First Aboriginal woman to be appointed Deputy Administrator of the Northern Territory (2002)

First woman member of the traditionally “male-only” Australian National Sportfishing Association (founded Cairns 1963) when she was finally allowed to attend committee meetings as the Recording Officer 

Australia’s first woman auctioneer when granted her license in 1973

First female member of the RAAF Roulettes Aerobatic Flying team since its establishment in 1970, she made her public debut over Brisbane in August 1999; believed to be the world’s first woman to fly in a military precision flying team.

First woman judge of the District Court of Queensland  (1992)

First woman curator appointed to the Australian War Memorial (1977-79), she was custodian of one of the nation’s largest and most historically significant art collections

First woman to be appointed to the Australian Dairy Farmers’ Board (2000)

First woman to serve on the Australian Health Insurance Association National Executive since formed in 1971 (2001)

Australia’s first Police Assistant Commissioner when appointed to this rank within Victoria Police in November 1989

First woman specialist plastic surgeon in Australia when granted an Honorary appointment at the Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital in 1959, she had also been the first female General Surgeon in South Australia when she returned from receiving her Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1955 

First woman Chief Minister in the Northern Territory (2001) 

Part of a team of 3 women Northern Territory Park Rangers in charge of Arltunga Historical Reserve, in the East MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia - believed to be the first Australian park to be solely staffed by female officers (1994)

First indigenous woman to be elected to an Australian Parliament (Seat of Kimberley, WA 2001)

First woman in executive search in Australia with US based Korn/Ferry International (1981)

New South Wales’ first woman town clerk (1944-56) and shire clerk (1957-74) when appointed to Balranald Municipal, later Shire Council.

First woman Chair of the Academic Board of the University of Melbourne, she was also the first woman appointed to an established Chair at that university when appointed Professor of Fine Arts (1979-1995) and has made a significant contribution to the study of Medieval and Renaissance Art History 

First woman to hold position of Deputy Speaker in the Victorian parliament (1996-)

First woman pharmacist invited to join the Pharmacy Board of Queensland (1988) 

Foundation director of Australia’s first Research Centre for Women’s Studies, established at the University of Adelaide in 1983

First woman Deputy Leader in history of Australian Federal Labor Party (2001)

First woman to drive by car around Australia, the then 23 year old took 6 months driving from Sydney to Darwin via Adelaide and Alice Springs, and thence to Perth, across the Nullabor and back to Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne in 1937

First woman elected as President of the ACT Trades & Labour Council (1993)

First woman Chief General Manager of a bank in Australia (1993) 

First woman member (1997) and Chair (2001) of the all-male Committee of the Warrnambool Racing Club, VIC

Queensland’s and possibly Australia’s first woman to be allowed to compete against the men in the then male-dominated field of bull riding (1980s)

Victoria’s first and Australia’s second woman Methodist minister, ordained at the Wesley Church, Melbourne in 1969

First woman elected to the International Paralympic Committee (1993), she was instrumental in the forming of SASRAPID (South Australian Sport & Recreation Association for people with integration difficulties: 1982), the first of the nationwide RAPIDS, which led to the foundation of its national counterpart AUSRAPID (1986)

First indigenous Australian woman police officer with the South Australian Police (1988)

First woman awarded Life Membership to the Australian Football League (AFL) (2002)

First woman President of the Legislative Council in the South Australian parliament; first woman to preside in any House in all the Parliaments in Australia (1986)

First female Commissioned Officer with the South Australian Police when appointed in 1979

First woman ever to head a State government in Australia when elected Premier of WA (1990)

First woman and only Australian to receive the prestigious IAA Samir Fares Award for outstanding service to the International Advertising Association and the advertising industry in 1994

Less than 4 years since coming to Australia, this Vietnamese refugee became Auburn’s first Asian councillor in 1991, being elected this NSW city’s first female Mayor and first Asian Mayor in 2000

First woman full-time lecturer and later Professor in Theology in Australia when appointed to United Faculty of Theology, Queens College, University of Melbourne

First woman professor at Australia’s oldest academic institution, the University of Sydney when appointed Professor of Australian Literature in 1968

First woman to score a century at Lord’s, the London headquarters of international cricket (1998)

First woman to score a century at Lord’s, the London headquarters of international cricket (1998)

