LOCAL TRAILBLAZER HONOURED
JACKIE Birrell was the only woman in her metallurgy course at Melbourne University in the 1940s, and by the next decade she was teaching the subject.
Ms Birrell, now 95 and living in Arcare aged care facility in Point Lonsdale, was this month recognised via the state government’s Recognising Senior
Victorians Initiative.
It celebrates the lives of 50 notable Victorian aged care residents in place of the 2020 Victorian Senior of the Year Award.
Raised by her resourceful, widowed mother, Ms Birrell began her university degree in the 1940s when women were an uncommon sight on campus
“I majored in metallurgy. I’d never heard of metallurgy until a friend told me her sister had majored in it because so many metallurgists were involved in the war effort that there was a shortage,” she said.
“During my last year, I met my husband-to-be. He was back from the war.
“We got married at the end of my degree.”
Ms Birrell again bucked societal trends of the time by remaining in the workforce after marrying, teaching in Melbourne University’s metallurgy department until 1950, when she and her husband John started their family, raising three boys.
Ms Birrell took up golf and oil painting later in life before she and John spent time exploring Australia.
“We did a lot of travelling all over Australia, camping everywhere with a fourwheel-drive and a tent,” she said.
“We went everywhere — over the Gunbarrel Highway
— it was just marvellous.
“I do feel like I’ve had a good life. I have good memories, particularly those outback trips. I just think Australia is fantastic. A lot of people go flitting overseas when Australia is such a wonderful country.”