HerStory Archive

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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.

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…

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Kim ISAACS

First Yawu­ru and Kalapir­ri per­son to become a doctor.

Kim Isaacs is a Yawu­ru, Kalapir­ri and Noon­gar woman.
Bach­e­lor of Med­i­cine and Bach­e­lor of Surgery, Uni­ver­si­ty of Western…

Ruby Florence HUTCHINSON

Born 15 February 1892, Died 17 December 1974

Also known as: née Herbert

1959 — Founder of the Aus­tralian Con­sumer Association.
First woman elect­ed to the Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil in West­ern Australia.
First to take her place in any Aus­tralian Council.
Fourth…

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Sarah Ann O'BRIEN

Born 1837, Died 1897

Pio­neer of Mt Lofty Range Dis­trict of SA

Suzanne LEE

1992 — First Alice Springs’ Miss Australia.

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Jill LAMONT

Pio­neer road train dri­ver. Only female on con­struc­tion site at Yulara — deliv­er­ing freight.

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Mary Elizabeth VINCENT

Born 1813, Died 1898

Pio­neer of Wan­garat­ta, Victoria.

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Le LAM

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Bertha Gwendoline Alexandra STREHLOW

Born 1911, Died 1984

Also known as: née James

Bertha is often remem­bered as the first wife of Ted Strehlow, an anthro­pol­o­gist and lin­guist who worked pri­mar­i­ly with the Arrernte Peo­ple of Cen­tral Aus­tralia. She helped her husband…

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.

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Adrienne CLARKE

First female Chair­per­son of C.S.I.R.O.

Award­ed Order of Australia
(Prof.) (AO)

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Ailsa Merle TRUNDLE

Born 9/08/1916, Died 26/04/2002

1940s — One of first female part­ners appoint­ed in archi­tec­ture in West­ern Australia.

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Freda KIDMAN

Also known as: Freddie

One of the orig­i­nal air host­esses with Aus­tralian Nation­al Airlines.

After fin­ish­ing school, Fre­da trained to become a nurse before work­ing with Aus­tralian Nation­al Airlines.…

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Elizabeth Robson CLELLAND

Born 1911, Died 2005

1952 — First woman appoint­ed to the Board of the South Aus­tralian Museum.

1935 — Pio­neer­ing Mas­ter of Sci­ence grad­u­ate at Ade­laide University

Eva Mabel GARLAND

Born 30 June 1912

Also known as: née Lawrence, Mable

1990 — Received Advance Aus­tralia award.


1992 — Received Aus­tralian Day Cit­i­zen­ship award.


1995 — Recip­i­ent of Adult Learn­ers’ Award.


1999 — Received Premier’s…

Lorna Verdun SISELY

Born 14/03/1916, Died 27/01/2004

Also known as: Dr Lorna Sisely

1947 — First woman in Vic­to­ria to be admit­ted to Fel­low­ship of The Roy­al Aus­tralasian Col­lege of Sur­geons (FRACS), and the sec­ond per­son in Aus­tralia to gain that recognition).…

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Margaret STILLER

Born 1931, Died 10 February 2000

Also known as: née Hanckel

Award­ed MBE for ser­vice to edu­ca­tion and community

Author of ​‘Barossa Woman’, ​‘Alice Springs Assign­ment’, ​‘Cen­tralian Assign­ment’, ​‘Noth­ing…

Ada Beatrice BLOXHAM

Born 13 July 1865, Died 1956

Also known as: Ada Palmer

1884 — Inau­gur­al and first woman to win the Sir W. J. Clarke Schol­ar­ship to the Roy­al Col­lege of Music in Lon­don. ​“She was the first Aus­tralian to enrol at the Roy­al Col­lege of Music…

Doreen Rose BRAITLING

Born 1904, Died 05/02/1979

Also known as: née Crook

1977: First Pres­i­dent of the Nation­al Trust (North­ern Territory)

1978: First hon­orary life mem­ber of Nation­al Trust

1979: Award­ed British Empire Medal (BEM) for ser­vices to the…

Daphne Jessie AKHURST

Born 22/4/1903, Died 9/1/1933

Also known as: Daphne Cozens

Daphne Akhurst was the first Aus­tralian woman to reach the Wim­ble­don semi-finals (1928), and the first Aus­tralian woman to fig­ure promi­nent­ly in ten­nis in over­seas tours. She reached…

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Susannah RUNTING

Born 11/3/1842, Died 30/5/1933

Also known as: née Kidd

First white baby born in Gee­long, Victoria.

When she died, she was one of Victoria’s old­est Vic­to­ria-born res­i­dents. Her par­ents claimed that she was the second…

Rose SCOTT

Born 8 October 1847, Died 20 April 1925

First pres­i­dent of a wom­en’s com­mit­tee of the Pris­on­er’s Aid Asso­ci­a­tion in 1898.

