Maiden Australia

During and after World War I, pubs closed early, and returned Australian soldiers routinely moved on to brothels in the early hours of the morning.

One night in Perth, a returned soldier arrived with a loaded gun. He demanded to be let in, raised h... more

Sex work is one of the oldest occupations in the world, and in early twentieth-century Australia, it was one of the few pathways to financial independence for women. It was risky and fraught with corruption, but for many, it was worth it to have a li... more

It’s the 1950s in Melbourne: under the Moreton Bay fig in Carlton Gardens, a woman stands before a crowd. The woman’s name is Margaret Tucker: a singer, a writer, an advocate for First Nations people. As she spoke of justice and truth, people listene... more

In 1856, on the Australian Goldfields of Castlemaine, hundreds of rugged miners in dirt-streaked trousers gathered to cast their votes. But among them stood an outlier—Fanny Finch. A business owner. A single mother. A woman of colour. Draped in blue ... more

Imagine the 1960s: a woman sits in the gutter, a cigarette between her fingers, eyes burning. Rosaleen Norton—Witch, artist, and outsider. To the media and authorities, she was a 'Devil-Worshipper,' a dangerous woman who had to be stopped. She was si... more

Maiden Australia began as part of my PhD. While researching Australian media, I became aware of the repeated exclusion of women’s lives and labour from historical records and media archives.

While not always obvious, the decision to remember and com... more