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Adrienne WILLING

Born 1972

First Cen­tralian woman to enter Ms Fit­ness cat­e­go­ry of Inter­na­tion­al Body Build­ing Asso­ci­a­tion Vic­to­ri­an titles in Mel­bourne (2002).

Elizabeth Nesta MARKS

Born 28 April 1918, Died 25 October 2002

Also known as: Pat, Patricia

An Aus­tralian ento­mol­o­gist who described 38 new mos­qui­to species, as well as new species of fruit flies, bugs, cock­roach­es, and ticks.

1938 — Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Zoology,…

Grace Clara STONE

Born 12 January 1860, Died 10 May 1957

Also known as: Clara, Grace

One of the first two women to grad­u­ate in Med­i­cine from Mel­bourne Uni­ver­si­ty — Mar­garet WHYTE was the other.
She was named the first pres­i­dent of the Vic­to­ri­an Med­ical Women’s…

Ellen Mary KENT HUGHES

Born 29 August 1893, Died 16 May 1979

Also known as: Ellen Wilson

1923 — Dr Ellen Kent Hugh­es became the first woman coun­cil­lor in Queens­land (Kingaroy Shire).
1937 – 1968 — Served on the Armi­dale City Council.
1963 – 1964 — Served as deputy-mayor.

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Gloria SHIPP

1996 — Aus­trali­a’s first Indige­nous woman Angli­can priest, Glo­ria Shipp served St Lukes Koori Com­mu­ni­ty Church in Dub­bo, New South Wales.

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Uanita GREGORY

Born 03 March 1911, Died 1990

Also known as: née Gregory

The elec­toral roll for 1940 indi­cates tha less than 5% of the female pop­u­la­tion were in paid employ­ment. The most pop­u­lar work was domes­tic ser­vice in posi­tions such as housemaid,…

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Jodi BREEN

Also known as: Lt. Col. Jodi Breen

First woman on Roy­al Guard duty out­side St James Palace, Lon­don (part of Aus­tralian Fed­er­a­tion Guard).

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Valerie FANN

1970s — First female bank teller, Com­mon­wealth Bank, Alice Springs.

Maria BORDONI

Maria Bor­doni was the first woman gov­er­nor of a max­i­mum secu­ri­ty men’s prison in Aus­tralia (appoint­ed Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of Yata­la Labour Prison, South Aus­tralia, 1996).

Pri­or to…

Ellen O'DONNELL

Born 16/12/1896, Died 8/3/1963

Also known as: Eileen

After 10 years of gov­ern­ment lob­by­ing, she and Zara Dare were appoint­ed as Queens­land’s first two police­women, in March 1931. How­ev­er, they did not share the same pow­ers and…

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Minna Marie Margaretha ALBRECHT

Born 11/12/1899, Died 18/11/1983

Also known as: née Gevers

Min­na Gev­ers sailed to Cana­da from Ger­many to mar­ry Friedrich Albrecht, who was there learn­ing Eng­lish for his new job as Super­in­ten­dent at Her­manns­burg Mis­sion. Min­na and Friedrich…

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Sandra Irene GESELL

Born 6 November 1946

First female staff offi­cer, com­mis­sioned rank — Vic­to­ria Police Force.

First female detec­tive inspec­tor — Vic­to­ria Police Force.

First female direct­ing staff, Police College,…

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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…

Heather Mary SCOTT

Born 9 November 1939

Also known as: Jill

A pio­neer of con­tem­po­rary tourism in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry from 1969 until 1992.
Jill began her pro­fes­sion­al life as a reg­is­tered nurse. Her expe­ri­ence includ­ed trav­el­ling to England…

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.

