To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March 2013, we’re featuring Australian women writers and poets on the homepage with accompanying clips.

A 1996 episode of SBS Television’s Masterpiece Special features expatriate Australian writer Robyn Davidson. Davidson’s best-selling book Tracks (1980), about her journey across the desert from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean, is currently being made into a feature film starring Mia Wasikowska.

Germaine Greer has been a forthright advocate for women’s rights since the 1960s. In a 1992 episode of SBS’s The Book Show, she talks about her controversial book The Change: Women, Ageing and the Menopause (1991).

Kylie Tennant is one of Australia’s most significant women writers, best known for novels like The Battlers (1941) and Ride on Stranger (1943). Her writing and activism were influenced by socialism and feminism and an all-women crew interviewed her for a 1986 documentary, two years before her death.

The work of two of the three Australian poets we are representing is featured in the NFSA’s National Registry of Recorded Sound. Dorethea Mackellar reads one of the most famous poems ever written about Australia, 'My Country’. A recording of Oodgeroo Noonuccal (pictured above left) reciting 'We Are Going’ is also in the registry.

Finally, Judith Wright discusses her poetry in a 1963 ABC television interview. She was also a passionate campaigner for Aboriginal land rights and nature conservation.

Follow the links below to learn more about these extraordinary women.

Visit the International Women’s Day website, a global hub for sharing news and event information about International Women’s Day.

Listen to more recordings in the NFSA’s National Registry of Recorded Sound.