Invincible but mostly invisible: Australian women’s contribution to geology and palaeontology

Abstract: Women have played a significant role in Australian geoscience, and especially in palaeontology. ‘Australian ’ women gained degrees by the early 20th century and began to contrib-ute intensively. Australian-born young women already immured to the rigours of climate and culture, collected and illustrated fossils, enrolled in the first university courses, thrived in the field, in some instances outnumbering and out-achieving men. Where women palaeontologists made their mark they often energetically concentrated on a taxonomic group, making them their own, as Isabel Cookson did with palynology, Joan Crockford with bryozoans, Irene Crespin especially with foraminifans, Dorothy Hill with corals, Ida Brown with brachiopods