The great Australian writer Elizabeth Jolley was a cherished figure at Curtin University for over twenty years, described at the time of her death in 2007 by then Vice Chancellor Jeanette Hacket as ‘a devoted and beloved teacher of creative writing’. Jolley began tutoring in creative writing in 1978 when Curtin was the Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT). One of her early students was a young Tim Winton, who writes ‘God knows what I’d expected, but I hadn’t anticipated this genteel old lady in the hippy dress and sandals’. Winton was unimpressed when, on the first day of class, she made the students listen to German lieder (poems sent to music) on a cassette player. ‘In those early years at WAIT, I think many of Elizabeth’s students learnt to write as she learnt to teach – and to publish.’ Winton followed her career as she became famous and kept teaching at Curtin. ‘She was a local writer, yet a major practitioner, a senior teacher who became indispensable to the reputation of the institution that had fostered her.’
After earlier stints as WAIT writer-in-residence, in 1986 she became permanent writer-in-residence. In 1987 she received an honorary Doctorate of Technology at WAIT, just before it became Curtin. From 1991 to 2010 the university ran a series of lectures in her honour. Speakers included the comedian Barry Humphries (famous for playing Edna Everage) and the actors Patricia Routledge (Keeping Up Appearances) and Ruth Cracknell (Mother and Son). The 1998 lecture was a celebration of Jolley’s 75th birthday and marked her appointment as professor of creative writing. The guest speaker Hazel Hawke, former wife of Prime Minister Bob Hawke, was presented with an inscribed copy of Jolley’s book Central Mischief.
Jolley had no wish to finish teaching at Curtin and only relinquished her role when dementia forced her into a nursing home in 2002. One of the ways she is remembered on campus today is the Elizabeth Jolley Lecture Theatre, named in her honour in 1995.
Our Centenary of Elizbeth Jolley exhibition on level 3 of Robertson Library includes Jolley’s Tudor bonnet worn as part of her academic regalia, the copy of Central Mischief she gave Hazel Hawke, the program for the 1998 lecture, and a letter she wrote to the university thanking them for naming the lecture theatre in her honour.
Work Cited
Winton, Tim, ‘Remembering Elizabeth Jolley’, Westerly 52, 2007, p27-34.
