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Kerryn PHELPS

Born 14 December 1957

Also known as: Dr Kerryn Phelps

First woman Fed­er­al Pres­i­dent of Aus­tralian med­ical Association

Ker­ryn Lyn­del Phelps AM was the first woman to be elect­ed pres­i­dent of the Aus­tralian Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion (AMA).

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Wilhelmina SMITH

Born 1886, Died 24 June 1975

Also known as: Bill, Girlie, William

“Bill” Smith was Aus­trali­a’s first woman jockey.

Margaret WHYTE

1891 — One of the first two women to grad­u­ate in Med­i­cine from Mel­bourne Uni­ver­si­ty — the oth­er was Clara STONE.
​“When the final results appeared Mar­garet Whyte had done…

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Faye NAYLER

Born 22/10/1932, Died 25/10/2015

Also known as: Elma Faye

First woman to own and oper­ate an opal mine in Coober Pedy, South Aus­tralia. Estab­lished ​“The Opal Cave” in 1963 and gave the first tour of Coober Pedy.

Faye is the author of…

Judith Mary ROBERTS

Born 17 December 1936

1978 — First Rep­re­sen­ta­tive from South Aus­tralia to Nation­al Wom­en’s Advi­so­ry Council.

1980s — Appoint­ed to the Nation­al Health and Med­ical Research Coun­cil and later…

Tania VERSTAK

Also known as: née Verstak

1962 — First and only Aus­tralian to win Miss Inter­na­tion­al Beau­ty competition.

1962 — Crowned Miss New South Wales.1962 — Crowned Miss Australia.

Patricia Rhoda McLOUGHLIN

Born 26/11/1942

Also known as: née Sanderson; formerly Pat Camilleri

1991 – 94 — First female chair of the Cabool­ture Shire Coun­cil [The Shire of Cabool­ture, Queensland].
First female chair of the Cabool­ture Fire Brigade Board.
First female pres­i­dent of…

Ricky BURGES

Ricky Burges was the first woman to head the Perth Zoo, when she became the Zoo’s chief exec­u­tive offi­cer between 1995 – 1998.

In 1997, Ricky was the West­ern Australian…

Ruby Florence HUTCHINSON

Born 15 February 1892, Died 17 December 1974

Also known as: née Herbert

1959 — Founder of the Aus­tralian Con­sumer Association.
First woman elect­ed to the Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil in West­ern Australia.
First to take her place in any Aus­tralian Council.
Fourth…

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Claudine SHARP

First Aus­tralian woman award­ed Cer­tifi­cate of Marine Engi­neer­ing Class I.

Dianne SULLIVAN

2003 — First North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry school teacher to rep­re­sent Aus­tralia at N.A.S.A. (USA) at their space camp.

Grew up in Alice Springs where she taught at Our Lady of the…

Muriel Grace CRABTREE

Born 9 April 1908, Died 18 December 2010

Bio­chemist and artist. Crab­tree was asso­ci­at­ed with the Mel­bourne Uni­ver­si­ty Wom­en’s Col­lege ​“for almost 50 years as a grad­u­ate, res­i­dent, res­i­dent tutor, vice-prin­ci­pal, acting…

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Anne KOLBE

2003 — First female Pres­i­dent of the Roy­al Aus­tralasian Col­lege of Surgeons.

Anne is a pae­di­atric sur­geon from Auck­land, New Zealand.

2011 – 2016 — Served by Min­is­te­r­i­al appointment…

Susan O'NEILL, AM

Born 2/08/1973

Also known as: Susie, Madame Butterfly

Achieved 8 Olympic and 10 Com­mon­wealth Games medals for Swim­ming freestyle and butterfly.


O’Neill won the 200 m but­ter­fly at the 1996 Sum­mer Olympics and the 200 m…

Margaret Helen GETHING

Born 20 December 1920, Died 16 July 2005

Also known as: née Gepp, Mardi

Dur­ing World War II Mar­di joined the Air Trans­port Aux­il­iary deliv­er­ing dif­fer­ent types of air­craft. The dan­gers were many. In the 1960s she returned to Aus­tralia and became the…

Nelle Isabel LAW

Died June 1990

Also known as: née Allan, Nel Law

1960 – 61 — As the wife of the sci­en­tist and explor­er Phillip Law, she was the first Aus­tralian women to set foot in Antarc­ti­ca when she trav­elled with her hus­band to the Mawson…

Mary LEE

Born 14/2/1821, Died 18/9/1909

Also known as: née Walsh

1890 — Founder of the Work­ing Wom­en’s Trade Union.

