Abell family steps back in time

Published 01 July 2022

A family’s enduring connection with UNE, spanning seven decades and six degrees, is now set in stone on our Graduates’ Walk, cementing generations of wonderful memories.

Pavers in honour of Ena and Lyall Abell and their daughters Justine and Romane have been lain within sight of Dixson Library, where the two girls once played hide-and-seek and scrounged for photocopy tokens while their parents conducted research.

An early career teacher, Lyall had completed his Bachelor of Arts through UNE in the late 1950s as an external student studying at the UNE annex in Newcastle (the precursor of the University of Newcastle). When Ena also took up the opportunity to further her teaching career with BA studies in the early 1970s, it led to five years of bi-annual family adventures.

“School holidays became caravan trips, as Mum and Dad packed up my two sisters and I and our Persian cat in the trusty Valiant to travel from Newcastle to Armidale for Mum’s residential schools,” Romane says. “Mum would stay on campus at Mary White College and Dad and we girls would stay in the caravan park. It was freezing in winter and we would wear our flannelette pyjamas under matching tracksuits.

“Dad would occupy us during the day teaching us how to bake cakes in the caravan, taking us downtown to the movies, and tiring us out on long walks looking for rabbits and hares. In the evening we would visit Mum after her classes. Mum and Dad would stroll around the grounds of Booloominbah sharing their day, while we would play among the big fir trees. Armidale became like a second home to us all.”

Romane says the family is indebted to UNE for the part it has played in their combined professional success. Lyall’s first qualification facilitated his promotions from primary into secondary teaching and principal roles, while his Masters in Educational Administration allowed him to advance to the position of District Inspector. Ena’s Bachelor of Arts (Sociology) and Honours degree saw her promoted from teacher to lecturer at the Newcastle College of Advanced Education, where she trained new teachers and ultimately became Head of Department.

The family of five relocated to Armidale for 12 months in 1976 for Ena’s Honours and Lyall’s Masters full-time studies, living for part of this time at Duval College. It was “cosy” in the two-bedroom tutor’s flat, Romane recalls, but lots of fun.

“It certainly wasn’t the norm to have a family living at college, but we felt like grown-ups going down to the mess hall each evening for dinner,” she says. “Fiona and Justine, being a little older, had more freedom than I and were invited to have coffee with the students, but the students took us all under their wings. We went to student socials, played table tennis and ran around the college grounds on weekends.”

The opportunity for study by correspondence in those days was “significant” for Lyall and Ena, both of whom were the first in their respective families to study at university, as scholarship recipients.

“Tertiary study offered our parents a chance to achieve financial security and scope for career progression,” Romane says.

It was a similar scenario for Justine and Romane. When Justine moved to Armidale with her three children to take up an Assistant Principal position at Ben Venue Public School (the same school Romane had attended in 1976), she was already studying a Bachelor of Education and later graduated with Honours. Romane arrived at UNE to work as the Personnel Manager in 2002 and later managed Wright College while completing her Honours degree in psychology.

“Justine’s Honours degree facilitated her advancement to principal roles in corporate education and eventually in primary schools, and my own was a prerequisite for the Professional Doctorate that enabled me to become a clinical psychologist,” Romane says.

For his 90th birthday in April, Lyall’s family bought him four pavers in UNE’s Graduates’ Walk to honour their long association with the university and to cement their fond New England memories. Lyall describes UNE’s external studies as “marvellous”.

“It enabled Ena and I to extend our professional skills and to achieve our calling,” Lyall says. “Much later, our studies at UNE became a catalyst for our daughters to continue their tertiary studies and to gain promotion in their chosen fields.”

Ena, now 87, appreciated the opportunities to “expand herself” and connect with UNE’s “friendly, helpful lecturers”, who influenced her own teaching style. “UNE opened up avenues and showed me a different way to educate people,” Ena says.

Now the principal of New Lambton Public School, Justine reflects on her time at UNE with a combination of nostalgia and gratitude. “I developed an incredible connection with Armidale during my formative years,” she says. “I made wonderful friends, communicated with a pen-pal for many years, and eventually returned to work and live in the Armidale township.

“Some of my early memories of living in Armidale include my sisters and me riding our bicycles to the outskirts of the city, up onto a hill, where a lady sat selling apples. They were the best apples I can ever remember eating – crisp, sweet and promising of future adventures. On the way back to Armidale, our parents would always put Romane in the car and cart her bicycle back by holding it onto the side of the car, so she didn’t have to ride all the way home.

“I also remember being amazed by the low temperatures during the winter. We would fill ice-cream containers up with water and leave them outside overnight, running to find them frozen over the next morning. We marvelled at the blanket of white that covered the lawns around our house and we would crack the ice in the gutters as we walked to school. Despite the difference between our familiar Newcastle coastal climate and that of the Northern Tablelands, we fell in love with Armidale and did not want to leave.

“Many years later, when I went to work at Ben Venue PS, I was thrilled to be relocating to Armidale. To this day, my three children still talk about that time. There is definitely something about Armidale that draws people in, embraces them and doesn’t quite let them go, even if they physically leave.”

Romane, who practises as a clinical psychologist in Adelaide, says her parents’ choices to study at UNE influenced each of the Abell women. “I grew up with Mum writing assignments on a desk in the loungeroom of our Newcastle home; I guess we all absorbed that interest in lifelong learning and a sense of the importance of tertiary degrees and ongoing professional development,” she says.

“I still have a house in Armidale and a lovely friendship group there whom I visit annually; I remain very connected to the community. I have such fond memories of Armidale and this wild dream that one day I will return and do some more study.”

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