Heather Rossiter (Class of 1950) is a prolific writer and has shared as yet unpublished words about her school days at Broadland House School. She is the author of serious history and non-fiction works; a tougher deal she says than writing fiction or nonfiction lite.
SCIENCE AND THE SINGLE PARENT Lady Heather Rossiter ‘Up until 1992 my CV can be summarised as a lifetime working in Science with an active involvement with the Arts on the side. In 1961 a promising career with atomic energy research bodies in the UK and the USA, researching the removal of Strontium 90 from the human body was abandoned for a geographically unwise but happy marriage to Old Launcestonian John Steer MHA; after his death in 1968 it was resumed in Sydney. This too was abandoned when I realised it was impossible to be two parents and a researcher simultaneously. So to Sydney University for a Dip Ed and my career in teaching began. This ended in 1992 after 17 years as Science Master at Sydney Grammar School’. Broadland House School ‘I received an excellent education and the more I travel the more I realise how broad it was… it gave me the skills to learn and survive, gave me a world picture into which experiences and later-acquired knowledge could be fitted’. Heather Rossiter was Dux of Broadland in 1950. Teachers
“
My books are for posterity, even though it was never meant to be.’
”
Heather Rossiter’s articles, book reviews and travel pieces have appeared in Australian and international publications. She was the research consultant for Mawson Life and Death in Antarctica (screened on ABC TV and BBC TV in 2000). Mawson’s Forgotten Men The 1911-13 Antarctic Diary of Charles Harrisson was published in 2011. Other publications are noted on her website: www.heatherrossiter.com
Miss Rooney (Headmistress at Broadland House 1932-63) was…’a distant and respected presence… She created an atmosphere where intellectual things were valued and ensured that the full panoply of cultural life was at least sampled’. Broadland boarders ‘marched in crocodile’ to symphony concerts in the Albert Hall, heard visiting international artists on the ABC concert circuit and went by tram to ‘a dreadful old flea pit out at Invermay to see foreign films in languages we didn’t understand (except French). Miss Clark, a missionary in Inner Mongolia ‘made us all want to become missionaries’ and raised awareness of impoverished people outside of ‘wet, green, small, comfortable Tasmania’. Miss Street taught English Expression. ‘In my present career as writer, author and reviewer I quite often hear those teeth clack-clacking behind me when I am about to split an infinitive or confuse the subject of a sentence (or use that instead of who!)’. Liesl Penizek taught Science. ‘We had some grand battles, but she taught me logic and rationality and by instilling an excellent foundation of scientific theories and facts showed me how the world worked. I respected Miss Penizek and to her I concede my earlier international career as a researcher in nuclear medicine’. On writing
Image of Heather Rossitor courtesy of Merinda Campbell.
‘In 1992 after a severe illness resulted in retirement I began scribbling. I was free to write, it wasn’t physically demanding. It was fortuitous that I struck Herbert Dyce Murphy (Lady Spy, Gentleman Explorer 2001); my mind was open and everything proceeded from there.’ Reflecting on the recently published Sweet Boy Dear Wife Jane Dieulafoy in Persia 1881–1886, the story of a fascinating woman, a history of Persia and a guide book for today’s tourist to Iran: ‘Jane took over my life, absolutely. I spent a month plodding through the ruins of Persia and “found” Jane Dieulafoy in Susa, a city built 2500 years ago. With her husband, Jane Dieulafoy had excavated the huge site in 1884-86 and discovered the extraordinary enamelled-brick friezes I had seen in the Louvre. It took 14 years and there were a lot of difficulties, not least that I was still working on Antarctica’. On travel Heather is a passionate traveller. When her grandchildren finish their HSC she takes them off to a place where they haven’t been and where they wouldn’t take themselves. ‘Travelling can be testing and I really get to know them as people; we have formed wonderful bonds.’ She has eight grandchildren and so far two grandsons have accompanied her to Greenland and Iceland, one granddaughter to the Caucasus and another to Russia.
26