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From the Archives The History of our Archives
Representing over 130 years of Korowa’s history and housing the objects and records accumulated since its inception, the Archives Office is named the Betty Johnson Room in honour of the amazing work done by Betty in preserving the School's history.
Miss Betty Johnson, an early advocate of the archives, joined the staff at Korowa in 1935 as an assistant at Little Korowa, going on to maintain a position at the School until 2005. Serving as teacher, administrator, record keeper, Registrar and volunteer, she amassed over 60 years of service to the School. “Carrying the history of school in her head”, Miss Johnson’s meticulous recordkeeping, her preservation of documents and photographs, and her retentive memory laid the foundation for the establishment of the Archives Office in the 1990s.
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Taking up the baton in the year 2000, archivist Sandra Turner (Burton, Class of 1970) assumed the caretaker role for the growing collection. Similarly, to Miss Johnson, Sandra maintained a connection to the School over a 60-year period, attending as student, teacher, and eventually as Archivist, a role which she retained for 22 years. Working to document the people, places and events within Korowa, she built an organised network of information that serves as a repository for the School’s collective and corporate memory. Until her retirement in 2021, Sandra diligently promoted the School’s heritage, imparting Korowa’s story to students, alumni and the wider community.
It is through these two lifetimes of accumulated knowledge, experience and concentrated effort that the historical identity of Korowa has been kept alive and ongoing through its archives. The central positions in the School community that Sandra Turner and Betty Johnson occupied, demonstrates that as much importance as the historical collection itself is, are the figures that tend to, arrange, interpret and translate it.
We are fortunate here at Korowa to have had these visionary women overseeing the Archives collection that we see today and that we continue to build upon for the future.
Thank you for your donations of Korowa memorabilia over the past 12 months:
Catherine McInnes (Class of 1992)
Christine de Lacy (Hawkins, Class of 1964)
Dr Margaret Brumby (Wiadrowski, Class of 1958)
Dr Robyn Heath (Class of 1977)
Eleanor Keam (Class of 2009)
Elizabeth Heading (Hallett, Class of 1966)
Elizabeth Trenerry (Class of 1962)
Elizabeth Williams (Howie, Class of 1967)
Elizabeth Woodfield (Elder, Class of 1952)
Gillian Gibbons (Long, Class of 1966)
Gilly Glanville (Paynter, Class of 1985)
Jan Miller (Kostos, Class of 1960)
Jayne Dance (Appleton, Class of 1980)
Jill Williams (Taylor, Class of 1958)
Jo Miller (Martin, Class of 1953)
Lesley Burgess (Gilbert, Class of 1971)
Sandra Ivory (Clark, Class of 1967)
Victoria Wynd (Class of 1992)
