Ivy Weber

Education

Born at Captains Flat in New South Wales to schoolteacher John Filshie and his wife Elizabeth Seaman, she was educated at the local schools, eventually becoming a physical culturist and organiser.

Career

They moved to Melbourne, but Thomas was killed in World War I in 1917. Following her husband"s death in 1930, she experimented with several occupations, including as a lecturer on health and diet and a Country Party organiser. In 1937, she was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for Nunawading, as an independent.

She generally supported Country Party Premier Albert Dunstan in the Assembly.

She contested Box Hill unsuccessfully in 1945 and held various positions subsequently. In 1943 she had been president of the Victorian section of Women for Canberra.

From 1950 to 1952 she was organising secretary for the women"s section of the Victorian Country Party. Weber died in 1976 at Camberwell, and was cremated at Springvale Crematorium.

Achievements

• She resigned from the Assembly in 1943 to contest the federal seat of Henty in the election of that year. She came fifth in a field of six candidates with 3.9% of the vote, and the seat was won by another independent, Arthur Coles. She was the first woman elected at a general election in Victoria (Millie Peacock had previously won the seat of Allandale at a by-election), and the first non-major party woman in Australia to win a seat.

Politics

After an unsuccessful stint as a guest house operator, she organised for Blind Babies Homes in 1955 and then became organising secretary of the Australian Women"s Movement against Socialism.