Agent TypePersonIdentifierUMA-AG-000001420Activities & OccupationsFeministsHistoryBiography written by Jean Taylor
LAURIE ELIZABETH BEBBINGTON (1953 -)
Laurie became involved in Women’s Liberation at the University of Melbourne as a first year student in 1972, helping to establish the MU Women’s Liberation club. As part of MU Women’s Liberation, Laurie organised regular newsletters, supplements in the student newspaper Farago on women’s liberation and women’s sexuality, and a regular newspaper column. In 1974 the group campaigned for child care to be provided at the University for students and staff. One demonstration involved the occupation of the University Council Chamber, resulting in arrests of key activists. The University child care provision jumped from one to four child care centres shortly thereafter.
At the same time, Laurie was active in Melbourne Women’s Liberation which was based at the Women’s Centre, originally in La Trobe Street. She was involved with Gay Liberation in 1973 and was a founding member of the Melbourne Radicalesbians. She was a member of the Melbourne Women’s Liberation Newsletter Collective for many years, coordinator of the Women’s Liberation Publications Group, member of a long running Consciousness Raising Group and of the Lesbian Action Group.
In 1974 she worked with a group of feminist students from campuses around Australia to establish women’s policies and funding for a Women’s Department in the then Australian Union of Students, and was elected the first National Women’s Officer in 1975, International Women’s Year. She was part of the Australian government sponsored delegation to the IWY Tribunal in Mexico City, and also organised a number of national women’s conferences. With a group of gay men and lesbians she worked to establish policies on homosexual liberation in AUS and during 1975 she coordinated the organisation of the First National Homosexual Conference in Melbourne.
Laurie is now retired from paid work after working for many years in the Victorian Public Service in a variety of areas, including mental health, drug and alcohol treatment, industrial relations, occupational health and safety and IT systems development. She was the CEO of the Lakeside Psychiatric Hospital in Ballarat and finished her career as the Commissioner for Law Enforcement Data Security.
Before joining the public service, in the late 1970s she worked as the Organising Secretary for the Conference for a Democratic Constitution, as the Project Officer for the Victorian Government’s Review of Social Welfare in Victoria, as Advisor to Senator Gareth Evans, and as the industrial officer for the Australian Social Welfare Union (now part of the ASU).
Laurie holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Business Administration. She trained as a volunteer counsellor with Lifeline and volunteered with Melbourne Lifeline for 10 years. She is a Fellow of the Williamson Community Leadership Program (Leadership Victoria) and was a Member of the Council of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, a Trustee and Chair of Programs Committee for the Queen Victoria Women’s Centre Trust, Chair and Board Member of the Moreland Hall Alcohol and Drug Treatment Service and a Board Member of the Buoyancy Foundation .
She is currently a member of the LGBTIQ+ Advisory/Lived Experience Group of the Breast Cancer Network of Australia and one of the Founders Group of the Victorian Pride Centre.
Bebbington, Laurie, [UMA-AG-000001420]. University of Melbourne Archives, accessed 09/03/2026, https://archives.library.unimelb.edu.au/nodes/view/58535
![[2005.0097] Papers of Laurie Bebbington](/img/placeholder.gif?1768336552 "[2005.0097] Papers of Laurie Bebbington")