With Bill Peach, the founder of Aircruising Australia Ltd (1984) becoming the first woman to float a company on the main board of the Sydney Stock Exchange (1986) and for many years the only female Chair of a Public Company in Australia; first woman in Australia to import and operate a commercial sized passenger aircraft, holding an RPT licence from 1990 onwards

Australia’s first woman Rabbi when ordained in 1991

First woman to head the Victorian government when appointed State Premier (1992)

First woman President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (1985)

First woman to become a Queens Counsel in Queensland, she took “silk” in 1987

First woman to chair a listed public company in Australia (investment & property giant, Lend Lease: 2000)

First Australian female weightlifter to lift 100kg in snatch discipline (Women’s Weightlifting was first introduced at the 2000 Olympics, Sydney)

First Australian woman to fly solo around the world in a single-engined aircraft (1989)

First woman cinematographer (camera ‘man’) in Australia; first woman to work on a feature film as part of the camera crew (as clapper loader on Summer of Secrets, 1975); first woman to shoot a feature film (Fran); first woman to receive accreditation by the Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS)

First Australian designer to have her fashion presented in the Italian “Vogue” (1977) 

First woman Mayor of Moreland City Council, VIC and first ever Greek-born Australian female Mayor when appointed in 2000

One of first Principal Dancers with the Australian Ballet when established in 1962, she later became its Artistic Director (1979-82) and founded the Dancers Company of the Australian Ballet in 1980

First woman bookmaker in the Northern Territory, she received her license in December 1977, working at Alice Springs Pioneer Park racecourse where she was known as “Bernie the Bookie”

First Australian woman to go under the 15-minute barrier for 5 km on the road, after finishing runner-up in the Flora Light London 5 km road race (2002)

First woman reporter for the ABC’s “This Day Tonight” program in the 1960s

First Australian woman athlete to win an Olympic gold medal (Helsinki: 1952)

South Australia’s first woman Chartered Accountant, she was also the first female member of the General Synod of the Church of England in Australia (1962); first woman appointed to the worldwide Anglican Consultative Council (1971)

First woman to head a drug squad in Australia, reaching rank of Detective Inspector on retirement in 1989 from the Tasmanian Police Department

Founding Director of the Women’s Circus (1991), an innovative project of the Footscray Community Arts Centre in Melbourne. 

Australia’s first woman Press Photographer, from 1938 she worked on several Sydney newspapers and women’s magazines for 40 years 

First woman Mayor of Lismore City Council, NSW (1997-1999), she was also that Council’s first female Deputy Mayor (1995-97).  She was also the first woman Chair of the regional water supply authority, Rous Water (1995-97)

Australia’s first woman judge within Working Sheepdog Trials; judged competitions in various outback towns in Far West NSW including Bourke and Broken Hill (1940s)

First woman Committee member of the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA), organisation representing the common interests of all aircraft owners and pilots (1986); with Ruth WILSON (also listed here), first all-female crew to compete in prestigious Gordon Bennett Cup, an international gas-ballooning competition (since foundation: 1906), traveling over 1000 km from New Mexico to Oklahoma (1999)

First Australian Board member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals

First woman Chair of the National Health & Medical Research Council, Australia’s most influential government advisory and research funding body (1991-93); first female Chief Executive Officer of an Area Health Service in Australia when appointed to Central Sydney Area Health Service (CSAHS) in 1992

First totally deaf woman to obtain a degree from an Australian university when she achieved Honours in Zoology at the University of NSW in 1962.  She followed in the footsteps of her great aunt Fanny Hunt, the first woman science graduate from Sydney University (1888)

First woman member of the Australian Reserve Bank Board (1992)

First woman & Charter President of Rotary Club of Derby WA District 9450 (1997-8); first woman District Governor in Australia and New Zealand for Rotary International (District 9450: 1999-2000)

First woman President of an Australian National Sportfishing Association (Cairns Sportfishing Club, QLD: 1982) 

First veterinarian to set up a full-time practice in the Northern Territory, she opened for business in 1964 servicing Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine and Gove in the early days

Australia’s first Vietnamese-born woman Mayor, the first Vietnamese woman to achieve such high office in local government in this country when elected Mayor of Footscray, VIC, 1997-8

First woman Chair of the Board of the Botanic Gardens & State Herbarium, Adelaide (2000)

