Hazel de Berg collection

Buttrose speaks of her work as Commissioner of the Planning Appeal Board ; she speaks of her beginnings as a writer ; her childhood in South Australia ; winning first prize in a poetry competition ; teaching geography ; joining the State Planning Office in 1957 ; she describes the way she writes ; her studies in town planning. Buttrose reads the poems: "Writing office", "Man", "A day in the south", "John McDowall Stuart", "The growth of love by telephone" and "The look of love".

Transcript available (29 p.)

Adelaide Lyceum Club Oral History

Stroma Buttrose was born at North Adelaide in 1929 and was brought up in a house on two acres on the Esplanade at Brighton. Stroma's parents were both born in Adelaide. Sir Douglas and Lady Mawson lived next door to their Brighton home and Stroma talks about other neighbours. She 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 draftman'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 Stroma 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. She found the Lyceum Club a haven during her busy life.

Biographical outline (6 pages)