The Australian Women's Register

Lorna Sharp, born in Gnowangerup, Western Australia (1934), discusses her father’s experiences in WW1; her father being a ‘soldier settler’ and being allocated land at Jerramungup (1920); her mother and siblings; the farm and its buildings; the Depression; domestic hardships; her father’s death (1939); moving to Albany; schooling; WW2; moving to Kalgoorlie (1946); her and her family’s various employments; expected careers for girls; descriptions of Kalgoorlie; her mother’s death; nurse training at Kalgoorlie Regional Hospital; the facilities and her duties; waitressing; bookkeeping; women’s wages; widow’s pensions; marriage and children; her husband’s employments; accommodation; transport; domestic finances; self-sufficiency; alcoholism and gambling; domestic chores, tools and routine. Sharp discusses entertaining friends; illness; studying to be a real estate agent; the real estate business and laws in Kalgoorlie at that time; being the first woman real estate officer in Kalgoorlie; her husband’s reaction to her work; buying properties; business difficulties; mentors; her relationship with the business community in Kalgoorlie; her current business and employees; women in real estate today; grief; the effect of the resources boom on Kalgoorlie; a description of Kalgoorlie and its inhabitants today; learning to drive; reflections on women in education and paid employment; completing an Accounting Degree; political involvement; her enjoyment of the real estate business