Power of 100 book
Commemorating 100 years of International Women's Day, this book celebrates 100 women who have helped shape Australia. Here are a few sample pages
Commemorating 100 years of International Women's Day, this book celebrates 100 women who have helped shape Australia. Here are a few sample pages
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One hundred women who have shaped Australia.<br />
Stephanie Alexander Teresa Alfonsi Margaret Alston Betty Archdale Gillian Armstrong Tilly Aston Marie Bashir<br />
Layne Beachley Susan Beal Dame Beryl Beaurepaire Dame Alice Berry Elizabeth Blackburn Cate Blanchett<br />
Raelene Boyle Elizabeth Broderick Quentin Bryce Vivian Bullwinkel Eva Burrows Ita Buttrose Jan Cameron<br />
Mary Bertha Carter Dawn Casey Caroline Chisholm Suzanne Cory Margaret Court Edith Cowan Eva Cox<br />
Betty Cuthbert Marjorie Dalgarno Elizabeth Evatt Miles Franklin Dawn Fraser Cathy Freeman Mary Gaudron<br />
May Gibbs Julia Gillard Peggy Glanville-Hicks Vida Goldstein Evonne Goolagong-Cawley Jean Hailes Janine<br />
Haines Gabi Hollows Janet Holmes à Court Sister Elizabeth Kenny Jill Ker Conway Nicole Kidman Priscilla<br />
Kincaid-Smith Joan Kirner Emily Kame Kngwarreye Katie Lahey Louisa Lawson Catherine Livingstone Helen<br />
Lynch Dame Enid Lyons Elizabeth Macarthur Elizabeth Macquarie Eve Mahlab Tania Major Naomi Mayers<br />
Wendy McCarthy Kim McKay Florence McKenzie Saint Mary MacKillop Dame Nellie Melba Naomi Milgrom<br />
Dame Roma Mitchell Lucy Morice Sam Mostyn Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Juliana Nkrumah Oodgeroo Noonuccal<br />
Margaret Olley Lucy Osburn Mary Penfold Eileen Pittaway Lady Primrose Potter Mary Reibey Gina Rinehart<br />
Joan Rosanove Sarina Russo Edna Ryan Louise Sauvage Carol Schwartz Ann Sherry Fiona Stanley Jessie<br />
Street Dame Joan Sutherland Lyn Swinburne Valerie Taylor Truganini Jessie Vasey Nancy Wake Edna Walling<br />
Nancy Bird Walton Marion Webster Helen Williams Tammy Williams Fiona Wood Rose Yeung Carla Zampatti
One hundred women who have shaped Australia.<br />
Stephanie Alexander Teresa Alfonsi Margaret Alston Betty Archdale Gillian Armstrong Tilly Aston Marie Bashir<br />
Layne Beachley Susan Beal Dame Beryl Beaurepaire Dame Alice Berry Elizabeth Blackburn Cate Blanchett<br />
Raelene Boyle Elizabeth Broderick Quentin Bryce Vivian Bullwinkel Eva Burrows Ita Buttrose Jan Cameron<br />
Mary Bertha Carter Dawn Casey Caroline Chisholm Suzanne Cory Margaret Court Edith Cowan Eva Cox<br />
Betty Cuthbert Marjorie Dalgarno Elizabeth Evatt Miles Franklin Dawn Fraser Cathy Freeman Mary Gaudron<br />
May Gibbs Julia Gillard Peggy Glanville-Hicks Vida Goldstein Evonne Goolagong-Cawley Jean Hailes Janine<br />
Haines Gabi Hollows Janet Holmes à Court Sister Elizabeth Kenny Jill Ker Conway Nicole Kidman Priscilla<br />
Kincaid-Smith Joan Kirner Emily Kame Kngwarreye Katie Lahey Louisa Lawson Catherine Livingstone Helen<br />
Lynch Dame Enid Lyons Elizabeth Macarthur Elizabeth Macquarie Eve Mahlab Tania Major Naomi Mayers<br />
Wendy McCarthy Kim McKay Florence McKenzie Saint Mary MacKillop Dame Nellie Melba Naomi Milgrom<br />
Dame Roma Mitchell Lucy Morice Sam Mostyn Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Juliana Nkrumah Oodgeroo Noonuccal<br />
Margaret Olley Lucy Osburn Mary Penfold Eileen Pittaway Lady Primrose Potter Mary Reibey Gina Rinehart<br />
Joan Rosanove Sarina Russo Edna Ryan Louise Sauvage Carol Schwartz Ann Sherry Fiona Stanley Jessie Street<br />
Dame Joan Sutherland Lyn Swinburne Valerie Taylor Truganini Jessie Vasey Nancy Wake Edna Walling<br />
Nancy Bird Walton Marion Webster Helen Williams Tammy Williams Fiona Wood Rose Yeung Carla Zampatti<br />
Tess Livingstone
“It is time to ignite<br />
the passion for<br />
future generations<br />
<strong>of</strong> women and<br />
girls to achieve<br />
their ambitions,<br />
both personal<br />
and pr<strong>of</strong>essional.”
