This year’s inductees are remarkable in many fields and help to make Victoria a fairer and better place for us all.
On 16 October, the Hon. Natalie Hutchins MP, Minister for Women inducted 21 women to the Honour Roll at a ceremony at the Arts Centre Melbourne.
This year’s inductees are remarkable in many different fields. There are artists and entertainers, professors and doctors. Some have excelled in academia and medical research. Others are honoured for their commitment to ending family violence, advocating for social justice, leading their communities and making Victoria a fairer and better place for us all.
Highlighting the achievements of women leaders progresses gender equality and shows future generations that anything is possible – if you can see it, you can be it.
Meet some outstanding inductees
Each of these women has made an outstanding contribution. They join more than 750 women inducted to the Honour Roll since 2001.
Local Champion Aunty Rochelle Patten is an award-winning Yorta Yorta artist and cultural practitioner who is a leader in law and justice, arts and culture, and environmental issues. She has volunteered to sit on the Shepparton Koori Court for more than 20 years, and her work has involved women and First Nations communities nationally and internationally.
Trailblazer Judy Small AM is recognised nationally and internationally as an outstanding singer-songwriter in the folk music genre. She was a Federal Circuit Court judge and is Chair of the Midsumma Board. She writes and sings songs focused on social justice, equality, feminism, peace, and gay and lesbian lives.
Change Agent Adjunct Professor Manjula Datta O'Connor is an award-winning psychiatrist, clinician, researcher, leader, educator, and advocate. Her clinically based research led to breaking silence on family violence, shone a light on dowry abuse, and instigated community-based family violence prevention and advocacy around family violence in the Indian and broader South Asian community. Manjula also received the 2024 Premier’s Award for Victorian Senior of the .
Local Champion Lyndie Freestone piloted the first outreach mental health services for high risk and homeless youth and provided counselling to young people suffering from chronic illness in the Barwon Southwestern Region. As a volunteer she has helped develop long-term therapeutic accommodation and support for high risk and homeless youth, and a therapeutic equine and farm program.
More information
Find out more about this year’s inductees on the Victorian Honour Roll of Women .
Follow their stories on the Women Victoria Facebook and the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) Facebook .
Reviewed 06 December 2024