Mary Ellinor Lucy ARCHER

Born 13 November 1893, Died 3 May 1979

Also known as: Ellinor Archer professionally

Mary Archer was CSIRO’s first woman sci­en­tist, and chief librar­i­an from 1923 – 1954. She is com­mem­o­rat­ed by the Library Asso­ci­a­tion of Aus­trali­a’s Elli­nor Archer award, first…

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Maryanne MORTON

2003 — First Abo­rig­i­nal woman to head up an Aus­tralian com­pa­ny earn­ing more than $50m a year. Award­ed North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Star of Achieve­ment from Chief Min­is­ter Clare Martin.…

Kylie TENNANT

Born 12/03/1912, Died 28/02/1988

1935 — Win­ner of the S. H. Pri­or Memo­r­i­al Prize for her first pub­lished nov­el Tiburon.

1942 — Aus­tralian Lit­er­ary Soci­ety gold medal for The Battlers.

1960 — Won Children’s…

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Sheila CLARKE

Born 20 June 1916, Died 4 May 2006

Also known as: née O'Loughlin

1944 — First woman elect­ed to the Com­mit­tee of the Fed­er­at­ed Clerk’s Union in the North­ern Territory.
1950 — Found­ing Com­mit­tee mem­ber of the Half-Caste Progress Asso­ci­a­tion in…

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Marise PAYNE

Born 29 July 1964

Marise Payne was appoint­ed Australia’s Min­is­ter for For­eign Affairs on 28 August 2018.

A Sen­a­tor for New South Wales since 1997, she has more than two decades’ parliamentary…

Jean BEADLE

Born 1/1/1868, Died 22/5/1942

Also known as: Jean (Jane) Miller

1898 — Found­ing mem­ber of the first Labour Wom­en’s Asso­ci­a­tion in Australia

1905 — Found­ing mem­ber of the first West­ern Aus­tralian Wom­en’s Polit­i­cal and Social Crusade…

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Jacqueline NINIO

Also known as: Jackie

Jacque­line Ninio, in Syd­ney, was the third female Pro­gres­sive Rab­bi, ordained in 1998.

Jacqui SEGGER

“In Sep­tem­ber 1988, three trail­blaz­ing women — Michelle Field, Jacqui Seg­ger and Vir­ginia Forbes (née Bell) — grad­u­at­ed along­side twen­ty men from the Vic­to­ria Street Training…

Mabel ADAMSON

Born 3 October 1905, Died 18 December 1998

Also known as: May, née Wilkinson

Mabel was an ear­ly pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia, arriv­ing in Alice Springs on 5^th May 1920 with her fam­i­ly. Mabel’s father’s broth­er, George Wilkin­son, had a store in Alice…

Dorothy Mabel Vernon SMITH

Born 13/02/1909, Died 26/11/1994

1950 — The first woman in Aus­tralia to grad­u­ate as a radio oper­a­tor from Amal­ga­mat­ed Wire­less of Aus­trala­sia Ltd’s train­ing school in Mel­bourne and in 1951 was appoint­ed marine…

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Mary Ann COMERFORD

Born 22 November 1904, Died 22 May 1994

Also known as: née Dailly

Pio­neer of West­ern Australia.
​“Mary Com­er­ford arrived in West­ern Aus­tralia by ship from Scot­land, aged 24 years in 1928 with hus­band James and two small chil­dren. They went to Beverley…

Beatrice Mary BRUMBY

Born 8 January 1915, Died 31 March 2012

Also known as: née Lennon

Pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia and north South Australia.

May Gertrude SHEPHERD

Born 1897, Died 24 January 1937

Also known as: née Bradford

1931 — First Aus­tralian avi­a­trix to ​“hold first class pilot’s ​‘A’, ​‘B’ and ​‘C’ licences con­cur­rent­ly, in addi­tion to a ​‘D’ electrical…

Isobel BENNETT

Born 1909, Died 2008

Iso­bel Ben­nett was a renowned marine biol­o­gist, best known for her pio­neer­ing work on the Great Bar­ri­er Reef. Her ear­li­est work, how­ev­er, con­cerned plank­ton and she was involved in…

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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Illma BALDOCK

Born 30/11/1919

Also known as: Illma Gregory

Ill­ma was a foun­da­tion mem­ber and worked hard to raise funds for the pro­mo­tion of wom­en’s and com­mu­ni­ty sports.

