Representative of Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia.

Representative of Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia.

William Ridley (1819-1878), Presbyterian minister, was born at Essex, England, son of William Ridley, miller and his wife Maria. He was educated at the University of London Interested in missionary work he was recruited to Australia by the Rev J.D. Lang in 1849, arriving at Sydney in March 1850. He was ordained by Lang shortly after his arrival. He taught classics at the Australian College during 1850. In 1851 he was appointed to the Dungog area and in 1853 he began an itinerant ministry in the New England district which later extended to Moreton Bay. He worked with local aboriginal tribes and in 1855 published his 'Report..of a Journey along the Condamine, Barwan and Namoi Rivers' (Sydney, 1855). In 1866 he published 'Kamilaroi, Dippil, and Turrubul: Languages spoken by Australian Aborigines', which was republished in 1875 as 'Kamilaroi and other Australian languages'. He returned to Sydney in 1858 and after a few years of parish work he became a journalist in 1861. As a journalist he worked as assistant editor of the Empire and as editor of the Evening News and the Australian Town and Country Journal. He remained involved with the Presbyterian Church, preaching most. Sundays Ridley died in 1878.

Judith Arundell Wright was born on 31 May 1915 at Sydney, New South Wales. She studied at the University of Sydney. Wright settled in Brisbane, Queensland, and worked as a statistician at the University of Queensland (UQ) from 1944 to 1948, where she helped Clem Christesen to edit Meanjin. She wrote the first of her poems while working at UQ. Wright met Jack McKinney during her time in Brisbane, and together they moved to Mount Tamborine. They had a daughter, Meredith, in 1950 and married in 1962. Jack died in 1966. Wright was one of Australia's foremost poets, and writers of short stories and children's book. She helped form the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland and was a supporter of the Aboriginal land rights movement. She was a patron of many organisations, including the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, National Forests Action Council (Victoria), Campaign Against Nuclear Power (Queensland), Townsville Women's Shelter and Amnesty International (Victoria). In 1991 she was awarded the Queen's gold medal for poetry. Judith Wright died in Canberra on 26 June 2000.