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Maree TOMASETTI

Born 23/08/1925, Died 30/07/2012

1956 — First weath­er girl on Chan­nel 7.
1960 — Aus­trali­a’s first preg­nant tele­vi­sion presenter.

1955 — One of first mem­bers of The Eliz­a­bethan The­atre Company…

Susan Barbara ZOG

Born 28/1/1941, Died 17/7/2004

Also known as: née Cullen-Ward, Roo, Queen Susan, Crown Princess Susan of Albania

First Aus­tralian woman to be queen of a coun­try (Alba­nia) — H.M. The Queen (in exile)

Through her moth­er, she is 22^nd in line of descent from King Edward I of Eng­land and is…

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…

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Kylie BELL

2005 — First Alice Springs female to be a Nation­al Net­ball League Umpire.
2006 — Young Cen­tralian of the Year.

Lillian INKAMALA

Born 1966

Artist

For­mer health work­er at Iman­pa Health Clinic
Worked for two years as an Anan­gu edu­ca­tion work­er at the Iman­pa Pri­ma­ry School

Nova Maree PERIS

Born 25/02/1971

Also known as: née Peris, Nova Peris-Kneebone

1996 — First Indige­nous Aus­tralian to win an Olympic Gold Medal.
1997 — Named Young Aus­tralian of the Year.
2000 — First car­ri­er of the Olympic flame on Aus­tralia Soil at Uluru,…

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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Anita TURNER

Died 29/01/2006

Award­ed gold Badge and Cer­tifi­cate of Mer­it for ded­i­cat­ed ser­vice to Returned & Ser­vices League (RSL) (high­est award to a non-RSL member).

Life Mem­ber of Alice Springs…

Mary Gordon SARD

Born 8/7/1868, Died 29/3/1946

Also known as: née Kennedy

First reg­is­tered Mid­wife in Port Pirie, South Australia.

Moth­er of ten chil­dren (five sons and five daughter).
Mary’s hus­band William was a mar­itime engi­neer, work­ing on…

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Mary Josephine O'KANE

Born 1954

1989 – 1993 — First Dean of Engi­neer­ing, Uni­ver­si­ty of Can­ber­ra, Aus­tralian Cap­i­tal Territory.
In Octo­ber 1996 she was the first woman, and pos­si­bly the youngest, appointed…

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Barbara JAMES

Born 8/11/1943, Died 2003

Also known as: née Johnson

His­to­ri­an of the North­ern Territory.
1999- Chief Min­is­ter’s Wom­en’s Achieve­ment Award for her con­tri­bu­tion to the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry as a jour­nal­ist, his­to­ri­an, author,…

Ellen Julia GOULD

Born 29 March 1860, Died 19 July 1941

Also known as: Nellie

1900 – 1902 — First woman Super­in­ten­dent of the first nurs­es to serve in a war, the New South Wales Army Nurs­ing Ser­vice Reserve (NSWAN­SR).

1914 – 1920 She served with the Australian…

Lydia LONGMORE

Born 15/7/1874, Died 30/10/1967

1917 — First female Inspec­tor of Schools (Low­er Grades).
1957 — Offi­cer of the Order of the British Empire (Civ­il), ​“Moth­er’s Clubs in South Australia.”

1918 — Founded…

Rose SCOTT

Born 8 October 1847, Died 20 April 1925

First pres­i­dent of a wom­en’s com­mit­tee of the Pris­on­er’s Aid Asso­ci­a­tion in 1898.

Known as the voice of wom­en’s suf­frage in Sydney.Campaigned for the education…

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Ann LEWIS

Born 1926

1948 — First woman com­mer­cial pilot in West­ern Aus­tralia. Award­ed the Coro­na­tion Medal for rep­re­sent­ing the wom­en’s fly­ing branch of the R.A.F.
First female pilot to fly for the…

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Claudine SHARP

First Aus­tralian woman award­ed Cer­tifi­cate of Marine Engi­neer­ing Class I.

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…

Pearl Ruth POWELL

Born 14/12/1909, Died 2004

Also known as: née Price, formerly Bird

Daugh­ter of Fred and Iso­belle PRICE.Author of By Pack­horse and Bug­gie with daugh­ter Eileen McRAE. Fred Price was Tele­graph Mas­ter at Tele­graph Sta­tion, Alice Springs (1916−24).