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Allison CONYER

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

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Louisa Margaret DUNKLEY

Born 28 May 1866, Died 10 March 1927

Also known as: née Dunkley, Louisa Margaret Kraegen

By the 1870s many women dou­bled as post­mistress and tele­graph oper­a­tor in coun­try areas but were paid less than men, a sit­u­a­tion Louisa Dunk­ley fought to change when she established…

Daphne CALDER

Born 5 January 1924, Died 15 October 2013

Also known as: née Campbell, Daphne Calder

Pic­tured here at Emi­ly Gap out­side Alice Springs, she starred oppo­site Aus­tralian act­ing leg­end chips Raf­fer­ty in The Over­lan­ders, a clas­sic movie being the first to show…

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Jane Catharine TOST

Born 1817, Died 24 April 1889

Also known as: née Ward

Prob­a­bly the first female taxi­der­mist in Aus­tralia (Syd­ney 1860s).
Maybe first woman to be employed in a pro­fes­sion­al capac­i­ty in any Aus­tralian Muse­um (Tas­ma­nia 1856).

Mary David ALLCHIN

Born 17/5/1913

Pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia. Arrived in Alice Springs in 1941, took her final vows with the Catholic Church in 1942 and helped estab­lish Arl­tun­ga mis­sion in 1942. Also worked on…

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Cecilia DOWNING

Born 13 January 1858, Died 30 August 1952

Also known as: née Hopkins, Celia Hopkins

1907 — She was one of the gov­ern­men­t’s first child-pro­ba­tion officers.Women’s Chris­t­ian Tem­per­ance Union of Vic­to­ria: 1909 — record­ing sec­re­tary; 1911 — founding…

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Karen BROWN

2001 — Became first female to head the Finance Sec­tor Union, and the youngest state secretary.

Evelyn Maude WEST

Born 14/09/1888, Died 20/06/1969

Also known as: Eva

Along with Miss Bourne, Aus­trali­a’s first woman licensed audi­tor, she was the first woman to pass the exam­i­na­tions nec­es­sary to gain admis­sion into the Incor­po­rat­ed Insti­tute of…

Ethel Florence Lindesay RICHARDSON

Born 3 January 1870, Died 20 March 1946

Also known as: née Richardson, Henry Handel Richardson, Ethel Robertson, Et, Ettie, Etta

1932 — First Aus­tralian woman to be nom­i­nat­ed for The Nobel Prize for Literature.

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Shirley BOOTH

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…

Beryl Loyla BROWNE

Born 1898, Died 21 June 1981

Mem­ber of pio­neer­ing fam­i­ly from Bendi­go, gold fields and Mel­bourne, Victoria.

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Gwen WALLEY

First inter­state Abo­rig­i­nal health work­er to get North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry registration.

Marion Lillian ADDISON

Born 21 December 1885, Died 27 November 1982

Also known as: Lily

1919 — First Aus­tralian woman to play at Wimbledon. 

At the time, Lily was the wom­en’s sin­gles cham­pi­on of Australia. 

She was the South Aus­tralian Ladies Ten­nis Cham­pi­on in…

Elizabeth KENNY

Born 20/9/1880, Died 30/11/1952

Also known as: Sister Elizabeth Kenny

1911 — First per­son to imple­ment an effec­tive method of treat­ment for Infan­tile Paral­y­sis (Poliomyelitis).
1927 — Designed and patent­ed the ​“Sylvia“ambulance stretch­er which…

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Adelheid Elisabeth Johanne TAYLOR

Born 12/08/1922, Died 12/10/2011

Also known as: Heide, Mother Zonta

First migrant in South Aus­tralia to be ful­ly recog­nised and reg­is­tered as a med­ical practitioner.
1968 — Was appoint­ed and the first female to hold the posi­tion of Direc­tor of…

Kathleen Frances SNEDDON

Born 1908, Died 27 October 2005

Also known as: née Gaylard, BB, Kath

1954 — First pres­i­dent of the Coun­try Wom­en’s Asso­ci­a­tion of the Air, Alice Springs, North­ern Territory.

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Res­i­dent 9 years in Alice.…

Wendy Elizabeth McCARTHY

Born 22/7/1941

Also known as: née Ryan

1989 — Award­ed Order of Aus­tralia for her con­tri­bu­tion to com­mu­ni­ty and wom­en’s affairs.

