HerStory Archive

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Suzanne Dale BAKER

Born 1 January 1939

1977 — First Aus­tralian woman to win an Acad­e­my Award (Pro­duc­er) for Best Ani­mat­ed Short Film, Leisure.

Irene CRESPIN

Born 12 November 1896, Died 2 January 1980

Irene Crespin reached the high­est lev­el of her pro­fes­sion as Com­mon­wealth Palaeon­tol­o­gist with the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or in 1936, how­ev­er, her salary was fixed at about half that…

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Catherine Amelia WELLS

Born 17/9/1868

Also known as: née Long, Kate

Kate was the first white woman to live at Alice Springs.
Drove the mail and pas­sen­ger coach from Alice Springs to Ood­na­dat­ta when her hus­band was too drunk to drive.

Sara Jane HENDERSON

Born 15 September 1936, Died 29 April 2005

Also known as: née Barton

1991 – Aus­tralian Busi­ness Woman of the Year award.

North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry pastoralist.Author.

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Fidelia Savage Thornton HILL

Born 14 August 1794, Died 1854

Also known as: née Munkhouse, Fidelia S. T. Hill

First woman to have a book of poet­ry pub­lished in Aus­tralia (1840 ​‘Poems and Rec­ol­lec­tions of the Past’).

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Cora Anna WEEKES

1858 — First woman mag­a­zine edi­tor in Aus­tralia (orig­i­nal­ly from Cal­i­for­nia). Appoint­ed to edit Syd­ney’s Spectator.

Edit­ed the first num­ber of The Athenaeum. First…

Fiona Melanie WOOD

Born 2/02/1958

Also known as: née Wood

1992 — Estab­lished Perth, West­ern Aus­tralia, first human skin tis­sue cul­ture laboratory.
In 2003, she was award­ed The Order of Aus­tralia Mem­ber of the Order (AM) and the Australian…

Layne BEACHLEY

Born 24/5/1972

Also known as: Tania Maris Gardner

Layne Beach­ley is regard­ed as the best female pro­fes­sion­al surfer in his­to­ry. She was the first woman to win sev­en World Surf­ing Titles (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006), six of…

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Kylie BELL

2005 — First Alice Springs female to be a Nation­al Net­ball League Umpire.
2006 — Young Cen­tralian of the Year.

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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…

Susan Barbara ZOG

Born 28/1/1941, Died 17/7/2004

Also known as: née Cullen-Ward, Roo, Queen Susan, Crown Princess Susan of Albania

First Aus­tralian woman to be queen of a coun­try (Alba­nia) — H.M. The Queen (in exile)

Through her moth­er, she is 22^nd in line of descent from King Edward I of Eng­land and is…

Kate LYNCH

Born 1882

First all girl tim­ber cut­ting team in Queensland.

In 1900 the Lynch fam­i­ly faced ruin when their cat­tle were wiped out by fever. Cor­nelius then taught his daugh­ters the art…

Elaine CANTY

Elaine Canty is the first woman sports broad­cast­er on ABC Radio and Tele­vi­sion in Vic­to­ria. She was the only woman in the ABC team cov­er­ing the 1988 Olympics and, in 1992, was the…

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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Barbara JAMES

Born 8 November 1943, Died 2003

Also known as: née Johnson

His­to­ri­an of the North­ern Territory.
1999- Chief Min­is­ter’s Wom­en’s Achieve­ment Award for her con­tri­bu­tion to the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry as a jour­nal­ist, his­to­ri­an, author,…

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…

Jean Margaret LEWORTHY

Born 22/7/1921, Died 15/4/2008

Also known as: née Fairbairn, Jean Piaggio

First civil­ian doc­tor to use Peni­cillin in Australia.
1954 — She was the first woman in full-time prac­tice; Bund­aberg, Queensland.
1995 — Order of Aus­tralia, ser­vices to med­i­cine and…

Dorothy Muriel CRAWFORD

Born 21 March 1911, Died 2 September 1988

Also known as: née Crawford, D. C.

March 1942 – 1944 — Became one of the Aus­tralian Broad­cast­ing Commission’s first three female announc­ers in Victoria.

1944 — Joined, with her broth­er Hec­tor, the…

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Catherine MacLEAN

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…

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Alice TAY

1998 — First woman to be appoint­ed Pres­i­dent of the Human Rights and Equal Oppor­tu­ni­ty Commission
(Prof.) (AM)

Marie Louise Hamilton MACK

Born 10/10/1870, Died 23/11/1935

Also known as: née Mack, registered as Mary Louisa, Louise Creed, Gouli Gouli, Louise Leyland, Mary Mack

1914 — First woman war cor­re­spon­dent, Bel­gium, report­ing for the Evening News and the Dai­ly Mail.

Late 1880s — Con­trib­u­tor to The Bul­letin, an Aus­tralian mag­a­zine, Sydney.1896…

Cecilia Noel PADGHAM-PURICH

Born 25/12/1927

Also known as: Noel, Noel Padgham

One of first female politi­cians in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry (CLP), serv­ing from 1977 – 1997. She is ranked as the fifth longest serv­ing woman, 20 years and 4 months.

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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Patsy LEE

Born 1925, Died 20/6/2017

“Grand Old Dame of Fish­ing” in Glad­stone, Queens­land and pos­si­bly Aus­trali­a’s old­est and most expe­ri­enced fish­er­woman. Won Queens­land titles.

