Zoe Benjamin was a twentieth-century Australian teacher who pioneered liberal ideas in early child education, child rearing, and child psychology. She wrote and lectured, both in person and over the radio, in depth on these topics. Her work gained such distinction that she was known overseas in England as well as Australia.

Australian pianist Florence Menk-Meyer took Europe by storn with her musicianship during her first visit there in the 1880s. She was a favorite of audiences overseas and in Australia for many decades, her achievements as a pianist compared to Liszt and other legendary masters

Australian lawyer Joan Rosanove was the first woman in Victoria to work specifically as a courtroom lawyer. Flamboyant and feisty, she was an outspoken champion of women’s rights and battled, with grace and characteristic good humor, the sexist attitudes that inevitably laid obstacles across her path.

Convicted of stealing lace from a London store in 1786, Esther Abrahams was transported to Australia for seven years’ penal servitude and arrived there with her baby daughter in 1788. She is an iconic figure in Australian history, having almost immediately become the lover, and much later the wife, of a Scottish marine officer who rose to be one of the wealthiest and most powerful man in New South Wales.

Nancy Keesing was an influential figure on the Australian literary scene, not only as an author, editor, and critic, but also as an advocate and administration. She wrote poetry and ensured the preservation of nineteenth-century Australian songs and rhymes.

Vienna-born, Budapest-trained painter Judy Cassab, a survivor of the Holocaust, arrived in Australia in 1951. She became one of the country’s best-known and best-loved artists, primarily for her portraits but also for her depictions of Australia’s bright interior.