Fraser was born in 1908, she was the daughter of Mr and Mrs C. Fraser of
Pennant Hills. After graduating from
Sydney Girls' High School, she attended the
University of Sydney where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree. Fraser then conducted her postgraduate research at her Alma mater which included a study of the taxonomy of sooty moulds. She conducted fieldwork alongside
Joyce Winifred Vickery of the
Barrington Tops National Park rainforest species in the 1930s before earning her
Master's degree. Fraser and Vickery co-discovered
Lomandra hystrix, which they published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 62: 286 1937. Fraser eventually became the first Australian female to earn a Doctorate of Science in
New South Wales by 1937. Upon receiving her doctorate, she also became the first female Australian botanist and left to complete her graduate studies at
Imperial College, in London. Alongside R. J. Swaby, she studied citrus diseases, and co-discovered that
Phytophthora citrophthora in citrus trees along
Murrumbidgee irrigation areas were the cause of a decline in their growth. As a result of her scientific accomplishments, Fraser became the first woman inducted as a Fellow of the
Australian Institute of Agricultural Science By August 1960, she was promoted to Senior Biologist at the New South Wales Department of Agriculture. Fraser made many collections of smut fungi and her collections of
Sphacelotheca mutabilis (now
Sporisorium mutabile),
Sorosporium polycarpum (now
Sporisorium polycarpum),
Ustilago serena,
Ustilago valentula and
Sorosporium fraserianum (now
Sporisorium fraserianum) became the
type specimens of those species, described by
Hans Sydow. Two other new species,
Entyloma arctotis Vánky and
Sporisorium lingii Vánky, were later found among her collections. By the time Fraser retired in 1973, she has been promoted to Chief Biologist of the Biological and Chemical Research Institute at Rydalmere. She was awarded the
Clarke Medal by the
Royal Society of New South Wales in 1976. ==References==