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…

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…

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Peggy GLANVILLE-HICKS

Born 1912, Died 1990

1938 First Aus­tralian com­pos­er rep­re­sent­ed at an Inter­na­tion­al Soci­ety for Con­tem­po­rary Music Fes­ti­val in London

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Stella Fida GREIG

Born 3 December 1889, Died 4 December 1913

Also known as: Fida

8 April 1911 — Grad­u­at­ed in Law, Uni­ver­si­ty of Mel­bourne, Bach­e­lor of Laws (LL.B.).4 Decem­ber 1913 — Died of Tuberculosis.Sister of Clara Puel­la GREIG, Gra­ta Flos Matil­da ​“Flos” GREIG,…

Mary Gordon SARD

Born 8/7/1868, Died 29/3/1946

Also known as: née Kennedy

First reg­is­tered Mid­wife in Port Pirie, South Australia.

Moth­er of ten chil­dren (five sons and five daughter).
Mary’s hus­band William was a mar­itime engi­neer, work­ing on…

Helen Australia GREGORY

Born 10 December 1863, Died 22 October 1950

Also known as: née Gregory, Nellie, Helen Australia Donnan

8 March 1886 — Bendi­go, Vic­to­ria — The first offi­cial organ­ised women’s crick­et match was cap­tained by sis­ters Lily and Nel­lie GRE­GO­RY at a match in Syd­ney, which includ­ed player…

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Laura THOMAS

Born 1967

Also known as: née Perucich

2001 — First woman in Aus­tralia to be ​‘Chief Whip Crack­er’ on a major car launch — Hold­en Monaro’s $60m project.

Dorothy HILL

Born 10 September 1907, Died 23 April 1997

1959 — First woman appoint­ed to the Chair in any Aus­tralian uni­ver­si­ty (Chair of Geology).
1956 — First woman elect­ed as Fel­low of the Aus­tralian Acad­e­my of Science.
1956 — Woman…

Jennifer Catherine LEARMONT

Head of Look­back Sec­tion, Red Cross, who dis­cov­ered the rea­son some suf­fer­ers of non-vir­u­lent strain of AIDS virus did not devel­op into full blown AIDS.


1996 — She was appointed…

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Margaret SCOTT

Also known as: Dame Margaret Scott

1963 — Founder of the Aus­tralian Bal­let School(D.B.E.)

Ida Lois BIRCHALL

Born 6 September 1906, Died 20 April 1994

After grad­u­at­ing from Syd­ney’s med­ical school in 1933 and becom­ing one of Tas­ma­ni­a’s first female doc­tors, she went on to become one of the first Aus­tralian women and the…

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Lynn ALLEN

Lynn worked for twelve years as the State Librar­i­an and CEO of the West­ern Aus­tralian state library (from 1989 – 2001). Over a peri­od of 107 years, Pro­fes­sor Allen was only the fourth…

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Elizabeth MacRAE

Pio­neer woman farmer/​drover in West­ern Aus­tralia and South Australia.

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Marion Mary SPECHT

Ecol­o­gist

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Shelley TAYLOR-SMITH

Born 03/08/1961

1990 — The first West Aus­tralian to cross the Eng­lish Chan­nel solo.

1991 — Won gold medal in open dis­tance 25km event at the FINA World Aquat­ics Cham­pi­onships, Perth, WA.

1994 -…

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Zali STEGGALL

Born 1974

1997 — First Aus­tralian to win a World Cup Slalom Alpine event.
1999 — First Alpine World Cham­pi­on in the South­ern Hemi­sphere to win Gold in Wom­en’s Slalom event at World Skiing…

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…

Suzanne CAVANAGH

First woman Pres­i­dent of Coun­try Lib­er­al Par­ty (CLP) in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry (1994−2001)

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.

Dorothy Annie NECK

Born 1898

Also known as: née Meyers, Anne

Daugh­ter of Char­lie and Annie née Williams Meyers.Dorothy attend­ed Muir­d­en Col­lege, Ade­laide, South Aus­tralia. ​“Lat­er she joined the staff of Charles Moore, then the biggest…

Gwenifer Catherine May WILSON

Born October 1916, Died 31 October 1998

Also known as: Gwen

1946 — First woman to gain post grad­u­ate Aus­tralian Diplo­ma of Anaes­the­sia, Uni­ver­si­ty of Sydney.

His­to­ri­an to the Aus­tralian and New Zealand Col­lege of Anaesthetists.

Margaret BLACKWOOD

Born 26 April 1909, Died 1 June 1986

Also known as: Dame Margaret Blackwood

First woman Deputy Can­cel­lor at Mel­bourne Uni­ver­si­ty. First woman appoint­ed Hon­orary Life Mem­ber by the Asso­ci­a­tion of Women on Cam­pus Mel­bourne Uni­ver­si­ty. OBE 1981. First constructor…

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Faye BARTLETT

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…

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Fay LEDITSCHKE

Ann MARSHALL

Born 27/12/1909, Died 7/3/2001

Also known as: née Nichols

1940 – 50 — Instru­men­tal in estab­lish­ing Geog­ra­phy Depart­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Adelaide.
1940 — Part-time lec­tur­er in Geog­ra­phy Department.
1951 — Full-time appointment.
1958 — The…