It was International Women’s Day in 2023 that inspired us to prepare a new page on our website, dedicated to Collingwood women. During the course of 2023 we added several new sections to the page, as well as incorporating an edited version of the names of Collingwood women who signed the petition for woman suffrage in 1891.

Over the last two years, still working on addressing the gender imbalance, we have also added seven new biographies of women to our Notables database. These are Cr Marion Miller, unionist Helen Lothan Robertson, Sister Faith (Evangeline Ireland) of the Collingwood Methodist Mission, Constance Stone, Australia’s first woman doctor, suffragist and charity worker Isabella Goldstein, and sisters Violet and Marjorie Woolcock of Clifton Hill, a violinist and artist respectively. This range of activities, adding to the teachers, nurses, philanthropists, gymnasts, pianists, nuns, and welfare workers, not to mention an elocutionist and a waxworks proprietor, gives a marvellous picture of Collingwood life over the last 170 years.

Happy IWD to all our readers – and remember to read more about Collingwood women!