AustLit

Janet Nanson was probably Australia's first female political journalist. Circa 1902, before she was admitted to the press gallery in the Western Australian Parliament, she sat in the Public Gallery taking notes on the white cuffs of her blouse for her reports published in the Perth Morning Herald. Earlier, in 1897, she was the first woman to join the staff of the West Australian newspaper, writing social notes as 'Sigma', and the children's page of the Western Mail as 'Aunt Mary'. She also wrote verse and short stories under these pseudonyms.