Patrons of the Women's Museum of Australia

Dame Quentin Bryce is the Patron of the Wom­en’s Muse­um of Aus­tralia. Dame Quentin is a pio­neer in con­tem­po­rary Aus­tralian soci­ety. She stud­ied law and arts and was one of the first women to be admit­ted to the Queens­land Bar in 1965.

She was a lec­tur­er and tutor in law at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Queens­land (1968−1983), becom­ing the first woman to be appoint­ed to the fac­ul­ty; Con­venor of the Nation­al Women’s Advi­so­ry Coun­cil (1982−1984); the first Direc­tor of the Queens­land Women’s Infor­ma­tion Ser­vice (1984−1987); the Queens­land Direc­tor of the Human Rights and Equal Oppor­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion (1987−1988); the Fed­er­al Sex Dis­crim­i­na­tion Com­mis­sion­er (1988−1993); the found­ing Chair and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of the Nation­al Child­care Accred­i­ta­tion Coun­cil (1993−1996); the Prin­ci­pal and Chief Exec­u­tive of The Women’s Col­lege, Uni­ver­si­ty of Syd­ney (1997−2003); and Gov­er­nor of Queens­land (2003−2008), before being sworn in as Gov­er­nor-Gen­er­al of Aus­tralia. She is also the moth­er of five chil­dren. Dame Quentin Bryce fea­tures on our Sig­na­ture Quilt and in our per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tion Ordi­nary Women, Extra­or­di­nary Lives: First in their Field.

Dame Quentin Bryce was our hon­oured guest for our 2015 Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Day Open Day. Infor­ma­tion on our week­end of events cel­e­brat­ing Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Day 2015 can be found below.

Our Co-Patron is Gaby Ken­nard. In 1989, Gaby became the first Aus­tralian woman to fly solo around the world, a jour­ney which took 99 days. 

The sto­ry of this jour­ney is told in her book Solo Woman: Gaby Kennard’s World Flight and in the doc­u­men­tary Gaby Ken­nard Solo Woman. Gaby fea­tures in our per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tion Ordi­nary Women, Extra­or­di­nary Lives: First in their Field. She was our hon­oured guest for our 2014 Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Day Open Day.

Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on Gaby Ken­nard can be found on https://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/trailblazers/gabrielle-gaby-kennard/