Brisbane Girls Grammar School’s most outstanding former students
We asked Brisbane schools to nominate their most outstanding former students and the response has been overwhelming. Today we reveal the most notable alumni from Brisbane Girls Grammar School.
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We asked Brisbane schools to nominate their most outstanding former students and the response has been overwhelming. From Supreme Court judges to musicians, artists, academics and more than a few sportspeople, their lists prove our schools have long been producing leaders in their fields and continue to do so. Today we present the most notable alumni from Brisbane Girls Grammar School.
BRISBANE SCHOOL ALUMNI HONOUR ROLL
* St Rita’s College, Clayfield
Matron Grace Margaret Wilson
One of Australia’s greatest war heroines, Grace was a high-ranked nurse in the Australian Army during World War I and the first years of World War II.
After leaving Brisbane Girls Grammar, she trained as a nurse at the Brisbane Hospital and after her graduation in 1908 completed further training in Britain before returning to Australia in 1914 to take up the position of matron at her old training institution.
On the outbreak of World War I she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service and was appointed principal matron of the first military district.
In 1915 she went overseas as principal matron of the 3rd Australian General Hospital, which was based at Lemnos to treat Anzac casualties.
Grace was discharged in 1920 and went to Melbourne to take up an appointment as matron of the Children’s Hospital.
She resigned after two years to establish her own private hospital in East Melbourne.
In 1933 she returned to the public system as matron of Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital where she remained until she returned to military service in 1940.
Her second tour of duty was short-lived as poor health forced her to return to Australia in 1941, but in 1943 she took up the role of executive officer of the nursing control centre of the Manpower Directorate for the duration of the war.
In 1953, Grace was the first woman to be granted life membership in the Returned Servicemen’s League.
Her medals and uniform from World War I are on permanent display at the Australian War Memorial and her service was depicted in the 2014 television miniseries Anzac Girls.
Kathryn Zealand
A graduate of Girls Grammar in 2008, Kathryn currently works for Google, making decisions on world-changing “moonshot” projects in which the company may invest.
It was her involvement with the International Young Physics Tournament while at school that fostered Kathryn’s love of science and problem-solving.
The day after graduating from Girls Grammar, she also graduated from The University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Science (First Class Honours).
She has since completed fours Masters Degrees, including an MBA at Stanford University and an MPA at Harvard University (under the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship).
Kathryn has recently worked in Australia, Africa and the USA for McKinsey & Company and the Clinton Foundation, focusing mainly on policy implementation and reform.
Dr Laura Fenlon
A Brisbane Girls Grammar graduate in 2007, Dr Fenlon is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute where her research is providing new insights into developmental disorders, including autism and schizophrenia.
In 2016 she was the first Australian to win the prestigious Krieg Cortical Kudos Scholar Award from one of the world’s oldest neuroscience societies, The Cajal Club.
The award recognised Dr Fenlon’s “outstanding contributions to our understanding of the function of the cerebral cortex”.
Minna Atherton
Minna was still at school in 2015 when she was thrust onto the world stage at the World Junior Championship where she won gold in the 100m and 200m backstroke – equalling the junior world record in the 100m race.
Shortly after that she broke that record at the Queensland State titles and also broke the junior world record in the 50m backstroke at the Queensland Sprint titles.
Minna made her first senior team at the 2016 World Short Course in Windsor and two years later, having graduated from Brisbane Girls Grammar, claimed three bronze medals at the World Short Course in China – including an individual medal in the 100m backstroke.
At the 2019 World Championships in South Korea, Minna won gold in the Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay, silver in the Women’s 100m Backstroke and silver in the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay.
Gabi Palm
Gabi is a goalkeeper for the Australian Women’s Water Polo team, the Aussie Stingers.
She began playing water polo to make new friends when she began at Brisbane Girls Grammar School.
While still at school she was captain of the state under 14 side which claimed the national title. She was also named goalkeeper of the tournament
Gabi later made the Australian team in her age group for the 2016 World Youth Championship and then the Australian under 20 team before making the jump into the Australian Stingers squad in 2017.
