Catherine Helen Spence

Catherine Helen Spence was Australia's first truly professional woman journalist and first female political candidate, as well as a fearless social and political reformer in South Australia.

She was born in Melrose, Scotland, on 31 October 1825. She arrived in South Australia with her mother in November 1839 aboard the Palmyra. In 1905, on her 80th birthday, South Australian Chief Justice, Sir Samuel Way, declared she was 'The most distinguished woman they had had in Australia .... She was a novelist, a critic, an accomplished journalist, a preacher, a lecturer, a philanthropist, and a social and moral reformer'. She died on 3 April 1910.

For a full biography of Catherine Helen Spence visit her Australian Dictionary of Biography entry.