Mabel Miller

Who was Mabel Miller?

Dame Mabel Flora Miller, DBE was an Australian lawyer and politician. She was the first woman elected to the Hobart City Council and one of the first two women to be elected to the Tasmanian House of Assembly.

Born in Broken Hill, the second child of South Australian-born parents, Joseph Christian Goodhart, a draper, and Alice Mary Humphries Goodhart, she was raised in Adelaide. She was educated at Girton House Girls' Grammar School and received her LLB from the University of Adelaide in 1927, going on to practiced as a barrister in Sydney and London.

At St George's Anglican Church, Hobart, on 24 July 1930 she married Alan John Richmond Miller, a 31-year-old chemist. They settled in Tasmania and had a daughter.

During World War II, Mabel Miller served in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force, from 1941 to 1944 she was stationed on airbases around Australia. After the war she was active in the Australian Red Cross Society, the Queen Alexandra Hospital, and the Mary Ogilvy Homes Society. She served as president of the National Council of Women of Tasmania from 1952-1954.

She decided to enter local politics when she heard there was mismanagement occurring in the Hobart City Council. She was elected to the Hobart City Council in 1952, she spent 20 years on the council her first sitting ended in 1955 when she was elected to the House of Assembly in 1955 as the member for Franklin. Amelia Best was also elected in 1955. She remained in Parliament until 1964. After her time in parliament she returned to the Council, serving as deputy mayor from 1964 to 1970, she unsuccessfully stood for mayor in 1970, and resigned in 1972.