During her rise into the Stingers, she gained valuable experience playing overseas for three months with an Italian water polo club.
Gabi has played 27 international games and won a silver medal at the 2018 FINA World League Intercontinental Cup.
Harriette Pilbeam (Hatchie)
Professionally known as “Hatchie”, Harriette is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician who graduated in 2010.
Hatchie started singing as a child, later learning guitar and bass in her teen years, as well as piano and clarinet.
She studied entertainment, music and management in college before pursuing live music.
Hatchie is the bassist and vocalist of the indie rock band Babaganouj and was a member of the band Go Violets, which disbanded in 2014.
In March this year, 25-year-old Hatchie was the support act for American alternative rock figureheads Death Cab for Cutie and a week later opened for pop icon Kylie Minogue.
Manuri Gunawardena
Manuri is an entrepreneur and creator of HealthMatch, a digital platform that matches patients with clinical trials.
After graduating from Girls Grammar in 2010, Manuri moved to Sydney where she undertook a Bachelor of Medical Studies/Doctor of Medicine at The University of New South Wales. After developing an interest in neurosurgery and oncology, she completed a neurosurgery sub-internship at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore USA.
After noticing the lack of patient access to clinical trials of new treatments, Manuri partnered with a software engineer to establish HealthMatch, an online platform that matches patients with relevant clinical trials.
HealthMatch won Australia’s first TechCrunch Startup Battlefield in 2017 and has since raised $1.3 million from notable Silicon Valley and Australian Investors.
Francesca Hiew
Francesca is the Second Violin and Co-Artistic Director of the Australian String Quartet and a permanent member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
A graduate of Brisbane Girls Grammar in 2004, Francesca first picked up the violin at the age of four and studied at the Stoliarsky School of Music in Brisbane.
Five years later, at just nine years of age, she travelled as a soloist and orchestral member to the USA, performing at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York.
After leaving Girls Grammar, Francesca completed a Bachelor of Music at Queensland Conservatorium, then studied with William Hennessy at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM).
In 2012, she completed a Fellowship at ANAM that focused on chamber music for various string ensembles.
She co-founded the Auric Quartet and from 2014 became a full-time member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, before joining the Australian String Quartet in 2016.
Dr Geordan Shannon
Dr Shannon, who graduated from Brisbane Girls Grammar in 2002, is a medical doctor and global health academic.
Currently based at the Institute for Global Health in London, she leads research into health systems’ innovation, gender-based violence prevention and health economics.
During her career she has worked in various settings, including remote indigenous Australia, post-Tsunami Sri Lanka, the Peruvian Amazon, Western Kenya and rural Sierra Leone. Dr Shannon is the co-founder of Global Health Disrupted, a grassroots network supporting creative approaches to improving health and strengthening communities around the world.
She is currently completing her doctoral research in gender and health metrics, exploring the construction of an individualised gender equality measure in Peru.
In 2018 she was named Young Australian of the Year in the UK in recognition of her contributions to global health.
Alison Rae
Now a journalist with Al Jazeera Media Network based in Doha, Alison studied journalism at The University of Queensland after leaving school in 2005.
She was the recipient of the university’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award in 2018 before carving out an international career .
Alison has covered stories in Latin America, southern Africa and the Middle East and is the presenter of All Hail The Algorithm, a five-part series exploring the impact of algorithms, biometrics and big data on our everyday lives.
She has received several accolades during her short career, including being selected by the International Women’s Media Foundation for a fellowship to cover underreported regions.
Alison also received a Rotary Global Grant to attend the London School of Economics (LSE) where she completed a Master of Science (Anthropology and Development Management) and was awarded the Lucy Mair Prize for best dissertation.
Suzie Fraser
Suzie was first chosen in the Australian women’s water polo team in 2005 and won a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics.
Her other sporting successes included a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships and gold at the 2006 FINA World Cup.
She is now legal counsel at GHD and director of Water Polo Australia.
