People Australia

Lynda Heaven, n.d.

Lynda Agnes Victoria Heaven née Hocking (1902-1987) housewives association secretary and parliamentarian

Birth: 12 April 1902 at Daylesford, Victoria, daughter of native-born parents Nicholas Hocking (1870-1938), labourer, and Rosina Marie, née Callanan, late White, subsequently Pollard (1873-1946). Marriage: 1922 in Victoria to Ronald Heaven (1897-1974), a bank clerk, sheet metal worker and later civil servant, born at Dunedin, New Zealand. They had one daughter and three sons. Death: 3 April 1987 at Warrane, Hobart, Tasmania. 

• Her husband had enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in World War I and was wounded in action (gassed) serving with the 28th Battalion in France in 1917. From 1920 to 1924 he served with the Royal Australian Air Force. After their marriage they lived at Kew, then Box Hill in Victoria, before moving to Tasmania. He enlisted in the 6th Garrison Battalion on 29 August 1940 and served in Tasmania during World War II until February 1945.
• Lynda Heaven joined the Australian Labor Party in Tasmania about 1924. Vice president Labor Women's Organising Committee for many years and in 1953 became second woman to be elected a delegate to Federal ALP conference. In 1959 was elected to State ALP executive.
• On 9 March 1962, following the death of J. T. Dwyer, she was elected by recount for the State seat of Franklin, becoming the first Labor woman to sit in the Tasmanian House of Assembly. Was defeated and left parliament on 2 May 1964.
• Active in community affairs, including founder of 'Meals on Wheels'. Federal secretary of Australian Housewives Association. Was the first Tasmanian woman to serve on a jury — in December 1959.
• Appointed MBE on 8 June 1968 for service to the community.
• Her daughter Betty Lois Heaven (1922-1989), served as a corporal in the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II.

Sources
ALP Women's Magazine, Special Diamond Jubilee Issue, February 1964.