The Australian Women's Register

Marie Wood was born at Elwood, Melbourne, in 1946, one of the six children of Gordon Stanway, a paper merchant, and Mary neé Reid. She was educated at the Star of the Sea Convent, Garden Vale, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Melbourne in 1967. She taught at Mckinnon High School, Melbourne, before enrolling as a graduate student in nursing at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, in February 1969. On abandoning her nursing studies she joined the New South Wales Department of Child and Welfare Services as a teacher at Bidura, Glebe, a receiving home where children were temporarily accommodated awaiting placement in foster homes or transfer to other establishments.

From February to July 1970 she was transferred to teach at the Department’s Ormond Training School for Girls at Thornleigh, where she taught a class of younger girls who had been convicted of ‘exposure to moral danger’ and similar offences. In 1971 she completed her teacher training with the New South Wales Department of Education and taught at Bass Hill High, before traveling to London where she taught in the East End for the Inner London Education Authority. While in London she married an Australian diplomat, Gregory Wood, they have three sons. She is currently Manager, Strategic Development, in the National Office of Museums Australia.