The women and places of HerStory

• About Olive Zakharov

  Olive Zakharov entered Parliament in 1983 and served as an Australian Labor Party senator for Victoria until her death in 1995. Olive worked in a range of occupations, including as a secondary school teacher, to make ends meet. Senator Zakharov was a single parent in an era without much social support. and spoke from personal experience when championing the rights of the disadvantaged. She chaired the Senate Committee on Community Affairs for seven years.

  In 1988, Zakharov represented the Australian peace movement at a ceremony in the Soviet Union to witness the destruction of nuclear weapons as part of a US/USSR nuclear disarmament agreement. She was the only foreign parliamentarian present.

  In the Senate, Zakharov was one of the early voices for affirmative action and sex discrimination legislation. She was unashamedly a feminist and spoke openly about issues like sexual harassment in the workplace, and how women get paid less than men and have fewer opportunities than men. At the launch of a national campaign against domestic violence, Zakharov spoke publicly about her experiences in a violent relationship for over ten years prior to her divorce.

  Olive was an educator in the broadest sense. Following her unexpected death as a result of an accident, the Senate sat for over two hours to hear condolence motions.

  Source: Olive Zakharov | Monument Australia

• About Norma Barnett

  Norma Barnett came to Port Melbourne in 1953 to work at the Melbourne City Mission. The Mission had been established a century earlier to help the thousands of immigrants who had flocked to Victoria in the gold rush, failed to make their fortune and were stranded, destitute.

  The Mission’s 1906 Jubilee Hall stood behind the Fountain Inn (now The Cornerstone). Here Norma – in her first decades known to the community as Sister Barnett – held Bible classes and religious services, fed the homeless, ran popular boys’ and girls’ clubs and looked after disadvantaged people in Port Melbourne in whatever way she could. She organised hot breakfasts for dozens of homeless men to enjoy, once they’d heard her preach.

  She rode her scooter around the streets helping children, teenagers, families and the homeless.

  From her arrival until the Mission closed in 1967, she ran this centre with a firm hand, good humour and bottomless compassion.

  One of the many she befriended during the Jubilee Hall years was Janne Ray, a struggling mum who lived over the Railway line in narrow Alfred Street. Her elder son Paul, a member of the Mission’s boys’ club, gave Norma the family nickname ‘Barney’, because she was short and round, like the television character Barney Rubble.

  Norma and Janne (pronounced Yanni) formed so close a friendship that they came to consider themselves as adopted sisters, with Norma as part of the Ray family.

  Norma had a great sense of fun. She was an active, well-loved volunteer at the Port Melbourne Neighbourhood House where she would often ask ‘How’s the neighbourhood?’ as if taking the pulse of the community. She served wisely on several community management committees and was a foundation member of the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society. She was especially noted for her powerful talent as an entertainer, starring for years in spangles and sequins with the all-inclusive theatrical troupe, City of Voices.

  All that enthusiastic community guidance, volunteering and performance continued even after Norma was afflicted by Parkinson’s Disease which caused increasing pain.

  She had her own apartment in Tom Hills Court but as she grew weaker and neared the end of her life, Norma moved in with the Ray family where she could be looked after by Janne, her daughters Tracey and Jillian and sons Paul and Neil. Her many loving friends from the community came often to visit her bedside at Folly Cottage with good cheer and local news, until she died.

  Following a request to City of Port Phillip to rename the lane between Raglan St and Davies St to Raglan Lane, and with several other Raglans already in the City, Council took soundings from the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society, which put forward Norma Barnett’s name. Following a decision by Council, it was gazetted on 3 August 2006.

  The lane is a stone’s throw, less than 100 metres from the Mission where Norma gave such great service to the Port Melbourne community.

  Source: Norma Barnett Lane – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society (pmhps.org.au)

  Edited from the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society Women of Port calendar 2021.

• About Doris Condon

  This lane was named for Doris Condon to honour her remarkable contributions to South Melbourne. 

  Doris Catherine Forsyth was born in 1908 in Melbourne. In 1917 her family moved to Mildura when her father was granted a soldier-settlement block. She married Arthur Condon and together they operated a bus service between Mildura and Bendigo. They were forced to close the business due to the 1942 petrol restrictions and the family relocated to South Melbourne.  

  Condon was a member of the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Local Government Women's Association of which she was national president from 1971-1972. In 1957 she became a Justice of the Peace and joined the Women's Committee of the Honorary Justices Association, and from 1970 also served on the committee of the United Nations Association. 

