Today is International Women’s Day and we’re highlighting some of our favourite females in Australian history, shared through the lens of the incredible women who are part of the Queensland Museum Network team. Our collections are full of amazing stories and we’re thrilled to be able to share them with you to celebrate this special day. 

Jennifer Wilson, Senior Curator, Transport Energy and Science
Favourite piece of history: Lores Bonney, who is featured in the Anzac Legacy Gallery at Queensland Museum, was a pioneering aviatrix who dodged death on a number of record-breaking solo flights across the globe during the First World War. During her aviation career, Lores completed the longest one-day flight by an airwoman (Brisbane to Wangaratta), was the first woman to circumnavigate Australia by air, the first woman to fly from Australia to England, and the first to fly from Australia to South Africa. She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 1991. The Bonney Trophy, which she presented in England, is still awarded annually to an outstanding female British pilot.

Geraldine Mate, Principal Curator, History, Industry and Technology
Favourite piece of history:  This microscope belonged to Professor Dorothy Hill, renowned palaeontologist and geologist from Taringa, Brisbane. Her approach to scientific inquiry, particularly her research on fossil corals, led to a long and successful career. In one of many firsts, she was the first woman to be elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Dorothy became Australia’s first female professor in 1959 when she became Professor of Geology at the University of Queensland. She also became the first Australian woman Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (1956), the Royal Society of London (1965), and the first female president of the Australian Academy of Science (1970). The Dorothy Hill Medal honours her contributions to Australian Earth science and her work in opening up tertiary science education to women.

Judith Hickson, Curator, Social History
Favourite piece of history: In 2017 it was the 50 year anniversary of the 1967 referendum, which saw Australians uniting to vote 90.77% ‘yes’ to changing the constitution to include Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islanders in the population count. Commissioned by Australia Post to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the historic date, a commemorative stamp was launched in Canberra on 24 May 2017 by then Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Nigel Scullion. The commissioning and unveiling of the stamp was a historic occasion, bring together representatives of younger generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, surviving campaigners, their families and Government representatives. The chosen stamp design was by Rachael Sarra, a Goreng Goreng woman, artist and designer at Brisbane-based creative agency Gilimbaa. 

“… without the courage and determination of the original campaigners, all our lives could have been so different” – Rachael Sarra

Barbara Baehr, Arachnologist and ABRS Research Fellow
Favourite piece of history:  In 2014, Queensland Museum scientists honoured wildlife warrior and conservation icon Terri Irwin by naming a new species of spider after her. The spider, Leichhardteus terriirwinae, was discovered by Dr Barbara Baehr and senior curator Dr Robert Raven in the Mt Aberdeen region in North East Queensland. The tiny spider is predominantly brown, with white legs and three white stripes…but don’t expect to easily find it as it’s less than seven millimetres long. The tenacity of the small spider was what led Barbara to name it in honour of Terri Irwin.

“We named this specific swift spider after Terri Irwin because Terri is a fast and straight thinking woman and we could not think of a more appropriate name for this slender and fast moving spider” – Barbara Baehr

Candice Badinski, Communications Coordinator
Favourite piece of history: Thancoupie Tapich Gloria Fletcher AO (1937-2011), best known simply as Thancoupie, was a leading figure in the Indigenous ceramic movement in Australia, and one of North Queensland’s foremost contemporary artists. In a career spanning four decades, she held over fifteen solo exhibitions in Australia and internationally, became Australia’s first Indigenous solo ceramic artist, and was the first Indigenous Australian to complete a tertiary degree in the arts.  Today Thancoupie’s sculptures are represented in a number of major institutions across the country, and she is remembered as a pioneer for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. In 2014, Queensland Museum curators purchased The Legends of Albatross Bay (Weipa Story) – a cast aluminium sculpture that narrates the history and legends of the artist’s home at Napranum in Weipa, Western Cape York.  The sculpture was an exciting acquisition, as the work represents not only one of the final chapters in Thancoupie’s career but also offers added depth to the museum’s existing collection of the artist’s work.

Karen Kindt, Collection Manager, Anthropology
Favourite piece of history: Irene Longman, who in 1929 became our first female sitting member in the Queensland Parliament.  Irene was married to one of our very own at the museum, Heber A. Longman, the longest serving Queensland Museum Director (1918 to 1945).  For over thirty years, Irene involved herself in public life, in a professional and voluntary capacity, working on issues relating to the welfare of women and children, town planning and the preservation of flora and fauna. Queensland Museum holds correspondence dated 20 March 1928 from Dr de Rautenfeld in which he gifted two brooches, one for the museum’s collection and one as a personal gift for Irene. On display in Anzac Legacy Gallery, we also have a tablecloth used as a fundraiser for peace that Irene was instrumental in implementing.