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Allison CONYER

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

Margaret TART

Born 28 August 1865, Died 27 July 1916

Also known as: née Scarlett

1888 — First Euro­pean woman to trav­el up the Sun-Ning Riv­er from Can­ton, Chi­na (vis­it­ing hus­band’s moth­er). Mar­garet was an Aus­tralian school teacher mar­ried to a Chi­nese tea…

Lauren Elizabeth JACKSON

Born 11/5/1981

Also known as: Jacko, LJ, Loz

Regard­ed as Aus­trali­a’s great­est ever female bas­ket­ball play­er. Led the team to four Olympic sil­ver medals. Cho­sen to car­ry the Aus­tralian flag in the 2012 Olympics.…

Clara Victoria Elizabeth ANDERSON

Born 21 February 1872, Died 6 April 1975

Also known as: née Campbell, Vic Campbell

Pio­neer of Theodore, Queens­land. As a child, Clara lived with her fam­i­ly at sev­er­al dif­fer­ent sta­tions before set­tling at their prop­er­ty, ​“Clar­avale”, in Queens­land. In her…

Amboora

Amboo­ra worked for the Brad­shaw fam­i­ly at the Alice Springs Tele­graph Sta­tion as a housemaid.

Alline Dawn LAWRIE

Born 3 November 1938

Also known as: Dawn

2003 — A recip­i­ent of the Trib­ute to North­ern Territory.

North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Inde­pen­dent for Night­cliff for 12 years focussing on human rights.

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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…

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Norma Jean FINDLEY

Born 19 September 1921, Died 2 January 2001

1950s — First woman in the Tech­ni­cal’s Schools Divi­sion to win a Ful­bright Scholarship.

1978 — Hon­oured with a Life Gov­er­nor­ship of Mel­bourne’s Alfred Hospital.Home…

Shelley HARKIN

Born 1967

2004 — First Reg­is­tered Nurse trained in Alice Springs, North­ern Territory.

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Jean Dorothy GARDINER

Also known as: Dorothy

“The 14^th woman in Aus­tralia to hold a pri­vate license and pos­si­bly only the sec­ond to own her own plane.”

1929 — With Bob­bie TER­RY was first women in New South Wales/​Australia to…

Hephzibah MENUHIN

Born 20/05/1920, Died 1/01/1981

She made her pub­lic debut at age 8 in San Fran­cis­co. She was her broth­er Yehudi’s accom­pa­nist as her par­ents reject­ed a career in music for her.
1933 — Their record­ing of Mozart’s…

Ellen Dymphna CUSACK

Born 21 September 1902, Died 19 October 1981

Also known as: née Cusack, Nell

Wrote 11 books. Author of Pio­neers of Par­adise (1939) with Miles Franklin and Come In Spin­ner (1951) with Flo­rence James.
1920 — Won an exhi­bi­tion and Teach­ers’ Col­lege scholarship,…

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Joan HIGGINS

Died 2008

Also known as: née Scott

First Gym­nas­tics teacher at Chil­dren’s Social Club (lat­er known as Youth Cen­tre), Alice Springs.

Joan Scott was sta­tioned in Alice Springs dur­ing World War II where she…

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Eileen Marjory [Marjorie] FITZER

Born 30 March 1902, Died 27 August 2001

Also known as: née Styles, Eily

Pio­neer triple-cer­tifi­cat­ed nurs­ing sister. 
1930s — First, and only, nurs­ing sis­ter at the min­ing rush­es to Ten­nant Creek (North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry) and Wau­chope (New South Wales).
1980 -…

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Robin SMITH

Pos­si­bly youngest female solo glid­er pilot (aged 16) in Aus­tralia (Alice Springs Glid­ing Club, North­ern Territory).

Verna ABBERTON

Writ­ten on the back of the draw­ing: Devot­ed mem­ber, very good fundraiser.

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José PETRICK

Born 14 February 1924

Also known as: née Tizard

Win­ner of the Chief Min­is­ter’s Wom­en’s Achieve­ment Award and the Alice Springs branch of Zon­ta International.
Woman of Achieve­ment Award.
Jan­u­ary 2000 — Award­ed an Order of…

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Frances Margaret McGUIRE

Born 1900, Died 1995

Also known as: née Cheadle

1922 — First Bio­chemist, out­side Cana­da, to pro­duce insulin (Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide). Dec­o­rat­ed for pub­lic ser­vice by the Aus­tralian and Ital­ian governments.
1995 — Award­ed Order of…

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Phyllis Glory McDONAGH

Born 7/1/1900, Died 17/10/1978

Also known as: Phyllis Glory O'Brien (married name)

1933 — One of the McDon­agh Sis­ters — first all female run film com­pa­ny in Australia.
2001 — Vic­to­ri­an Hon­our Roll of Women.

