Irene Longman, with her husband, Herber Longman, arrived in Brisbane in 1911. Longman was the President of the Queensland branch of the National Council of Women from 1920 to 1924. In 1929 Longman became the first woman ever to stand for Parliament in Queensland, and then first women Queensland parliamentarian, winning the Seat of Bulimba from Labor for the Country and Progressive National Party. She was also Vice-President of the Lyceum Club, Vice-President of the Queensland Women’s Peace Movement, and President of the Association for the Welfare of Mental Deficients, Queensland.

Impact On Brisbane Society

Irene Longman’s parliamentary career was very short, but she made important contributions. Longman was responsible for the appointment of the first women police in Queensland, for changing the venue of the Children’s Court from its meeting place in the precinct of the Police Court, and for the appointment of an advisory panel of one man and one woman in very difficult cases of juvenile delinquency. It was noted that Longman was an avid reader in the parliamentary library.

Citations

Mary O’Keeffe, ‘Longman, Irene Maud (1877–1964)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/longman-irene-maud-7228/text12515, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed online 3 November 2017. This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, (MUP), 1986.

Evans, Raymond. A History of Queensland, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, Vic, 2007.

Fallon, Patricia. So Hard the Conquering: A Life of Irene Longman, Griffith University, MPhil Thesis, 2003.

Fitzgerald, Ross; Megarrity, Lyndon; Symons, David. Made in Queensland : a New History, Special Q150 commemorative edition, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 2009.

Image Citation

Irene Longman. Archive: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14913021]