Benedicte Galichet
After completing her Master of Public Health at The University of Queensland, Benedicte was appointed to a short-term research position with the World Health Organisation.
This initial three-month contract turned into six years with WHO in Geneva, before she relocated to WHO in Vietnam, to support the Government’s efforts to reform its health system.
In 2018, after almost five years in Vietnam, Benedicte moved to WHO’s subregional office in the Pacific (based in Suva, Fiji) where she now leads the team’s work to communicate on a range of public health issues, and oversees external relations.
She has published several academic articles in the field of public health.
Julie McKay
A 2000 graduate of Brisbane Girls Grammar, Julie is passionate about advocating for women and socially disadvantaged groups.
She was executive director of the Australian National Committee for UN Women for nearly a decade and was named Young Australian of the Year in 2013.
Julie is a partner and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers), and serves as Gender Adviser to the Chief of the Australian Defence Force.
Julie joined Brisbane Girls Grammar School’s Board of Trustees in 2017 and became chair in 2019.
She has been Chair of Council at the Women’s College within the University of Sydney since 2016.
Dr Claire Fotheringham
Dr Claire Fotheringham, who graduated in 1995, works for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) as a medical Adviser (obstetrics and gynaecology).
She has worked in some of the world’s most dangerous countries, including Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, where antenatal health care is often restricted.
Her role encompasses the provision of emergency obstetric medical care to women who are displaced or living in danger.
Dr Fotheringham also works to support the long-term sustainability of local services by training local doctors and midwives.
Angela Hirst
Angela is a food entrepreneur and director of Brisbane-based Wandering Cooks, Australia’s largest artisan food and drink incubator.
A qualified chef with a PhD in Food Ethics from the University of Queensland, she has cooked in restaurants in London, Paris, Hoi An and Brisbane.
Angela has worked for community-supported agriculture enterprise Food Connect, taught research students at UQ and QUT, developed her own cooking classes and catering company and reviewed restaurants for Brisbane Times and Gourmet Traveller.
After just two years of trading, she led Wandering Cooks to achieve Anthill’s Coolest Company Award for a Micro Business. She has also been invited to speak about Wandering Cooks at both Harvard and Rutgers universities.
Angela and is on the board of directors of The Mulberry Project, a pilot social enterprise program which seeks to address unemployment and depression in new migrant communities by transforming under-utilised farmland into niche market gardens and facilitating opportunities for economic participation, training and wellbeing for migrants.
Melinda Taylor
Melinda is an international defence lawyer based in The Hague, Netherlands.
After graduating from Brisbane Girls Grammar in 1992, she studied arts/law at the University of Queensland, graduating in 1998.
Since then she has earned a reputation for defending the rights of high-profile people such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a son of Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, the deposed Libyan strongman.
She has worked as a victims’ advocate and in international criminal law and in 2006 helped set up the International Criminal Court’s public defence counsel, working on defence cases before tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
She was also assigned to provide assistance to Slobodan Milošević when he refused counsel during his trial.
In May this year, Melinda was appointed defence counsel for Islamist militant Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud, a former extremist fighter accused war crimes and crimes against humanity
Dr Emily Granger
A 1991 graduate of Brisbane Girles Grammar, Dr Granger is a cardiothoracic/heart and lung transplant surgeon at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Sydney.
She has performed more than 1400 general cardiothoracic operations and over 100 heart and lung transplants.
Dr Granger completed her medical degree at the University of Queensland in 1997 and her surgical fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 2006.
She has been involved with the NSW Organ Tissue Donation Service and Deceased Donor Organ Procurement Surgeon Committee since 2007.
A passionate advocate for organ donation, and giving her patients a “second chance” at life, in 2014 Dr Granger was involved in the world’s first successful DCD’heart transplant, a procedure that transplants organs donated after circulatory death.
A pioneering surgeon, Dr Granger was a finalist for the 2017 NSW Premier’s Award for Woman of the Year.
She is a conjoint lecturer with the Clinical Medical School at St Vincent’s Hospital and University of Notre Dame, and an instructor with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
Alison Smith
After leaving Brisbane Girls Grammar in 1988, Alison graduated with a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Law (Honours) from The University of Queensland and then completed her Master’s Degree in International Law at Australian National University.
