Joy Cummings

Joyce Anne "Joy" Cummings (23 December 1923 - 2 July 2003) was the first female Lord Mayor of Newcastle, New South Wales and also the first woman to obtain this office in Australia. She served two terms as Lord Mayor, retiring from politics in 1984 due to a stroke. Born Joyce Anne Plumbe on 23 December 1923 at Ramsgate, New South Wales. She moved to the Newcastle area at the onset of World War Two when her father, a fireman, was transferred to the Scott Street Brigade. It was here that she met and married Ray Cummings, who was also a fireman, together raising a family of four children.

Joy became a member of the Labor Party at the age of 15 during 1938 and later entered local politics in 1968. During her political career she was active in promoting environmental and heritage conservation, the arts, local business and industry, and social reforms. Some of her achievements included the preservation of the East End of Newcastle and Cooks Hill, the refurbishment of the Civic Theatre, and the preservation of Blackbutt Reserve and the Shortland Wetlands. She was also a vocal opponent to the closure of the Newcastle State Dockyards. Two significant social reforms was the use by her of Advance Australia Fair during Citizenship Ceremonies in 1977 and the flying of the Aboriginal flag over the town hall, both of which were Australian firsts.^[1]

Joy Cummings died in Newcastle on 2 July 2003.

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