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Marie Henriette Dorothea KEMPE

Died 1891

Also known as: nee Queckenstedt, Dorothee

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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Del HAYMAN

1956 — Appoint­ed first Aus­tralian Girl Guide Inter­na­tion­al Commissioner.
1960 — Award­ed Mem­ber of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for ser­vices to Guiding.


Pio­neer of…

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…

Cora Kate CHALMERS

Born 18 February 1885, Died 13 August 1958

Also known as: née Coventry

Pio­neer of Cen­tral Aus­tralia, Mac­Don­ald Downs, sheep and cat­tle station.

Helen BROWNLEE

Helen Brown­lee was the first Aus­tralian woman to gain inter­na­tion­al sta­tus in canoe­ing when select­ed to judge slalom at the Munich Olympics (1972). She was first woman Pres­i­dent of…

Lucinda Mary TURNBULL

Born 30 March 1958

Also known as: née Hughes, Lucy

2003 — Became first woman Lord May­or of Sydney.

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Rebecca MILLS

Died 23/08/1927

First woman on a Board of Direc­tors (although NPWHF researchers have been unable to dis­cov­er details). In 1926, Rebec­ca was award­ed an Offi­cer of the Order of the British Empire, for…

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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…

Suzi HUTCHINGS

Born 25 March 1962

Also known as: Dr Susan Jane Hutchings, Dr Suzi Hutchings

1995 — Pio­neer Arrente woman with PhD from Ade­laide University.Co-ordinates and teach­es in Indige­nous Policy.

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Barbara Rosemary HARDY

Born 31 March 1927

Also known as: née Begg

1981 – 82 — First female board mem­ber of South Aus­tralian Board of Advice, AMP Society.
26 Jan­u­ary 1987 — Appoint­ed Offi­cer of the Order of Aus­tralia, for ser­vice to con­ser­va­tion and the…

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Susannah Matilda WARD

Died 4/06/1862

Also known as: née Baldwin

1820 — Pio­neer of ear­ly New South Wales.

Louisa Ann MEREDITH

Born 20/07/1812, Died 21/10/1895

Also known as: née Twamley

1880 — First women in Aus­tralia to design a postage stamp. She sketched the platy­pus on a Tas­man­ian Duty Stamp. Two years lat­er these stamps were autho­rised for postal use.…

Sheila HEWITT

Born 28 October 1921, Died 14 April 2011

Also known as: née South

1980, Queens Birth­day Hon­ours — Award­ed Order of Aus­tralia medal, com­mu­ni­ty service.

Arrived in Alice Springs, 1950.Written on the back of the draw­ing: For­mer devot­ed member.

Martha WEBSTER

Born 1839, Died 11 August 1915

Also known as: née Turner

1872 — First woman to become a Min­is­ter of a Protes­tant Church in Australia.

The ​‘Wom­en’s Vot­er’ wrote for her Obit­u­ary: In rela­tion to wom­en’s movement…

Helen WILLIAMS

Born 1945

First woman to head a Com­mon­wealth gov­ern­ment depart­ment when she was appoint­ed Sec­re­tary of the Dep­tart­ment of Edu­ca­tion in 1985.

1979: Ear­ly in her pub­lic ser­vice career,…

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Alma Jean POOLE

Born 1920

Also known as: née Kuhn, Jean

Margaret Rose PRESTON

Born 29/04/1875, Died 28/05/1963

Also known as: née McPherson, Rose McPherson

1920s — First white artist to be deeply influ­enced by Abo­rig­i­nal art.
A Mod­ernist artist, with her main work oil on can­vas and her bold flower paintings. 

Miles FRANKLIN

Born 14/10/1879, Died 19/09/1954

Also known as: née Franklin, Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin, Brent of Bin Bin, Mr and Mrs Ogniblat L'Artsau

Wrote under the name of Miles FRANKLIN; author of ​“My Bril­liant Career” (1901).
1948 — Estab­lished Miles Franklin Award for Aus­tralian Lit­er­a­ture, which she pro­vid­ed for in…

Joan MacCORMAC

Also known as: née Waterton

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

Kareena BALLARD

From 1996 – 1998, Kareena Bal­lard was the first female pres­i­dent of both the Real Estate Insti­tute of WA and the Real Estate Insti­tute of Aus­tralia. She was award­ed the REI­WA Kevin…

Catherine Helen SPENCE

Born 31/10/1825, Died 3/4/1910

The first female mem­ber of a pub­lic board when appoint­ed to the East Ade­laide School Board of Advice in 1877, she was also the first woman in Aus­tralia to par­tic­i­pate in an official…

Jennifer DAETZ

Also known as: Jenny

1997 — First female to com­mand a com­mis­sion­er R.A.N. Ves­sel ​‘HMAS Shepperton’.

She joined the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy in 1986, and has attained the rank of Captain.…

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Lily Isabel Maude ADDISON

Born 1887, Died 1968

1906 — First woman to do tech­ni­cal work in archi­tec­tur­al office in Queens­land. Lily assist­ed in her father’s office from about 1906. In 1914 she passed Build­ing Con­struc­tion and…

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Ann SVENNSON-McCOY

First female Tor­res Strait Islander to receive a BSc in Vet­eri­nary Biology.

Margaret Sterling BAIN

Born 1923, Died 14/03/2018

Pio­neer Mis­sion­ary who was insight­ful and suc­cess­ful in cross cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment in Finke/​Aputula. She was great­ly respect­ed and trust­ed by the…

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…

Caroline Poolmann SLEE

Born 2 June 1861, Died 15 November 1916

Also known as: née Rebbeck, Nurse Slee

Pio­neer nurse and mid­wife at Bro­ken Hill, New South Wales.

