From Little Things Big Things Grow

In 1950, record rains turned Walker Street into a river, we triumphed in the doubles at the Tildesley Shield Tennis Tournament, and a young Joan Brown (Axtens, 1952) made an anticipation-filled trip from country Temora to begin life as a Wenona boarder.

“I was the eldest of four children at that time, from a country area where the syllabus was very different, so I didn’t know what to expect. One of my first and starkest memories is of trying on the uniforms,” she says, looking back.

In the 1950s, the boarding students wore four uniforms – a pink uniform for dinner, a white dress worn with gloves, hats and stockings for church, a School uniform and a navy sports uniform with a white stripe. “There were strict rules about how to fold each item, including a special way to fold your socks, and drawer inspections. They must have made an impact because that is how I still fold my clothes today!” she says.

Every meal was eaten with Principal Miss Edith Ralston, who kept Joan and close friends Margaret Birch, Audrey Raymond and Phillipa Dunhill on their toes. “We couldn’t sit down until she arrived and she wouldn’t allow us to ask for condiments to be passed at the table. When sitting, our legs had to be crossed at the ankles and when walking upstairs, our feet were to point slightly sideways.”

While that sounds excessive in a modern context, Joan looks back on Miss Ralston’s firmness with respect. “She ran a tight ship so I feared her, I suppose, but she also had a kindness about her. You knew you could go to her if you were really in trouble. Her goal was to give us British-style manners, and they have served us. I heard my daughter correcting my grandson’s table manners the other day, something she picked up from me.”

Though there were periods of homesickness, Joan remembers outings to the Independent Theatre, the Spit Bridge baths and dances with the Shore boys. “I cherished the organza dress my mother made me for my first dance - it was white and embroidered - the most beautiful thing.”

Joan was a gifted musician who learned the violin with a private tutor and played in concerts at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Shore School. “I was never one for sports – while the other girls were playing tennis or netball, I was in the cellar practising my violin!” Later, she would play for the Strathfield Orchestra under the conductorship of the late Richard Gill, who became one of Australia’s pre-eminent conductors.

Few career choices were available to young women of that era. After graduation, Joan settled on nursing, training at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and completing a year of obstetrics before starting her family of four children.

And there was mischief: “I used to have very long plaits and decided to ask one of the day girls to cut them off for me. My mother refused to write to me for weeks!”

Now her Wenona ties have come full circle, with granddaughters Dominique Brown (Year 9) and Bronte Brown (Year 7) both attending the School. Her cousin, Ketha Malcolm, graduated in 1958 and granddaughter Eloise, last year. “Wenona is unrecognisable now – it’s so big! Back in our day, one of the most memorable parts of the School was a locked wooden door accessed only by the caretaker with his wheelbarrow and gardening tools. There was a rumour that it led to a tunnel used by smugglers, and it was said the tunnel went all the way down to the harbour. I was always dying to know if that was true!”