Merle Thornton#Regatta Hotel protest

Thornton graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Sydney in 1952 and studied Philosophy as a post-graduate at the University of Queensland.

Thornton was involved in feminist activism beginning in the mid-1960s, including the notable Regatta Hotel protest in March 1965 that challenged women's exclusion from being served drinks in public bars in Queensland.{{Cite journal|last=Henderson|first=Margaret|date=July 2013|title=Archiving the feminist self: reflections on the personal papers of Merle Thornton|journal=Archives and Manuscripts|language=en|volume=41|issue=2|pages=91–104|doi=10.1080/01576895.2013.806013|issn=0157-6895|doi-access=free}} In 1970 the law was changed to allow women to be served drinks in public bars in Queensland.{{Cite web|url=https://www.justice.qld.gov.au/corporate/business-areas/liquor-gaming/liquor/history|title=History of liquor regulation|website=Department of Justice and Attorney-General|date=7 March 2014 |publisher=Queensland Government|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025043654/https://www.justice.qld.gov.au/corporate/business-areas/liquor-gaming/liquor/history|archive-date=25 October 2018|url-status=live|access-date=25 October 2018}} In April of the same year, Thornton founded the Equal Opportunities for Women Association in Brisbane. As President of the association, Thornton led a successful campaign for the removal of the marriage bar in the Commonwealth Public Service of Australia. The end of the marriage bar was legislated in 1966.

From 1960 to 1980, Thornton worked as an academic in a variety of positions within Philosophy, Government, Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Queensland (UQ). During her time there, Thornton helped to establish the first Women's Studies course in Queensland in the UQ's Sociology Department in 1973.

In March 1965, Thornton and Rosalie Bogner chained themselves to the bar rail of the Regatta Hotel in Toowong, Brisbane as a protest to the ban on serving women drinks in pubs in Queensland. The women were refused service as serving them liquor would have resulted in a fine for the pub. However, “sympathetic male patrons” brought them beer.

In Archiving the feminist self: reflections on the personal papers of Merle Thornton, Margaret Henderson notes that the protest “occurred four years before the first women’s liberation group met in Australia.” The protest marked the beginning of second wave feminist action in Brisbane and gained significant media coverage.{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131765972|title=In Queensland This Week- The women were chained to the brass rail|date=8 April 1965|work=Canberra Times|access-date=30 October 2018|pages=2|via=Trove}} Thornton and Bogner's protest, which addressed the public-private split for women, is recognised as a defining moment in the women's liberation movement in Australia. Kay Saunders notes, "when you use the term ‘‘second wave’’ it actually started in Brisbane."

Thornton stated, "What we did at the Regatta represented an idea whose time had come. It was the idea of ending the confinement of women to the private domestic world."

The public's reaction to the protest was mixed. Thornton received hate-mail letters accusing her of being a communist, questioning her mothering capabilities, and casting doubts on her morality.

In 1970 the law was changed to allow women to be served drinks in public bars in Queensland.

In 2014, the Regatta Hotel celebrated the protest by renaming the bar Merle's Bar.{{Cite web|url=https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/merles-bar-toasts-brisbane-suffragette-20140422-371sj.html|title=Merle's Bar toasts Brisbane suffragette|last=Bochenski|first=Natalie|date=22 April 2014|website=Brisbane Times|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026064457/https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/merles-bar-toasts-brisbane-suffragette-20140422-371sj.html|archive-date=2018-10-26|url-status=live|access-date=30 October 2018}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-27/merle-thornton-revisits-regatta-hotel-50-years-after-protest/6355004|title=Woman revisits Regatta Hotel 50 years after gaining right to drink there|last=Higgins|first=Isabella|date=27 March 2015|work=ABC News|access-date=30 October 2018|language=en-AU|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313215158/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-27/merle-thornton-revisits-regatta-hotel-50-years-after-protest/6355004|archive-date=2018-03-13|url-status=live}}

In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the 1965 Regatta Hotel protest was announced as a “Q150 Icon” under the category of a "Defining Moment" for Queensland.{{Cite news|url=http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/Id/64301|title=PREMIER UNVEILS QUEENSLAND'S 150 ICONS|date=10 June 2009|work=The Honourable Anna Bligh, Queensland Government|access-date=25 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170524033717/http://statements.qld.gov.au/statement/id/64301|archive-date=2017-05-24|url-status=live}}

Thornton campaigned for women's issues throughout her life including demanding equal pay for women and removing the marriage bar for women in public service.