Helen Mary MAYO

Born 1 October 1878, Died 13 November 1967

1914 — First woman elect­ed to a uni­ver­si­ty coun­cil in Aus­tralia (Coun­cil of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide). Held this posi­tion con­tin­u­ous­ly for 46 years.
3 June 1935 — Appoint­ed an…

Freidericke Johanna Henriette STREHLOW

Born 31/08/1875, Died 30/04/1957

Also known as: née Keysser, Frieda

Pio­neer wife of Mis­sion­ary Carl STREHLOW and moth­er of Prof. T.G.H. (Ted) STREHLOW.

Rae Rose JONES

Born 9/12/1932, Died 14/7/2010

Squash cham­pi­on.

Played in every Mas­ters Games since 1986. 
Won gold every year except in 1988, when she won silver.
Safe­ly deliv­ered twins on a ship via radio.

Midwife,…

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Florence BESLEY

Also known as: née Ruthven

One of two first white women to climb Mt Gillen, North­ern Territory.

1900 — Left Ade­laide, for Alice Springs to become com­pan­ion to Mrs South (wife of Stu­art Arms Hotel…

Bronwyn Kathleen BISHOP

Born 19/10/1942

Also known as: nee Setright

Bron­wyn Bish­op was the first woman to be pres­i­dent of any polit­i­cal Par­ty in New South Wales when elect­ed Pres­i­dent of the Lib­er­al Par­ty in NSW (1985); first woman from NSW to be…

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Anna DOIG

Born 4/05/1830, Died 11/09/1894

Also known as: née Moir

Pio­neer of Beltana Dis­trict, South Aus­tralia. Born in Scotland.
Found­ed non-denom­i­na­tion­al Sun­day School (under Wes­leyan Church).
Unof­fi­cial Doc­tor — laid out the dead.
Midwife,…

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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.…

Beatrice Mary BRUMBY

Born 8 January 1915, Died 31 March 2012

Also known as: née Lennon

Pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia and north South Australia.

Frances Blanche Dorothy GRAY

Also known as: Dorothy, Fannie, Fanny

The first woman to grad­u­ate with a Bach­e­lor of Den­tal Sci­ence in Vic­to­ria, she was award­ed her degree from the Aus­tralian Col­lege of Den­tistry, Uni­ver­si­ty of Mel­bourne, in 1907. One of…

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Cornelia SKINNER

Born 1867, Died 1949

Tryphena Rains mar­ried William (Bill) Ben­stead in 1881. … Bill became man­ag­er of Bar­row Creek Pas­toral Com­pa­ny, set­ting up home at Stir­ling Creek near the Bar­row Creek Telegraph…

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Marjorie Faith BARNARD

Born 16 August 1897, Died 8/05/1987

Also known as: Marjory

1928 the Bul­letin Prize 

1981 Offi­cer of the Order of Aus­tralia AO

1983 Patrick White Award

1984 NSW Pre­mier’s Spe­cial Award

1986 Hon­orary Doc­tor of Let­ters from the…

Susan Maree RYAN

Born 10 October 1942

1975 – 1988 — First first Labor Sen­a­tor for the Aus­tralian Cap­i­tal Territory.
1990 — Appoint­ed Offi­cer of the Order of Aus­tralia for her con­tri­bu­tion to parliament.

In the Hawke…

Catherine Winifred DWYER

Born 13/6/1861, Died 3/2/1949

Also known as: née Golding, Kate

In 1921, Kate Dwyer became one of the first women Jus­tices of the Peace in New South Wales. 1905 — 1921 she was a mem­ber of the State Labor exec­u­tive, and in 1908 and 1912, a delegate…

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Christian Brynhild Ochiltree Jollie SMITH

Born 15/03/1885, Died 14/01/1963

Also known as: Christian Jollie Smith

1918 — First woman taxi-dri­ver in Mel­bourne (under trade name ​“Pamela Brown”).

