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- LEADERS
OF MEN:
- Women
pioneers in Australian local government
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- Grace
Benny was Australia's first woman member of a local government
council when appointed to Brighton Council's newly created ward
of Seacliff in South Australia on 22 December 1919. Other women
followed in her footsteps as first female councillors and aldermen
in their respective states. In 1920 Mary Rogers was elected to
Victoria's Richmond City council and a month later Elizabeth Clapham
to Western Australia's Cottesloe Town council. Queensland's first
female councillor was Dr Ellen Kent-Hughes, elected to Kingaroy
shire in 1925. Queensland also produced other women firsts - Petronel
White, the first woman to represent an Australian capital city
council, when elected to a Brisbane ward in 1949; while 1985 saw
the appointment of Brisbane's first female Lord Mayor, Sallyanne
Atkinson.
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- Elected
in 1928 to Newtown municipal council, New South Wales' first female
alderman was Lilian Fowler, later to become Australia's first
woman mayor. NSW also produced Australia's first female Lord Mayor,
Her Worship Alderman Joy Cummings when elected to Newcastle City
Council in 1974. Dorothy E Edwards, Tasmania's first alderman,
was elected to Launceston City in 1950.
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- In
1951 the Australian Local Government Women's Association (ALGWA)
was formed. Unique in the world, it is an association of local
government women helping other women to join them.
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- International
Women's Year - 1975 - saw Western Australia and the Northern Territory
elect their first women mayors, Councillor Evelyn H Parker of
Subiaco and Dr Ella Stack of Darwin City respectively.
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- There
are conflicting accounts regarding the identity of Australia's
first woman town and shire clerk (or shire secretary), the senior
executive roles in local government. Miss Norma Male has been
quoted as being both first female town clerk (1944-1956) and shire
clerk (1957-1974) at NSW Balranald Municipal, later Shire Council.
However in Victoria, Mary Beatrice Scott has been named as the
first female town clerk when appointed at Echuca in 1928 while
Eva West, Australia's first qualified woman accountant, has been
billed Victoria's (and possibly Australia's) first female shire
secretary when appointed at Traralgon in 1935.
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- Australia's
first woman shire engineer was Miss Esme E Martens when appointed
to Woodburn Shire Council in NSW in 1967. The 1970s saw the appointment
of the first female shire coroners, town planning officers, health
and building inspectors.
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- Some
first women in local
government...
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 - Holdfast
Bay History Centre
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- (SUSAN)
GRACE BENNY (1872-1944)
- Australia's
first female member of a local government was
appointed to the Seacliff ward of South
Australia's Brighton Council in
1919.
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 - NSW
Local Government Women's
Association
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- (ELIZABETH)
LILIAN FOWLER (1886-1954)
- Australia's
first woman mayor when elected to Newtown
Municipal Council in 1938, she had been NSW's
first female alderman when first appointed ten
years prior.
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 - Queensland
Women's Historical
Association
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- PETRONEL
WHITE
- The
first woman to represent a capital city council
in Australia, she was elected alderman to the
Hamilton ward of the Brisbane City Council in
1949.
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 - Darwin
City Council
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- ELLA
M STACK
- The
Northern Territory's first woman mayor when
appointed in 1975, she also became Darwin City
Council's first Lord Mayor from
1979-1980.
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 - Newcastle
Region Library (Hunter History
Collection)
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- JOY
CUMMINGS
- Australia's
first female Lord Mayor, Alderman Cummings
headed NSW's Newcastle City Council from
1974-1976 and then again from
1978-1983.
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 - The
Advertiser, Adelaide
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- WENDY
CHAPMAN
- Appointed
in Adelaide in 1983, she was the first woman Lord Mayor of an
Australian State capital city.
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