She has acted as an international legal adviser for the Tibetan Government in Exile, Kosovar politicians, the Government of Thailand and the vice-president of Sierra Leone.
Alison also worked in Kosovo as an international legal officer for the International Crisis Group’s Humanitarian Law Documentation Project, which gathered statements from victims and witnesses of violations international humanitarian law in that country.
She has also been a researcher at the Kennedy School of Government’s Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.
Alison currently works with the International Criminal Justice Program for No Peace Without Justice, an international non‑profit organisation that works for the protection and promotion of human rights, democracy, the rule of law and international justice.
Dr Elsina Wainwright
A 1988 graduate of BGGS, Dr Wainwright is a Senior Fellow (Non-Resident) and Adjunct Associate Professor at Sydney University’s United States Studies Centre and a Non-Resident Fellow at New York University’s Center on International co-operation.
She regularly provides advice and commentary on international affairs and US Foreign Policy.
Her previous roles include Strategy and International Program Director at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), an associate with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, a consultant political analyst for the International Crisis Group in Bosnia and a Stipendiary Lecturer at Oriel College, Oxford University.
She studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where she completed both her Masters and Doctorate in International Relations.
In 2018 she was awarded an AM in the Australia Day Honours for significant service to international affairs, through Australian defence, foreign policy and conflict prevention studies, as an analyst and academic.
Raynuha Sinnathamby
Raynuha is managing director of Springfield City Group, the development group behind award-winning satellite city Greater Springfield.
After graduating from Brisbane Girls Grammar School in 1987, Raynuha studied at the University of Queensland and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws.
She practised property law, serving served as president of the Queensland Division of the Property Council of Australia and sitting on the national board of the Property Council of Australia before joining the Springfield City Group in 1998 as Director of Corporate.
In 2013 she was appointed Managing Director of the Springfield City Group, a role that has seen her become closely involved in the development of the Greater Springfield region through government liaison, partnership development and stakeholder management.
Her expertise saw her receive the Women in Development Award for Strategic Management in 2006 and the University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor’s Alumni Excellence Award in 2018.
Angie Milliken
Angie is a renowned Australian actor whose accolades include two AFI Best actor Awards (My Brother Jack and MDA) and a Centenary Medal for her outstanding achievements in the Australian film industry.
After graduating from the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Angie worked across theatre, television and film, receiving critical and popular acclaim.
Her film work includes This Isn’t Funny, Rough Diamonds, Paperback Hero and Dead Heart, and her television career spans Australia and the USA, where she featured in CSI Miami.
Her work on stage has seen her perform many acclaimed classic and contemporary works for leading theatre companies, including The Sydney Theatre Company, QT and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where she performed Sydney Olympic Arts Festival’s featured production of The White Devil.
In 2019, Angie performed the role of Linda Loman in Queensland Theatre’s production of Arthur Miller’s classic 1949 play, Death of a Salesman.
Jane Blackwood
Jane is the reserve manager of Cravens Peak, Boulia, one of Australia’s largest and most remote wildlife reserves, comprising 233,000ha at the northeast edge of the Simpson Desert.
As a young girl, Jane was inspired by the writings of English primatologist Jane Goodall and says she gets her “call of the wild’’ from her father, who worked as a surveyor’s assistant on mining sites in the Northern Territory and Queensland.
The Brisbane Girls Grammar 1979 graduate can now be found tackling all manner of jobs, from the backbreaking hand removal of hundreds of kilometres of barbed wire fencing (from the property’s pastoral legacy), maintaining vehicle tracks, shooting feral camels, checking bores, managing weeds, burning fire breaks and constructing bush camps to fixing just about everything.
Jane works for Bush Heritage Australia, a not-for-profit charity and one of Australia’s biggest conservation organisations, which owns and manages 1.24 million hectares of land across Australia.