1912 — Admit­ted Solic­i­tor by the Supreme Court of Victoria.1914 — Sec­ond woman to be…

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Anna Wilhelmine Charlotte Dorothea SCHWARZ

Also known as: née Schultz (Schultz, Schultze), Wilhelmine

The first white women to set­tle in Cen­tral Aus­tralia were Dorothea Queck­en­st­edt and Wil­helmine Schulze from Ger­many, the wives of mis­sion­ar­ies Kempe and Schwarz. They arrived at…

Ada Jemima CROSSLEY

Born 3 March 1871, Died 17 October 1929

Also known as: née Crossley, Ada Muecke

Mem­ber of a pio­neer­ing South Gipp­s­land fam­i­ly. Her hus­band was a doc­tor (throat specialist).Early years sang in all church­es of Tar­rav­ille Vil­lage, Victoria.Singer — Ora­to­rio Music -…

Raelene BOYLE

Born 24/6/1951

Rae­lene Boyle was an Olympic cham­pi­on sprint­er. She won the Sil­ver Medal at the Mex­i­co Olympics (1968) at 16 yrs of age — which, at the time, was the youngest Aus­tralian medal winner.…

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Nikki SATTLER

Alice Spring’s first female fire­fight­er, at the airport.

Daisy May BATES

Born 16/10/1863, Died 18/4/1951

Also known as: Daisy May O'Dwyer

Daisy May Bates led a colour­ful life which includ­ed three mar­riages two of which are pre­sum­ably big­a­mous and pos­si­ble change/​changes of name for what­ev­er rea­son. Her first mar­rage was…

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Emily Louisa McGOWAN

Also known as: nee Roberts

Joan Burton PATON

Born 1916, Died 28 April 2000

Also known as: née Cleland

“One of the first women to become a mem­ber of the exclu­sive Ade­laide Ornithol­o­gists Club, of which she was elect­ed Pres­i­dent 1991 – 1993, she also served as pres­i­dent of the South…

Daphne Jessie AKHURST

Born 22/4/1903, Died 9/1/1933

Also known as: Daphne Cozens

Daphne Akhurst was the first Aus­tralian woman to reach the Wim­ble­don semi-finals (1928), and the first Aus­tralian woman to fig­ure promi­nent­ly in ten­nis in over­seas tours. She reached…

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Elsie Josephine McFEAT

Born 30/11/1874, Died 14/02/1934

Also known as: née Conigrave

Gov­erness to the Brad­shaw children.

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Gwen WALLEY

First inter­state Abo­rig­i­nal health work­er to get North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry registration.

Isobelle Violet PRICE

Born 25/04/1876, Died 29/10/1957

Also known as: née Hesketh, Isobel, Ivy

First lone woman (with her four chil­dren) to run a sta­tion in Cen­tral Aus­tralia — Harp­er Springs near Ti Tree (1924 – 1930s). Wid­ow of Tele­graph Mas­ter of Old Tele­graph Sta­tion, Alice…

Kemarre Margaret Mary TURNER

For­mer Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Com­mis­sion (ATSIC) Councillor.

Nation­al Abo­rig­ines and Islanders Day Obser­vance Com­mit­tee (NAIDOC) Week Abo­rig­i­nal of the Year.

1997 -…

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Louise Mary JENKINS

Born 1/2/1958

First female part­ner in the his­to­ry of the firm Arthur Robin­son & Hed­der­wicks (Solic­i­tors) (or their pre­de­ces­sor firms) 

Bach­e­lor of Arts, Bach­e­lor of Laws, Melbourne…

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Chrysamthi PASPALIS

Born 13/07/1913, Died 25/04/1995

Also known as: née Kailis, Chrissie, Chrissy

Received The Order of the British Empire — Offi­cer (Civ­il) in 1976.

Well-known in Dar­win social cir­cles. 1942 — Last woman to be evac­u­at­ed from Dar­win area after February…

Ita Clare BUTTROSE

Born 17/1/1942

Acknowl­edged for her bril­liant and ground­break­ing media career, Ita But­trose has also ded­i­cat­ed her con­sid­er­able ener­gy and skills to cham­pi­oning med­ical edu­ca­tion and health care. Ita…

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Lorraine LIDDLE

Born 1956

1986 — The North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry’s first Abo­rig­i­nal lawyer, trav­el­ling between com­mu­ni­ties as a Bush Lawyer in Cen­tal Australia.

Kathryn WATT

Born 11/09/1964

Also known as: Kathy

1992 Olympic Games, Barcelona — Aus­trali­a’s first female cycling gold medal­list, 181 kilo­me­ter road race.

Bobbie TERRY

With Jean Gar­diner, was the first woman to own her own air­craft (a De Sout­ter) which she flew on fam­i­ly prop­er­ty in Quirin­di, New South Wales.