney.

Patricia Julianne EVANS

Also known as: née Morris

Qual­i­fied as an accoun­tant in 1948, and in 1949, at 21, became the first female accoun­tant to be employed by Bitu­men and Oil Refiner­ies (Aus­tralia) Lim­it­ed (Boral). One of the…

Grace Elizabeth BREBNER

Born 1914, Died 1984

1950 — First woman detec­tive in the Vic­to­ri­an Police Force.
1951 — The first female detec­tive in Australia.
1956 — The first police woman to pass her police dri­ving test.
1967 — First…

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Madeleine Ruby Irene BRUNATO-ARTHUR

Born 25 June 1919, Died 5 February 2006

1968 — Formed the South Aus­tralian Writ­ers Fellowship.
1970 — Became TAFE tutor in Cre­ative Writing.
1993 — First Writ­ing Fel­low of FAW (Fel­low­ship of Aus­tralian Writ­ers) in South…

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Karyn HUMPHREYS

First woman to stand for and be elect­ed to the Divi­sion­al Coun­cil of the Insti­tute of Munic­i­pal Man­age­ment (IMM) (now Local Gov­ern­ment Man­agers Aus­tralia — LGMA) in Victoria.…

Mary LYNCH

Born 1880

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Freda BRIGGS

Born 1 December 1930, Died 6 April 2016

Also known as: née Akeroyd

Edu­ca­tor, author, scholar.
Her appeal against manda­to­ry retire­ment paved the way for old­er Aus­tralians to retain work­ing posi­tions after retire­ment age.
Received ANZAC Fellowship…

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Joice Mary LOCH

Born 24/1/1887, Died 8/10/1982

Also known as: née NanKivell

Aus­trali­a’s most dec­o­rat­ed woman. 1920s — Helped 150,000 refugees escape Turk­ish per­se­cu­tion. Saved the vil­lage of Oura­noupo­lis from star­va­tion by revi­tal­is­ing its rug industry.…

Annie LOCK

Born 1 August 1876, Died 10 February 1943

Also known as: Ann Lock

Pio­neer mis­sion­ary with Unit­ed Abo­rig­i­nal Missions.

1901 — Entered Angas Col­lege, Ade­laide, a ​“Mis­sion­ary Train­ing Home for Ladies.”1903 — Joined the interdenominational…

Edith Emily DORNWELL

Born 31 August 1865, Died 18 November 1945

Also known as: née Dornwell

The first woman to grad­u­ate from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide in 1885, she was this insti­tu­tion’s and Aus­trali­a’s ear­li­est sci­ence grad­u­ate, pass­ing with First Class Honours.…

Annie May MOORE

Born 4/01/1881, Died 10/06/1931

Also known as: née Moore, May Moore

May Moore, and her sis­ter Mina Moore, were pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­phers. They began in Welling­ton, New Zealand, mov­ing to Syd­ney and Mel­bourne. May’s spe­cial­i­ty includ­ed famous…

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Clarrisa BURGENS

The only North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry woman For­mu­la 500 racer.

Doreen MIDDLETON

Born 11/03/1912, Died 15/07/1985

Also known as: née Middleton

1931 — First per­son to ride a bicy­cle from Mel­bourne to Ade­laide and return (both directions).
Aged 19 years, Doreen rode her bicy­cle from Mel­bourne to Ade­laide (607 miles) in 4 days,…

Beatrice Mary BRUMBY

Born 8 January 1915, Died 31 March 2012

Also known as: née Lennon

Pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia and north South Australia.

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Margaret Keitha FINDLAY

Born 1916

1940s — Tas­ma­ni­a’s first known woman stu­dent of architecture.

Nancy MANTHORPE

Born 1929

Also known as: Nan

An avi­a­trix on the muse­um’s Avi­a­trix Tapestry.

Johanna Maria Luise LIEBLER

Also known as: née Kuffner, Luise

Johan­na Maria Luise Liebler came to Her­manns­burg more than thir­ty years after Dorothee and Wil­helmine. She arrived on 1 May 1910 with her hus­band who was a new­ly grad­u­at­ed missionary.…

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Jenny McKENZIE

Mem­ber (Robyn Fox, Geor­gia Le Plas­tri­er, Jen­ny McKen­zie, Jo Van Son) of the first Aus­tralian all-female canoe team to make the full descent of the Yukon Riv­er (Unit­ed States).

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Eve LARON

1983 — Found­ed Con­struc­tive Women Inc, the asso­ci­a­tion of women archi­tects, land­scape archi­tects, plan­ners and women of the build­ing industry.

