Identity area
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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Kondelea (Della) Xenodohos (later known as Della Elliott) was born in Melbourne in 1917. After leaving school at the age of 14, she graduated from business college as a typist but found it difficult to gain regular paid work. She worked for a while with the International Labour Defence before gaining paid work with the Friends of the Soviet Union and the Militant Minority Movement.
In the 1940s Della was a delegate to the Labour Council of NSW and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and passionately pursued the issue of equal pay for women. This included working as a member of the Australian Women's Charter Committee alongside feminist activist Jessie Street.
Della and Laurie divorced in 1945 and she began working for the Waterside Workers Federation (WWF). Here she met Seaman's Union of Australia (SUA) leader Eliot V. Elliott. They were partners for the rest of their lives, eventually marrying in 1982.
Della began work at the SUA in 1955 as an administrator in the federal office, keeping meticulous records and facilitating a number of industrial campaigns, as well as editing the Seamen's Journal. Della eventually retired from the SUA in 1988, four years after Eliot's death.
Della was a strong supporter of the League for Democracy in Greece and the Union of Australian Women. She was also passionate about Indigenous issues and founded a scholarship at the University of Sydney for female Indigenous students.
Della Elliott died in Sydney on 2 October 2011 at the age of 94.