Jennifer Ann GRAVES

Born 24 November 1941

Also known as: née Marshall, Jenny

Inter­na­tion­al rep­u­ta­tion for her work on mam­malian genet­ics, com­par­a­tive genomics, as well as Aus­tralian mar­su­pi­als & monotremes.
2007 – Became first woman ​“Thinker of the Year”.…

Nellie Elizabeth ROBINSON

Born 1915, Died 19 September 1992

1967 — Nel­lie was Queens­land’s first female may­or, in Toowoom­ba, serv­ing for 14 years.
1979 — Award­ed Offi­cer of the Order of the British Empire, for dis­tin­guished ser­vice to…

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Vicki TAYLOR

2009 — Tel­stra North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Busi­ness Woman of the Year.

Gen­er­al Man­ag­er — Alice Springs Hos­pi­tal (2004- ).

Annie May MOORE

Born 4/01/1881, Died 10/06/1931

Also known as: née Moore, May Moore

May Moore, and her sis­ter Mina Moore, were pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­phers. They began in Welling­ton, New Zealand, mov­ing to Syd­ney and Mel­bourne. May’s spe­cial­i­ty includ­ed famous…

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Belinda KAY

Born 1881, Died 1903

1895 — After her pio­neer sheep sta­tion par­ents, a broth­er and sis­ter were trag­i­cal­ly drowned in a boat­ing acci­dent, Belin­da (aged 13 ¹⁄₂ years) looked after her remain­ing three sisters…

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Fiona COOTE

Born 3 January 1970

8 April 1984 — Aus­trali­a’s youngest heart trans­plant recipient.

Jessie Mary COOPER

Born 29 June 1914, Died 28 December 1993

Also known as: née McAndrew

Elect­ed to South Aus­trali­a’s Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil in 1959, she was the first female mem­ber of the South Aus­tralia par­lia­ment, beat­ing Joyce Steele, who had been elect­ed to the…

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Wendy Lloyd HARE

1963 — First women to hold Senior Com­mer­cial Licence and youngest per­son to become an A Grade Flight Instructor.

1979 — By this year she was fling jet air­craft for Stillwell…

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Eliza JENKINS

Also known as: née Sharp

… Eliza and Thomas Jenk­ins, worked on Lake Nash Sta­tion in the ear­ly 1890s.Mother of Esther Jenk­ins BOHNING.

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Thelma Dawn OWEN

Also known as: Dawn

Pro­pri­etor of Pol­ka Dot Fab­ric Shop in Alice Springs for 33 years. She opened the shop, with Edna Maskell, 20 Feb­ru­ary 1964.

Ann Jane HAYES

Born 25 June 1893

Also known as: née Doolan, Jane, Jan

Pas­toral­ist, Undoolya Sta­tion. Pio­neer of Cen­tral Australia.
Daugh­ter and step-daugh­ter of Lizzie and Sam NICK­ER. Wife of Ted HAYES, Senior (Pas­toral­ist — Undoolya Station).…

Cathy SALVAIR

Born 17/10/1963

Cathy has flown tour groups around Aus­tralia. She has endorse­ments in aer­o­bat­ics, for­ma­tion fly­ing, and float planes.
1987 — Won the Lady Casey Scholarship.

1979 — Her first…

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Stella GREEN

Aus­tralian Head­quar­ters for Girl Guides.
Also involved in World Ship Soci­ety, Navy League of Aus­tralia, and Freighter Trav­el Club of America.

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Sylvia WILSON

Born 30 December 1918, Died 6 February 2012

Also known as: née Roach

1942 — Lieutenant/​Nurse Sylvia Roach was sta­tioned at Alice Springs, North­ern Territory.

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Rebecca WOOD

Also known as: Becky

First female in North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry to train as a Tel­stra com­mu­ni­ca­tions technician.

Nene Claire KING

Born 3/1943

Nene King was the first woman to sit on the board of Ker­ry Pack­er’s pub­lish­ing and broad­cast­ing com­pa­ny which con­trols the Nine Net­work and Con­sol­i­dat­ed Press.