Known as the voice of wom­en’s suf­frage in Sydney.Campaigned for the education…

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June Rosalie BAKER

Born 27 June 1937

The first and only WRANS Offi­cer to attend Roy­al Naval Staff Col­lege in Green­wich, Eng­land — 1976 – 1977 -


The only WRANS offi­cer to serve an exchange post­ing with the RN.
The…

Mary Theodora Joyce WILCOX

Born 24/11/1873, Died 14/12/1953

Also known as: Dora; Mrs William MOORE

Poet and play­wright. Wrote such as ​‘Vers­es from Maori Land’ (1905), ​‘Rata and Mistle­toe’ (1911), ​‘Sev­en Poems’ (1924). She wrote an ode to cel­e­brate the…

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Annie Doreen MUNE

Born 6 February 1901, Died 1989

Also known as: née Hensley

In 1924 she was appoint­ed Mel­bourne City Coun­cil’s coor­di­na­tor to com­bat dypthe­ria. Dur­ing this cam­paign she test­ed and immu­nised 11,230 children.

Pio­neer doc­tor in Fiji…

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Puni PUNI

1939 — Abo­rig­i­nal teenag­er who ran 80 miles to bring a res­cue team to save a three year old boy (Ramon BROWN) from floods at Shirley Well, South Australia.

Chantal Felicity PARSONS

Also known as: Chantal Fisher (married name)

First woman Police Offi­cer to com­mand a remote Police Sta­tion in the N.T. (Harts Range on Plen­ty Highway) 

Chan­tal joined the Noth­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Police Force in Sep­tem­ber 1988…

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Adelie HURLEY

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Margaret CUNNEEN

1987 — First Dan Black Belt in Tae Kwon-Do

1975 — Queens Guide

1981 — Law Degree — Indus­tri­al Advo­cate with Pub­lic Ser­vice Board1986 — Became Solic­i­tor in charge of Child…

Elizabeth Mae COUCHE

1992 — One of the first ten Aus­tralian females to be ordained in the Angli­can Church as Priests

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Mary Taylor BURNELL

1953. First female Dean of a Fac­ul­ty of Anaes­thet­ics in the world (work­ing in Victoria).

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Viriginia Perryman STUDDERT

1991 — First female full pro­fes­sor and the first appoint­ed to a chair in an Aus­tralian vet­eri­nary school.

Sarah DURACK

Born 1889, Died 1956

Also known as: Fanny

With Wil­helmi­na (Mina) Wylie, they were Aus­trali­a’s first female Olympians, com­pet­ing in the first ladies’ event — swim­ming — in 1912. The two girls were only permitted…

Nancy-Bird WALTON, OBE, AO

Born 16/10/1915, Died 13/1/2009

Also known as: Nancy Bird, Nancy Bird Walton, Nancy Bird-Walton

Nan­cy-Bird was a pio­neer­ing Avi­a­trix who in 1932, at the age of 17, was the youngest female Aus­tralian to gain a pilot’s license. Two years lat­er she became the first female…

Ollie BLACK

Ollie Black is the co-founder of the Wim­mins Cir­cus (Mel­bourne: 1979) and Vital­sta­tis­tix, (Ade­laide: 1984 — lat­er to become the Nation­al Women’s Theatre).

Ollie Black has…

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Nanette ROGERS

First female Queen’s Coun­sel (QC) in Alice Springs; despite declin­ing press con­tact after her ini­tial 2006 inter­view, became known for her pub­lic expo­sure of fam­i­ly vio­lence in…

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Alison GROSSE

Also known as: Kerr-Jones

Lowitja O'DONOGHUE

Born 1932

Also known as: Lois

Appoint­ed found­ing Chair­per­son of the Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander Com­mis­sion (ATSIC) in 1990 and ded­i­cat­ed to work­ing for the rights of her peo­ple, she had been the first…

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Dorothy EDWARDS

1948 — First woman elect­ed to a local coun­cil in Launce­s­ton, Tasmania.

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Kath BAIRD

1945 — Put her Girl Guide expe­ri­ence to work with British Girl Guides, Gov­ern­ment and Red Cross to help Euro­pean dis­placed peo­ple (main­ly chil­dren) to a bet­ter life. First Ger­man Girl…

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Dorothy LEE

Rhoda WATKINS

Born March 1894, Died 1975

Mis­sion­ary nurse.

1922 — She was a Church of Eng­land mis­sion­ary nurse in the Church Mis­sion­ary Soci­eties ​“Way of Life” Hos­pi­tal, Kweilin, China.1924 — Sis­ter Watkins…

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Rachel WESTAWAY

First Thai/​Chinese woman in Aus­tralia to hold the fol­low­ing positions:
2003-08 — CEO of Coun­try Press (old­est news­pa­per asso­ci­a­tion in Aus­tralia rep­re­sent­ing 120 newspapers);
2003-06 -…

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Judith TROETH

Helen LYNCH

Born 1879

Also known as: Nell

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Lynne HANTON

Start­ed Alice Springs Dance School

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Runge

Amboo­ra, Amelia (Kunoth) and Runge, who worked for the Brad­shaw fam­i­ly at the Tele­graph Sta­tion.… as well as Abo­rig­i­nal house­maids includ­ing Amboo­ra, Runge and Amelia, sup­port­ed Mrs…

Dale McIVER

2005 — First woman to become Cap­tain of a ​“bat­tle­ship” (HMAS Defend­er) at the Hen­ley-on-Todd regat­ta in Alice Springs.

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Alison ANDERSON

Born 1958

Also known as: Alison Nampitjimpa Anderson

Activist and politi­cian for Indige­nous peo­ple with­in the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry, espe­cial­ly Cen­tral Aus­tralia. She was a mem­ber of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Leg­isla­tive Assem­bly between 2005…