Pauline Harvey-Short
An exceptional sportswoman and educator, Mrs Harvey-Short attended Girls Grammar from 1967 to 1971 and returned to the School in 1977 to teach in the Health and Physical Education department.
During her 41 years at the school, she has held positions including Head of Health and Physical Education, Director of Sport, Acting Dean of Administration, Associate Dean, and Dean of School before retiring from the position at the end of 2017.
In 2018, she commenced in the role of School History and Culture Manager.
Few educators are as experienced in and passionate about the field of Health and Physical Education as Mrs Harvey-Short. A pioneer of girls’ sport in Queensland, she served, in a voluntary capacity, and helped to establish organisations that promote the health and wellbeing of girls and provide competitive sport opportunities for girls and women.
She has been a board member of the Bicentennial Youth Foundation (1988) and Womensport Queensland (1993–2009), of which she was president from 2007–2009. She was also chair of the Queensland Girls Secondary Schools Sports Association (QGSSSA) 110 Year Celebrations Committee from 2017–2018.
Mrs Harvey-Short has fought to challenge societal trends to ensure that sport could be integrated into girls’ everyday lives so that they can have the opportunity to develop the attributes required to become skilled sportswomen—resilience, confidence, tough-mindedness and competitiveness—helping them to thrive as women in contemporary society.
In 2019, she received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division for service to sport and education.
Professor Cheryl Praeger
Emeritus Professor Cheryl Praeger is a multiple award-winning professor and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
Professor Praeger, who graduated from BGGS in 1965, retired from full-time academia at the University of Western Australia at the beginning of 2017, following 40 years of dedication to the academic pursuit of mathematical knowledge.
She now focuses on research and research supervision in her role as Senior Honorary Research Fellow.
During her career, Professor Praeger won many distinguished awards, recognising her as one of Australia’s leading mathematicians, including the 2013 Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal of the Australian Academy of Science.
Professor Praeger was the first female president of the Australian Mathematical Society (1992-1994), and the first pure mathematician to win an ARC Federation Fellowship (2007-2012).
She was named WA Scientist of the Year in 2009 and inducted into both the Western Australian Science Hall of Fame and the Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame in 2015.
She was appointed a member of the Order of Australia for service to mathematics in Australia in 1999.
Emeritus Professor Helene Marsh
A distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and the Dean of Graduate Research Studies at James Cook University, Professor Marsh graduated from Brisbane Girls Grammar School in 1962.
She is a fellow of both the Australian Academies of Science and Technological Sciences and Engineering and has received several international awards for her research. She currently chairs the national Threatened Species Scientific Committee.
The focus of her research has been dugong population ecology.
Professor Marsh became Director of Graduate Studies at James Cook University in 1997 and was the foundation Dean when the Graduate Research School was established in 2003.
She has been chair of the Australian council of Deans and Directors of Graduate Studies on two separate occasions and was a recipient of The University of Queensland Alumnus of the Year Award in 2018.
Professor Margaret Bullock
Professor Bullock is a pioneer in the field of ergonomics (physiotherapy and occupational therapy).
After leaving BGGS in 1950, she was one of the first students to graduate with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy) from The University of Queensland.
Professor Bullock tutored in the Department of Physiotherapy at UQ from 1955 to 1957 before moving to Boston, USA, where she worked as a physiotherapist at Massachusetts General Hospital before returning to Australia in 1960.
In the late 1960s she began research into the measurement of body movements, leading to an extensive study of physiotherapy practice and ergonomics of workspaces in vehicles and aircraft cockpits.
She took her PhD from UQ in 1973, the first person in the world to take it in physiotherapy, and following her graduation became Head of the Department of Physiotherapy at UQ, a position she retained until 1987.
Professor Bullock became Australia’s first professor of physiotherapy in 1978 and was deputy president and president of the UQ Academic Board from 1986 to 1990.
In 1997 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of her service in the field of physiotherapy, particularly as a research leader, academic and administrator.
Dr Cathryn Mittelheuser
Dr Mittelheuser, who graduated from BGGS in 1949, went onto study at the University of Queensland, graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science (first class honours) and a University Medal.