  She was a strong advocate for disadvantaged women, immigrants and public housing. After her election to the South Melbourne Council in 1962 and subsequent appointment as Mayor in 1969, she pressed the Council to establish Victoria’s first municipal family planning clinic. She also supported the Park Towers Housing Project due to her concern for vulnerable women and children.  

  Condon served as a councillor for 12 years and in 1975 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of her service to local government.  She retired from the council in 1974 and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (A.M.) in 1975. Survived by her husband and four sons, she died on 25 March 1979 at her South Melbourne home.

• About Edythe McCallum

  This reserve is named in honour of Edythe McCallum in recognition of her contribution to our local community. In almost 20 years as municipal social worker for the City of South Melbourne (1962-1981), Edythe made an outstanding contribution as a pioneer in social planning and community development. She was an early proponent and strong advocate of the importance of planning for people to create vibrant and healthy communities. She played a significant role in ensuring the Emerald Hill Estate was restored and retained as affordable housing for local people. South Melbourne now has the most diverse range of social housing of any inner-city area, in large part due to her collaborative work and advocacy with the State Housing Authority on behalf of council and the community.

  Edythe was appointed to the position of municipal social worker at a time when very few councils employed qualified social workers, or women with professional qualifications. Only a small number of councils delivered community services. Edythe, in her position at Council, worked closely with Victorian and Australian governments to influence the models and funding for those community services, particularly services to elderly residents. These services were later delivered by local governments across Victoria. Following her retirement in 1981, Edythe continued on the Crawford Court Committee of Management, a local program providing affordable housing for older people (1979-1994) and the Committee of Management of South Port Community Nursing Home, now CASPA Care.

• About Lilian Cannam

  Lilian Cannam Kindergarten has been operating in the South Melbourne area since 1922.  The kindergarten is one of the oldest in Victoria and was named after its founder and first President, Lilian Cannam.

  It opened at its current location in 1931, four years after Cannam received an £850 council grant to buy land on Eastern Road.

  In 1920, the Rev. William Cannam, the new appointed Minister to the South Melbourne Methodist Mission in Park Street, who was concerned about the number of needy children in his care, began dispensing a free breakfast to children on Sunday mornings. His wife, Lilian, was interested in the Free Kindergarten movement and it was due to her efforts that a free kindergarten was opened in the Church Hall in 1922. It was affiliated with the Free Kindergarten Union (FKU) and in March 1924 it was officially named the Lilian Cannam Kindergarten with Lilian as first president (Record, 26 June 1971, p.3).

  On April 27, 1931, the kindergarten moved to its present site on land provided by the South Melbourne Council. The new building, designed by architect, Harry A. Norris, was erected at a cost of £2,800, which was raised by the committee, under Lillian’s leadership. The building was opened by Lady Somers, the wife of the then Governor of Victoria.

  Lilian Cannam remained President of the kindergarten until her death in 1948. Her contribution was remembered in a newspaper article published on the 49th anniversary of the kindergarten in 1971:

  She had nursed the kindergarten through many difficult years – including those of the Depression – and was always hampered by lack of finances. Throughout the Annual Reports a clear picture of this wonderful woman emerges. Her spirit of service, her ability to find support and sustain it, her qualities of leadership, and her friendly kindliness and appreciation of the needs of pre-school children – these are an inspiration to all who follow her. (Record, 26 June 1971, p.3).

• About Maria Starcevic

  Maria Starcevic was torn from her mother’s arms when she was one month old and placed in St Vincent De Paul Orphanage for Girls in South Melbourne. At the age of sixteen, Maria ran away to Sydney to make her own way in the world. She said that it was not until she was an adult that she found out ‘she was a Koori.’

  Maria returned to South Melbourne where she raised her family and became an advocate for the Aboriginal community and their rights. Her testimony was one of the main stories given to the Royal Commission into the Stolen Generation. Maria’s story is available from the Stolen Generations Testimonies website. 

  In 2002, Maria and her friend, artist Julie Shiels, worked together to develop a bronze sculpture that told her story. The isolation and rigidity of her convent life is illustrated by a hard back chair, located in a tiny park just outside the orphanage. The seat of the chair is inscribed with Maria’s story in the perfect script that she learnt from the nuns. The small shoes represent confinement as little feet were often squashed into shoes that were too small for them. In Maria’s case, they also symbolize an upbringing separated from her family and culture.

  Source: Julie Shiels and Reconciliation Manningham Facebook.

