Helen Garner: Author

Helen Garner was born in 1942 in Geelong and she attended Manifold Heights Primary School and The Hermitage Private Girls School in Newtown.

Her first novel Monkey Grip was published in 1977. It won a National Book Council award in 1978 was filmed in 1982. Since then, Postcards from Surfers won a 1986 NSW Premier's Literary award, & her short novel The Children's Bach won a SA Premier's Literary Award in 1986. Her novel Cosmo Cosmolino was nominated for a Miles Franklin Award in 1993. In 1993 she won a Walkley Award for feature journalism for her story in Time magazine about the Daniel Valerio case. Her first non-fiction book, The First Stone (1995) was highly controversial. It explored a sexual harassment case at the University of Melbourne which led to the sacking of the Master of Ormond college. She was widely criticised by many feminists for being too sympathetic to the Master and angered supporters of the two female students who bought the case against him.

Link here to more information about Helen Garner: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Garner

Several YouTube videos of Helen discussing her work are available.

Geelong Firsts in Education

Geelong Church of England Girls' Grammar School, The Hermitage (Helen Garner’s school) was the first Australian girl’s school to have a uniform & to have compulsory team sports.  (Cnr of Hermitage Road & Skene St, Geelong).

More information about The Hermitage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hermitage_(Australia)

Jan Mitchell and the Geelong Bay Bollards

Jan Mitchell an Australian artist who lived in Geelong created the 111 Bollards that line the waterfront. She was also a book illustrator, animator, painter & printmaker. (1940–2008). The last bollard is a bollard of Jan, created after her death in 2008 & it is to be located near her workshop.

1880s. Bollard Number 30 Carrie Moore – Carrie Moore a musical comedy star was born in Geelong in 1882. She performed in Melbourne at age 14 & London at 21. During the season of one of her London shows she gave a scandalous interview in which she spoke out about corsets.

1880s. Bollard Number 32 Salvation Army Woman –The Salvation Army has a longstanding history of providing services for women. In recent years this work has focused on providing refuge shelter for women escaping domestic violence

1859: Two Nuns Bollards No 45, Sister Mary Aloysius & Sister Mary Bernadette were Sisters of Mercy nuns & with that pioneering educators of young women in Geelong. Within a year of arriving in Geelong from Dublin in 1859 the pioneering women of the Sisters of Mercy had raised enough money to buy & renovate a building for their convent & a school that was the forerunner of Sacred Heart College, Geelong a school whose motto is Educating Girls to make a Difference. Despite a lack of money, materials, electricity, telephone, mechanized transport, staff & much illness during the early years the Nuns offered a full curriculum that included mathematics, ancient & modern history, languages, astronomy, botany, music, art, needlework, & tapestry.

1920s. Number 34 1920s lady – This woman represents women’s emancipation in the 1920s. After having filled the place of men while they were away at war, many women got used to a different way of life. This is said to have led to many changes for women including changes in dress such as wearing short skirts & having short hair, going out without a chaperone & driving vehicles such as cars & motorbikes. This woman is off to the beach on her own in her new bathers.

1865. Number 36 Nancy Nattyknickers – This bollard represents the wearing of pants by women which first occurred in 1865 to assist with cycling.