Welcome to The <strong>Power</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>100</strong>, a wonderful collection <strong>of</strong> stories<br />
<strong>of</strong> achievement. The year 2011 marks the <strong>100</strong>th anniversary <strong>of</strong><br />
International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the economic, political<br />
and social achievements <strong>of</strong> all women around the world.<br />
In tr odu c tion<br />
The Westpac Group conceived The <strong>Power</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>100</strong> as our way to recognise<br />
Australian women who have helped to shape our nation. From the early pioneers<br />
through to the social justice fighters, scientists, business leaders, philanthropists,<br />
artists and performers, writers, political and community leaders, we have chosen<br />
<strong>100</strong> women who have progressed the growth <strong>of</strong> our nation and in doing so<br />
have more broadly helped women in Australia.<br />
I have been inspired by the stories <strong>of</strong> these remarkable women who have helped<br />
to shape Australia. There are, <strong>of</strong> course, names which will be familiar to all, but<br />
I was most excited to learn about those women who are not household names –<br />
the women who have until now gone mainly unrecognised.<br />
This is by no means a definitive list and I’m sure there will be vigorous conversations<br />
about the many more women that we have not been able to include in the <strong>book</strong>!<br />
It is time to ignite the passion for future generations <strong>of</strong> women and girls to achieve<br />
their ambitions, both personal and pr<strong>of</strong>essional. I hope that like me, you find The<br />
<strong>Power</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>100</strong> a dazzling reminder <strong>of</strong> what each <strong>of</strong> us can achieve.<br />
Gail Kelly<br />
CEO, The Westpac Group<br />
3
In a vital decade in which the Blue Mountains were first crossed by white<br />
explorers in 1813 and the colony’s first bank was established in 1817, Sydney<br />
progressed under the steady, benevolent guidance <strong>of</strong> Governor Lachlan Macquarie,<br />
supported by the talents, interests and compassion <strong>of</strong> his vivacious wife, Elizabeth<br />
Macquarie. Like her husband, Macquarie hailed from the western highlands <strong>of</strong> Scotland.<br />
E liza beth Macquarie born 1778 / died 1835<br />
Sydney pioneer<br />
After disembarking on 31 December 1809,<br />
Macquarie took a keen interest in the welfare<br />
<strong>of</strong> the many neglected children she noticed<br />
roaming Sydney’s streets. She became patroness<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Female Orphan School and <strong>of</strong> the Native<br />
Institution School established at Parramatta in<br />
1814. Several years later, a visitor related how<br />
she met about 30 <strong>of</strong> the children, who “under the supervision <strong>of</strong> Mme Macquarie … the<br />
advances they have already made are truly astonishing, and think how valuable a work!”<br />
Like generations <strong>of</strong> later Sydneysiders, Macquarie enjoyed watching the boats on Sydney<br />
Harbour from the rock formation on the eastern headland <strong>of</strong> the government gardens,<br />
a vantage point now known as “Mrs Macquarie’s Chair”. It was at her suggestion that the<br />
road inside the government Domain, named Mrs Macquarie’s Road, was built. Her idea<br />
was to give others a chance to enjoy the vistas and sea breezes that she loved.<br />
The Macquaries’ son, Lachlan, was born in Sydney in 1814. When the family sailed<br />
for Britain in 1822, leaving a happier, more prosperous society than the one they found,<br />
it was a wrench for them and for the throngs <strong>of</strong> people who cheered them from small<br />
boats and the harbour shores.<br />
4
“The voice<br />
<strong>of</strong> the century.”<br />
Luciano Pavarotti<br />
Dame Joa n Su therla nd OM AC DBE<br />
born 1926 / died 2010<br />
Internationally renowned soprano
Ca th y Freema n<br />
OAM born 1973<br />
Olympic gold medal winner<br />
“In life<br />
there<br />
is no<br />
finish<br />
line.”<br />
Running barefoot and free in Mackay, north Queensland,<br />
where she remembers the scent <strong>of</strong> melaleuca and eucalyptus<br />
trees, Cathy Freeman, a “little Aboriginal girl who could run fast”,<br />
had one dream – winning an Olympic gold medal. It came true on<br />
25 September 2000 in the 400 metres in Sydney, the result <strong>of</strong><br />
rare natural talent, years <strong>of</strong> hard work and family support. “In the<br />
last 60 metres <strong>of</strong> the race, I felt the noise <strong>of</strong> the crowd for the first<br />
time. Their cheers had a strange effect on me – it was like I was<br />
being lifted up and carried towards the finish line.”<br />
Gold medal dream achieved, Freeman had to find new dreams<br />
and new mountains to climb because, in her words, “in life, there’s<br />
no finish line”. Through her Catherine Freeman Foundation she is<br />
focused on literacy among young indigenous girls, particularly in<br />
the community <strong>of</strong> Palm Island where her mother was born. The<br />
