Who was the first female to qualify as an electrician in Australia and when?
Florence Vi McKenzie or “Mrs Mac”, Australia’s first woman electrical engineer, licensed woman amateur radio operator and the first woman member of the Wireless Institute of Australia. She opened a school in Sydney in 1939 to train girls in Morse code and radio which became the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) when war was declared. In response to the shortage of telegraphists, 14 of her WESC girls were accepted by the Navy on Anzac Day 1941 forming the Women’s Royal Australian Navy Service (WRANS). F. Vi McKENZIE (1891-1982) The first Australian woman to graduate in electrical engineering in 1923, she was also the first woman to be granted an amateur radio operator’s license and the first female member of the Wireless Institute.
