Adelaide's Catherine Helen Spence the first female candidate for a political position in Australia in 1897

Catherine Helen Spence on the previous $5 note designed by Garry Emery, based on a portrait by Margaret Preston.
Image courtesy of Reserve Bank of Australia

Catherine Helen Spence, a key figure in South Australia’s campaign for the women’s vote, became Australia’s first female political candidate after standing for office at the 1897 federal convention in Adelaide but finishing 22 out of 33 candidates.

Spence had been an enthusiast for electoral reform since 1859 when she read J. S. Mill's review of Thomas Hare's system of proportional representation. In 1861 she wrote, printed (at her brother's expense) and distributed A Plea for Pure Democracy. Mr. Hare's Reform Bill Applied to South Australia, although, she noted, “it did not set the (Adelaide’s river) Torrens on fire”.

Spence introduced proportional representation into her book Mr. Hogarth's Will and visited Hare during a holidaying in Britain in 1864-65. At first, she presented Hare's scheme as ensuring minorities were represented by men of virtue, learning and intelligence. In 1892, she propounded the modified Hare-Spence system as the only way of attaining truly proportionate representation of political parties.

Wealthy businessman Robert Barr Smith financially backed Spence’s campaign for proportional representation. Supported by the nascent Labor Party and several small populist and socialist groups, it was launched with public meetings in 1892-93.

In 1893, Spence went to the Chicago world fair to address the international conference on charities and correction, the proportional representation congress, the single tax conference, the peace conference, and a gathering in the women's building. She lectured and preached across the United States, visited Britain and Switzerland and returned to South Australia in 1894.

Next year she formed the Effective Voting League of South Australia..