At St Margaret’s 1944-1951; Prefect and Sports Captain
Denise Wadley (nee Lawton) arrived at St Margaret’s during World War II in 1944. She was both a boarder and a day girl during her eight years spent at the school and was Prefect and Sports Captain in her senior year.
With no ambition to be the teacher or nurse her father thought suitable occupations for young women, she happily took up the offer of a cadetship with The Courier Mail which became the springboard for all that followed in her career.
Denise left the paper to marry her solicitor husband but, in later years, the mother of seven wrote freelance columns for newspapers and magazines which gave her a platform and introductions to many interesting people. So began a new career of lobbying for whatever she thought important. Denise says: “It was a wonderful time to be a Queenslander.”
As the post war years were years of rebuilding, Denise and her husband had joined an army of young marrieds helping to build kindergartens and schools and expand education and artistic activities.
Denise became involved in the establishment of a Queensland branch of the National Trust and her career took a new path working with the newly minted Queensland Youth Orchestra as a volunteer publicity officer and fundraiser.
Returning to her journalism days, Denise then began to write a weekly column for The Sunday Mail titled Cabbages and Kids. Coincidentally, David Cox was the illustrator, the husband of St Margaret’s Old Girl and distinguished composer Betty Beath.
In 1975, Denise was honoured to be the first woman to be a Ministerial Appointment to a governing council of a tertiary institution in Queensland – The Queensland Institute of Technology (QIT). During her two terms on this board, the council was responsible for establishing a business faculty and advertising and public relations course and became a full university.
Denise’s other work included a government enquiry into teacher education which lasted two years, an enquiry into nurse education, the Establishment of the Confederation of Professional Performing Arts (CAPPA), for which she was the Queensland Representative, the Ormiston House Restoration Committee and several years on the Duchesne College Council.
In the early seventies, Denise was instrumental in forming a committee to establish a Brisbane Community Arts Centre in Coronation House in Edward Street, later known as Metro Arts. At the same time, Denise accepted a temporary position to run a new orchestra – the Queensland Theatre Orchestra – to support the fledgling opera, ballet and theatre companies. She ended up remaining in this role for seven years.
In 1984, Denise concluded her second term on the QIT Council and was appointed to the Council of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music. She remained attached to QIT through many years on the Biomedical Ethics Committee, the establishment of the Art Museum and the Arts Precinct at Gardens Point.
She was then invited by the Elizabethan Theatre Trust to become their Queensland representative and Denise found the two years in their office an excellent way to work towards retirement.
Denise was member of the St Margaret’s Council in the 1990s and resigned to spend time travelling with her husband to many wonderful places and visiting their adventurous children and grandchildren.
In 2018, Denise was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to the arts and education administration in Queensland.
Of her St Margaret’s education, Denise says she was guided through the tumultuous teens by good women and excellent teachers. A mantra of either Sister Mary or Sister Moira has stayed with Denise her whole life: “Duty to God, duty to your family, duty to your community – each according to His gifts.”
Denise says her classmates from her St Margaret’s years were an interesting and diverse group of women whose contributions to community would definitely have made Sister Mary pleased. Active in organising reunions, Denise says the classmates share a strong bond from their schooldays.
“The values and life lessons offered to us by the small group of dedicated women of the Sisters of the Sacred Advent continue today,” said Denise.
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