First woman to lead a Northern Territory parliamentary party, when she became Leader of the Labor Opposition in 1996

First Australian woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in a single-engine aircraft (1978); first woman to complete solo back-to-back flights across the Pacific; founder of the first Fear of Flying Clinic in NSW (1979)

Anglican Deaconess, foundation Superintendent of St Mary’s Church of England Hostel, Alice Springs, NT (1946)

First woman commercial photographer in Alice Springs during the 1930s), she produced the town’s first postcard and developed photographs for pioneering anthropologist Ted Strehlow 

First woman Deputy Chancellor of Monash University (2001); first female lecturer in the Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Melbourne; first female President of the Melbourne University Staff Association; First female CEO in higher education in Victoria when appointed Director of the Hawthorn Institute of Education (1987)

First woman Mayor of Kempsey Shire Council, NSW when elected in September 2001

First woman Vice-Chancellor at Central Queensland University (CQU) when appointed in 2001; first woman Vice-Chancellor at any of the nine universities in Queensland 

First woman to command an operational unit in the RAAF (Electronic Warfare Squadron, 1992); first serving woman in the history of the Australian Defence Force to be promoted to Air Commodore (1999) 

Foundation and first woman teacher employed by the School of the Air which was officially opened at the Royal Flying Doctor Base, Alice Springs in June 1951, the first school of its kind in the world.  Leader of the school’s broadcasting team in 1953, by the following year she was the school’s sole teacher. 

First woman to chair the Legislative Council Labor Caucus in NSW Parliament (1984), in the same year she was also the first woman Chair of the St Margaret’s Hospital Advisory Board 

First woman Cabinet Minister in Australia to head a department as Minister for Social Security (1975-80)

First woman in Australia (and probably the world) to prepare a cricket pitch for an international fixture (West Indies versus Northern Territory invitational eleven in a one-day match, Alice Springs: 2000)

First woman Mayor of Maroochy Shire Council, in the heart of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, when appointed March 2000

First woman to be appointed as General Secretary for the Queensland Council of Unions in its 115 year history (2000)

First and only woman in history to win three individual swimming Olympic gold medals in world record time (Munich: 1972); only woman in field of swimming to hold records for every freestyle distance simultaneously

First Aboriginal person to head a government department in Western Australia when appointed Commissioner for Aboriginal planning in 1986, she went on to become the first full-time and first Aboriginal Magistrate in the Children’s Court of WA in Perth (1988)

First woman to hold position of Minister for Industrial Relations in the Victorian government (1999)

First woman firefighter recruited to the Northern Territory Fire & Rescue Service in February 1992

One of eight women to be ordained as Australia’s first woman deacons (1986) and one of ten women ordained as Australia’s first female Anglican priests (Perth: Sunday 7 March 1992)

First woman Superintendent with the South Australian Police when appointed in 1998 as Local Service Area Commander of the South Coast Division 

Co-founder of CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Medial Association: 1980) which includes Imparja, the first Aboriginal commercial TV station (1988), and the first licenced Aboriginal radio station Radio 8KIN FM broadcasting in regional languages

First woman Judge to the High Court in Canberra, the highest court in the Australian judicial system (1987)

First woman (with team partner Loudy Tourky) to win Australia’s first Olympic medal (bronze) in synchronized diving (Sydney: 2000)

First woman President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) (1995)

First woman Board member of the South Australian Fishing Industry Council (1998), she was the founding Chair of SAWIN (SA Women in Fishing: 1996); as well as instigating the first National conference for Seafood Women and developing the first state seafood women’s Action Plan  (1997)

One of 3 first fully trained women wharfies (stevedores) in NSW to join men at Port Botany, Sydney (1997); first Australian woman to represent women transport workers on the international stage (as a Maritime Union of Australia delegate at the International Transport WorkersB9 Federation Women’s Conference, New Delhi, India (1998) 

First female professor of geography in Australia when appointed to University of Adelaide (1978)

First woman Australian Labor Party Senator for the Northern Territory in Federal Parliament (1999)

First female Chair of CSIRO Board (1991-1996); first scientist to be appointed to the prestigious post of Lieutenant Governor of Victoria (1997-2000)

First woman elected as National President of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (1994) 