Nene…

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Patricia Anna LOVELL

Born 1929, Died 26/1/2013

Patri­cia Lovell is regard­ed as one of Aus­trali­a’s most suc­cess­ful film pro­duc­ers. She has also had a suc­cess­ful radio and tele­vi­sion career.

She joined the Australian…

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Joanne SCHILLING

2007 — First female Gov­er­nor in North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Rotary Club.

Joyce Eileen SHEWCROFT

Born 28/8/1912, Died 28/10/2001

Also known as: J. Shewcroft (pen name), Joyce Shoecroft (common misspelling)

First woman Cor­po­ra­tion Lawyer (for the ABC) in Australia.
First woman to com­plete the Bar­ris­ters’ Admis­sion Board Course.
Found­ing mem­ber and first Pres­i­dent of New South Wales…

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Babs MacKINNON

2004 — Received Order of Aus­tralia, for her con­tri­bu­tion to Aus­tralian Entertainment.

Part of ​“The Musi­cal Macks” (from age 2) — fam­i­ly enter­tain­ment at stage shows…

Fanny Elizabeth HUNT

Born 25 July 1863, Died June 1941

1888 — First woman sci­ence grad­u­ate from Uni­ver­si­ty of Syd­ney with a Bach­e­lor of Science.
1892 — First head­mistress of Ipswich Girls Gram­mar School; resigned in 1901.
1905 — Founded…

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Patsy SHADFORTH

North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Pio­neer of Sev­en Emu Station.

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Madeleine Ruby Irene BRUNATO-ARTHUR

Born 25 June 1919, Died 5 February 2006

1968 — Formed the South Aus­tralian Writ­ers Fellowship.
1970 — Became TAFE tutor in Cre­ative Writing.
1993 — First Writ­ing Fel­low of FAW (Fel­low­ship of Aus­tralian Writ­ers) in South…

Elizabeth Margaret ELLIS

Born 17 January 1973

Also known as: Liz, Liz Stocks

1992 until 2007 – Mem­ber of the nation­al team.1996, 1998, 2002, 2006 — Named Aus­tralian Net­bal­l’s Most Val­ued Player.2002 – Award­ed Most Val­ued Play­er, Play­ers’ Play­er of the…

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Helene Katharine Frieda BURNS

Also known as: née Albrecht

Daugh­ter of Her­manns­burg Mis­sion pio­neers Pas­tor Friedrich Wil­helm Albrecht and Min­na Marie Mar­garetha née Gevers.

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Norma Helen BAILEY

Born 25 June 1936

Also known as: Norma Helen Grant

One of the first five women to be recruit­ed into the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Police. Sworn in on 26 Feb­ru­ary 1961.

Inau­gur­al Pres­i­dent of Coun­try Wom­en’s Asso­ci­a­tion (CWA) in…

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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.…

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Fanny ROSS

Born 3 July 1859, Died 4 February 1930

Also known as: née Wallis, Fanny Blackmore Wallis, Fanny Cochrane Wallis

Fan­ny Ross was one of the first Eng­lish speak­ing white women at the heart of Aus­tralia. In 1885 she joined her hus­band Alexan­der, man­ag­er of Undoolya Sta­tion. She had her piano…

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Elizabeth Jean ANDREW

Born 1948, Died 12 April 1993

Also known as: Elizabeth Andrew-Oates

North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry’s first woman to hold an exec­u­tive and Cab­i­net posi­tion. At first, she was the Exec­u­tive Mem­ber for Edu­ca­tion and Con­sumer Ser­vices, then for Edu­ca­tion and Law…

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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…

Daisy SHEARER

Also known as: née Swan

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Excel­lent cook. Hus­band in gov­ern­ment ser­vice. Mrs Shear­er was a for­mer sis­ter at the hospital.Came to Alice Springs after war to wok as nursing…

Isola Florence THOMPSON

Born 18/11/1861, Died 7/12/1915

Also known as: Florence Isola

1885 — One of two female Arts grad­u­ates, with Mary Eliz­a­beth Brown, Syd­ney University.
1887 — She became the first woman to com­plete a Mas­ter of Arts, Syd­ney University.

