Australia's first female Governor-General is lawyer and academic Quentin Bryce.
She is the only Australian female Governor-General to date.
She was sworn into office as Governor-General on September 5, 2008, at Canberra's Australian Parliament House.
She is Australia's 25th — and first female — Governor-General, succeeding Major General Michael Jeffery, who had retired.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Governor Bryce's appointment on April 13, 2008, after consultations with the Queen, Elizabeth II, and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Across the Tasman, New Zealand had its first female Governor-General nearly two decades earlier when Dame Catherine Tizard was named the country's Queen's representative. She was Governor-General from 1990 to 1996.
Not only was she New Zealand's first female Governor-General but she was also the first female mayor of Auckland.
From 2001 to 2006, another woman, Dame Silvia Cartwright, was New Zealand Governor-General.
For brief periods before and after Dame Silvia Cartwright's incumbency, New Zealand Chief Justice Dame Sian Seerpoohl Elias acted as Governor-General of New Zealand.