• About Mary MacKillop

  St. Mary MacKillop was born on 15 January 1842 in Melbourne and died 8 August 1909 in Sydney. She was canonised on 17 October 2010. Mary was a religious figure, educator, and social reformer who was the first Australian beatified by the Roman Catholic Church and the first Australian to be recognised as one of its saints.

  Mary MacKillop was born in Australia to poor Scottish immigrants. Her father was a former seminarian whose ill health had caused him to abandon study for the priesthood. He stressed the importance of education and homeschooled his eight children. When she was 14, MacKillop began working, and she was often her family’s main source of financial support. In 1860, she moved to the small rural town of Penola to serve as governess for the children of her aunt and uncle. MacKillop provided her cousins with a basic education and soon extended this to the poor children of the town. A young priest, Father Julian Tenison Woods, encouraged her to continue this work, assuring her that educating the poor would be an ideal way to serve God.

  In 1866, MacKillop and Woods founded Australia’s first order of nuns, the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart. She also established St. Joseph’s School in a converted stable in Penola, providing a free education to children from the area. In 1867, MacKillop took vows and became the first mother superior of the sisters. The following year the sisters opened schools in other Australian cities, as well as an orphanage and a refuge for women released from prison.

  Much of MacKillop’s career was marked by clashes with priests and bishops of the Australian church. After an 1873 meeting with Pope Pius IX, she won papal approval for the Josephite rule, with modifications that relaxed the degree of poverty imposed upon the sisters. MacKillop expanded the order’s educational and charitable endeavours and attracted new sisters. In 1875, she was appointed superior general of the order. Despite her elevation, she continued to meet with hostility from many priests and bishops, and the sisters’ work was restricted in certain cities. In 1885, she was removed as superior general, though she was reinstated in 1899 and remained at the head of the order until her death.

  In June 1995, MacKillop was beatified by Pope John Paul II. In February 2010, Pope Benedict XVI recognized MacKillop as a saint. She was canonised that October.

  Source: Matt Stefon, Encyclopaedia Britannica: Saint Mary MacKillop | Biography, Patron Saint Of, Feast Day, Facts, & Miracles | Britannica

• About Nell McLarty BEM

  Although born in Western Australia, Nell played her cricket in Victoria, first for Clarendon in 1929, before moving to Collingwood in 1931. Captain of both Collingwood and Victoria, Nell was selected to play for Australia in the very first women’s Test match, against England in Brisbane in December 1934.

  Nell was a noted medium fast bowler lower order batter, but her athletic fielding is where she really stood out, either close to the bat or off her own bowling. In her report of the 1937 tour to England, captain Margaret Peden wrote:

  “Nell McLarty was called upon to do an immense amount of bowling, but worked untiringly at all times. She always kept the rate of scoring down, bowled 140 maidens out of 358 overs, 100 overs more than any other bowler, securing 34 wickets at an average of 16.4. She was hailed as a great fieldsman, taking 21 catches, mostly at silly mid-on or when bowling.”

  A crippling spinal disease upon her return to Australia put an end to Nell’s cricket career. In 1948/9, the touring England team played the 1930s Australian team in a charity match to raise funds for Nell.

  McLarty’s body might have given up on cricket, but Nell herself didn’t and she began to coach girls on Sunday mornings. She began to get a reputation and was soon churning out some big names; former Australian captains Miriam Knee, Mary Allitt, Sharon Tredrea, former Australian players Loraine Kutcher, Liz Amos, Jan Tredrea, Betty Wilson. That’s just a small sample from a very long list.

  Nell’s five test career is not full of outstanding numbers. Eleven wickets at 20.36 with a best of 3-29, and just 66 runs with the bat. Eight catches. However, she would have been the first player picked for the team in her era and her true value is the immense amount she gave to the game through her coaching. Speak with any player who worked with Nell and their love, affection and praise for her is overflowing. Nell passed away in December 1998.

  Source: Nell McLarty - TAWC (talkinaboutwomenscricket.com)

• About the Women’s Welcoming Committee

  The Women’s Welcoming Committee (WWC), also known as the Women’s Welcome Home Committee, was established in Port Melbourne in August 1915 to welcome home every troop ship that arrived at the piers of Port Melbourne with banners, food and gifts. Each Port Melbourne Mayoress took on the role of WWC President. Seeing these men, damaged in body and mind, was a terrible shock to the women who thought they were welcoming back the same bright young men whom they had farewelled. In 1918, the WWC organised the building of a Band Rotunda on Beach Street, Port Melbourne – one of the earliest Great War memorials in Australia.