Foundation creates educational and wellbeing programs through<br />
early literacy teaching, school scholarships, after-school activities,<br />
non-truancy incentives and opportunities for children to holiday<br />
in other parts <strong>of</strong> Australia to gain a wider perspective.<br />
8
Vida Golds tein born 1869 / died 1949<br />
Melbourne suffragist and feminist<br />
“All the men in parliament<br />
cannot represent one woman<br />
as adequately as one woman<br />
can represent all women.”<br />
Vida Goldstein, 1909<br />
9
Emil y Kame Kn gwarreye<br />
born 1910 / died 1996<br />
Artist<br />
One <strong>of</strong> the<br />
great abstract<br />
painters <strong>of</strong><br />
the 20th<br />
century.<br />
“An Aborigine community in the boundless red desert <strong>of</strong> central Australia<br />
nurtured a gifted artist who was full <strong>of</strong> dynamism and creativity.<br />
Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who lived in a remote region on the edge <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Simpson Desert for more than 80 years, had no exposure to the Western<br />
art world for most <strong>of</strong> her life. Nevertheless, she is highly admired by<br />
international art experts and collectors as one <strong>of</strong> the great abstract painters<br />
<strong>of</strong> the 20th century. The sophisticated artistic expression in her paintings<br />
is <strong>of</strong>ten compared with that <strong>of</strong> Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock.<br />
In fact, the development <strong>of</strong> her art is regarded as being parallel to that <strong>of</strong><br />
contemporary art itself.”<br />
So wrote Japanese art critic Akino Yoshihara during the 2008 retrospective<br />
The Genius <strong>of</strong> Emily Kame Kngwarreye at the Osaka National Museum <strong>of</strong> Art.<br />
Among the 120 works displayed was Big Yam, one <strong>of</strong> Kngwarreye’s last works,<br />
its pink, earthy lines painted on black, evoking patterns <strong>of</strong> cracked desert<br />
surfaces, yam vines and ancestral connections. Osaka National Museum <strong>of</strong><br />
Art director Akira Tatehata wept when he first saw the exuberant painting<br />
at the National Museum in Canberra, looking on it as “a religious painting,<br />
sublime and dignified – one <strong>of</strong> the great paintings <strong>of</strong> the 20th century”.<br />
Kngwarreye did not begin painting on canvas until she was in her late<br />
70s, when she painted Emu Woman in dot style in 1988, at the outset <strong>of</strong> an<br />
extraordinary eight-year blaze <strong>of</strong> creativity in which she produced 3000<br />
works. Kngwarreye had been introduced to Western materials in the early<br />
16
“Kngwarreye possessed the true abstractionist’s<br />
mastery <strong>of</strong> form and colour, with the added<br />
underpinning <strong>of</strong> a strong traditional cultural base.”<br />
1980s at a batik-making workshop at her community, Utopia, 230 kilometres<br />
north-east <strong>of</strong> Alice Springs where she was an Anmatyerre elder and leader <strong>of</strong><br />
women’s ceremonies and song cycles. While aware <strong>of</strong> the response her work<br />
generated, Kngwarreye was happy to remain in the place she loved, where she<br />
painted until the last weeks <strong>of</strong> her life.<br />
In 1996, Susan McCulloch, co-author <strong>of</strong> the Encyclopaedia <strong>of</strong> Australian Art,<br />
wrote <strong>of</strong> Kngwarreye’s “ability to take risks, continually to pursue new stylistic<br />
avenues. Where many artists, especially in later years, are content to repeat<br />
past successes, Kngwarreye, despite failing eyesight, would explore new<br />
avenues, usually in conjunction with her previous styles.’’<br />
In 2004, Kngwarreye’s Earth Creation was auctioned for more than $1 million,<br />
a record for an Australian female artist.<br />
Susan McCulloch<br />
17
Dame Alice Berr<br />
y DBE<br />
born 1900 / died 1978<br />
Country women’s advocate<br />
Berry represented six million rural<br />
women in 27 countries.<br />
After attending a one-teacher school at Cobar in north-west New South<br />
Wales, where her father managed a goldmine, Alice Berry grew up<br />
understanding the challenges <strong>of</strong> rural Australia. As an adult, it was those<br />
challenges – limited education and healthcare services, rough roads, irregular<br />
mail and poor communications – that motivated Berry’s work as a Country<br />
Women’s Association leader.<br />
Alice married Henry Berry, a wool classer and grazier, in 1921. After working<br />
a sheep property near Tumut in the Snowy Mountains they moved to outback<br />
Queensland with their two daughters in 1927. Aware <strong>of</strong> the potential <strong>of</strong> the<br />
CWA to bridge isolation, Berry founded a new branch at Mount Abundance,<br />
near Roma. Five years later the family moved to the 17,000-hectare Woolabra<br />
station near Charleville.<br />
Practical and skilled, Berry worked hard on the family property. After Henry’s<br />
death in 1948 she stepped up her involvement in the CWA, serving as deputy<br />
president and president in Queensland, and leading delegations to Associated<br />
Country Women <strong>of</strong> the World conferences in Copenhagen in 1950 and Toronto<br />
