Lesley Hall

Lesley Hall was a woman with a life-long disability and was involved with a number of disability organisations from 1972 until her death in 2013, including as CEO of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations. She is perhaps best remembered for her challenge to the beauty quest with her protest at the 1981 ‘Miss Victoria’ quest, pictured here.

Her friend Patricia Conelius said:
“Lesley was fierce…. She was fierce in defending her beliefs. In early days when she used sticks she could wield them with fierce accuracy. She was fiercely political. She was fiercely and unromantically working class. She was a fierce advocate for the rights of all disenfranchised people.”