Belinda Hutchinson was determined to go to university because, unlike her brothers, she was never encouraged to continue academic studies. Alison Watkins assumed she would marry a farmer and go to agricultural college to pick up a qualification that would be useful on a farm. Jennifer Westacott, who originally wanted to be a nun, says the day she graduated from the University of NSW was the proudest day of her life.

Westacott was the first in her family to go to university; her grandmother used to sneak in to lectures by Donald Horne, writer and author of The Lucky Country. Westacott’s uncle somehow wrangled seven extra seats to her graduation ceremony and bought a suit especially for the occasion.