In 1895 aged 74, she was nom­i­nat­ed to stand for par­lia­ment for the Unit­ed Labour Par­ty but declined.
2001 — Inducted…

Ellen O'DONNELL

Born 16/12/1896, Died 8/3/1963

Also known as: Eileen

After 10 years of gov­ern­ment lob­by­ing, she and Zara Dare were appoint­ed as Queens­land’s first two police­women, in March 1931. How­ev­er, they did not share the same pow­ers and…

Terry UNDERWOOD

Born 1/1/1948

Also known as: née Augustus

1997 — North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Tel­stra Busi­ness Woman of the Year award for busi­ness own­er category.
Author of In the Mid­dle of Nowhere and Riv­eren — My Home, My Country.

Began her…

Patricia Ann TURNER

Born 23/09/1952

Also known as: Pat

First Abo­rig­i­nal woman to head a gov­ern­ment depart­ment in Canberra.

Top Com­mon­wealth Indige­nous pub­lic servant.Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of Nation­al News Ser­vice (Nation­al…

Grace Clara STONE

Born 12 January 1860, Died 10 May 1957

Also known as: Clara, Grace

One of the first two women to grad­u­ate in Med­i­cine from Mel­bourne Uni­ver­si­ty — Mar­garet WHYTE was the other.
She was named the first pres­i­dent of the Vic­to­ri­an Med­ical Women’s…

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Cheryl KERNOT

Born 5/12/1948

Also known as: nee Paton, formerly Young

1993 – 1997 — First female Leader of the Aus­tralian Democ­rats in Fed­er­al Parliament

For­mer high school teacher.1993 – 1997 — Leader of the Aus­tralian Democrats.1998 – 2001 — Member…

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Phyllis Mary KABERRY

Born 17 September 1910, Died 31 October 1977

1941 — First woman anthro­pol­o­gist award­ed Yale Study Fellowship.

1930s-1960s — Pub­lished papers on her anthro­po­log­i­cal work in the Kim­ber­ley, Papua New Guinea and Cameroon.…

Elizabeth DALMAN

Born 1934

Eliz­a­beth Cameron Dal­man was the pio­neer of con­tem­po­rary dance in Aus­tralia. She was the founder of the Aus­tralian Dance The­atre, this country’s first pro­fes­sion­al mod­ern dance…

Evelyn Helena PARKER

Born 12 October 1907, Died 28 September 1993

1975 — First woman May­or in West­ern Aus­tralia (Subi­a­co Coun­cil). In 1976 she was Cit­i­zen of the Year.

She was a Jus­tice of the Peace. In 1977 she received an Offi­cer of the…

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Lucy SHAW

Born 1898

Mary Theodora Joyce WILCOX

Born 24/11/1873, Died 14/12/1953

Also known as: Dora; Mrs William MOORE

Poet and play­wright. Wrote such as ​‘Vers­es from Maori Land’ (1905), ​‘Rata and Mistle­toe’ (1911), ​‘Sev­en Poems’ (1924). She wrote an ode to cel­e­brate the…

Sheila LAXON

First woman to train a Mel­bourne Cup winner.
2002 — Made an Offi­cer of the New Zealand Order of Mer­it, for ser­vices to racing.

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Samantha Linette Pearl RILEY

Born 13/11/1972

Also known as: Sam

World Record hold­er and Gold Medal­list — Swim­ming — 29 Sept 20011996 — No. 1 Breas­troke Cham­pi­on in world.Won Prime Min­is­ter’s ​‘Women In Sport Award’

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Rose Bertha CROOK

Also known as: née Raggatt (Raggett), Bertha

Rose (Bertha) Crook and her hus­band William oper­at­ed the water whip at Wycliffe Well, a depot for water­ing trav­el­ling stock. As young girls their daugh­ter Doreen and Kath­leen did much…

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Dorothy Edna REIS

Also known as: née Bishop

1928 — First Queens­land woman to obtain a pilot’s licence.

She learned to
dri­ve a car at the age of 12 years, being
one of the first woman motorists in
Queensland.
When…

Pat KEMP

Also known as: Sister, Doc

Pio­neer Nurse. Arrived at Dock­er Riv­er in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry in 1975 and stayed work­ing at the clin­ic for 22 years.