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Eugenta Mabel Humphris JONES

Also known as: née McPHERSON, Mabel, formerly LAMPE

MRS JONES’ STO­RY­O­rig­i­nal­ly arriv­ing in Stu­art in 1911 as Mrs Jef­frey Lampe, Mabel and her hus­band took over the license of the Stu­art Arms which with­in a few months she was running…

Natasha Jessica STOTT DESPOJA

Born 9/09/1969

Also known as: née Stott Despoja, Nat

2001 — Sen­a­tor Aus­tralian Demo­c­rat Par­ty. Youngest woman par­lia­men­tar­i­an and youngest par­ty leader in Aus­tralian history.

Elizabethy E. ARNEY

Born 1932

Also known as: Betty

Bet­ty Arney was the first woman to become a priest in the Angli­can Church of Aus­tralia, ordained with nine oth­er women at St George’s Cathe­dral, Perth 7 March 1992.

Julie SCOLLARY

2000 — Para­medic, with Sue LUCAS, first woman crew to win the Insti­tute of Ambu­lance Offi­cers (Aus­tralia) Nation­al Clin­i­cal Excel­lence Com­pe­ti­tion. Won back-to-back.

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Marion KENNEDY

Born 1846, Died 1/9/1936

Also known as: née Murray

An ear­ly pio­neer of west­ern Queens­land. Mar­ried to pas­toral­ist Alexan­der Kennedy. 

Sir Hud­son Fysch wrote the book Tam­ing the North: the Sto­ry of Alexan­der Kennedy and other…

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Eileen Elizabeth KILGARIFF

Born 31/12/1891

Also known as: née Minahan

Mona Mina­han came to Alice Springs in 1931 to vis­it her sis­ter, Eileen Kilgariff.

Amy Katherine TAYLOR

Born 28 December 1923, Died 28 January 2018

Also known as: née Millgate

1946 — First woman in New South Wales Police to per­form traf­fic duty.
1984 — The first and only woman to be elect­ed to the Com­bined Ser­vices Sub-Branch Com­mit­tee of the Returned and…

Edith Antonia McDONALD

Also known as: née Bohning, Edie

The two Bohn­ing girls, Elsie and Edie, were famous for their sta­tion work.Esther Bohn­ing and her daugh­ters, Elsie and Edith, from Helen Springs Sta­tion north of Ten­nant Creek, were…

Barbara Catherine SHAW

Born 1952

A town camp activist. Briefed her agen­da to the Unit­ed Nations Edu­ca­tion­al, Sci­en­tif­ic and Cul­tur­al Organization.

Frances MACK

Born 1922

Also known as: née Rowe

Pio­neer of Vic­to­ria and New South Wales dur­ing The Depres­sion and war years.

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Myra FILSELL

Born 1904, Died 2001

Also known as: née Scott

First Aus­tralian Inland Mis­sion (A.I.M.) nurse at Ood­na­dat­ta, South Australia.

Ruth Frances BISHOP

Born 12 May 1933

First per­son to dis­cov­er the virus that caus­es gastroenteritis.

1996 — Received Offi­cer of the Order of Aus­tralia (AO) in Queen’s Birth­day Hon­ours in recog­ni­tion 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…

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…

Nancy MANTHORPE

Born 1929

Also known as: Nan

An avi­a­trix on the muse­um’s Avi­a­trix Tapestry.

Deborah HICKS

Also known as: née Hicks, Debbie, Deborah Jeppesen

At age 16 Deb­o­rah Hicks was the youngest female pilot in Aus­tralia to fly solo.
Flight Lieu­tenant Williams and Fly­ing Cadet Hicks were the first female pilots to grad­u­ate from the…

Dorothy Helena HERBERT

Born 24 September 1922, Died 27 August 2014

Dorothy Her­bert start­ed with the Roy­al Fly­ing Doc­tor Ser­vice in 1961, locat­ed at Charleville, Queens­land. She worked 20 years for them, flew all over the out­back, and attend­ed outback…

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Beverley SPIERS

Edu­ca­tor in jails, giv­ing Abo­rig­i­nal art and cul­ture class­es and AIDS edu­ca­tion to Abo­rig­i­nal inmates locat­ed in Cess­nock, Mait­land, Bathurst, and Sydney’s Long Bay