90 years of women in The Weekly

For the past nine decades, our sister magazine across the Ditch, The Australian Women’s eekby, has been dedicated to shining a light on those making a difference. We revisit some of the incredible women who won readers’ hearts, lit up others’ lives and helped to shape a country.

- TIFFANY DUNK, JULIET RIEDEN, SAMANTHA TRENOWETH

Bindi & Terri Irwin

While it was "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin who blasted the family into public consciousness in 1991, it is the females in his life who have proved instrumental in protecting his legacy and continuing his conservation crusade. Daughter Bindi was just six years old when Steve was killed in 2006, but even at that early age she knew her purpose. Just months after losing her father, Bindi joined The Weekly as a columnist, sharing her passion for wildlife. Terri, meanwhile, not only stepped up as sole owner of Australia Zoo and the Wildlife Warriors foundation, but made them bigger, "because I promised". Along with son Robert and Bindi's now-husband, Chandler Powell, the Irwin women returned to Lady Elliot Island - a tropical coral paradise the Irwins helped restore to health - with The Weekly in 2019. "We are a family who works together, lives together and holidays together," Terri said. "We communicate well, and I think it's a natural effect of losing Steve. I think we became closer and stronger as a family."

Elizabeth Evatt

Elizabeth Evatt was a trailblazing lawyer - Australia's first female Federal Court judge, the first Australian elected to the UN Human Rights Committee; she chaired the controversial Royal Commission on Human Relationships in 1977 and was the first Chief Judge of the Family Court. That role transformed marriage and divorce in Australia.

Jane Turner & Gina Riley