in 1953. She was the first Australian elected ACWW president, a job she did<br />
with good humour and energy for six years, representing six million women in<br />
27 nations. In 1962, Berry was elected national CWA president. In retirement,<br />
she served the organisation for years as archivist.<br />
22
In October 1945, shortly after her husband Major-General George Vasey<br />
died in a plane crash near Cairns after surviving Crete, Greece and the<br />
Kokoda Trail, Jessie Vasey channelled her grief in a letter to other widows:<br />
It hurt my husband very much that the families <strong>of</strong> the men he had<br />
loved so greatly, the men who had died so uncomplaining for Australia,<br />
should suffer privation and want because <strong>of</strong> that sacrifice.<br />
“It was her inspiring leadership<br />
that made it certain that, after<br />
World War II, the widows <strong>of</strong> that war<br />
would not be left to suffer neglect.”<br />
Sir Ninian Stephen<br />
Jessie Vase y CBE OBE born 1897 / died 1966<br />
Founding president<br />
<strong>of</strong> the War Widows’<br />
Guild <strong>of</strong> Australia<br />
Vasey raised funds through donations and raffles, soon supplemented<br />
with handmade goods sold at the War Widows’ Shop. With about a third<br />
<strong>of</strong> war widows lacking adequate housing, she established the Vasey Housing<br />
Auxiliary, investing £<strong>100</strong>0 in properties that escalated in value through<br />
subsequent decades as they housed hundreds <strong>of</strong> widows and children.<br />
The Guild’s motto remains: “We all need each other. It is in serving each other<br />
and in sacrificing for our common good that we are finding our true life.”<br />
Vasey was also instrumental in securing an increase in the war widow’s<br />
pension and government support for war widows’ housing. She provided<br />
a voice and focal point for a generation <strong>of</strong> war widows whose needs<br />
could easily have been overlooked by government.<br />
23
“For<br />
women<br />
who<br />
weren’t<br />
born<br />
Ita Bu ttrose AO OBE born 1942<br />
yesterday.”<br />
Editor and writer<br />
26
“Through it all, that name’s been more than<br />
a calling card, it’s been a brand, a mission<br />
statement, a promise and a guarantee.”<br />
“You know you’ve made it when, like Madonna,<br />
Kylie and George W., the world is on first<br />
name terms with you. Ita Buttrose reached that<br />
status decades ago and for much <strong>of</strong> the time<br />
since she’s been the most famous woman in the<br />
Australian media. She ran our most successful<br />
magazine through its golden period, showing an<br />
unerring feel for her readers’ lives. She worked<br />
for every major media company and mogul in the<br />
country. Then, finally, she went out on her own,<br />
launching a magazine named after who else but<br />
herself. Through it all, that name’s been more<br />
than a calling card, it’s been a brand, a mission<br />
statement, a promise and a guarantee.”<br />
Andrew Denton<br />
27
Ja n in e Ha in es AM born 1945 / died 2004<br />
“give a damn”<br />
Politician<br />
Janine Haines, the first woman to head an Australian<br />
political party, led the Australian Democrats from<br />
1986 to 1990, effectively wielding the party’s balance <strong>of</strong><br />
power in the Senate to lift environmental issues high on<br />
the political agenda and strengthen Medicare legislation<br />
to make the system more user-friendly. Haines helped<br />
energise a generation <strong>of</strong> young women to become more<br />
politically active, especially in South Australia, where her<br />
campaign slogan “Give a Damn” had a strong impact.<br />
She was an articulate, popular figure across the political<br />
spectrum and with the public, who admired her dry sense<br />
<strong>of</strong> humour. In one <strong>of</strong> her wry, memorable observations<br />
she said: “It has been my misfortunate lot over the last<br />
25 years <strong>of</strong> my life to belong to three <strong>of</strong> the most reviled,<br />
underrated and overworked pr<strong>of</strong>essions in the world.<br />
In that time I had been, occasionally simultaneously, a<br />
mother, a teacher and a politician. If one <strong>of</strong> me wasn’t<br />
being blamed for the problems <strong>of</strong> the world one <strong>of</strong><br />
the others was.” When Haines died <strong>of</strong> a neurological<br />
condition in 2004, Democrat founder Don Chipp paid<br />
tribute to her as the best leader the party ever had.<br />
40
“Working four jobs to fund my overseas<br />
ventures and contest endeavours meant<br />
very little time was left for surfing itself. A typical<br />
week would consist <strong>of</strong> 60 hours waiting tables, folding<br />
T-shirts, teaching people to roller blade or delivering<br />
pizzas and a total <strong>of</strong> one hour <strong>of</strong> surfing. Not the best<br />
regime for becoming a world champion, but with every<br />
working hour my passion and perseverance grew.<br />
I appreciate everything I achieved because I had to<br />
work so hard for it, but by the time I made it on tour<br />
and to competition day, I was completely exhausted!<br />
The Layne Beachley Aim for the Stars Foundation<br />