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Susana FERNANDEZ

Also known as: née Fernandez, Susana Henderson

A pilot in the Aus­tralian Defence Force, she was the first female in an Aus­tralian Defence Force Recon­nais­sance Squadron; first female Aus­tralian Defence Force Troop Com­man­der in…

Hazel Clarence GOLDER

Born 29 March 1894, Died 1984

1930s — Ran one of the first guest hous­es in Alice Springs, named ​“The Bush­man’s Rest.” It was in an area sit­u­at­ed between Shell Todd and Mur­ray Neck­’s Video…

Moira Therese KELLY

Born 31/1/1964

Award­ed ​‘Sir ​‘Weary’ Dun­lop Memo­r­i­al Award
1988 — Named Aus­tralian Bicen­ten­ni­al Young Woman of the Year

Aid Work­er — dubbed ​‘Aus­trali­a’s Mother…

Carla Maria ZAMPATTI

Born 19 May 1942

Car­la Zam­pat­ti is a promi­nent Aus­tralian fash­ion design­er who was the first woman appoint­ed as Chair­per­son of SBS tele­vi­sion in 1999.

1965 — Pro­duced her first collection.…

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Faye BARTLETT

One of the first women police in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry. All com­menced their recruit train­ing (with a num­ber of men) in Feb­ru­ary 1961, and the course ​“passed out” on 10…

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Allison CONYER

1998 — Alli­son was the sec­ond female Pro­gres­sive Rab­bi ordained, in Sydney.

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Enid Mona CAMPBELL

Born 30 October 1932, Died 20 January 2010

Also known as: Neil Campbell and Mona

1959 — First female lec­tur­er in the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tas­ma­nia Law School, teach­ing polit­i­cal science.
1967 — The first woman to hold a Chair in Law at any uni­ver­si­ty in Aus­trala­sia, when…

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Susan Elizabeth Anne WIJFFELS

Born 3/08/1965

First woman sci­en­tist on staff in the Com­mon­wealth Sci­en­tif­ic and Indus­tri­al Research Organ­i­sa­tion (CSIRO) Divi­sion of Oceanog­ra­phy in Hobart, Tasmania.
1986 — Cal­tex Scholarship…

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Antoinette GAGLIARDI

Antoinette, the first child of Maria Con­cetta ​“Con­nie” née Cic­cone and Giuseppe Gagliar­di arrived in Aus­tralia, via Argenti­na, with her moth­er in 1938.

Ann Jane HAYES

Born 25 June 1893

Also known as: née Doolan, Jane, Jan

Pas­toral­ist, Undoolya Sta­tion. Pio­neer of Cen­tral Australia.
Daugh­ter and step-daugh­ter of Lizzie and Sam NICK­ER. Wife of Ted HAYES, Senior (Pas­toral­ist — Undoolya Station).…

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Gwendoline Alice BURROWS

Born 16 August 1913, Died 26 December 2006

Also known as: Gwen

Moth­er of Sir Robert Stig­wood, entre­pre­neur. First Entrant in Arthri­tis Foundation’s Grand­moth­er of the Year Quest. South Aus­tralia sup­port­er of Vari­ety Club and Zonta.

Geraldine Dorothea COX

Born 1945

1970 – 1987 — Began her career with the Aus­tralian Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs. Was sta­tioned to embassies Phnom Penh, Cam­bo­dia; Philip­pines, Thai­land, Iran, and the USA.
1987 – 1995 -…

Sarah Friend WILLOUGHBY

Born 3 August 1861, Died 25 July 1923

Also known as: née Skinner

Pio­neer of Mallee Dis­trict, Vic­to­ria. The fam­i­ly spent the first year at Tyn­tyn­der Home­stead. While the gov­ern­ment promised ​“all the water you want­ed,” their home was…

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Margaret Gwen HARDY

Born 5 August 1926, Died 7 December 2001

Also known as: née Sutcliffe

First woman shire pres­i­dent of Lily­dale, Victoria.
First and only woman com­mis­sion­er of the then Mel­bourne Met­ro­pol­i­tan Board of Works, Victoria.

1977 — Award­ed the Queen’s…

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Paulette de Vere McDONAGH

Born 11/6/1901, Died 30/8/1978

1933 — One of the McDon­agh Sis­ters — first all female run film com­pa­ny in Australia.
2001 — Vic­to­ri­an Hon­our Roll of Women.

Using their home, the McDon­agh sis­ters wrote,…

Monica Teresa KENNEDY

Born 1892, Died 28/12/1970

Also known as: nee Sheeran

Mar­ried Michael Fred­er­ick Kennedy (“Fred”) in 1929 and moved to Elke­dra Sta­tion in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry. Moth­er of five chil­dren who she super­vised with their schooling…

Shirley Elaine ADKINS

Born 18 March 1930

Also known as: née Lee

First woman Pres­i­dent of the Roy­al Aero Club of West­ern Aus­tralia (1979−1984).

First woman elect­ed pres­i­dent of the Roy­al Fed­er­a­tion of Aero Clubs of Aus­tralia (1990−1997).

First…

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Julia Teresa FLYNN

Born 24 January 1878, Died 14 October 1947

1928 — First woman Chief Inspec­tor of Schools.

March 1912 — Obtained uni­ver­si­ty degree, Mel­bourne, Victoria.1914 — Appoint­ed inspec­tor of sec­ondary schools, ​“at a time when…

Leone Beth CREAMER

Born 1929

1966 — The first female horse train­er in New South Wales.

1972 – 1973 — First woman horse train­er to reach the top ten train­ers in the South­ern Table­lands and South Coast (New South…