![]() ![]() Other causes she supported included free trade, private industry, irrigation, foreign language teaching and the White Australia policy ultimately she received 18,502 votes (6%). She opposed the Political Labour League, particularly its caucus structure and support for the minimum wage, and advocated equal pay for women as a method of maintaining a male dominance in the workplace. Martel stood for the Senate regardless as an independent candidate and campaigned strongly in Newcastle, Tamworth, Lambton and Maitland.ĭespite standing as a women's candidate she expressed opposition to women standing for parliament if they would be neglecting their domestic responsibilities by this time her husband was in a nursing home. Martel was one of the four women who contested the 1903 federal election, the first at which women were eligible to stand.Īlthough Martel sought the endorsement of the Women's Social Political League, this was denied after the Free Trade Party instead endorsed three men, and the league declared that "the time is not yet ripe for women candidates". Nellie Alma Martel c1903, first woman to nominate for the Australian Senate ![]() In April 1903, she was elected president of the Women's Liberal and Reform Association, and she was also elected to the finance committee of the Australian Free Trade League in October. In September 1901, she became founding president of the Women's Progressive Association of New South Wales, formed party in response to Rose Scott's domination of the WSL, along with Annie Golding, Belle Golding, and Kate Dwyer. Martel also became known for her "rich contralto" voice and gave recitations and musical performances, at the monthly "At Homes" she and her husband held at the Hotel Arcadia. Her husband had been declared bankrupt in September 1893, after an unwise business venture although he was granted a certificate of discharge in March 1894, Martel worked as an elocution teacher from their home in Paddington and paid off the mortgage by 1900, by which time she was teaching from George Street.ĭuring this time she was active in the campaign for female suffrage, particularly in New South Wales. Īfter touring France and Italy, Martel and her husband returned to Sydney in 1891 and both joined the Womanhood Suffrage League (WSL) she was elected to its council and organising committee in 1894 and to the finance committee in 1895. While in England she witnessed her sister's marriage to the engineer Alfred Goninan. She married a Guernsey widower, photographer Charles Martel, at Christ Church Cathedral in Newcastle on 4 April 1885 the couple returned to Britain in 1889. ![]() She stood for the Senate at the 1903 federal election, one of the first four women to stand for federal parliament.īorn at Beacon in Cornwall to hammer-man John Charleston and Elizabeth, née Williams (one of her siblings was future Australian Senator David Charleston), she migrated to Australia in 1879, arriving in Sydney in January 1880. Ellen Alma "Nellie" Martel, ( née Charleston 30 September 1855 – 11 August 1940) was an English-Australian suffragist and elocutionist. ![]()
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