was established to prevent girls and women alike<br />
from having to go through similar challenges. A little<br />
bit <strong>of</strong> finance or just the knowledge someone believes<br />
in her personal ambition is all it takes for a female<br />
to achieve greatness and ultimately happiness.”<br />
La yn e Beachle y born 1972<br />
World surfing champion and creator <strong>of</strong> the Aim for the Stars Foundation<br />
“To dream takes courage.”<br />
41
Like Emily Bronte (Ellis Belle) and George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans),<br />
Miles Franklin wrote under a masculine-sounding pseudonym out<br />
<strong>of</strong> a well-founded suspicion that no mainstream publisher would take a<br />
female author seriously, let alone one who challenged prevailing social<br />
mores about the role <strong>of</strong> women as compliant, obedient homemakers.<br />
Franklin grew up with a keen appreciation <strong>of</strong> the best and the worst <strong>of</strong> life<br />
in the Australian bush. After relative prosperity on a grazing property<br />
near the Brindabella Ranges outside Canberra, drought and<br />
loss <strong>of</strong> wealth drove her family to a struggling dairy farm near<br />
Goulburn, which had a small house with a leaky ro<strong>of</strong>.<br />
Miles<br />
Author Fra n klin born 1879 / died 1954<br />
Henry Lawson<br />
regarded<br />
the <strong>book</strong> as<br />
“Australia’s first<br />
real novel”.<br />
Franklin produced her best-known novel, My Brilliant Career, while a<br />
teenager. Unable to find an Australian publisher, she wrote to Henry<br />
Lawson for help. Through Lawson, who regarded the <strong>book</strong> as “Australia’s<br />
first real novel”, it was published in Edinburgh.<br />
Struggling to make a living, Franklin worked as a secretary in Chicago<br />
and London, and as a volunteer nurse in Ostrvo, Macedonia, during World<br />
War I. In Australia, the publication <strong>of</strong> All that Swagger in The Bulletin in<br />
1936, after it won the S. H. Prior Memorial Prize, enhanced her reputation.<br />
Franklin was a complex character. While craving independence she feared<br />
loneliness; while deeply suspicious <strong>of</strong> marriage she enjoyed flirting; and<br />
while eager to forge her own path she remained devoted to her family.<br />
Generous in her promotion <strong>of</strong> other writers’ work, Franklin endowed her<br />
£9000 estate to create the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most<br />
prestigious literary prize.<br />
54
“If you want<br />
real practical<br />
wisdom, go<br />
to an old<br />
washerwoman<br />
with a black<br />
eye, patching<br />
clothes at<br />
the Rocks.”<br />
Louisa Lawson was a gritty, intelligent woman who turned adversity<br />
into opportunity. Born and raised in rural poverty in central New<br />
South Wales, at 18 Lawson married Norwegian-born goldminer Niels<br />
Larsen, whose name was later Anglicised. From 1867 to 1877, with her<br />
husband frequently away, Lawson struggled to feed her five children,<br />
working a 40-acre selection at Eurunderee, near Mudgee, where<br />
she milked cows and took in sewing and washing. Writing was her<br />
relaxation and escape. Some <strong>of</strong> her poetry, about the death <strong>of</strong> her<br />
infant daughter, Annette, was published in the Mudgee Independent.<br />
After the Lawsons separated she and her children moved to Sydney,<br />
living at the Rocks, where she identified with the women around her,<br />
“doing their best to bring up a family on the pittance they get from<br />
their husband – and keep those husbands at home and away from the<br />
public-house” as she told The Bulletin years later. “And listen to their<br />
talk – so quiet and sensible.”<br />
Louisa La wson born 1848 / died 1920<br />
Publisher<br />
Bolstering her own funds by running boarding houses, Lawson bought<br />
the struggling Republican newspaper, producing most <strong>of</strong> the writing<br />
with her eldest son, Henry. In 1888 she founded The Dawn, a monthly<br />
journal for women that operated successfully until 1905. The Dawn<br />
took a feminist perspective on political and social issues as well as<br />
carrying features on health, fashion and food, and its speaking club<br />
for women formed the heart <strong>of</strong> the women’s suffrage movement.<br />
At one point, Lawson employed 10 women as printers and typesetters,<br />
drawing the wrath <strong>of</strong> the all-male typographical union which demanded,<br />
unsuccessfully, that she sack her staff. Lawson’s press published her<br />
son Henry’s first <strong>book</strong>, Short Stories in Prose and Verse, in 1894.<br />
55
Step ha n ie<br />
Alexander OAM born 1940<br />
Chef, food writer and educator<br />
Any keen home cook knows that the best cook<strong>book</strong>s never<br />
remain pristine but tend to be slightly splattered and<br />
dog-eared from constant use. In at least 500,000 homes,<br />
Stephanie Alexander’s iconic work The Cook’s Companion,<br />
published in 1996 and revised in 2004, feels like an old, trusted<br />
friend. Her motivation for writing the 1<strong>100</strong>-page <strong>book</strong> was a belief<br />
that “we were raising children and young adults with little, if any,<br />