After completing her science degree and PhD she was a senior research fellow (1971-76) and acting lecturer in third year cell physiology (1975-76) in the UQ Botany Department.
The distinguished plant physiologist was awarded a CSIRO post doctoral fellowship from 1971 to 1976.
She has 13 publications in scientific books and journals. Her first publication, in Nature in 1969, resulted in worldwide interest and is still referred to in scientific papers.
Dr Mittelheuser is a former president of the Lyceum Club Brisbane and vice-president of the International Association of Lyceum Clubs.
She has been chair of the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society Brisbane and a member of the University of Queensland Alumni Association.
She is a supporter of the Mittelheuser Scholar-in-Residence through the Queensland Library Foundation, which aims to attract leading thinkers who will develop new ideas, tools, strategies and services that benefit both Queensland’s GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) sector and State Library of Queensland.
In 1999 Dr Mittelheuser was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to women, particularly through the Lyceum Club.
Margaret Mittelheuser
Australia’s first female stockbroker, Margaret studied at the University of Queensland at just 16 years of age.
After graduating in 1954 she became the first woman employed in the Commonwealth Public Service in Queensland before she was appointed a researcher in a Brisbane stockbroking firm.
In 1956 Margaret moved to Sydney and joined Ralph W King and Yuill, returning to Brisbane in 1961 to open the firm’s office here, making her the first woman in Australia to manage a stockbroking office.
In 1964 she became a non-member partner of the firm and, as a result, the nation’s first woman stockbroker under the auspices of the Sydney Stock Exchange where she also became a member in 1981.
Margaret’s career in broking extended beyond 50 years and at her retirement she was one of the longest serving brokers in this country.
Her adventurous spirit enabled her to build a strong business base in Papua New Guinea and attract large investments from the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund.
Margaret was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1996 for “service to the financial industry as an investment adviser and to the stockbroking industry and to the community through cultural and educational organisations”.
In 2017, she was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame.
Daphne Pirie
A 1948 graduate of Brisbane Girls Grammar School, Daphne was a nationally-ranked track and field athlete and captained the Queensland women’s athletics and hockey teams, as well as representing Australia in hockey.
She has also been a world-ranked Master’s athlete, winning eight gold medals in international competitions.
Daphne came to love sport at an early age. She would swim at the Milton school swimming pool and run at the Exhibition Ground at State Primary School Athletics days.
She began running seriously when the Queensland Women’s Amateur Athletic Association re-formed after the war. By 1955, she held 40 open championships in Queensland and was unbeaten in all events.
When her elite career finished, Daphne developed a career in sports administration and was appointed to the Queensland Olympic Council, becoming its first female vice-president.
She was founding president of Womensport Queensland and a director of Gold Coast Events Management.
Daphne holds life memberships with Hockey Australia, Women’s Hockey Australia and Hockey Queensland and is a Hockey Queensland Hall of Fame Inductee.
In 1989 she was awarded an MBE for services to hockey and in 2012 was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her dedication to women’s sport in Queensland.
In 2006, Womensport Queensland honoured her with its inaugural Contribution to Sport Award.
Professor Dorothy Hill
An internationally renowned geologist, Dorothy was the first woman to graduate with a gold medal from The University of Queensland, the first woman to become a professor at an Australian university and first female president of the Australian Academy of Science.
Her education at Brisbane Girls Grammar School inspired her to pursue a career as a scientist and geologist. The first in her family to attend university, she won a scholarship to The University of Queensland (UQ) and was the first female to graduate from UQ with a gold medal.
A pioneer in her field, Professor Hill conducted critical work in dating the limestone coral faunas of Australia, using them to outline wide-ranging stratigraphy.
Publishing more than 100 research papers, her work on fossils corals established the research program of the Great Barrier Reef Committee in the 1940s.
Professor Hill sought grants for the committee, eventually establishing a small shelter on Heron Island for students and researchers to use.
In 2017, Brisbane Girls Grammar School named its observatory after her, in honour of her significant contributions to science in Australia.
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