Mary Anna McMANUS

Born 7/2/1844, Died 22/7/1933

Also known as: née Spencer

First white child to live where Saint George is now sit­u­at­ed. With her moth­er, they were the first white women to reside in Mara­noa Dis­trict, Roma Queensland.

Wrote Rem­i­nis­cences of…

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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…

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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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Michelle MILLER

2002 — LCDR (at the time) Michelle Miller was appoint­ed the Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of the patrol craft HMAS Dubbo.

Mid-2007 — Com­man­der Michele Miller assumed com­mand of the ANZAC class…

Emma MILLER

Born 26 June 1839, Died 22/01/1917

Also known as: née Holmes, Grand Old Woman of Queensland Labour, Mother of the Australian Labor Party, Mother Miller

1890 — Found­ed a women’s union, advo­cat­ing equal pay and votes for women.
The first woman and life mem­ber of the Bris­bane Work­ers’ Polit­i­cal Organisation.
1894 – 1905 — Foundation…

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).

Freida Ruth HEIGHWAY

Born 2 June 1907, Died 30 December 1963

Also known as: née Heighway, Dr Ruth Heighway, Freda Abbie

First Aus­tralian woman mem­ber of the Roy­al Col­lege of Obste­tri­cians and Gynae­col­o­gists in Lon­don, she was admit­ted by exam­i­na­tion in 1934, lat­er becom­ing the first woman to graduate…

Edith Ellen DEMPSTER

Born 31 January 1884, Died 28 May 1967

Also known as: née McLellan, E. E.

Pio­neer on cat­tle sta­tions in South Aus­tralia and North­ern Territory.Top End pio­neers and South Aus­tralian pioneers.Pioneer pas­toral­ist on Vic­to­ria Riv­er Downs.

Helen LYNCH

Born 1879

Also known as: Nell

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Maria Antonia CICCONE

Born 1891, Died 1979

Also known as: née Cotela, Antonia

Maria Anto­nia Cic­cone arrived from Ser­ra­ta, South­ern Italy in 1933 and came straight to Alice Springs to join her hus­band Pat­sy. He had been here sev­en years already, try­ing to get…

Jill KER CONWAY

Born 9 October 1934, Died 06 June 2018

Also known as: Jill Ker Conway

1975 — First female Pres­i­dent of Smith Col­lege (Unit­ed States of America).


1975 — named as one of Time Mag­a­zine’s Women of the Year. As a writer, par­tic­u­lar­ly known…

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Cynthia Mary TEAGUE

Born 22 May 1907, Died 08 March 2007

1965 — First woman to reach Sec­ond Divi­sion lev­el in Fed­er­al Pub­lic Service 
(Assis­tant Direc­tor-Gen­er­al of Fed­er­al Depart­ment of Works).

1930 — Won Grice Bronze Medal for…

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Aileen Carmel KILGARIFF

Born 26 October 1926

Also known as: née Canny

Aileen and hus­band Bern Kil­gar­iff owned the poul­try farm Stu­art­vale Farm in Alice Springs. Aileen was a trained chick sex­er, where she worked dis­tin­guish­ing the sex of chick­en and…

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Sarah CALLAGHAN

Human rights activist. Law and art grad­u­ate, Uni­ver­si­ty South Australia.

Stella Annette JOHNSON

Born 14/2/1925

Also known as: nee Dunn

Despite her hand­i­cap, she was a com­mu­ni­ty work­er and taught hand­i­craft on the Eyre Penin­su­la, South Australia.

Com­mu­ni­ty work­er — Eyre Penin­su­la, South Australia

Hilarie LINDSAY

Born 1922

Also known as: née Dyson

1966 & 1967 — Won The Gren­fell Prose award.
1975 — Award­ed the Mem­ber of the Order of the British Empire, for ser­vices to literature.
1977 — Queen’s Jubilee Medal.
1988 -…

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Lucy OSBURN

Born 1 April 1836, Died 22 December 1891

She trained at the Nightin­gale Train­ing School, St Thomas’ Hos­pi­tal. One month into her train­ing she was select­ed to lead a team of nurs­es to estab­lish the Nightin­gale nursing…

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Eileen McRAE

Born 13/07/1932

Also known as: née Bird

Grand­daugh­ter of Fred and Iso­belle PRICE. (Fred PRICE was Tele­graph Mas­ter at Old Tele­graph Sta­tion, Alice Springs, 1916 – 24.)Daughter of Pearl POWELL.Author of By Pack­horse and Buggie…

Agnes Mildred AVERY

Born 14 November 1880, Died 27 August 1944

Also known as: née Dunstan

Only Ade­laide woman Chair­man of Direc­tors of Dun­stan Ltd, Stonyfell Quarries.Only woman mem­ber in Aus­tralia of the British Insti­tute of Psychoanalysis.

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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…

Amy Gwendoline STARK

Born 3/04/1910, Died 28/11/1994

Also known as: née Stark, Gwen, Starkie, Gwen Caldwell

1941 — First ser­vice woman recruit­ed by WAAAF in New South Wales. On 40^th Anniver­sary of Anzac Day, she was the first woman hon­oured to give the Dawn Ser­vice Address in Sydney.
1968 -…

​Edith May LAVER

Also known as: née Parker

Edith May Park­er mar­ried Jack Laver after World War I. They lat­er took up the Stu­art Arms Hotel licence, and with their son Robert (Bob), trav­elled on the train from South Australia…

Enid HARLAND

Also known as: née Batchelor

Enid Har­land has been a tire­less work­er for over twen­ty years, work­ing with fam­i­lies of pris­on­ers in Alice Springs and help­ing pris­on­ers stay con­nect­ed to their fam­i­lies. She…