  Women of the Cities of Port Melbourne, South Melbourne and St Kilda began mobilising as soon as war was declared. Their dedicated, collective efforts were fundamental to the home front.

  The ethos of the Women's Welcoming Committee was that they were a self-organised collective of equals. No one woman was more important than any other. Not only did they support wounded and other returning soldiers but the same group also rallied to support families immediately after the war as the various waves of the "Spanish Flu" impacted Port Melbourne.

  Sources: home-front-trail-web-friendly-version.pdf (portphillip.vic.gov.au) and David Radcliffe, City of Port Phillip Cultural Heritage Reference Committee

• About the World War 1 Nurses

  Peter Corlett, OAM, Australia’s leading commemorative sculptor designed and created this important memorial to the essential role of Lemnos in Australia’s Anzac story and to the role of the Australian nurses there during the Gallipoli campaign.

  The location of the Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial Statue in the Municipality of Port Phillip is particularly relevant. This municipality has many links not only with Australia’s Anzac legend but also with Lemnos and its role in the Gallipoli campaign. They are linked by the soldiers from Port Phillip who served on the Island and those who remain buried there (such as Corporal George Knight of Albert Park and Driver Ralph Berryman of South Melbourne). They are linked through Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Wilson, the Doctor from Albert Park and the Port Phillip nurses who served there (such as Staff Nurses Victoria Emilie Drewett and Clarice Jessie Daley, of Port Melbourne and Elwood respectively). They cared for the sick and wounded Anzacs, including those from Port Phillip (like Captain Harold Burke of St Kilda). And through the famous Anzac soldiers and nurses who were there too – like Corporal Albert Jacka VC, a future Mayor of St Kilda and Matron Grace Wilson, of the third Australian General Hospital and the future of Matron of the Alfred Hospital. And of course, Port Melbourne welcomed Victoria’s new arrivals from Greece in the 1950’s.

  Source: Lemnos-Gallipoli-Memorial.pdf (archive.vic.gov.au)

• About Aileen ‘Mac’ Kennedy BEM

  Aileen ‘Mac’ Kennedy BEM was a great role model to women in both lifesaving and athletics, breaking through male dominated barriers and mentoring women in these fields.

  Mac can be seen to have left a tangible legacy for the community through reforming the South Melbourne Life Saving Club and serving as secretary for 36 years. Without her contribution, the club may well not exist to provide the valuable service to the City of Port Phillip and the wider beach going community.

  Already well known in the community, Albert Park resident Aileen Kennedy (affectionately known as ‘Mac’) was approached by the South Melbourne Council to reform the South Melbourne Life Saving Club following the tragic drowning of two children on the foreshore in 1944. She, together with her husband Abe and several other local community members, met and agreed to reactivate the club that had declined over time since the Depression and the impact of World War Two. Mac was elected to the position of secretary in 1944, a position which she held until her death in 1980. She was made a life member of the South Melbourne Life Saving Club in 1957.

  Mac was recognised on multiple occasions by the Royal Life Saving Society through its Commonwealth and UK headquarters, receiving the Recognition Badge in 1956, Service Cross in 1968 and bar in 1978, Certificate of Merit in 1973 and was made a Life Member of RLSS (Victoria Branch) in 1961/62.

  She was also on the inaugural committee of the South Melbourne Community Chest, formed the South Port Women’s Amateur Athletic Association. She also formed the Melbourne Suburban Beaches Association which provided support to smaller lifesaving clubs. It was due to Mac’s campaigning that a second story to the club was erected in 1962.

  Mac was not only prominent in lifesaving but also in athletic associations, and was the first female to hold the position of starter in the Commonwealth Games in Perth in 1962. Such positions were only previously held by men. Mac had over 45 years of service to Victorian Women’s Amateur Athletic Association including holding positions of President, Vice President and Social Secretary, the latter raising thousands of dollars to assist the sport. She received the British Empire Medal (BEM) in 1972 for meritorious service to lifesaving, athletics and the community.

  The South Melbourne Life Saving Club (SMLSC) celebrated the official opening of its new home on 2 November 2019. It was named after Aileen Kennedy BEM and is now referred to as the Aileen Kennedy Pavilion.

  Source: Ordinary Meeting of Council, 16 October 2019, Naming of South Melbourne Life Saving Club: Microsoft Word – ORD_16102019_AGN_AT.DOCX (portphillip.vic.gov.au)

• About Mary Kehoe BEM

  Mary Kehoe BEM, a teacher and mother of six children, was one of many women of the Home Help Auxiliary of South Melbourne which was established in 1947. This group worked tirelessly to help local sick, underprivileged and elderly citizens by providing food and other home help. She also served as President of the Auxiliary for many years.

