Women in Australia were first allowed to vote in different years depending on the region. South Australian women were granted the right to vote and stand for office as early as 1894, making South Australia one of the first places in the world to do so. Western Australia followed in 1899. When Australia became a federation in 1901, only women in South Australia and Western Australia had the right to vote in federal elections. The Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902 granted women across Australia the right to vote in federal elections and to stand for the Australian Parliament, making Australia the first country to give women these dual rights at the national level. However, the Act excluded most Indigenous Australians and some non-European migrants until later reforms, with Indigenous men and women gaining the right to vote in national elections in 1962. Other Australian states granted women the right to vote in their state elections between 1902 and 1908, with Victoria being the last state to grant women's suffrage in 1908.
