Michelle GRATTAN

Born 30 June 1944

1988 — Received the Gra­ham Perkin Award as Aus­tralian Jour­nal­ist of the Year.

1993 – 1995 — First woman edi­tor of a major dai­ly news­pa­per in Aus­tralia, The Can­ber­ra Times.

2001 -…

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Alma Jean POOLE

Born 1920

Also known as: née Kuhn, Jean

Beth GARRETT

1955 — Beth Gar­rett was the first woman pilot for the Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor Service.

1958 — First woman in Aus­tralia to receive her Aus­tralian air­line trans­port licence.

First woman…

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Edna Margaret WALLING

Born 4 December 1896, Died 8 August 1973

1918 — First female land­scape gardener.

Rosalie Edith BANDT

Born 18 August 1951

Also known as: Ros Bandt

Ros Bandt is an inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed sound artist, com­pos­er, researcher and per­former and has been described as one of the most indi­vid­ual pres­ences in Aus­tralian music. Since…

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Robyn Wells MAY

Also known as: née Hammond

Began fly­ing between Mel­bourne and Tasmania.Flew in Papua New Guinea — ​“Only excep­tion­al pilots sur­vive.” Now flies in South Australia.

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Jane CHRISTOPHERSEN

Born November 1924

Also known as: née Wilkinson, Garlil (birth first name), Jane Ah Mat

1946 – 1947 — Formed first Abo­rig­i­nal net­ball team ​‘The Kook­abur­ras’. ​“Old timers say that the Ter­ri­to­ry has nev­er pro­duced a bet­ter goal shoot­er, male or female. She was tall,…

Clare Majaella MARTIN

Born 15 June 1952

In 2001, Clare Mar­tin became the first female chief min­is­ter of the North­ern Territory. 

Clare Mar­tin was the leader of the first labor Gov­ern­ment in the North­ern Territory.

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Robyn FOX

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).

Senja Raymond ROBEY

Born 25/01/1927, Died 14/4/2020

Also known as: née Havard

A foun­da­tion mem­ber of the Aus­tralian Women Pilots Asso­ci­a­tion Sen­ja learned to fly in a Tiger Moth in 1949. She has taught hun­dreds of stu­dents to fly and fer­ried many air­craft to…

Roma Flinders MITCHELL

Born 2/10/1913, Died 05/03/2000

The first woman to ​“take silk”, when pro­mot­ed to Queen’s Coun­sel in 1962, she is Aus­trali­a’s first female Judge when appoint­ed to the Supreme Court of South…

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…

Eily Rosaline O'CONNOR

Born 19/2/1892, Died 10/1/1921

Also known as: Eileen

1913 — Found­ed, with Father McGrath, Our Lady’s Nurs­es for the Poor. Oppo­si­tion from church author­i­ties threat­ened Father McGrath with expul­sion from his order and Eileen with…

Marita MUNRO

Born 1955

Mari­ta Munro was the Bap­tist Church’s first woman min­is­ter when ordained in Vic­to­ria in 1978.

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,…

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Dorothy Elaine Matilda STANWARD

Born 7 September 1907, Died 2 August 1997

Doroty Stan­ward was the first woman to be heard in Aus­trali­a’s first talkie Isle of Intrigue of 1931.

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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…

Lillian Daphne DE LISSA

Born 25 October 1885, Died 16 October 1967

Also known as: née de Lissa, Lillian Daphne Turner-Thompson

1906 — Founder of South Aus­trali­a’s first kinder­garten in Franklin Street.

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Ali RODDA

2001 — First woman mid­night to dawn radio pre­sen­ter (5AA) in Adelaide.

Mas­ters in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion Degree in Pub­lic Rela­tions. Nurse.

Beatrice DAY

Born 1865, Died 5 September 1933

1900 — Beat­rice Day is said to be the first woman in an Aus­tralian film, appear­ing in Aus­trali­a’s, and pos­si­bly the world’s, first film (albeit silent) the Salvation…

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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Fiona O'LOUGHLIN

Born 16/07/1963

Also known as: née Taheny

First female stand-up com­ic to per­form in Port Moresby.

Won award for Best New­com­er at the Mel­bourne Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val in 2001.Two con­sec­u­tive nom­i­na­tions for the Bar­ry Award,…

Mary BLIGH

Born 1 April 1783, Died 1864

Also known as: née Bligh, Mary Putland, Lady O'Connell

Daugh­ter of Gov­er­nor William Bligh. Wife of John Put­land. Became Lady O’Connell after husband’s knighthood.

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…

Mary Constance BEASLEY

Born 1937

Elect­ed Act­ing Chair­man of South Aus­trali­a’s Pub­lic Ser­vice Board in 1983, this was the first time a woman had held such office in Aus­tralia. She was also South Australia’s…

Pearl Mary GIBBS

Born 1901, Died 28/4/1983

Also known as: Gambanyi

Pearl Gibbs was an Abo­rig­i­nal leader and fought all her life for the rights of Indige­nous Aus­tralians. Her moth­er, Mary Mar­garet Brown, was born in Bre­war­ri­na. Her moth­er was Maria,…

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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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Peggy Winsome GLANVILLE-HICKS

Born 29 December 1912, Died 25 June 1990

Also known as: née Hicks

1938 — Peg­gy Glanville-Hicks became the first Aus­tralian com­pos­er to be rep­re­sent­ed at an Inter­na­tion­al Soci­ety for Con­tem­po­rary Music Fes­ti­val in London.