  A club and canteen for senior citizens was opened on the corner of Park Street and Ferrars Place in 1949 using two relocated ex-army huts with money provided by the South Melbourne Community Chest and the former South Melbourne Council (now City of Port Phillip). Mary Kehoe managed its canteen for twelve years, providing meals for those in need, including many World War I veterans.

  In 1953, Mary Kehoe was instrumental in establishing Australia’s first Meals on Wheels service in South Melbourne after learning of similar activities in England. The first meals were delivered in a tricycle painted in the South Melbourne Council colours of red and white.

  In 1974, this Albert Park property was purchased by the City of South Melbourne to provide a place for the Elderly Citizens Club to host activities.

  In 1981, she was awarded the British Empire Medal for “outstanding service in many charitable fields and, in particular, to the elderly citizens of South Melbourne”.

  Mary Kehoe’s work was honoured in the naming of this Senior Citizens’ Centre in Danks Street, Albert Park, in 1984.

• About Esther and Betty Paterson

  Artists Esther (1892-1971) and Elizabeth (Betty) (1894-1970) Paterson both lived in this Middle Park home as children. Esther remained there with her husband until her death, and Betty lived with them for some years.

  Esther Paterson was born on 5 February 1892 in Carlton, Melbourne. She was the second child of Scottish-born artist Hugh Paterson, and Elizabeth Leslie, née Deans. Esther's uncle was artist John Ford Paterson was and her cousin was dramatist Louis Esson. She was educated at Oberwyl school, St Kilda, and studied painting at the National Gallery of Victoria school in 1907-12 under Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin.

  Esther was the youngest of a distinguished group of students which included Penleigh Boyd, Stella Marks, Frank Crozier and Louis McCubbin. Best known for her street-scenes and landscapes, she found, she also excelled in commercial art, book-illustrating and cartooning. Her portraits of uniformed and civilian officers, including Rear Admiral (Sir) Victor Crutchley and Commodore (Sir) John Collins, were reproduced in the H.M.A.S. series and in magazines, and have been shown at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. Examples of her work are held at the National Gallery of Victoria, the Geelong Art Gallery and City of Port Phillip.

  Betty Paterson was best known for her paintings of babies and young children. Among her notable clients were Her Majesty the Queen, Queen Juliana of Holland, King Peter of Yugoslavia, the Duchess of Kent, and the Crown Princess of Japan. Additionally, she painted portraits for Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Bing Crosby, Shirley Temple, and Maurice Chevalier. Betty also painted the children of Mr. and Mrs. Robin Byrne, grandchildren of Sir Dallas and Lady Brooks, at Government House. In the commercial field, a painting of one of her baby faces was selected by the Chicago firm of Dupont for world-wide advertising of their preparations.

  Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography: Biography - Esther Paterson - Australian Dictionary of Biography (anu.edu.au)

• About Auntie Judy Hanley

  Auntie Judy Hanley was a Taungurung woman who was raised in impoverished conditions in country Victoria, and in the suburbs of Melbourne.  Despite her lack of worldly possessions, she became widely known for her generosity and richness of spirit. Her genuine compassion and empathy for people led her to become a university qualified drug and alcohol professional by trade. But her heart broadened the scope of her work into many aspects of social justice and human welfare. She was only interested in the people she met as individuals and their immediate needs. Auntie Judy genuinely cared and always had a viable plan on how to deliver meaningful help.  She was never dissuaded by a person’s race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.  Auntie Judy was only interested in making bad situations better, seeing hurt people healed, and community supports put in place to transform the world around her into a better place. St Kilda is now a kinder and gentler place to be because she chose to love and serve the people who lived there.  

  Source: In the words of Auntie Judy’s sister, Christine Moore

• About Mirka Mora

  An artist with an unmistakable style, Mirka Mora left distinctive brush marks across Melbourne, from Flinders Street Station to Heide Museum of Modern Art. But nowhere was her touch more significant – or more visible – than in St Kilda, an area in which she lived, worked, and made art for decades. Born in France in 1928 to a Lithuanian father and a Romanian mother, she narrowly escaped Auschwitz concentration camp as a young girl. After World War Two, she married French resistance fighter Georges Mora and came to Australia with their son Philippe in 1951. The family initially lived in the heart of Melbourne at 9 Collins Street, where the Sofitel now stands, but soon relocated to St Kilda, an area Mirka would hold an affinity with for the rest of her life.

