Lesbia Harford: Australia’s anti-war, socialist poet

Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast · Sep 1, 2026 · 36m

Lesbia Harford was one of the first women to graduate as a lawyer from Melbourne University in the First World War, but followed her socialist ideals by working as a machinist in a factory. She went on to become one of the first female trade union leaders in Australia and a leader in the anti-war, anti-conscription movement. All the time she wrote poetry, mostly about love for both men and women, but also about the conditions for workers and the impact of war. Lesbia's poems were frank and fearless, and startlingly modern - a far leap from the flowery, archaic forms of the time. Her work was…