Zonta Club of Ballarat
Ballarat's Great Women
Ballarat is home to many people volunteering their time and expertise to make our community a better place in which to live.
During the Celebratory Dinner for Ballarat’s Great Women 2025, we honoured six women from different backgrounds whose energy, expertise, encouragement and empathy resulted in recognition by their peers for their outstanding commitment to others in our local community.
The concept of local women nominated by their peers for recognition goes back to 2006 when Women’s Health Grampians – supported by the Zonta Club of Ballarat - put together the stories of 113 women nominated by their peers into a book published in 2008 and titled Amongst Ballarat’s Finest.
Interest in the program grew, with a name-change to Ballarat’s Great Women. By 2013 it became a program delivered solely by Zonta, culminating in a Celebratory Dinner in March each year, the month during which International Women’s Day is recognised.
The Honour Roll now holds the names of over 200 local women who have made a significant contribution to our city, and in some cases nationally and internationally.
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The mission of Zonta International is TO BUILD A BETTER WORLD FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS.
Members of the Zonta Club of Ballarat undertake a challenging program each year focusing on the needs of women and girls and their families, locally and globally. We now have to dedicate our efforts where they are most needed.
It is with great regret, therefore, that we decided to end our guardianship of the program.
We wish to thank everyone who has been associated with the program. It has been an honour and privilege to have met so many of Ballarat’s Great Women.
After almost twenty years of involvement with a project honouring Ballarat’s Great Women initiated by Women’s Health Grampians in 2006, members of the Zonta Club were eager to seek out new leadership for this program. Celebrated in the month of March, traditionally acknowledging International Women’s Day, the program for 2026 and beyond will be auspiced by the Ballarat Foundation in collaboration with representatives across Ballarat, and rebranded as the GREAT WOMEN OF BALLARAT.