  After first opening Mirka Café in Elizabeth Street and the restaurant Balzac in East Melbourne, Mirka and Georges took over the Tolarno Bistro and Hotel in St Kilda in 1964. Tolarno was not only a restaurant but also an art gallery, studio and home for the couple and their three sons, Philippe, William and Tiriel. Breakfast and dinner were taken in the bistro at “the family table” and the boys grew up with refined taste in food. Between 1965 and 1978, Mirka painted a series of murals over the walls and windows of the restaurant, bistro, hallway and toilets. The subject matter of the artworks is deeply personal, drawing on Mirka’s heritage, her interest in literature and history, and the lives of her three children. The hotel became a favourite of Melbourne’s artistic and bohemian set, and a series of remarkable art exhibitions were held here, including Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series. The restaurant changed hands several times after 1970, though Georges continued to run the Tolarno gallery until 1979.

  In 2001, Mirka Lane was named in commemoration of the artist’s connection to the area. It is located off Barkly Street, near to where she lived.

  Mirka’s legacy lives on in St Kilda and beyond through the art she created, the stories she told, the community who embraced her, and the many ways in which we continue to celebrate her ongoing contribution to the colour and culture in our lives.

  Source: Walks in Port Phillip, Mirka’s St Kilda: mirka-mora-trail-map-mobile-friendly.pdf (portphillip.vic.gov.au)

• About Betty Day

  Betty Day volunteered at the Cora Graves Community Centre in Blessington Street, St Kilda, every day from 10 am to 4 pm for 23 years where she provided valuable help to the elderly. Not only did she feed those in need, she organised activities such as sightseeing and entertainment at a time when there were few services like this available for older people.  

  Betty was elected President of the City of St Kilda’s Elderly Persons Assistance Society in 1969 and every subsequent year until her retirement.  

  Betty Day was active in the Elwood Canal Citizens’ Vigilance Committee, successfully campaigning for an Elwood Canal drain. Her husband Barry Day pulled the lever to turn the first sod in 1955.  

  In 1981, Betty Day was awarded the British Empire Medal in honour of her generosity and hard work. She retired in August 1985 after 23 years of active service at the Centre, including some years as President. 

  The former City of St Kilda (now City of Port Phillip) honoured Betty Day by naming a purpose-built Community Centre after her in 1987.  

  The Betty Day Community Centre in Argyle Street, St Kilda, continues to serve the community by providing a daily hot lunch service and meal deliveries, as well as providing accessible space to local groups. 

• About Vida Goldstein

  Vida Jane Mary Goldstein was born on April 13, 1869, in Portland, Victoria, Australia. Both her parents were social reformers. Goldstein was well educated, and she attended the Presbyterian Ladies’ College. After her family experienced some financial troubles, Goldstein and her sisters opened a school for boys and girls in Melbourne, Victoria.

  Goldstein’s career as an activist began about 1890, when she helped her mother collect signatures for the Woman Suffrage Petition. The petition asked the government to allow women in Victoria to vote. Goldstein soon joined other social welfare activities and attended sessions at Victoria’s parliament. In 1899, Goldstein became the leader of the women’s movement in Victoria and made her first public-speaking appearance. She eventually became an impressive public speaker.

  In 1902 Australia gave women the right to vote in national elections. (However, they could not vote in state elections.) In 1903, Goldstein and three other women were the first women in the British Empire to be nominated and to stand for election to a national parliament. She lost the election but continued to fight for women’s voting rights. Australian women were finally given the right to vote in state elections in 1908.

  Goldstein ran for election to the federal parliament four more times: in 1910, 1913, 1914, and 1917. She lost every election, but she continued to work to gain equality for women. Goldstein wanted men and women to have equal property rights and equal pay. She worked with legislators to pass laws on wages and other issues important to her. She was also a founding member of the National Council of Women.

  Goldstein was active internationally as well. She attended the International Woman Suffrage Conference in the United States in 1902. She gave speeches to huge crowds in England in 1911. In 1919, she was asked to represent Australian women at a Women’s Peace Conference in Zurich, Switzerland. She was overseas for three years. When she returned to Australia, Goldstein ended her political work.