understanding <strong>of</strong> what to do with fresh food in their daily lives”.<br />
After graduating from university and working as a librarian, Alexander travelled in France,<br />
one <strong>of</strong> her favourite destinations, and returned to open her first restaurant in 1966. Her<br />
second restaurant, Stephanie’s, in a National Trust building in Melbourne’s Hawthorn, was,<br />
in her words, “at the heart <strong>of</strong> everything culinary in Australia” for 21 years. She trained<br />
staff, pioneered new techniques and championed small producers <strong>of</strong> fresh ingredients.<br />
In 1997, with three partners, she opened the less formal Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder.<br />
In 2001, Alexander turned her attention to educating children about growing, harvesting,<br />
preparing and sharing healthy food, creating a kitchen garden at Melbourne’s<br />
Collingwood College. When the concept flourished, she established the not-for-pr<strong>of</strong>it<br />
Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation in 2004 to raise funds and expand<br />
the program nationally. By 2010 the Foundation was running in 140 schools in all states,<br />
supported by government funding.<br />
56
“There is no greater joy than<br />
sharing food, conversation and<br />
laughter around a table.”<br />
57
N a n c y Bird Wa lton AO OBE born 1915 / died 2009<br />
Pioneer aviator, and commercial and outback<br />
medical service pilot<br />
“All through the ’20s,<br />
it was the age <strong>of</strong> the<br />
arrival <strong>of</strong> aeroplanes.<br />
There was a magnetic<br />
line between myself<br />
and any aeroplane<br />
in the sky.”<br />
“The freedom <strong>of</strong> the air. The freedom <strong>of</strong><br />
flight. You completely remove yourself<br />
from the world. And you can voluntarily<br />
remove yourself from ... everything that’s<br />
near and dear to you. And you voluntarily<br />
return. You haven’t seen Australia unless<br />
you see it from the air. The coastline, the<br />
colours <strong>of</strong> the inland. The claypans, the<br />
forests. It’s just all so beautiful. You’d<br />
never see that from the road. People<br />
climb mountains to see these things.<br />
You see that every time you take <strong>of</strong>f.”<br />
72
“Australia has <strong>of</strong>fered me<br />
opportunities that would<br />
have been beyond my<br />
parents’ understanding<br />
when they stepped <strong>of</strong>f that<br />
boat in Adelaide in 1966.”<br />
Ju lia Gillard born 1961<br />
27th Prime Minister <strong>of</strong> Australia<br />
Julia Gillard, a “£10 pom” who arrived as an immigrant from Wales at<br />
age four, made history in 2010 as the nation’s first female prime minister.<br />
A strong competitor with a good sense <strong>of</strong> humour and an easy style, Gillard<br />
was educated in state schools in South Australia and at the University <strong>of</strong><br />
Adelaide and the University <strong>of</strong> Melbourne.<br />
A lawyer by pr<strong>of</strong>ession and a former industrial advocate and political staffer,<br />
Gillard entered federal parliament as the member for Lalor, in Melbourne’s<br />
outer western suburbs, in 1998. In her maiden speech she noted: “Australia<br />
has <strong>of</strong>fered me opportunities that would have been beyond my parents’<br />
understanding when they stepped <strong>of</strong>f that boat in Adelaide in 1966. It would<br />
have been inconceivable to them that their child, and a daughter at that,<br />
could be <strong>of</strong>fered the opportunity to obtain two degrees from a university<br />
and to serve in the nation’s parliament.’’ At the August 2010 election, Labor,<br />
under Gillard, was re-elected.<br />
73
Nurse and cancer<br />
support leader<br />
Being diagnosed with cancer and undergoing treatment is traumatic<br />
but difficulties are compounded when the patient is unfamiliar<br />
with English and European culture. After surviving kidney cancer in 1992,<br />
Rose Yeung put the experience to positive use. In 1995 she helped found<br />
CanRevive, a voluntary non-pr<strong>of</strong>it organisation that supports cancer<br />
patients and their loved ones, especially Chinese-speaking Australians.<br />
Yeung continues to oversee fundraising.<br />
Rose Yeun<br />
g born<br />
1940<br />
“I love the<br />
opportunity<br />
to share<br />
the joys<br />
and tears <strong>of</strong><br />
many and to<br />
make many<br />
friends along<br />
the way.”<br />
Yeung came to Australia from Hong Kong in 1958 and trained as a nurse<br />
at St Vincent’s Hospital, in Sydney’s Darlinghurst. Her family has a history<br />
<strong>of</strong> cancer, and through her own vigilance when symptoms arose, her illness<br />
was diagnosed. Her left kidney was removed but she was able to avoid<br />
chemotherapy. “I was 52, ready to enjoy life a bit, having brought up three<br />
children and cared for an extended family. I was not ready to go. Having<br />
come through the experience I thought it would be good to help others and<br />
give hope. The focus is on emotional support.”<br />
CanRevive has six staff and 60 volunteers who make home and hospital<br />
visits, provide phone support and help groups <strong>of</strong> Cantonese- and Mandarinspeaking<br />
patients in the Sydney CBD and at Hurstville in the city’s south.<br />