Teacher.Chancellor of Uni­ver­si­ty of Canberra.Former Head of Nation­al Trust of…

Kelly COLE

2000 — Kel­ly walked with camels (and with Mark Swindells for part of the jour­ney) from West­ern Aus­trali­a’s most west­er­ly point to New South Wales most east­er­ly point.

Woo Len AH TOY

Born 24 October 1917, Died 15 November 2001

Also known as: nee Wong, Lily

Lily was born and grew up in Dar­win and was known to many in the Top End for her sto­icism, gen­eros­i­ty and warm good humour. From 1936 to 1942 and con­tin­uin­ing after the war, Lily and…

Marion F. WRIGHT

Also known as: née Lunn, Brownie, Browny

In 1934 Brown­ie was the first Aus­tralian woman pilot to go night fly­ing. There were no marked run­ways with lights, just kerosene flares made out of tin cans full of burn­ing rags. In…

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Tracy SMART

First woman appoint­ed Chief Instruc­tor at the RAAF Insti­tute of Avi­a­tion Medicine.

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Pauline

Born 16 March 1935, Died 03 March 1989

Also known as: Hon. Pauline Therese Toner

1982 — First woman State Cab­i­net Min­is­ter in Victoria
(Hon.)

1969 — Joined the Aus­tralian Labor Party 
1973 – 1979 — Coun­cil­lor for the Shire of Dia­mond Valley.
1977 – 1988 -…

Helen Charmaine BEH

Born 31/7/1941, Died 7/2/2012

Helen Beh was the first woman to achieve fol­low­ing posi­tions in the Sci­ence Fac­ul­ty at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Syd­ney: Senior Lec­tur­er in Psy­chol­o­gy (1972−1988; ); Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor; Head…

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Lynette Moira KELLOW

Born 1919

Also known as: nee Salathiel

1939 — Flew with Eddie Conel­lan and hus­band John Kel­low to Alice Springs. Donat­ed a ​“First Day Cov­er” air let­ter to her par­ents which was part of the first mail run by…

Emilie DAVIS

Also known as: Babs

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Short-term member.

Elizabeth TODD

Born 22/09/1918, Died 31/07/2017

The first female Senior Lec­ture in any dis­ci­pline at Syd­ney’s Con­ser­va­to­ri­um of Music. Appoint­ed in 1968, she lat­er became the first woman pres­i­dent of the New South Wales Music…

Elizabeth Anne Valentine STERNE

Born 14 /02/1880, Died 17/04/1973

Also known as: née Hanrahan, Chute, E.A.V. "Ev"

Was one of the first women in Queens­land to become a jus­tice of the peace.
1924 – 1944 — She was the Queens­land Coun­try Wom­en’s Asso­ci­a­tion first State treasurer.

1941 -…

Robyn Margaret WALKER

Born 1 July 1959

2011 — Robyn Walk­er became the first female in the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy to attain the rank of Rear Admi­ral. This made her the first Aus­tralian woman to reach ​“two-star”…

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Dawn Carolyn CROSBY

Born 29 April 1957

Also known as: née Hands, Lady Dawn Crosby

Only female direc­tor of Lib­er­al Par­ty in Aus­tralia cur­rent­ly and sec­ond female direc­tor of Lib­er­al Par­ty ever in Aus­tralia. Youngest ever Chair (30 years) of Wom­an’s Coun­cil of…

Mary ADLER

Born 17 February 1862, Died 8 June 1897

Also known as: née Millar

Mary Adler came from Mur­toa in the Wim­mera. In 1893, she and her hus­band select­ed land at Lal­bert, near Swan Hill, which they set­tled with their five sons. She died at 36 years of…

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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Alexa SIMMONS

Also known as: Lexie, Alexa Bates

Author of Kajir­ri, The Bush Missus.

1948 – 1959 — Pio­neer on Vic­to­ria Riv­er Downs (VRD) Station.1958 — she was only the sec­ond white woman ever to live at Mount San­ford Station…

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.

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Nikki BART

Nik­ki along with her moth­er are the first women to com­plete the Explor­er’s Grand Slam, the Sev­en Sum­mits which includes Mt Ever­est. May 2008.

Togeth­er with her moth­er, Cheryl,…