Thornton has also achieved accomplishments as a screenwriter, playwright and author. Thornton's screenwriting appears on several episodes of the popular Australian television series Prisoner.{{Cite journal|last=Dever and Henderson|first=Maryanne and Margaret|title=The Activist's Archive|date=2012|journal=Australian Feminist Studies|volume=27|issue=72|pages=221–223|doi=10.1080/08164649.2012.676759|s2cid=147157023}} Thornton's stage play, Playing Mothers and Fathers, had a successful season at the Carlton Courthouse in 1990.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Thornton served as Chair of Women in Film and Television and Victorian Chair of the Australian Writers’ Guild.

Thornton published her first novel, After Moonlight, in 2004.

Thornton also contributed in academics to the field of feminist and social theory. Thornton's later research interests included philosophy, the politics of the advancement of women, Aboriginal thought, and the education of Aboriginal Australians.

• Thornton, Merle, "Sex equality is not enough for feminism", in Pateman, Carole and Gross, Elizabeths (eds), Feminist Challenges: Social and Political Theory, 1986, pp. 77–98.
• Thornton, Merle, After Moonlight, Interactive Press, Brisbane, 2004, 275 pp.
• Thornton, Merle, “Invisible Women Workers; Feminism, Consciousness and the Novel”, Overland, 182, Autumn, 2006, pp. 36–42.
• Thornton, Merle, “Our Chains: Rear View Reflections”, Queensland Review, Vol 14, No. 1, 2007, pp. 51–60.
• {{cite book | last1 = Thornton | first1 = Merle | author-link = Merle Thornton | last2 = Ostell | first2 = Melanie | title = Merle Thornton: Bringing the Fight | publisher = HarperCollins | date = 2020 | isbn = 978-1-4607-5832-8 }}

Merle Wilson married Neil Thornton in April 1953 in Sydney, New South Wales.

Merle Thornton was the mother of historian Harold Thornton and Australian film and television actress Sigrid Thornton.{{Cite news|url=https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/new-south-wales-left-queensland-broke-from-day-one-20170728-gxl38l.html|title=New South Wales left Queensland broke from day one|last=Moore|first=Tony|date=6 August 2017|work=Brisbane Times|access-date=11 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712223542/https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/new-south-wales-left-queensland-broke-from-day-one-20170728-gxl38l.html|archive-date=12 July 2019|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/qweekend-age-wont-silence-her/news-story/1be647c184ea0a157f11e245c47ecdc0?sv=cdb20155cf78a43810fadc2095abe445|title=Age won't silence her|last=Johnson|first=Susan|date=9 June 2012|work=Courier-Mail|access-date=11 October 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-12/sigrid-thornton-on-bullying,-retirement-and-her-familys-activism/7160834|title=Sigrid Thornton on bullying, retirement and a brush with the law|last=McDiarmid|first=Johanna|date=12 February 2016|work=ABC News|access-date=1 November 2018|language=en-AU|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723052656/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-12/sigrid-thornton-on-bullying,-retirement-and-her-familys-activism/7160834|archive-date=23 July 2018|url-status=live}}

Thornton died on 16 August 2024, at the age of 93.{{cite news |last1=O'Flaherty |first1=Antonia |title=Merle Thornton AM, a renowned Queensland feminist activist, author and academic, dies aged 93 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-21/merle-thornton-dies-aged-93/104252220 |access-date=21 August 2024 |work=ABC News (Australia) |date=21 August 2024}}

• {{Citation|author1=Thornton, Merle|title=Merle Thornton : bringing the fight|date=20 April 2020|publication-date=2020|publisher=HARPERCOLLINS AUSTRALIA|isbn=978-1-4607-5832-8}}

• {{cite web|url=http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/media/1264357/women-rattle-the-chains-in-public-bars|title=Women 'rattle the chains' in public bars|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=30 December 2015}} — includes a 5-minute video of the ABC television news broadcast on 10 April 1965 about the protest in the Regatta Hotel
• {{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47813779 |title=WOMEN and INEQUALITY |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=34 |issue=26 |location=Australia |date=23 November 1966 |page=72 |via=National Library of Australia}} Article written by Thornton in 1966
• {{imdb name|1429616}}

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Category:1930 births

Category:2024 deaths

Category:Academic staff of the University of Queensland

Category:Australian writers

Category:Australian women's rights activists

Category:University of Sydney alumni

Category:University of Queensland alumni

Category:Members of the Order of Australia