  Goldstein died on August 15 1949, in South Yarra, Victoria. She received many honours after her death. In 1984, a Melbourne electoral division was named the Division of Goldstein in her honour. In 2001, she was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

  Sources: Australian Dictionary of Biography: Biography - Vida Jane Goldstein - Australian Dictionary of Biography (anu.edu.au) and Britannica Kids: Vida Goldstein - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help

• About Aunty Alma (Alma Roach)

  St Kilda has always been an important gathering place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from all over Australia. When their gathering place in Cleve Gardens was demolished in preparation for the Grand Prix in 1996, the meeting place shifted to O’Donnell Gardens.

  Three bronze crates sit in the lee of a stone wall.

  Artist Julie Shiels recalls how the work came into being: “The idea for this work came from a conversation with Aunty Alma in 2002 when we were both sitting on plastic milk crates in St Kilda’s O’Donnell Gardens. I remarked what good seats they were but she said she often had to hunt around to find one. I suggested that we could turn them into bronze and put them in permanently.

  After that, every time I saw Aunty Alma she would say, ‘You got to do that, babe. Put it in bronze’ but raising the money was proving difficult. When she passed in April 2003, I felt even more compelled to make at least one seat for her. She was a queen of the park.”

  You would often find Aunty Alma sitting with her sister Aunty Myrtle. They spent many years there together creating memories.

  “When another well-known Elder, ‘Boom Boom’ Forbes passed the next year, everyone said Aunty Alma would get lonely just being honoured with one crate so the community banded together to find enough money to make three crates. The third is for the living.”

  Made in traditional materials of bronze and bluestone, the monument challenges the idea of the ‘heroic’ statue by transforming stolen milkcrates into a memorial for two local members of the stolen generation. These humble forms acknowledge and recognise the important roles Aunty Alma and Uncle Boom Boom played in their community and also mark a significant meeting place.  

  With thanks to: Tracey Evans (niece of Aunty Alma) and Julie Shiels (artist and friend of Aunty Alma)

  Source: Port Places, Commemorations in St Kilda: Commemorations in St Kilda - Port Places

• About Edith Cavell

  Cavell Street in St Kilda was named in honour of English nurse, Edith Cavell. In 1907, Edith was posted to Brussels to assist in establishing a modern nursing system at the Berkendael Medical Institute. At the outbreak of World War I she was left in charge of the hospital and what is now known as the Red Cross. During that time, she assisted more than 200 Belgian, British and French soldiers who had been separated from their armies, or who had escaped German detention. In 1915, she was accused of conspiring to help prisoners escape, and was tried by a military court in Brussels. She was convicted and sentenced to death, along with four others. Cavell was executed by firing squad on 12 October 1915; she was still wearing her nurse’s uniform. Her last words were: ‘I know now that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred and no bitterness towards anyone.’ Cavell’s body was returned to England in 1919, where a full military service was conducted at Westminster Abbey.

  Source: City of Melbourne, Art and Heritage Collection: Nurse Edith Cavell Memorial - City Collection (melbourne.vic.gov.au)

  “Her patriotism, courage, and dignity have caught the imagination of millions and will be commemorated for ages.” Red Cross

• About Louisa Briggs

  In 1852, the Briggs family, relations of abducted women, arrived in Victoria from Tasmania to join the gold rush:

  “For my great grandmother it was the strength of these beliefs and the belief that people could work together that helped her survive the crises our people faced when Europeans invaded her country over 160 years ago.

  My great grandmother was known by her European name, Louisa Briggs. When Louisa was a young girl she went on a journey with her mother, aunt and grandmother to what is now called Point Nepean. This is a special place with a special significance for the Boon Wurrung women.

  While they were there they were kidnapped by sealers and taken to an isolated island in Bass Strait. There they were put to work for the sealers. But at the age of 18 she took a husband and returned to her country in a small open boat.

  When she returned to her country she searched for her people, but they were no longer there. Louisa eventually found some of her people at the Coranderrk Reserve and she settled down to live there. She worked at the reserve as a matron. She became a strong political activist and her family were again forced to move because of their strong stand on land rights. They were banned from the reserve. She died in the 1920s at a very old age, but in bridging the time between the invasion of her country and the dispossession of her people she provided the cultural link, ensuring that her heritage continued to live. She continued to dream and talk about her country.

  Louisa fought oppression, racism and political inequality. Today, as we consider the act of Reconciliation, I hope that her story will inspire not only her descendants but that in the spirit of Reconciliation it will provide a model of strength that can inspire all Australians.”

