Christine Elizabeth Townend (born 20 July 1944) is an Australian animal rights activist, artist, and author.

It was described as a precursor to Australian feminist literature and has recently been republished on-line by Macmillan Memento.

[11] In January 2019 Townend was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for 'service to animal welfare'.

[12] She has authored books on animal rights, including In Defence of Living Things (1979), A Voice for the Animals (1981) and Pulling the Wool: A New Look at the Australian Wool Industry (1986), and fiction, from her first book, The Beginning of Everything and the End of Everything Else (1974), to more recent explorations of Indian spirituality such as The Hidden Master (2002) and The Teaching of Vimala Thakar (2010).

Her memoir, A Life for Animals, was published by Sydney University Press in 2017, with a foreword by Peter Singer.