Jessie Spink Rooke (1845–1906)

Advocate for women and democracy,¹ Jessie Rooke was a leading figure in Tasmania’s temperance and suffrage movements.

London-born Rooke arrived in Melbourne in the early 1850s with her parents, William and Catherine Walker. In 1867, she married Peter Reid² and had three children, who tragically all died young. After Peter's death, Jessie married medical practitioner Charles Rooke in 1883 and they lived firstly in Germanton (now Holbrook) and then in Sydney. 

Rooke became an active member of the Women's Bible and Prayer Union and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Moving with her family to Burnie, Tasmania in the early 1890s, she was elected president of the local, state and eventually Australasian WCTU branches.

Under her leadership, the WCTU became the driver of the women's suffrage movement in Tasmania. Rooke wrote to newspapers, spoke at public forums and organised petitions to Parliament. This advocacy led to the Constitution Amendment Act 1903 gave women the same voting rights in state elections as men.³

Rooke also participated in the United Council of Women's Suffrage, the National Council of Women and the 1902 International Council of Women Conference in Washington. She also founded the Tasmanian Women's Suffrage Association in 1903, in the lead-up to that year’s federal election and presided over the Tasmanian Women's Political Association from 1905 to 1906.

Rooke died in South Burnie, Tasmania, two months before Tasmanian women were at last able to cast their votes in a state election. Marking her death, the Hobart Mercury paid tribute her as being 'one of the most prominent figures in philanthropic and temperance work in Australia'.⁴

Artist's note
Most of the women I came across in my research for this project were based in the capital cities of each state. However, Jessie Rooke's campaign was unusual in that it was based in the regional centre of Burnie in the north-west of Tasmania. Rooke was tireless in her campaign as she travelled the length and breadth of Tasmania, meeting in church halls and homes, gathering signatures for the two petitions presented to parliament.

Described as being physically frail,⁵ Rooke's image, published in The Tasmanian Mail⁶ portrayed a soft and pensive face, yet she was ferocious in her campaign to achieve female suffrage in Tasmania. I wanted her portrait to indicate both her delicate health (she died at age 60) and her steely tenacity. The wall-paper includes a fleur-de-lis wood ornament, a common motif found on suffrage brochures with the colour palette derived from an 1890 advertisement showing an impressionistic Tasmanian flag on a blue and gold background.⁷

References
1. Inscription on plaque at Jessie Rooke's grave in the Wivenhoe Cemetery, Burnie, Tasmania. See Jessica Moran, 'Grave of Tasmanian women's rights campaigner Jessie Spinks Rooke restored', ABC news online, 16 September 2021, accessed 2 July 2024.
2. Information in this biography is taken from: Faye Gardam, 'Rooke, Jessie Spink (1845–1906)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2005; Department of Premier and Cabinet, Tasmania, 'Index of significant women: Jessie Rooke'; Patricia Grimshaw, 'Rooke, Jessie Spink', in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2014; Rodney Croome, 'Jessie Rooke's Message: Perseverance and Persuasion Make Change; Tasmanian Honour Roll of Women, 'Jessie Rooke: Tasmanian women's suffrage leader'. Websites accessed 27 June 2024.
3.  'Women Members of Tasmanian State Parliament: Female Franchise', Tasmanian Parliamentary Library; Political Timeline – Tasmanian Women, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Tasmania. Websites accessed 2 July 2024.
4. 'The death of Mrs. Rooke', The Mercury, 5 January 1906, p. 5, accessed 2 July 2024.
5. Kirsten Lees, Votes for Women: the Australian Story, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1995, p. 89.
6. The Tasmanian Mail, 29 September 1900, p. 19.
7. 'Tasmania, from Flags of All Nations, Series 2 (N10) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands', The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accessed 17 December 2024.