Pomeroy Award for Excellence 1996,
Member of the Order of Australia, 2008,
Biographical notes
In 1978, Marilynne Paspaley worked for ABC radio and television as an announcer and presenter. She also became involved with the Darwin Theatre Group taking on the roles of treasurer and president. In 1981, the company toured 'Buffalos can't fly' to the Adelaide Drama Festival, which was awarded 'the finest performance in the festival'. Following this success, Paspaley became one of the first professional actors in the company and in 1985 joined the Playbox Theatre Company in Melbourne. For the next ten years she worked in various major theatre companies around Australia. She retired from acting in 1996 to focus her energies on the family business, Paspaley Pearls.
Paspaley was awarded the 1996 'Pommeroy Award for Excellence" for her contribution to the Australia jewellery industry. In 1998, she had become general manager of retail and the company opened up the first Paspaley Pearls Boutique in Broome, Western Australia. Since then two other Paspaley stores in Sydney and Darwin have been opened.
Marilynne Paspaley was nominated in 1999 as an Honouree of the Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World and is a member of the Executive Committee and the Advisory Board for Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World organisation. Paspaley has interests in the hospitality industry, purchasing and developing boutique hotels in Kununurra and Broome.
Her other business interest is Darwin's premier production company Burrundi Pictures, of which she is the proprietor. Paspaley was also appointed to the Board of Kakadu National Park on 31 May 2004. In December 2009, Marilynne Paspaley was named 43rd in the "120 Most Powerful" in the Northern Territory.,
Subject
Women,
Northern Territory,
Related materials
"Pearler of a time for Paspaley", Northern Territory News, 11 November 2009, p.14.,
"Darwin wants pearler hotel", Northern Territory News, 19 August 2009, p.19.,
Territory Quarterly : "Tall Poppy Marilynne Paspaley", Third Quarter, 2006, p.10.,
Leading Women website : The Jewel of the South Sea by Jonathan Jackson. p.74-78,