Medical pr<strong>of</strong>essionals <strong>of</strong>fer monthly seminars in Cantonese and occasionally<br />
in Mandarin and English with interpreters. Bereavement counselling and<br />
carers’ support is also provided. More than 200 new patients are helped each<br />
year. In 2005, Yeung received a New South Wales Community Services Victor<br />
Chang award and in 2009 a Rotary International Community Service Award.<br />
“I love the work and the privilege to travel the journey with so many others.”<br />
80
Va lerie Ta yl o r AM<br />
born 1935<br />
Filmmaker, shark expert<br />
and marine conservationist<br />
For decades, the films and <strong>book</strong>s<br />
<strong>of</strong> shark experts Valerie and Ron<br />
Taylor have enthralled the world and<br />
been used by the makers <strong>of</strong> Hollywood<br />
films. Their first major underwater film<br />
production, Shark Hunters, was sold<br />
to Australian and American television<br />
in 1963. The Taylors are pioneers<br />
in the field <strong>of</strong> shark research and<br />
conservation. Valerie is the patron <strong>of</strong><br />
the marine division <strong>of</strong> the National<br />
Parks Association <strong>of</strong> NSW and in 2008,<br />
along with her husband, was awarded<br />
a Lifetime <strong>of</strong> Conservation Medal by<br />
the Australian Geographic Society.<br />
“Take the opportunity. Seize the day. Go for it.<br />
We’ve always done that, pushed ourselves and<br />
done things when perhaps we shouldn’t have.<br />
And it’s paid <strong>of</strong>f.”<br />
81
In photographs, Tasmanian indigenous leader Truganini looks out on a<br />
world that hurt and baffled her with an intense, unflinching gaze. Born<br />
in south-east Tasmania, Truganini was brought up in her traditional culture,<br />
hunting and diving for shellfish. Before European settlement in 1803,<br />
Van Diemen’s Land, as it was then known, had several thousand indigenous<br />
inhabitants. By 1830, historian Ge<strong>of</strong>frey Blainey records that: “Disease<br />
had killed most <strong>of</strong> them but warfare and private violence had also been<br />
devastating.” Influenced by the fact that her mother and brother had<br />
been killed by Europeans and her sister captured by sealers, Truganini<br />
and her tribal husband, Woorrady, worked with the local Protector <strong>of</strong><br />
Aborigines, George Augustus Robinson, who promised her people a<br />
better life if they moved to Wybalenna, a settlement on Flinders Island.<br />
The settlement was a failure, however, and Truganini was among the<br />
last 47 inhabitants transferred to Oyster Cove, south <strong>of</strong> Hobart, in 1847.<br />
There she resumed a semblance <strong>of</strong> her traditional life.<br />
Truganini born c 1812 / died 1876<br />
Indigenous leader<br />
When the last known full-blood indigenous male on the island, William<br />
Lanney, died in 1869 and his body was dissected by scientists, Truganini<br />
feared for the fate <strong>of</strong> her own remains after death. She spent her last<br />
years in Hobart and was buried in the grounds <strong>of</strong> the female penitentiary.<br />
Her body was later exhumed and her skeleton displayed in the Hobart<br />
Museum until 1947. In 1976 her wishes were finally honoured when she<br />
was cremated and her ashes scattered in the d’Entrecasteaux Channel.<br />
She suffered mightily from being<br />
born in the wrong place at the wrong time.<br />
90
Ma y Gibbs MBE Born 1877 / died 1969<br />
Children’s author and illustrator<br />
When Prince Christian <strong>of</strong> Denmark – the first European prince with<br />
Australian blood – was born in 2005, Australia’s gift was a classic:<br />
a first edition <strong>of</strong> May Gibbs’s Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Gibbs, who arrived<br />
in Australia from Kent, England, at age four, “could almost draw before I could<br />
walk”. After growing up in Perth, she studied art in London before becoming<br />
a newspaper illustrator and cartoonist.<br />
In 1913 she settled in Sydney’s Neutral Bay, where her home, Nutcote Cottage,<br />
is now a popular museum. There she created the gumnut babies’ images, initially<br />
on the cover <strong>of</strong> Ethel Turner’s <strong>book</strong>, The Missing Button. English-born Turner<br />
had made her mark with Seven Little Australians, published in 1894, in which<br />
she wrote not <strong>of</strong> “model children” but <strong>of</strong> Australian children with their “lurking<br />
sparkle <strong>of</strong> joyousness and rebellion and mischief”.<br />
Gibbs and Turner were part <strong>of</strong> an important literary era that captured children’s<br />
imaginations with stories in Australian settings. Writing with a distinctive and<br />
fresh Australian voice for an audience raised on European tales and traditions,<br />
Gibbs created culturally relevant stories within a world based on native<br />
Australian flora and fauna.<br />
“Gibbs’ work<br />
was like a<br />
breath <strong>of</strong><br />
fresh air.<br />
Australian<br />
children<br />
now had<br />
a national<br />
identity.”<br />
Sarah Prince<br />
When it appeared in 1918, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie was a hit and has not been<br />
