The place was named after Emma Miller (26 June 1839 – 22 January 1917), an English-born Australian pioneer trade union organiser, suffragist, and key figure in organisations which led to the founding of the Australian Labor Party in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1901. In the state of Queensland, Miller worked as a gentlemen's shirt maker and seamstress. Along with May Jordan McConnel, she formed the first women's union in Brisbane, the Brisbane Women's Union, in September 1890 supported by a campaign by William Lane in the Brisbane Worker newspaper. With the great strikes of the 1890s, Miller was active in supporting the 1891 Australian shearers' strike. She became colloquially known as Mother Miller, as she was the most dominant female figure in the Queensland labour movement.