Search the Women’s Suffrage Petition (1894)

On 23 August 1894 George Hawker, member for North Adelaide, presented to the South Australian House of Assembly a petition in favour of women’s suffrage. It was signed by approximately 11,600 men and women. Members of the Women’s Suffrage League, Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and the Working Women’s Trade Union were primarily responsible for collecting the signatures from metropolitan and country areas.

The original petition (all 30m of it) is held by the House of Assembly, Parliament of South Australia. A sample page can be seen on display in the Centre of Democracy.

A transcription project was undertaken by State Records of South Australia in 1994. Due to the age and size of the petition some names were illegible and unable to be transcribed accurately (indicated by a ‘?’). Others are absent from the transcription, leaving a discrepancy of some 1300 records. State Records made every effort to identify names against a series of relevant primary sources.

In January 2019 the History Trust of South Australia developed a dataset and searchable database from the State Records transcription project. The dataset has since been enhanced with geo-coordinates and we are experimenting with different representations of the data here.

You can use the search box to search the petitions using name or address. Click here to clear the search filter.

 

Surname Givenname Building/House Street Town Occupation Gender Page
Surname Givenname Building/House Street Town Occupation Gender Page