First veterinarian to establish a private small animal practice in the Northern Territory (Alice Springs: 1948-1951).  Helped pioneer Wombaroo, replacement milk formula for orphaned marsupials

First female Australian Labor Party member in the House of Representatives (1974); Australia’s first female Speaker of either House of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives: 1986)

1 of 3 Australian women (with Shelagh Robinson and Jutta Hosel) first on the Antarctic continent with ANARE - Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (Casey: summer 1975-6); first woman member of the ANARE Club 

First woman to be awarded the AFL’s inaugural Woman of the Year in 1998

First woman to lead a major political party in NSW when elected Leader of the NSW Parliamentary Liberal Party in 1998

First Aboriginal woman to win the prestigious Wimbledon tennis singles title (1971)

First woman President of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the Northern Territory (1994-2001)

First woman Minister of Health in South Australian Parliament (1979)

First woman Executive Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation (1992-95); first woman General Secretary of the Technical Teachers Union of Victoria (1979-1992); first woman full-time industrial officer Victorian Trades Hall Council (1984-92)

First Liberal Party woman to be elected as Chief Minister or Premier in Australian political history when elected Chief Minister of the ACT in 1995

First woman Aboriginal umpire to officiate more than 100 AFL games in the Northern Territory, she has been involved over the years in Northern Territory basketball, hockey, softball and cycling, being presented with a Special Contribution to Indigenous Sport (female) Award at the 6th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sports Awards (Perth: 1996) 

First woman sports broadcaster on ABC Radio and Television in Victoria; first woman to be appointed to the AFL Tribunal (1996)

Founder of Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament (1980)

Known as “the First Lady of Australian Magazine publishing”; first female editor-in-chief of a major daily newspaper (Sydney Daily and Sunday Telegraphs: 1980); first woman appointed to the board of Rupert Murdoch’s News Ltd Australia

First woman anaesthetic technician registered with the Australian Society of Anaesthetic & Operating Theatre Technicians, she joined the Operating Theatre team at Alice Springs Hospital in 1975, following training in Melbourne where she was the only female member of the class

First woman elected President of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions Asia Pacific Region (2000)

First Australian (and only second) woman world leader of the Salvation Army (1986-1993)

First woman President of the Academics Union of NSW (1985), she was also co-founder of both the National Pay Equity Coalition (1988) and the Ernie Awards for sexist remarks (1992)  

First woman to head Perth Zoo when appointed CEO in 1995

First woman President of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (1999), she had also chaired the Women in Rural Practice group which developed the policy on women as rural doctors for the College’s foundation documents (1996-7) 

One of first women called to the Bar in Queensland (1965)

First woman Alderman elected to the Alice Springs Town Council in Central Australia (1971)

First woman and Australian to gain international status in canoeing when selected to judge slalom at the Munich Olympics (1972)

First woman founder and Chief Executive Officer of a cruise line anywhere in the world when launched her Sydney based Norwegian Capricorn Line in 1999

Australia’s first female Crown Solicitor when appointed to head the Attorney-General’s department (SA) in 1984; and first woman to be appointed a Permanent Head in the South Australian Public Service

First woman President of the University of Western Australia’s Guild of Undergraduates (1969), possibly the first woman to be elected to head a student body at any Australian University

First woman elected from Central Australia to Legislative Assembly of NT (1994); first woman Speaker in the Northern Territory (1997)

First woman governor of a maximum-security men’s prison in Australia when appointed General Manager of Yatala Labour Prison, South Australia (1996)  

First woman Mayor of Mackay City Council, QLD (1997)

The Melbourne Age’s first woman leader writer and first woman Associate Editor 

Co-founder of the Wimmins Circus (Melbourne: 1979) and Vitalstatistix, (later to become the National Women’s Theatre, Adelaide: 1984) 

First woman from NSW to serve in the Senate (1987-1994) and the House of Representatives (as Member for Mackellar: from 1994)

First woman curator (of Molluscs) at the Museum of Victoria (1947); one of the first four women scientists, to visit the Australian Antarctic base on Macquarie Island in 1959

First woman Professor of Applied Physics at Sydney University when appointed in 2000

First woman engaged in commercial aviation in Australia when employed by the Far West Children’s Health Scheme to operate her aircraft as an Aerial Ambulance & Baby Clinic west of Bourke in outback NSW (1935).  At 19 she was also the youngest female commercial pilot in the British Empire at that time.