out <strong>of</strong> print since. Gibbs dedicated the <strong>book</strong> to “The Two Dearest Children in the<br />
World, Lefty and Bill” – her parents. She left her estate to the New South Wales<br />
Society for Crippled Children, the Spastic Centre <strong>of</strong> New South Wales and UNICEF.<br />
91
Peggy<br />
Glan ville-Hicks born 1912 / died 1990<br />
“The strength <strong>of</strong> her music is<br />
impossible to guess from her charm<br />
and humour. Her femininity is expressed in her<br />
untiring protectiveness toward other composers:<br />
her flair for quality is unerring.” Anaïs Nin<br />
Composer<br />
Glanville-Hicks, a high-pr<strong>of</strong>ile music critic for the New York Herald<br />
Tribune from 1948 to 1958, left two important legacies. One was her<br />
body <strong>of</strong> work – ballet scores, chamber music, concertos and operas,<br />
two <strong>of</strong> which were based on novels by Thomas Mann and Robert<br />
Graves. The second was the Composers’ House in Paddington,<br />
Sydney, which, under the terms <strong>of</strong> her estate, is managed by a<br />
trust to provide “a haven and peace <strong>of</strong> mind which will enable the<br />
composer in residence to further his or her creative work”.<br />
114
The distinguished daughter <strong>of</strong> a prominent family, Elizabeth Evatt<br />
graduated as the first female winner <strong>of</strong> the University <strong>of</strong> Sydney<br />
law medal in 1954. Admitted to the bar in New South Wales and at<br />
London’s Inner Temple, Evatt completed a master <strong>of</strong> laws degree at<br />
Harvard Law School and from 1968 to 1973 worked at the England<br />
and Wales Law Commission.<br />
E liza beth E va tt AC born 1933<br />
The election <strong>of</strong> the Whitlam government saw Evatt return to Australia<br />
as deputy president <strong>of</strong> the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration<br />
Commission. It was her subsequent work, however, chairing the Royal<br />
Commission on Human Relationships, that put her at the heart <strong>of</strong> the rapid<br />
social changes <strong>of</strong> the 1970s. The Commission’s recommendations ushered<br />
in the highly controversial 1975 Family Law Act, allowing no-fault divorce<br />
on the sole ground <strong>of</strong> irreconcilable differences after 12 months’ separation.<br />
When the Family Court was established, Evatt became its first chief judge.<br />
Lawyer and judge<br />
Recalling that period in 2005 Evatt concluded: “Some <strong>of</strong> us may have<br />
thought that this advanced model, based on equality, no fault and<br />
conciliation, was ‘the end <strong>of</strong> history’ so far as family law was concerned.<br />
But like Fukuyama, we were wrong. The story is by no means over ...<br />
Sadly, the family law system has not yet achieved its optimum effects.<br />
It is still struggling to find the best way to cut through the thicket <strong>of</strong> legal<br />
technicalities and to pour soothing oil on the troubled waters <strong>of</strong> acrimony<br />
and resentment, which so <strong>of</strong>ten accompany marriage breakdown.”<br />
In 1988, Evatt became president <strong>of</strong> the Australian Law Reform Commission<br />
and chancellor <strong>of</strong> the University <strong>of</strong> Newcastle. She was the first Australian<br />
elected to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and was a judge<br />
<strong>of</strong> the World Bank Administrative Tribunal and a commissioner <strong>of</strong> the<br />
International Committee <strong>of</strong> Jurists.<br />
115
The <strong>Power</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>100</strong>. One hundred women who have shaped Australia.<br />
Stephanie Alexander Teresa Alfonsi Margaret Alston Betty Archdale Gillian Armstrong Tilly Aston Marie Bashir<br />
Layne Beachley Susan Beal Dame Beryl Beaurepaire Dame Alice Berry Elizabeth Blackburn Cate Blanchett<br />
Raelene Boyle Elizabeth Broderick Quentin Bryce Vivian Bullwinkel Eva Burrows Ita Buttrose Jan Cameron<br />
Mary Bertha Carter Dawn Casey Caroline Chisholm Suzanne Cory Margaret Court Edith Cowan Eva Cox<br />
Betty Cuthbert Marjorie Dalgarno Elizabeth Evatt Miles Franklin Dawn Fraser Cathy Freeman Mary Gaudron<br />
May Gibbs Julia Gillard Peggy Glanville-Hicks Vida Goldstein Evonne Goolagong-Cawley Jean Hailes Janine<br />
Haines Gabi Hollows Janet Holmes à Court Sister Elizabeth Kenny Jill Ker Conway Nicole Kidman Priscilla<br />
Kincaid-Smith Joan Kirner Emily Kame Kngwarreye Katie Lahey Louisa Lawson Catherine Livingstone Helen<br />
Lynch Dame Enid Lyons Elizabeth Macarthur Elizabeth Macquarie Eve Mahlab Tania Major Naomi Mayers<br />
Wendy McCarthy Kim McKay Florence McKenzie Saint Mary MacKillop Dame Nellie Melba Naomi Milgrom<br />
Dame Roma Mitchell Lucy Morice Sam Mostyn Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Juliana Nkrumah Oodgeroo Noonuccal<br />
Margaret Olley Lucy Osburn Mary Penfold Eileen Pittaway Lady Primrose Potter Mary Reibey Gina Rinehart<br />
Joan Rosanove Sarina Russo Edna Ryan Louise Sauvage Carol Schwartz Ann Sherry Fiona Stanley Jessie<br />
Street Dame Joan Sutherland Lyn Swinburne Valerie Taylor Truganini Jessie Vasey Nancy Wake Edna Walling<br />
Nancy Bird Walton Marion Webster Helen Williams Tammy Williams Fiona Wood Rose Yeung Carla Zampatti