This biography is republished from The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Written by Caitlin Stone, The University of Melbourne. See below for full attribution.
Born: 19 June 1930, Malaysia
Died: 12 December 2016
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: NA
Anne Deveson was born in Malaya in 1930. Her family moved to England when she was two years old, later moving to Western Australia, returning to England when Deveson was fifteen.
Deveson’s first job was with as a journalist with a small newspaper, the Kensington News, in London. She came to Australia in the 1950s and worked at the ABC on various ‘women’s programs’. She was also a presenter at radio station 2GB where she was one of the first people in Australia to use talkback. From 1985 to 1988, she was Executive Director of the Australian Film Television and Radio School.
Deveson has been active in lobbying for the rights of women, children and the disabled. Much of her work has focused on mental illness, following the diagnosis of her son with schizophrenia and his death from a drug overdose. She helped to establish SANE Australia (a charity supporting mental health issues) and Schizophrenia Australia. Her other positions include: Member, Royal Commission into Human Relationships (1974 to 1977); Member, NSW Medical Tribunal (1999 to 2010); Expert Advisory Group on Drugs and Alcohol (1999 to 2007) and Member, NSW Mental Health Tribunal (2002 to 2007). Anne Deveson was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1983 for service to the media and an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1993 for service to community health.
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Works cited
Caitlin Stone, ‘Deveson, Anne Barbara’, in The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Australian Women’s Archives Project, 2014, https://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0217b.htm, accessed 16 January 2022.