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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-06 Daily Xml
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MURIEL MATTERS

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:19): Nearly 104 years ago, the first aeronautical protest took place in the skies over London. Some may wonder why this is relevant to this house. I say that activism and dissent still remain an important contribution to a healthy democracy, and an aeronautical protest in 1909 was at the cutting edge of activism when seen in the context of the suffrage activity in the UK at the time. For during this period, many women and men were disenfranchised, and they and their already enfranchised male supporters were working hard to encourage the Asquith government to make votes a part of the government agenda in the forthcoming parliamentary session.

The reason this is relevant to us is that the protestor was Adelaide born Muriel Matters. The aeronautical protest was the third of Muriel's hat trick of firsts following her successful caravan campaign, and the grille protest in the House of Commons which took the question of votes for women directly to MPs sitting in the chamber and saw Muriel become the first woman to 'speak' in the House of Commons. Muriel had voted twice in South Australia before arriving in London—South Australia being the first place in the world to give women dual franchise—and she joined the struggle because she knew the value of the vote.

Through her actions as a member of the Women's Freedom League, Muriel was able to raise the issue of franchise in the popular press internationally, because in 1909 many countries did not allow their citizens the right to vote. The aeronautical protest was timed to coincide with the procession of the king to open parliament on 16 February. In theory, as tight police cordons prevented women activists from entering the parliamentary precinct to pass out brochures, dropping them from the air could have been an alternative tactic.

That was the object of the exercise that day: showering the king's procession with information on the need to include the debate on franchise as part of the forthcoming session. In practice, however, the plan had some deficiencies, due mostly to the fact that aeronautics was still in its pioneering infancy. Muriel was, in fact, risking life and limb in the name of progress. The airship she had boarded at the Welsh Harp near Hendon was piloted by Captain Herbert Spencer, the only other occupant of the basket attached to the flimsy bamboo framework beneath the 81-foot dirigible gas bag emblazoned with the words 'votes for women'.

Captain Spencer was one of the famous Spencer family, four generations of pioneers who took flight very seriously, graduating from the Spencer Glider in 1868 to a biplane some 40 years later. The glider travelled some 120 feet in its first flight. I have much information on the glider here if members are interested later. The Spencers also held demonstrations of parachuting and ballooning all over the UK and around the world. In fact, one came to Melbourne in 1897 and stayed until 1901 demonstrating parachute jumps from the sky and ballooning techniques.

The airship used on 16 February was Spencer Airship B, a rebuilt and reduced variant of the original B craft that had crashed in May earlier that year. Spencer Airship B was the latest in a line of dirigibles that Herbert and his five siblings had been working on. It was 150 feet long and 35 feet in diameter with a hydrogen capacity of 100,000 cubic feet. It was driven by two water-cooled gasoline engines of between 50 and 60 horsepower, no match, however, for the strong headwinds that day.

The craft rose to a height of 3,500 feet, far too high for Muriel's voice to be heard via the megaphone that she had taken aloft with her. However, the 56 pounds of handbills that she threw down from the sky provided a trail for the suffragist motorcade to follow to the field in Coulsden where Muriel and Captain Spencer landed in trees after an erratic flight of almost two hours. Nevertheless, while their flight went off course, Muriel and the women worked very hard to make sure that votes for women became part of the government's agenda, but it was not until World War I that votes for women were realised.

I am indebted to the Muriel Matters Society who have gathered this information and note that they will be involved in a docudrama that will shortly be released on Muriel's endeavours. I commend to the house Muriel's activism on behalf of votes for women and making the importance of the value of the vote known to the greater public. I know that the Muriel Matters Society will be working very hard to make sure that this message is taken to schools and, in fact, all people, so that they do understand the importance of taking part in our elections whenever they take place.

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