Signals, currents and wires: The untold story of Florence Violet McKenzie, an ABC Radio National (Hindsight) program

Accession Number	S04434
Collection type	Sound
Measurement	54 min 38 sec
Object type	Radio show
Physical description	compact disc (CD); unknown; wave; 44.1kHz; 16 bit; stereo
Maker	ABC Radio National Social History and Features Unit Freyne, Catherine Freyne, Catherine
Date made	16 March 2008
Access	Open
Conflict	Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright	Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright
Copying Provisions	Copyright restrictions apply. Permission of copyright holder required for any use and/or reproduction.

Description

Florence Violet McKenzie OBE, 'Mrs Mac' (nee Wallace) was Australia's first female electrical engineer, first female amateur radio operator and founder of the Electrical Association for Women. Having founded the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps in 1939, McKenzie campaigned successfully to have some of her female trainees accepted into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), thereby originating the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS).
During the war some 12 000 servicemen passed through her Morse code training school and after the war her school was a major civilian airline and nautical signal instruction centre. The armed forces and civilian airlines relied on her services right up to the mid 1950s. Apart from her successful electrical contracting and wireless supplies business between 1918 and 1934, all her work was voluntary.