Caroline Dexter was an English-Australian writer and feminist.

Dexter was born Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

, England; she was educated privately in England and Paris. In 1843 she married the painter, William Dexter

William Dexter

William Dexter was an English-Australian painter.Dexter was born at Melbourne, Derbyshire, England, and became an apprentice at the Derby China factory painting flowers and birds in the Chinese and Japanese styles. Dexter then studied at Paris, and returning to England, married Caroline née Harper...

, be migrated to Australia aboard the Bank of England arriving in Sydney in 1852, and she arrived in the Marie Gabrielle in 1855. In Sydney they opened and ran a Gallery of Arts and School of Design.

The moved on to Gippsland

Gippsland

Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...

 in 1856. While in Gippsland Caroline wrote her Ladies Almanack: The Southern Cross or Australian Album and New Years Gift. When it was published in 1858 it was 'The First Ladies' Almanack Published in the Colonies'. Soon after the book was complete the Dexters separated and Caroline moved to Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

.

In Melbourne she ran an Institute of Hygiene and promoted divided skirts for women and the abolition of corset

Corset

A corset is a garment worn to hold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes...

s. She also met Harriet Clisby and together they produced the first all-women publication in 1861. The Interpreter ran for two issues. In 1861 Caroline married William Lynch, together they held a salon

Salon (gathering)

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...

 and acquired an important collection of Australian art.

A street in the Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

 suburb Cook

Cook, Australian Capital Territory

Cook is a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Cook is in the district of Belconnen. On Census night 2006, Cook had a population of 2,817 people....

is named in her honour. A book about William and Caroline, Folie A Deux: William and Caroline Dexter in Colonial Australia, was written by Patrick Morgan in 1999.