Using their home, the McDon­agh sis­ters wrote,…

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Elizabeth MacFARRELL

1846 — First woman news­pa­per edi­tor in Aus­tralia, Perth Gazette.

Phyllis Jean BENJAMIN

Born 30 August 1907, Died 9 April 1996

Also known as: née Allsopp, Hon. Phyllis Benjamin

1968 – 1969 — First woman Leader of the Gov­ern­ment in Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil (Upper House), Tas­ma­nia. She was the first woman to hold the posi­tion in any Aus­tralian leg­isla­tive council.…

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Mary MURPHY

A hand­ful of Euro­pean women accom­pa­nied their hus­bands to the mines. Mary Mur­phy, Bet­ty O’Neil and F Suther­land signed a peti­tion to get a polling booth there.

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Mary Isabel DIXON

Also known as: née Price, Molly

After her hus­band Fred’s sud­den death in 1924, Iso­bel Price decid­ed to return to their prop­er­ty Harpers Springs Sta­tion, north-east of Stu­art (Alice Springs) to work the station…

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Hilary Joy WEBB

Also known as: Joy

Stel­la was an Allow­era (Allyawarr) woman, Jane Web­b’s trust­ed Allyawarr Abo­rig­i­nal friend, who lived at Mount Rid­dock Sta­tion with the Webb fam­i­ly for eigh­teen years.She helped…

Robyn ARCHER

Born 18/6/1948

Also known as: Robyn Smith

In 1998 and 2000, Robyn Archer became the first woman in Aus­tralia to direct a major State Fes­ti­val of the Arts. Robyn is the for­mer Artis­tic Direc­tor of the Nation­al Fes­ti­val of…

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Evelyn Mary PERKINS

Born 1889, Died 06/1968

Also known as: née Bray

The inau­gur­al meet­ing of the Alice Springs Branch of the CWA was held at the Res­i­den­cy in 1933. This branch was formed by Mrs J A Perkins, imme­di­ate past pres­i­dent of the Metropolitan…

Agnes Jean POLLOCK

Born 13/07/1909, Died 13/02/1996

Also known as: Jean

1952 — Found­ing Prin­ci­pal of ​‘Larnook ​‘Teacher Train­ing College.

Pio­neered edu­ca­tion for women.Trained in Domes­tic Arts (lat­er known as Home Economics).

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Sophie SERESE

“At 24 Sophie Serese, a Banyule local, lives and breathes music. Sophie has com­plet­ed twelve full scale operas, found­ed the Aus­tralian Youth Opera, and even stud­ied Musical…

Eliza FORLONGE

Born 21 October 1784, Died 5 August 1859

Also known as: née Jack, Betty Jack, Eliza Forlong

Pio­neered Sax­on Meri­no Wool into Aus­tralia — first­ly into Tas­ma­nia and final­ly into Victoria.

Deborah CHEETHAM

Born 24 November 1964

Aus­trali­a’s first female Indige­nous opera singer; in 2007, wrote ​“Pecan Sum­mer,” Aus­trali­a’s first Indige­nous opera, then trained the nec­es­sary Indige­nous singers;…

Joan Elizabeth KIRNER

Born 1938, Died 2015

Also known as: née Hood

Joan Kirn­er became the first female head of gov­ern­ment in Vic­to­ria when she was elect­ed by the Labor Par­ty to suc­ceed Pre­mier John Cain Junior fol­low­ing his res­ig­na­tion in 1990. She…

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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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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.

Charlotte Morrison ANDERSON

Born 12/3/1915, Died 15/4/2002

Char­lotte Ander­son was an Aus­tralian pio­neer of pae­di­atric gas­troen­terol­o­gy. She devel­oped a clin­i­cal research pro­gram at the Roy­al Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal in Mel­bourne, where she…

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…