Stepping back in time

Revisiting UNE’s Armidale campus to reacquaint herself with landmarks from her past flooded Patricia Fitzgerald (nee Burke, who was also known as Pat) with memories she still holds dear.

Patricia was one of the first students to move into the newly-constructed and “quite luxurious” Mary White College, in March 1958, after two years living in one of the five weatherboard huts that hemmed the hillside [inside the current ring road, west of the Physics Block]. And she credits UNE with opening her world.

“My uncle, Frank Rickwood, was one of the first students of the New England University College in 1939 and lived in Boolominbah,” said Patricia. “His education in geology led him to become one of the world’s leading petroleum geologists and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from UNE in 1994.

“He was the first in my family to attend university and inspired me to study science at UNE and then teaching from 1956 to 1959. My father was a coal miner with limited education and my mother a primary school teacher. Education was my path to broader horizons beyond the coalfields. A Commonwealth Scholarship and a Teaching Scholarship, combined with the lower cost of living in Armidale compared to Sydney, made tertiary study possible for me.”

Although the huts and The Bevery where students dined have long disappeared, Patricia’s memories of that time in her life remain vivid.

“Meals were served either in Bool or The Bevery, and every two weeks we were given a table number and eight students were allocated to each table,” she remembers. “It was a great way to get to know students from other accommodation and other faculties. Alternate rosters allowed us to take turns in beautiful Boolominbah, which was a much more formal setting.

“I wrote to my mother in Cessnock every few days and would be so happy to receive her replies in my pigeon-hole in the mail area, near Lazenby Hall. I played hockey and attended many dances, picnics and other social events, alongside my studies.”

Returning to UNE with her family in July, Patricia went straight to Graduates’ Walk, where she was “overwhelmed” to see her name inscribed in pavers alongside that of her uncle and daughter Susan, who gained a UNE degree in Psychology as a distance education student.

“The university holds a special and influential place in my family,”

“The university holds a special and influential place in my family,” Patricia said. “I was happy to see that Mary White College has stood the test of time and appears in good shape. Looking up at the window of my old room in Block 1 brought back vivid memories and I am still in touch with my neighbours, who became lifelong friends.”

After Patricia graduated, she was appointed to teach chemistry and physics in a state secondary school. “After four years I was asked by the Secretary General of Secondary Education if I would be prepared to lecture at the Alexander Mackie Teachers’ College. I assume that was because I had studied both Chemistry and Physics at UNE.

After a year or so it became obvious that to justify my position as a Teachers’ College lecturer I should have a higher degree, so I undertook a Master’s degree in Environmental Science at UNSW, for which I did a project on lead contamination on urban vegetation. Evidently the research at UNSW precipitated the push to ban lead from petrol.”

Patricia was thrilled to visit Mary White and Booloominbah during her visit and, elsewhere on campus, “to meet young people making the most of their special time at UNE”.

“I wish them all the very best for their studies and creating memories and friendships that may last as long as mine – 65 years since graduating. What an experience to relive those years.”