This Award honours the memory of charter member and inaugural Club President, Babette Stephens AM MBE, who was a distinguished actress and Brisbane theatre personality. She joined the Brisbane Repertory Theatre in 1930, launching a 40-year career as performer, director, and administrator. During her career, she appeared in or directed numerous performances, hosted talkback radio, and appeared regularly in film and television. She died in 2000 at the age of 90.

In 2002, charter member Ann Shevill gave a personal donation of $5,000.00 in Babette’s memory and this was added initially to the Woman of Achievement funds so that the 2003 recipients of that award (‘Pink Twins’ Moyia and Dorothy O’Brien) were called the Babette Stephens Women of Achievement. However, in 2004, the Club decided to establish the Babette Stephens Memorial Award. Also in that year, a painting by Liz Heber, donated by her in Babette’s memory, raised $500.00 for the Club at the Liz and Friends art show. The $5,000.00 donated by Ann Shevill and the $500.00 raised through Liz Heber’s donation formed the basis of the funds for the Award. The fund was further boosted in 2006 by a donation of $5,000.00 from Shirley King.

Set up as an annual award, it is administered for the Zonta Club of Brisbane by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Alumni and Development Office under guidelines set out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Under this MOU, the Club committed originally to funding the Award for at least five years to commemorate Babette’s legacy to the performing arts and to further the objectives to which she was personally committed. The Award acknowledges and rewards a talented, second-year acting student at QUT. The criteria for selection are that the winner will have demonstrated a professional attitude and exemplary work ethic in classes, rehearsals, and performances during second year productions, as well as a consistently high standard of performance skills.

Representatives of the QUT Creative Industries Acting Discipline short-list applicants and select a worthy candidate. Club members with expertise in a range of performing arts disciplines attend performances by the second-year cohort during the year and provide advice to the selection panel. The winning candidate is presented with the Award at a QUT Gala Theatre evening to which members of the Zonta Club of Brisbane are offered special ticket prices so that the evening raises funds for the Award.