The Reserve Bank dumps the Queen from the special $5 note for the Centenary of Federation featuring “mother of federation” Catherine Helen Spence of South Australia. Catherine Helen Spence was a great supporter of the federation of the Australian States, the advancement of women and republicanism and stood unsuccessfully for election to the constitutional conventions in the 1890s. The monarchists issued their predictable protest that the note fails to carry the image of the head of state.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
