The Australian Women's Register

Lorna Sharp was born in Gnowangerup in 1934, the third child of George Samuel Powell and Hansina Johnson.

First World War veteran, George Samuel Powell moved to Jerramungup to live on his father’s Boer War service farm. He was murdered in 1930 and the family moved to Albany, where Lorna and her two brothers Leslie and Paddy went to school.

In 1948 the family moved to Kalgoorlie, where Lorna’s mother worked in hotels. Lorna continued her schooling at St Mary’s Catholic School in Kalgoorlie, working in a milk bar at night to put herself through her education.

She left school to begin work at 14 as a junior office assistant at the Producers Market on Brookman Street, Kalgoorlie. She enrolled in nursing, but after a year returned to Kalgoorlie to work for HW Davidson, who owned a pickle factory and were distributors for Mills and Ware biscuits.

Lorna Powell left work and married Robert Corbett (Bobby) Sharp on 4 April 1953. They have five children, Robert, Janet, Colleen, Norman and Beverley.

While her children were still at school Lorna returned to the paid workforce and began her career in real estate agent, Pat Engelbrecht. After several years in real estate, she worked for a year at the offices of a drilling company, but she returned to real estate, and became a partner in Wade’s Real Estate Agency in 1970. She was the first person in the Goldfields to gain a Real Estate Licence. Lorna completed studies in accountancy and in 1975 became sole proprietor of Wade’s Real Estate Agency, now named Kalgoorlie Real Estate.

In 2012 Lorna still works part-time at her real estate agency, Kalgoorlie Real Estate, now a family business, owned by herself, her daughter Colleen, her son-in law Gavin and her son Norman.