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Mary SANDERCOCK

1970s — First female Prop­er­ty Val­uer in South Australia.

Josephine McGOVERN

Born 14/1/1924, Died 2/4/2001

Also known as: Josie

1958 — She was appoint­ed female assis­tant in the Library of the Par­lia­ment of Vic­to­ria. Josephine was the first female pro­fes­sion­al appoint­ed to the staff of the Library of the…

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Mary EDWARDS

1920 — Began first Moth­er’s Club at Nor­wood School, South Australia.

Clare Grant STEVENSON

Born 18/07/1903, Died 22/10/1988

9 June 1941 — First Direc­tor of the Wom­en’s Aux­il­iary Aus­tralian Air Force.

11 June 1960 — Appoint­ed a Mem­ber of the Order of the British Empire for social welfare…

Lillian Myrtle BLOOMFIELD

Born 1916, Died 2005

Also known as: née Kunoth, Lil, Lillian

Daugh­ter of Cen­tral Aus­tralia pio­neers Har­ry and Car­o­line Kunoth of Oodnadatta.
Pio­neer of Cen­tral Australia.
Pas­toral­ist Loves Creek Station.

Writ­ten on the back of the…

Ruth ALSOP

Born 1879, Died 1976

First woman to qual­i­fy as an archi­tect in Vic­to­ria. She began work at her younger broth­er Rod­ney’s firm Klin­gen­der & Alsop some­time after 1907. She worked for the firm for…

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Jennifer MILLS

Born 1977

Aus­tralian nov­el­ist, short sto­ry writer and poet.

Won 1^st and 2^nd prizes in the Alice Springs News Short Sto­ry Com­pe­ti­tion, 2007.

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Jennifer THOMPSON

Born 1951

Abo­rig­i­nal health work­er, Alice Springs Hos­pi­tal, North­ern Territory.

Amy CAIL

Born 29 March 1833, Died 15 July 1914

Also known as: née Williams

Pio­neer of Bendi­go area of Victoria.

Stella

Stel­la was an Allow­era (Allyawarr) woman, Jane Web­b’s trust­ed Allyawarr Abo­rig­i­nal friend, who lived at Mount Rid­dock Sta­tion with the Webb fam­i­ly for eigh­teen years.She helped…

Margaret Mary STAIB

Born 20 December 1962

2009 — Air Vice-Marshal.
2010 — Com­man­der, Joint Logis­tics Command.
Both were at the time the high­est rank­ing woman in the Aus­tralian military.
2012 — First woman CEO of Air Services…

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Patricker Catherine Bridgett HOLDEN

Born 5 April 1913, Died 19 February 1997

Also known as: née Callahan, Pat

Estab­lished Pat Hold­en Fash­ions, a ladies dress shop in Alice Springs. Worked for Mona MINA­HAN in her dress shop originally.

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Francesca Louise CAIRNS

Also known as: Fran

First Alice Springs, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry, woman to be employed as a grad­er driver.

Author of Draw­ing From the Well, inspired by her work ​“as a grad­er dri­ver, a pho­tog­ra­ph­er and…

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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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Maria Elizabeth KIRK

Born 9/12/1855, Died 14/1/1928

Also known as: née Sutton, Marie

Maria Kirk was the founder of the Wom­en’s Chris­t­ian Tem­per­ance Union in Aus­tralia (in 1887). She held numer­ous exec­u­tive posi­tions in the organ­i­sa­tion. Maria sup­port­ed and…

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Ella Jane McNAMARA

Pio­neer of Black­wood dis­trict in South Australia.

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Dianne YERBURY AO

Born 25/03/1941

Also known as: Emeritus Professor Dianne Yerbury, Dr Dianne Yerbury

In 1987 Dianne Yer­bury became the First Female Vice-Chan­cel­lor in Aus­tralia (Mac­quar­ie Uni­ver­si­ty), a role she held until 2007.

She is cur­rent­ly the inau­gur­al Chair of the Crescent…

Dawn FRASER

Born 4/9/1937

Dawn Fras­er was the first swim­mer in the his­to­ry of the Olympic Games to have won an Olympic event (100 metres freestyle) three times in suc­ces­sion (at Mel­bourne in 1956, in Rome in…