  Source: Yalukit Willam, The River People of Port Phillip: Yalukit Willam, The River People of Port Phillip by The City of Port Phillip - Issuu p.20

• About Space2b Social Design

  Space2b Social Design is an art and design social enterprise. It has been established to support people seeking asylum, refugees and newly arrived migrants to become financially independent and included in the community. This is achieved through creative enterprise, workplace training and business mentoring. The hub includes a retail outlet, gallery, laneway café, design studio, training and small business space.

  Colourful murals of multicultural women adorn the side wall of the Space2b building on Chapel Street, St Kilda.

  Space2b community art programs provide opportunities for newly arrived migrants to work side-by-side with locals, co-create, exchange ideas, make connections, build skills, grow their language knowledge and become part of the Australian art community in a supportive environment. Space2b art projects and murals have helped to build a new art, culture and cuisine precinct for training and connections.

  Source: Space2b Social Design

• About Lady Forster

  Lady Rachel Forster officially opened the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children on George Street, Redfern NSW on 22 August 1925. The hospital was a general medical and surgical hospital that was run by women, for women, providing services including training for female doctors and nurses. The pioneering hospital, which became a public hospital in 1930, helped break down prejudice against women doctors by employing them and offering honorary positions and senior roles. In the second half of the twentieth century, the hospital became a nurse training facility and a centre for excellence in breast cancer treatment and orthopaedic surgery before closing in 2000.

  The Lady Forster Kindergarten in Elwood was named to honour her, and her great interest in the welfare of women and children.

  Sources: Dictionary of Sydney: Rachel Forster Hospital | The Dictionary of Sydney

Other women of interest

• Jennie Baines

  Jennie Baines was an activist and supporter of women’s advancement in every way. Since there is no location that bears her name, she could not be included on the HerStory map. However, we do know that Jennie and her husband George lived behind his bootmaker’s shop at approximately 99 Bay Street and later in a house at 12 Sandridge Avenue.

  We are currently working on a submission to name a laneway off Heath St, Port Melbourne as Baines Lane after Jennie.

  Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society has also been collecting some additional material about her for Bruce Shearer who is writing the play ‘Jennie’ to be performed at Gasworks Theatre in August 2024.

• Miss Elsie Holmes

  Miss Elise Holmes was founder and organiser of the Busy Bees during World War I, an organisation that made a significant contribution to the welfare of local men serving overseas. She organised the women employees of Swallow and Ariels where she was also employed. The most appropriate location to mark for her would be the Swallow’s administrative building on the corner of Rouse Street and Stokes Streets.

  There is further information about Miss Elise Holmes on the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society’s website: Miss Elsie Holmes – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society (pmhps.org.au)

• Liana Thompson

  Liana Thompson was the first Mayor of Port Phillip, following a period of no elected local government. There is a plaque with her name on Port Melbourne Town Hall. Liana was also the last Mayor of Port Melbourne.

  Source: David Radcliffe, City of Port Phillip Cultural Heritage Reference Committee

• Ailsa O’Connor

  Ailsa O'Connor was born in Victoria in 1921. When she began her art training, there were only five trainee art teachers for the whole of Victoria.

  Like many other women at the time, she put her own struggles aside to campaign for humanitarian causes. Ailsa, and her associates who founded the Union of Australian Women, lived the feminist principle that 'politics is the personal'.

  Like many other women her 'bit of sketching' fit round the edges of family and work, the struggle to survive. While for many years she was an art teacher in government secondary schools, including Flemington High, she also found time to organise the Asian Australian Child Art Exchange in 1953-56 - a brave attempt to counter the Cold War and anti-Asian climate of the time. Later she exhibited her drawings and sculptures, completing a number of commissions.

  Ailsa O'Connor linked her art to society, both the themes she developed in her art and in the essays she wrote to explain the role of art in society.

  One of Ailsa’s sculptures is on display in the St Kilda Library.

  Ailsa died in her late fifties, her potential not fully realised. Fifty years ago, Ailsa was a founding member of the Union of Australian Women and remained active on behalf of working women till her death in 1980.

  Source: Ailsa O'Connor | vic.gov.au (www.vic.gov.au)

• Florence Place

  There is a mystery surrounding one of the few streets bearing a woman’s name: “Florence Place”, that runs between Nott Street and Stokes Street in Port Melbourne.

  Where the name Florence came from remains a mystery. So far, no one named Florence with links to those who owned the parcel of land, or the cottages has emerged from historical records. Perhaps the name honours Florence Nightingale; perhaps we will never know who Florence was.

  See article by David Radcliffe about it on the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society website: Florence Place (& Britain Street) – Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society (pmhps.org.au)