Discover more about Every Voice Counts: Suffrage in Australia exhibition.

Suffragists worked hard to have their voices heard. They lobbied male parliamentarians to table their petitions and legislate on their behalf. In 1891, Victorian women collected almost 30,000 signatures on a suffrage petition 260 metres long. 
Photographer unknown, Woman suffrage: vanguard of a deputation that waited on the Legislative Council [Melbourne] last week, The Australasian, 17 September 1898, p.26.
Image courtesy National Library of Australia NX 236. 

Explore more about Women's Suffrage.

Vida Goldstein was one of Australia’s foremost suffragists. She also provided support to the British and US women’s suffrage campaigns. In 1903 Goldstein became one of the first women in the world to nominate for federal parliament, standing as an independent Senate candidate for Victoria. She stood again in 1910, 1913, 1914 and 1917.
T. Humphrey & Co.,Vida Goldstein selling the Women’s Social and Political Union newspaper Votes for Women in Melbourne, 1912.
Image courtesy State Library of Victoria MS11749/PHO1.

Explore more about Women's Suffrage.

A contingent of Australian women marched at the head of the 1911 Women’s Coronation Procession in London. It was led by activist Vida Goldstein; Margaret Fisher, whose husband was Prime Minister Andrew Fisher; Emily McGowen, whose husband was the New South Wales Premier James McGowen; and Rosina Batchelor, who was married to the Minister for External Affairs Egerton Lee Batchelor. The involvement of these enfranchised, politically-connected women showed the ‘Mother Country’ Australia’s official support for progressive reform.
George Rose, The Rose Stereograph Company (1861–1942), Great Suffragette Demonstration in London: Mrs Andrew Fisher (centre), Mrs McGowen (right) and Miss Vida Goldstein (far right), 1911.
Image courtesy National Library of Australia PIC6941.

Explore more about Women's Suffrage.

In June 1911 Britain was preparing for the spectacle of the Coronation of King George V. Activists seized the chance to try to enlist the new King’s support for women’s suffrage. Five days before the Coronation procession, some 40,000 women created their own spectacle, marching through London calling for the right to vote.
Photographer unknown, The‘Car of Empire’ in the Women's Coronation Procession, 17 June 1911.
Image courtesy Museum of London 339243.

Explore more about Women's Suffrage.

In 1943 Senator Dorothy Tangney and Dame Enid Lyons became the first women elected to federal Parliament.
Photographer unknown, Herald, 'Dame Dorothy M. Tangney (left) and Dame Enid Lyons, GBE, entering the front door of the House of Representatives', 24 September 1943, Australian War Memorial 139712.

Explore more about Women's Suffrage.

Dame Enid Lyons (United Australia Party), representing the Tasmanian seat of Darwin, was the political partner and widow of former prime minister Joseph Lyons. In 1949 the mother of 12 became the first woman of Cabinet rank when she was appointed Vice-President of the Executive Council. However, Dame Enid was denied a portfolio and declared her role a ‘toothless position’.
Photographer unknown, 'Dame Enid Lyons presides over the Federal Executive Council', c. 1949, National Archives of Australia, A8139 VOL 4, L13017.

Explore more about Women's Suffrage.

Early electoral laws did not enfranchise all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Decades of sustained pressure from activists led to reforms. However, in 1961 a House of Representatives Select Committee estimated 30,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples remained without the vote. A 1962 Electoral Act amendment granted all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples the option to enrol and vote in federal elections.
George Lipman, 'Harriet Ellis casts her vote for the 1967 Constitutional Referendum at a polling booth at Sydney Town Hall', 1967, Fairfax Syndication/ Nine Media.

Explore more about Women's Suffrage.

In 2013 Gija, Yawuru and Iwatja woman and Olympic gold medallist Nova Peris OAM became the first female Aboriginal federal parliamentarian when she was elected Labor Senator for the Northern Territory. 
Alex Ellinghausen, 'Senator Nova Peris delivers her first speech in the Senate 2013', 2013, Fairfax Syndication/ Nine Media.

Explore more about Women's Suffrage.