Forty open reel audiotapes of interviews, transcripts and documentation about the project, and accompanying posters.

From Lunchroom to Boardroom was an oral history project by historian Therese Collie and visual artist Judith Hewitson. The objective of the project was to record the stories of a wide variety of women who participated in the Queensland labor movement from the 1930s though to the 1970s. Funded in 1991 by the Australia Council, and supported by the Oral History Association of Queensland, the Union of Australian Women and the Trades and Labour Council. Interviews were conducted by Therese Collie. Transcripts of the interviews were compiled by Sue Pechey. Interviews with Joyce Murphy, Ivy Willey, Jenny Prohaska, Alice Hughes, Ivy Neilsen, Jean Bowden, Marie Crisp, Constance Healy, Jean O'Connor, Ida Welsh, Vi Cox, Susie Dickson, Frances Bishop, Julba Julba Woman Dance Troupe, Loma Thompson, Pat Bowe, Bessie Lymburner, and Elena Timms.

Poster includes text with a gold photo frame boarder. Inscribed on poster, black text with gold shadow: I Wasn't Born Yesterday. Inscribed behind main text: Women Stand out, Talk Now. Right to Drink in Bars. Right of Married Women to Work. Equal Pay. Right of Women to Work on Juries. More Women in the Top Order. Paid Maternity Leave. Changed Public Attitudes to Child Care. Women's Right to Choose What Happens To their Bodies. Solidarity with Women From Round The World. [illegible text behind main text] Right to Work. Solidarity with Women From Round the World. Brought Women's Issues into the Trade Union Movement. Affirmative Action Act. Right to Vote. Sex Discrimination Act. Women's Refuges. Better Jobs. Widow's Pension. Supporting Mothers' Benefit. Recognition of Women's Right to Work. Thank Heavens!
Bottom of poster: [Australia Council logo] From Lunchroom to Boardroom Labour women's oral history project was assisted by the Australia Council, the Federal Government's funding and advisory body and hosted by the TLC Women's Equal Opportunity Committee and the Public Sector Union, Qld. Artworks: Therese Collie / Judith Hewitson. Feb 1992.

Background of poster is of an older woman. Inscribed on poster: I've always tried to be a good little girl....but at heart I'm still a rebel.
Bottom of poster (trimmed): [Australia Council logo] From Lunchroom to Boardroom Labour women's oral history project was assisted by the Australia Council, the Federal Government's funding and advisory body and hosted by the TLC Women's Equal Opportunity Committee and the Public Sector Union, Qld. Artworks: Therese Collie / Judith Hewitson. Feb 1992.

Interview continues from Reel 8, Interview with Alice Hughes, Grange, Brisbane, 25 Nov 1991 UQFL300, Series A, Item 3). Alice Hughes is joined by her friend Ivy Neilson, who was the secretary of the Innisfale Branch of the Communist Party. Ivy talks of her early life growing up in a militant family in Queensland; Alice and Ivy talk about the Communist Party's political school they both attended in Alexandra Headlands in 1945; their relationship with their husbands and their resentment to the women's political activities; working relationship between women and men in the Communist Party; and sexual harassment in the meat industry.

Therese Collie interviews Alice Hughes (née Anear). Alice was born 25 November 1918 in Charters Towers, Queensland. She talks about her early life in Chillagoe and her first involvement with the women's rights movement; her brother Dick Anear and the Communist Party; the formation of the Union of Australian Women; International Women's Day in Australia; Ivy Neilson (Innisfale Branch of the Communist Party); Trade Union movement on women's issues; Labor governments; the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions on equal pay; The Meat Worker’s Reform Committee; Quentin Bryce and the Office of Status of Women; and the current state of the women's movement.

Interview continues on Reel 9: Interview with Alice Hughes and Ivy Neilson, Grange, Brisbane, 25 Nov 1991 (UQFL300, Series A, Item 4).

Therese Collie interviews Bessie Lymburner, born in 1919 in Patana (Wenlock), Cape York.

Bessie talks about her early life in Palm Island and Townsville; working as a nurse and for the settlement Matron and Superintendent; housing; her husband Eric Lymburner's involvement in the Palm Island strike of 1957 where him and others protested againsts the injustices of living under the act; Second World War; her children; her concerns about Aboriginal health and Comalco Mining; Aboriginal people and women.

Therese Collie interviews Connie Healy. Constance (Connie) Healy grew up in Brisbane. She worked for the Waterside Workers' Federation, and, from the 1930s, became heavily involved with the Unity/New Theatre and the Communist Party of Australia. After the second World War, which claimed the life of her first husband, she married prominent Queensland union leader, Mick Healy. Her interest in theatre and her involvement in political activity continued throughout the postwar decades. She was particularly active in the struggle for justice for Aboriginal people. (Information from Connie Healy Collection, UQFL191, Fryer Library, The University of Queensland Library).

Connie talks of her early life and working life; the Unity/New Theatre; Waterside Workers' Union, she was Ted Englardt's secretary; joining the Communist Party of Australia; Clerks' Union and Bank Officers' Association; her husband Mick Healy; Secretary of the Eureka Youth League; Daisy Marcositi; prominent political figures like Max Julius, Brian Fitzpatrick, Paul Robeson, and Sir Hewlitt Johnson; and her views of the current issues for women.

Therese Collie interviews Elena Timms (née Raccanello) born in 1941 in Stanthorpe.

Elena talks about her parents, who were Italian migrants; her experiences of growing up in Stanthorpe as a child of migrants; her and her fathers involvement in the peace and anti-war movements; working in an aluminium tube factory in Port Kembla in 1963 and school cleaner and trade unions; Federated Miscellaneous Workers' Union of Australia and Trades and Labor Council; women labor union members.

Therese Collie interviews Francis Bishop, born in Brisbane in 1918.

Francis talks of her early life growing up in Brisbane in a Liberal family; joining the Communist Party and Union of Australian Women, and her involvement with both organisations; her husband Frank, who was the Communist Party Secretary of the Townsville area; Labor Day marches in Brisbane; her opinion on the changes in political activity over the years and lack of interest in unions and the Labor Party; women's issues and work for women's rights; Flo Milburn and Betty Clason.

Therese Collie interviews Ida Welsh (née Hamilton).

Ida talks of her early life and growing up in Grey Street, South Brisbane and as a child of a trade union leader and politician. Her father, William Hamilton, was involved in the shearers' strike of 1891 and later was a Labor member for Gregory in the Queensland Legislative Assembly (1899-1915); Workers Political Organisation; Jack Feeley; education at Brisbane Girls' Grammar and winning the Wight memorial music prize in 1917; Country Women's Association of Australia (CWA); her mother Mary Anne (née Mitchell) who grew up in New Caledonia and Longreach; Jack Feeley; her husband's grandfather William Pitt, Prime Minister of England; recognition of women by the Labor Party and the Industrial Workers of the World.