The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Cathy Picone was born in Moree, New South Wales in 1949. Cathy was brought up as a Catholic, and it seems that her Italian/Irish father’s faith and her parents’ different religious practices were a source of tension in her youth. Cathy’s father was a successful bookmaker and Cathy did her secondary schooling at a Catholic college in Armidale. After false starts in Medicine and Science courses, she studied Arts at Sydney University and graduated with a DipEd. Cathy moved to South Australia with her husband in 1973 and worked in suburban high schools. In the early 1980s she became determined to do community service that was ‘change-oriented’. She became involved in People for Nuclear Disarmament. Through this she was invited to join the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.