Catherine Helen Spence (31 October 1825 – 3 April 1910) was a Scottish-born Australian author, teacher, journalist, politician, leading suffragist, and Georgist. Spence was also a minister of religion and social worker, and supporter of electoral proportional representation. In 1897 she became Australia's first female political candidate after standing (unsuccessfully) for the Federal Convention held in Adelaide. Called the "Greatest Australian Woman" by Miles Franklin and by the age of 80 dubbed the "Grand Old Woman of Australia", Spence was commemorated on the Australian five-dollar note issued for the Centenary of Federation of Australia. Early life and family Spence was born in Melrose, Scotland, in October 1825, as the fifth child in a family of eight. Her father David Spence was a banker and lawyer, her mother was Helen nee Brodie. Her eldest sibling, Agnes died in infancy, and her sisters were Jessie, Helen, Mary and brothers David, William and John. Spence said she had a "happy childhood' and felt "well brought up" with her parents being "of one mind regarding the care of the family". Spence had an early memory of the large funeral for Scottish Borders novelist Sir Walter Scott, in 1832. Spence's schooling from age four to thirteen, was at St. Mary's Convent School, Melrose whose head teacher was a Miss Phinn, whom Spence admired as "a born teacher in advance of her own times". In 1839, following sudden financial difficulties, the family emigrated to South Australia, leaving her brother David jnr. in Scotland. Arriving on 31 October 1839 (her 14th birthday), on Palmyra, at a time when the colony had experienced several years of drought, the contrast to her native Scotland made her "inclined to go and cut my throat". Nevertheless, the family farm endured seven months of the drought, an "encampment", growing wheat on an eighty-acre (32 ha) selection before moving to Adelaide. Her father, David Spence, was elected first Town Clerk of the City of Adelaide. He was important in the City holding its elections using an early form of Single transferable voting, inspiring Catherine to later engage in activism in the cause of Proportional representation. In 1843, the municipality of Adelaide collapsed and her father died three years later. Spence wrote later that "after the break up of the municipality and loss of his income, my father lost health and spirits". Spence's mother died in 1886. Of the "land of her adoption", Spence