A Secretive Century

In a life that spanned more than a century - 1882 to 1989 - Monte Punshon witnessed crucial events in Australia's history. She was a pioneer radio broadcaster, travelled the country with children's theatrical troupes and defied convention with her active involvement in the underground world of queer Melbourne in the 1930s. Her wanderlust took her to China and Japan, and she studied their languages before becoming a warden in a wartime internment camp for Japanese civilians. In the postwar era she was an early advocate for closer ties between Australia and Asia. Punshon's complex personality reflected both her middle-class Methodist upbringing in Ballarat and her restless search for new experiences and for her own identity. At the age of 103 she gained fame for speaking publicly about her lifelong love for women. Monte's story shines light into the hidden corners and complexities of late nineteenth and twentieth century society, and the unfinished quest to create an imaginative and unafraid Australia.