Wearing her well: The power of women’s history weaves through this fab collab – peppermint magazine

Newcastle Ladies Surf Club (NSW)

One of Australia’s earliest women-led surf lifesaving clubs, the Newcastle Ladies Surf Club helped carve out space for women in surf culture long before it was welcomed or encouraged. Their members patrolled beaches, competed in carnivals and challenged ideas about where women belonged, all while wearing heavy woollen swimsuits in the Australian sun. (Heroic in itself!) Following a successful rescue demonstration at Bondi Beach in 1908, the all-male NSW Surf Life Saving Association subsequently banned women from taking part in surf competitions. Without the ability to compete or officially patrol, the groundbreaking club eventually faded into history. It was not until July 1980 that women were officially permitted to join Australian surf lifesaving clubs as fully qualified, patrolling holders.

Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner (QLD)

What would you do for the right to enjoy a cold brew in public? (Or even a glass of bubbles?) In 1965, Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner chained themselves to the public bar rail at Brisbane’s Regatta Hotel in protest against laws preventing women from drinking in public bars. The action became one of Australia’s defining feminist protests, helping challenge the deeply normalised sexism of the era, and eventually resulting in the repeal of section 59A of the Queensland Liquor Act in 1970.

Dr Ella Stack (NT)

Doctor, politician and Darwin’s first female Lord Mayor, Dr Ella Stack became a crucial figure in the city’s recovery following Cyclone Tracy in 1974. Practical, resilient and community-minded, she helped guide Darwin through one of the most devastating natural disasters in Australian history.

Jean Robertson and Kathleen Howell (WA)

“As someone who loves travelling myself; I was definitely inspired by the lives of Jean Robertson and Kathleen Howell,” says Emma. “They were the first women to drive across Australia (with their dog Barney in tow) in 1927. They mapped large areas of central Australia, and were instrumental in the development of the road trip as a popular Australian pastime.”

Tarenorerer (TAS)

Also known as Walyer, Tarenorerer was a Tasmanian Aboriginal resistance leader who was kidnapped in her teens and sold to white sealers on the Bass Strait, and subsequently led a guerrilla campaign against British colonists during the Black War between 1828 and 1830. Because no verified image of her exists, Emma chose to represent her within the print using a raised fist symbol instead of a portrait.

South Australian Suffragettes (SA)

In 1894, South Australian women achieved a world-first victory when legislation passed granting women both the right to vote and the right to stand for Parliament. The achievement placed South Australia at the forefront of women’s political rights globally.

Joyce Barry (VIC)

Sita’s just moved to Naarm/Melbourne, and has a “real soft spot” for Joyce Barry. “She became Australia’s first female tram driver in 1975, but only after a 19-year fight. Women had worked the trams as conductors since World War II, and were even paid the same as men. Joyce had grown up felling trees, driving tractors and milking cows on her brother’s dairy farm, so when she was told women couldn’t handle a tram, she called it ‘complete balderdash.’ She kept asking why she couldn’t drive – and in 1956 she trained as one. In response, a snap strike was called and women were formally banned from becoming tram drivers. It took until a 1975 union meeting, where she stood up and said the line that should never have needed saying: ‘I don’t need a penis to drive a bloody tram.’ Later that year, she drove out of Essendon Depot on equal pay as Australia’s first female tram driver. She drove for seven years and conducted for twenty-eight.”

Aboriginal Tent Embassy Women (ACT)

Women have played a central role in the Aboriginal Tent Embassy since its establishment in Canberra in 1972, helping sustain one of the country’s most significant ongoing sites of First Nations political activism, protest and advocacy for sovereignty and land rights.