This website celebrates the role of women in the social and political development of South Australia. South Australia was one of the first places in the world to give women the vote in 1894, and was the first in the world to enable women to enter Parliament.

The State Library of South Australia has established this resource with the support of the Women's Suffrage Centenary Committee, whose 1994 centenary celebrations will be of especial interest to other states and countries about to celebrate their suffrage centenaries.

This website is based on the resources held in the State Library of South Australia and provides a glimpse of some of the unique documents in our rich heritage collections. The Mortlock Library collects, preserves and highlights the documentary evidence of South Australia, whether historical or contemporary, published or unpublished. It is the most comprehensive collection of South Australian material in the world. But there is often very little material relating to the role of women, particularly in the 19th and early 20th century. We would love to hear from you if you have any original documents, letters, diaries, photographs or memorabilia relating to women in South Australia. If you would like to donate them to the Library, or allow copies to be made, please contact our donations officer.

The costume designs decorating this site were created by the late Thelma Afford for South Australia's centenary celebrations in 1936 especially the brilliant pageant play Heritage. The State Library owns the copyright on these designs, and is happy for you to take prints for personal use, but any other usages require our permission.

A new item attached in November 2004 is a Word document with a selection of poems by South Australian born composer Miriam Hyde O.B.E., A.O. The selection was prepared for the State Library of South Australia's collaborative database with Flinders University South Australian Creative Writers - Women Writers database. This database is temporarily unavailable on the State Library's website, so these poems by Miriam Hyde have been attached to this website in celebration of a significant South Australian creative woman writer.