Dorothy Ada Goble, ''née'' Taylor (11 March 1910 – 22 October 1990) was an Australian politician.

Early life

She was born on 11 March 1910 in North Richmond, to clerk Arthur Robert Taylor and Ada Elizabeth Deumer. She attended Richmond and Canterbury primary schools, before completing her education at University High School. After graduating in 1928, Dorothy got a job at the school as a secretary. She left the job upon her marriage on 4 October 1934 to Kenneth George Goble, a stationery manufacturer. Dorothy and George had two children, a son and daughter. Though she listed her occupation as a housewife, Dorothy stayed active in public life. She became a co-director of her husband's firm in 1962, and was president of the

Hartwell Hartwell may refer to: Places * Hartwell, Victoria, a neighbourhood of Camberwell in Melbourne, Australia ** Hartwell railway station England * Hartwell, Buckinghamshire * Hartwell, Northamptonshire, a village * Hartwell, Staffordshire, a loca ...

branch of the

Australian Comforts Fund Australian Comforts Fund (ACF) was an Australian umbrella organisation for voluntary bodies set up after the outbreak of World War I. Many men and women worked at the ACF, including Alice Berry and Cyril Docker in WW2. World War I The Australi ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Politics

A member of the Liberal Party, Goble held office in the Hartwell (1946–52) and Blackburn (1953–67) branches and was vice-chairman of the Victorian women's section from 1962 to 1967, serving on the state executive from 1965 to 1967. In 1967 she was elected to the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

as the member for Mitcham, the first woman in the Victorian Parliament since

Fanny Brownbill Fanny Eileen Brownbill (28 April 1890 – 10 October 1948) was an Australian state politician, serving as the Labor Party Member for Geelong, Victoria, serving from 1938 until her death in 1948. Brownbill was the first woman to win a seat for L ...

's death in 1948. She was also the first female member of the Liberal Party to enter Victorian Parliament. Goble's interests were wide-ranging, with her inaugural speech discussing issues of teacher training and the science of hydrocarbons, and would later make speeches of diverse topics including prison reform, the preservation of historic buildings, the needs of the intellectually disabled, and consumer protections. For the entirety of her nine years in Victorian Parliament, Goble was the only female member. She served as a backbencher until her retirement in 1976.

Later life and death

After her retirement, Goble resumed her position in the family firm. She died in 1990 at the age of 80.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goble, Dorothy 1910 births 1990 deaths Liberal Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian politicians Women members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly 20th-century Australian women politicians People from Richmond, Victoria Politicians from Melbourne People educated at University High School, Melbourne