Celebrity, Nation, and the New Australian Woman: Tania Verstak, Miss Australia 1961

This article examines two women who signified the 'ideal' feminine for Australians and represented the Australian nation on the global stage: Beryl Mills, the first Miss Australia, crowned in 1926, and Tania Verstak, Miss Australia 1961. Both women gained celebrity through their role as Miss Australia, but Tania Verstak is of particular significance as the first 'new Australian' woman to win the coveted title. The strategy of viewing the two women as embodying the Australian nation reveals some of the dramatic social shifts that occurred in the Australian consciousness over the thirty-five years that separated the two title-holders; furthermore, it demonstrates how those shifts reshaped Australia's national identity and its feminine imagery.