In Black and White: The scandalous past of the “world’s oldest lesbian” Monte Punshon

Monte Punshon’s perfect 19th-century manners disguised her wild past attending secret drag parties and befriending a suspected spy.

Monte Punshon in her Tatura internment camp warden’s uniform during World War II. Picture: Tatura and District Historical Society.

To the outside world, Monte Punshon was utterly respectable.

But her perfect 19th-century diction disguised her wild past as a bad girl who hung out at secret 1930s drag parties and was monitored by wartime security services who suspected her Japanese teacher was a spy.

Her tale is told in the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters:

The story appears in a new book called A Secretive Century: Monte Punshon’s Australia by

Tessa Morris-Suzuki, professor emerita of history at the Australian National University.

Ms Punshon came to national prominence when she was dubbed “the world’s oldest lesbian” after coming out at the age of 103.

Monte Punshon celebrating Gay Day 1985 with motorcycle club members. Picture: Jay Watchorn, Australian Queer Archives (AQuA)

Monte Punshon was dubbed the “world’s oldest lesbian” when she came out at the age of 103.

It followed her appointment as a roving ambassador for Brisbane’s Expo 88, raising the ire of conservative Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

“Joh was quite rabidly homophobic, and so there was quite a kerfuffle,” Professor Morris-Suzuki says.

“There was a headline in one of the articles which said something along the lines of Sir Joh wishes his roving ambassador could be a little less gay.”

Ms Punshon travelled widely in Asia and was one of the first Australians to take Japanese classes.

But amid Japan’s growing militarism in the late 1930s, the classes raised alarm bells.

“When I went to the National Archives, there are little records of Monte, so they were keeping an eye on the classes that she was taking, and on her,” Professor Morris-Suzuki says. As it became difficult for them to meet, Ms Punshon “rather bravely” opened her apartment for the students to gather.

A Secretive Century: Monte Punshon's Australia, by Tessa Morris-Suzuki.

Author Tessa Morris-Suzuki, professor emerita of history at the Australian National University.

The gatherings probably included her teacher, Moshi Inagaki, who had become a good friend and was being closely monitored by security services.

“There’s really no evidence that he was doing anything sinister,” Professor Morris-Suzuki says.

“The Australian authorities, first of all, thought he was a spy.

“And then they started to think that he was deliberately being sent to teach Japanese badly so that Australians wouldn’t learn proper Japanese and this would weaken their position in their dealings with Japan.”

To learn more, listen to the interview in the free In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

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