Joan SUTHERLAND

Born 1926, Died 2010

Also known as: Dame Joan Sutherland, La Stupenda

Joan Suther­land was a world famous sopra­no, one of the great­est voic­es of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. Joan stud­ied at the Roy­al Col­lege of Music in Lon­don, mak­ing a suc­cess­ful debut at…

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Jane BELL

Born 16 March 1873, Died 6 August 1959

1920s — Appoint­ed first tutor Sis­ter and found­ed first Pre­lim­i­nary Train­ing Course in Vic­to­ria. Matron of Roy­al Mel­bourne Hospital.
1934 — Estab­lished first post grad­u­ate nursing…

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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…

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Audrey Josephine CAHN

Born 17 October 1905, Died 1 April 2008

Also known as: née Osborne

1928 — First woman to com­plete the new­ly estab­lished agri­cul­ture degree at Mel­bourne University.

Cah­n’s moth­er, a med­ical prac­ti­tion­er, was inter­est­ed in nutri­tion, and…

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Rosetta ROBERTS

Ear­ly 1900s pio­neer of the Coon­alpyn Dis­trict, South Australia.

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Nancy LYLE

1930s — First woman to fly to Tas­ma­nia. Only woman in Aus­tralia to fly for one of the Armed Forces.

She held license No. 343 and fre­quent­ly flew her Gip­sy Moth…

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Mary Carlisle RALSTON

Born 10/11/1900, Died 1/09/1990

Mar­ried World War I vet­er­an in Scot­land then sailed to Aus­tralia to take up sol­dier set­tle­ment block at Urange­line, near Bul­gan­dra, New South Wales. Was first woman on the settlement…

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Audrey TURNER

Pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia on Jin­ka Sta­tion (Plen­ty Riv­er area).

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Jess SAMS

Born 1897, Died 1989

Also known as: née Millard

27 Feb­ru­ary 1938 — In a nation­wide fish­ing con­test (of over 580 anglers) cel­e­brat­ing Aus­trali­a’s 150^th year, she hooked a 330 pounds striped mar­lin. The record still stands today…

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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…

Benita Kaye BITTNER

Born 9 May 1982

August 1999 — Received accred­i­ta­tion as a Lev­el I ten­nis coach, North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry’s youngest woman to gain the cer­tifi­cate, and one of the youngest in Australia.

Gained…

Margaret RIACH

Born 07/03/1846, Died 29/12/1935

Also known as: née Oprey, Granny Riach, Grannie Riach

Organ­is­er of the World War I War Memo­r­i­al at Thirroul, New South Wales, the first memo­r­i­al in New South Wales.

Olive May DONNELLAN

Born 24 February 1901

Also known as: née Ramsey

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Ex Pres­i­dent or group Pres­i­dent. Foun­da­tion mem­ber. A sis­ter in AIM. Met hus­band at Ood­na­dat­ta (lived in Alice). First group pres­i­dent 1946 – 49.…

Myrtle Lillias Hope BINET

Born 31 May 1906, Died 11 November 1985

Also known as: née Bell

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Fam­i­ly woman and hap­py work­er — hus­band in gov­ern­ment service.

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Mary BRYANT

Born 1765, Died after 1794

Also known as: née Broad/Braund

Mary Bryant, arrived on the First Fleet. In just a few months, the food the First Fleet had brought with it had run out or was rot­ten. Des­per­ate and hun­gry, Mary, her hus­band William…

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Theresa Snell WALKER

Born 19 February 1807, Died 17 April 1876

Also known as: née Chauncy

First Aus­tralian woman sculptor.

Catherine Elise BLANCHETT

Born 14 May 1969

Also known as: Cate

Actress, won 2004 Oscar.
2017 — Com­pan­ion of Hon­our (AC) in the Gen­er­al Divi­sion of the Order of Aus­tralia, for emi­nent ser­vice to the per­form­ing arts as an inter­na­tion­al stage and…

Allana ARNOT

Born 1967

Also known as: Allana Corbin

In 1997 Allana Arnot became the first woman to cir­cum­nav­i­gate Aus­tralia solo in a heli­copter. She accom­plished this after teach­ing her­self how to walk and fly again fol­low­ing a plane…

Waveney Constance COXON

Also known as: née Saunders, Constance Waveney Coxon

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Held office at var­i­ous times. Hus­band direc­tor of mines.

Maria DUN

Born 1798, Died 27 June 1878

Also known as: née Burdett

Pio­neer of the Hunter region of New South Wales.

Rosetta Jane BIRKS

Born 12 March 1856, Died 3 October 1911

Also known as: née Thomas, Rose

Chris­t­ian wom­en’s leader active in many areas includ­ing wel­fare of girls and suffrage.

Presided over sev­er­al Bap­tist wom­en’s asso­ci­a­tions, includ­ing a moth­er’s union,…

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Tracey MOFFATT

Born 12/11/1960

1990s — First suc­cess­ful Indige­nous Aus­tralian woman pho­tog­ra­ph­er and film mak­er. Mof­fatt is a con­tem­po­rary artist using a vari­ety of tech­niques, such as col­lage, set design, and…