• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE0924

Buttrose, Stroma

(1929 – 2020)
  • Born 29 October 1929, North Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  • Died 26 February 2020, Myrtle Bank, South Australia
  • Occupation Geographer, Teacher, Town planner, University tutor

Summary

Stroma Buttrose was a pioneering figure for Australian women in architecture. She was the first female Planning Assistant in South Australia, and the first female Commissioner of the Planning Appeal Board. She was the author of numerous architectural publications, most notably City Planning in Australia in 1975.

Details

Stroma Buttrose went to school at Hopetoun and then Woodlands at Glenelg where her interest in geography and later town planning began. She completed a Diploma in Arts and Education at Adelaide University and at 21 travelled to Europe with her family. After returning to Adelaide she taught Geography while completing a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Geography.

In April 1957 she was appointed temporary female draftsman’s assistant to the government town planner. She organised the Land Use Survey covering Gawler to Willunga and the Development Plan for the Metropolitan Area of Adelaide was published in the Spring of 1963.

During 1962 Buttrose was one of ten students doing the Master of Town Planning degree at Adelaide University with Professor Rolf Jensen. In February 1973 she was appointed a Commissioner of the Town Planning Appeal Board/Tribunal, later to become the Environment, Resources and Development Court. She was the first woman to hold that position.

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Events

  • 1957 - 1973

    Planning officer with the State Planning Office, South Australia
  • 1977

    Life Member of the Friends of the State Library of South Australia
  • 1977 - 1979

    Vice-president of the Society of Women Writers of Australia (SA)
  • 1966 - 1972

    Vice-president of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (SA)
  • 1967 - 1973

    Council member of the National Trust of Australia (SA)
  • 1960

    Life Member of the National Trust of Australia (SA)
  • 1980

    Council member of the Workers Educational Association of SA Inc.
  • 1977

    Council member at Woodlands CEGGS Inc.
  • 1954 - 1956

    Geography teacher at St Peter’s Collegiate School, North Adelaide
  • 1955 - 1956

    Tutor in geography at the University of Adelaide
  • 1956

    Geography teacher at The Wilderness School, Medindie, South Australia
  • 1966 - 1969

    Tutor in town planning with the South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT)
  • 1941 - 1947

    Attended Woodlands Church of England Girls’ Grammar School
  • 1953

    Winner of the On Dit 21st birthday litarary competition with three poems
  • 1960 - 1972

    Member, later a Fellow, of the Fellowship of Australian Writers
  • 1960 - 1962

    Member of the Commonwealth Counciol of the Fellowship of Australian Writers
  • 1980

    Life Member of the Royal Zoological Society of SA Inc.
  • 1975

    Life Member of the RSPCA
  • 1951

    Member of the Graduates Union at the University of Adelaide
  • 1955

    Member of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (SA)
  • 1957 - 1973

    Member of the Royal Australian Planning Institute
  • 1968

    Member of the Australian Conservation Foundation
  • 1977

    Member of the Australian Society of Authors
  • 1977

    Member of the Poets Union of SA
  • 1971 - 1973

    Member of the National Council of Women
  • 1969

    Member of the Queen Adelaide Club
  • 1969

    Member of the Zonta Club of Adelaide
  • 1973 - 1999

    Commissioner of the Planning Appeal Board, South Australia
  • 1949

    Common law clerk with Thomson, Buttrose, Ross & Lewis, Barristers & Solicitors
  • 1952 - 1954

    Secretary with the Department of Architecture at the School of Mines, South Australia
  • 1954 - 1956

    President of the Woodlands Old Scholars Association
  • 1975

    Publishers Rigby commissioned her to write a children’s reader, City Planning in Australia
  • 1970

    Member of the Children’s Book Council
  • 1948

    Life member of the Woodlands Old Scholars Association
  • 1957 - 1958

    Vice-chair of the Young Contingent with the Victoria League

Archival resources

  • State Library of South Australia
    • Interview with Stroma Buttrose [sound recording] Interviewer: Yvonne Abbott
  • National Library of Australia
    • [Biographical cuttings on Stroma Buttrose, master town planner, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals]
  • National Library of Australia, Oral History and Folklore Collection
    • Stroma Buttrose interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection [sound recording]

Published resources

  • Edited Book
    • Who's Who of Australian Women, Lofthouse, Andrea, 1982
  • Book
    • City planning in Australia, Buttrose, Stroma, 1975
  • Newspaper Article
    • Scholar devoted to family and law, Buttrose, Stroma, 2002
  • Resource

Related entries


  • Membership
    • Lyceum Club Adelaide Incorporated (1922 - )
    • Queen Adelaide Club (1909 - )

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