Co-founder (with Margie Fischer and Ollie Black) of Vitalstatistix (Adelaide: 1984), which later became the National Women’s Theatre 

Renowned marine biologist, best known for her pioneering work on the Great Barrier Reef, she was one of the first four women scientists, to visit the Australian Antarctic base on Macquarie Island in 1959

First Convenor of the National Women’s Advisory Council, lobby group of women’s organizations (1978)

First woman Senior Lecturer in Psychology (1972-88); professorial head Dept of Psychology (1989-92); associate Dean, Faculty of Science (1989-92); pro Dean, Faculty of Science (1993-94) all at the University of Sydney; foundation President of the Australian Society of Psychophysiologists

First woman to win 5 world surfing titles, statistically the greatest woman surfer in surfing history (2002)

Australia’s first woman Ombudsman when appointed in South Australia (1985); first female member of the Qantas board (1983-85) 

First woman President of the Shire of Healesville, VIC (1978) during her 12-year stint as a municipal councilor; first woman Member of Parliament sworn into the Victorian Legislative Council (1979-1985)

First woman Governor of NSW (2001)

First indigenous Australian drama graduate (1979); first indigenous Australian to perform professionally on the Australian operatic stage; first indigenous Australian to sing the National Anthem at Sydney’s Australia Day celebrations (1993)

First occupational therapist in Australia to be awarded a PhD (1988); first Australian President of the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (1986-1990); first woman member of the Board of Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (1983) 

First woman to train a Coolgardie Cup winner since this prestigious Western Australian horse race was first established in 1896 (2002).  Desy’s horse Lawmaker went on to win the Triple Crown (Coolgardie, Boulder and Kalgoorlie Cups) that year

First woman in Australia to win the Don Banks Composers Award (1990)

First female Mayor of Port Augusta City Council, SA (1981)

First woman to become President of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (the real estate sector’s professional body) in its 80-year history (1996-1998)

First woman to fly a helicopter around Australia’s coastline (1997)

First woman in the Northern Territory to become an Associate of the Australian Insurance Institute (1977); she has also been one of the Northern Territory’s leading sportswomen becoming the first woman President of the Darwin Basketball Association (1984); first woman nationally accredited Level 2 Basketball Coach (1993); and first woman President of the Northern Territory Basketball Association (1995)

One of 10 women to be ordained as Australia’s first female Anglican priests (Perth: Sunday 7 March 1992)

Australia’s first female commercial helicopter pilot, achieving her commercial ratings in rotary wing aircraft in 1967

First woman film director in Australia since the 1930s (My Brilliant Career: 1979); first Australian woman to direct a Hollywood movie (Mr Soffel: 1985)

Leader of a team of 3 women Northern Territory Park Rangers in charge of Arltunga Historical Reserve, in the East MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia - believed to be the first Australian park to be solely staffed by female officers (1994)

First woman in Australia to direct a major State Festival of the Arts (Adelaide 1998 & 2000)

First woman awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal in its 42 year-old history in 2002 in recognition of her outstanding achievements as an academic and design architect over a sustained period in Australia and overseas

Several firsts as a woman in the observer ranks of the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM): first female observer posted to Queensland region (1983); first female posted to Willis Island (1984); first female for BOM to winter on the Antarctic Continent (1985); first female to obtain Senior Observer position in BOM (1988); equal first female to be awarded the Antarctic Medal for outstanding service in the Antarctic (1989); first woman ever to complete winter postings at all four Australian Antarctic bases (Macquarie Island: 1985; Mawson: 1986; Davis: 1988; Casey: 1992)

First woman State Librarian in Western Australia for a period of 107 years when appointed in 1989

First woman Chief Superintendent of St John Ambulance Australia (National office: 1992-98)

Pioneering food writer, first woman to own and manage a world-class restaurant in Australia (Stephanie’s Restaurant: 1976-1997); initiated innovative primary school program, The Kitchen Garden at Collingwood College, Melbourne (2001)  

First woman Mayor of Geelong City Council, the first in this Victorian Council’s preceding 134-year history (2002)

First woman President of the Royal Aero Club of WA; first woman President of the Royal Federation of Aero Clubs of Australia (1989); first woman awarded the Oswald Watt Medal, Australia’s highest aviation award