Canberra suburb of Spence to be co-named after Catherine Helen Spence

Catherine Helen Spence, a leading suffragist, journalist, teacher, politician and proportional voting pioneer, will now be jointly recognised by the suburb.

The co-naming of the suburb occurred following a recommendation from the ACT Place Names Advisory Committee.

The suburb was first named after William Spence who was one of the founders of the Australian Workers' Union and was later a member of Parliament.

It is the first suburb to be retrospectively co-named in the nation's capital.

ACT Place Names Advisory Committee former co-chair David Headon was behind the push for Catherine Helen Spence to be recognised.

Dr Headon, a historian, pointed to a lengthy list of achievements from Catherine Helen Spence, including that she was the first woman to put herself forward for election in Australia, she was the first female novelist, was crucial in the establishment of the first juvenile court in the world and she pioneered proportional voting.

"She was arguably the first Australian, and I say Australian - she was born in Scotland but she was here virtually all of her life - to establish a genuine international reputation," Dr Headon said.

"She was honestly a century ahead of her times.

"This is a woman who richly deserves to be involved in the naming of a suburb in the national capital."

Dr Headon said the co-naming would in no way cancel out William Spence's contribution.

University of Canberra citizenship and constitutional law expert Kim Rubenstein said Catherine Helen Spence was one of the first proponents of proportional representation in Australia. However, her fellow candidate Andrew Inglis Clark received all the credit. She said it should be called the "Hare-Spence" system.

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Professor Rubenstein has been advocating for a statue of Spence in Canberra for some years.

"We should be looking at and highlighting women's involvement in society at whatever opportunity that we have because of the disproportionate naming of men in all public spaces," she said.

"This is a really valuable way to start to work towards that rebalancing of attention to women's contributions in society."

"Having a suburb that is already named Spence is a wonderful opportunity for the ACT government."

Dr Headon and Professor Rubenstein spoke at an event to mark the co-naming of the suburb.

Professor Rubenstein was not originally supposed to speak at the event, she received an invitation for the ceremony but noticed it had all male speakers. She pointed this out.

"I thanked them for the invitation and then said, cheekily, that I thought it was ironic that in a ceremony celebrating women's achievements that no women had been identified to speak and surely there must be someone who can do that and if not I would be more than happy to spend a couple of minutes talking about Catherine Helen Spence," she said.

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