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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.
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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. -
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. -
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…
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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 22nd 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…
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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,… -
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…
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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… -
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.
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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… -
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.
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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…
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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,…
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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.
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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… -
Margaret SCOTT
Also known as: Dame Margaret Scott
1963 — Founder of the Australian Ballet School(D.B.E.)
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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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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 -… -
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…
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Suzanne CAVANAGH
First woman President of Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the Northern Territory (1994−2001)
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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.
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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…
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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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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…