As a precocious 10-year-old, she wrote to then-prime minister Bob Hawke. Forty years on, the Wiradjuri woman is Berrigan Shire Council's first Indigenous mayor.
Julia Cornwell McKean was 10 when she wrote to then-prime minister Bob Hawke to let him know that one day she would become Australia's first female PM.Julia Cornwell McKean became Berrigan Shire Council's first Indigenous mayor in September
The precocious youngster's 1983 letter took him to task over education reforms in her home state of Victoria but also took the opportunity to tell him that she was sure she would end up sitting behind his desk running the country.The self-proclaimed political "nerd" made a habit of trying to create change from a young age.
Dr Cornwell McKean became the first Indigenous councillor to represent her shire, in southern NSW, in 2021.She wasted little time making her mark, instituting a Welcome to Country before each council meeting, hanging the Aboriginal flag at council chambers and getting the council to endorse the Uluru Statement of the Heart.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people represented 3.4 per cent of the NSW population in the 2021 Census.
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