Beryl McLaughlin's Legacy: Honoured with Blue Plaque

In Sydney, Beryl and her family lived in Evans Street, Waverley. Their home, Yanko, had tennis courts, stables and a chicken run.

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High school was spent at Claremont College in Randwick, which Ida also attended. Here, Beryl worked steadily, especially in drawing and maths, the subjects she seemed to enjoy most. She successfully matriculated to Sydney University, entering in March 1907. She had received passing grades in English, Latin, mathematics, Higher French, science (physics) and modern history.

At university, Beryl focused on her science degree but she also represented the university in the Intervarsity Women's Tennis team, even travelling to Melbourne and Adelaide for competitions. Like most students living in Sydney, Beryl travelled daily from her home to her lectures. She graduated in 1909 with a BA in Science (there being no separate Science degree at that time), with second class honours in Physiology.

From her graduation in 1909 until 1918, we know that Beryl taught Science at Ravenswood for some of this time. She enjoyed an active social life, being mentioned in various social pages as one of the hostesses at dances and parties. She enrolled in a pottery course at Sydney Technical College between 1913 and 1917. Some of her pots can still be seen in Tarella today.

World War 1 affected her adversely, as it affected many other young women of this time. Her brother Geoffrey enlisted at the beginning of the war and served at Gallipoli. He also served on the Western Front and was fatally wounded at Passchendaele on November 2, 1917. Later in her life Beryl mentioned that she also lost her sweetheart in the War.

Then, on February 4, 1918, John McLaughlin himself died. The oldest son, John Harley (1883-1953) inherited his father's estate but Geoffrey had left most of his estate to be divided amongst his mother and sisters.

Beryl enrolled in the new architecture course at Sydney University. Her reasons for this have never been stated but she did enjoy maths and drawing at school; jobs in science for women at that time were virtually non-existent. There are tales of women being turned down for lab assistant jobs at the university because they were "too pretty" and would be "too distracting". As well, married women could not work. This was life in the early 20th century.

Nine students, including three women, graduated from the initial architecture degree course with Beryl in 1922. Beryl was one of the first to register with the NSW Board of Architects in 1923.

In 1923 Beryl began to work for Henry White, a famous architect with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. In 1987, Beryl remembered working on a large chemical factory in the east of Sydney, possibly Bunnerong Power Station, but she did not remember other specific buildings. Henry White was, however, a popular and busy architect, with the St James Theatre, the State Theatre and extensions to the Capitol Theatre in Sydney among his designs. Beryl was evidently happy in the firm as she remained with Henry White until the depression closed his business in 1933.

Because the family home, Yanko, was sold by 1925, Beryl moved to Tarella with her mother and sister, travelling to work in Sydney by train. By 1930, she had moved back to Sydney but, with the closure of White's and the loss of her employment, she soon returned to permanent residence with Ada and Ida in Wentworth Falls.

Whilst at Tarella, Beryl enjoyed painting lessons with Joshua Smith. Few of her paintings can be found now; Beryl claims she "tore them up" but she often donated them to the local branch of the Association for Crippled Children to sell to raise funds.

Ada, her mother, died in 1927 and, shortly after that, Ida and Harold Lane were married. In 1933 Beryl designed Koolewong in Leura for them, with a small flat for herself. They left Tarella, but Beryl bought it from Harley in 1937. She later claimed that Harley inheriting everything was "unfair". After moving to Leura, Beryl often rented Tarella out as holiday accommodation.

World War II saw Beryl very much involved in the Volunteer Air Observers Corps, devised by the RAAF Directorate of intelligence late in 1941, to sight and report enemy aircraft over Australia.

When she could spend time away from this vital activity, she was also involved in making camouflage nets at Wentworth Falls Golf Club, often on a Saturday.

Harold died in 1945 and in 1949 and Ida sold Koolewong. The sisters moved into a house designed by Beryl in Yanko Avenue in 1951. They moved again in 1957, to another Yanko Avenue home that Beryl also designed. Then, in 1967, they moved back into Tarella, having first modernised the kitchen and bathroom. It was in Tarella that they both lived out their lives, Ida dying at the Burlington Nursing Home in Katoomba in 1980, aged 95, and Beryl dying at the Martin Claver Nursing Home at Leura in July, 1988, two months short of her 100th birthday.

Beryl's story is that of an indomitable woman who overcame the obstacles faced by many women to gain not one, but two university degrees. Her life is not unique; others pushed at the edges of expectations, as Beryl did. Of the 16 graduates in science in her year, six were women. Nine students graduated from the foundation class in architecture offered by the university including Beryl and two other women. Many other women lost brothers and sweethearts in World War 1; some married other men; others remained single.

Why then do we remember Beryl? The answer is to be found in the Blue Mountains Historical Society. On August 21, 1946 the inaugural meeting of the Blue Mountains Historical Society was held in the Blue Mountains County Council Headquarters. By 1949, the Blue Mountains City Council was providing the Society with a room for meetings, storage of materials and a museum and library, for a nominal rent. But by 1954 this room was inadequate and discussions for a museum were being held.

In November, 1954, Beryl offered Tarella as a site for a possible museum and by mid-1955 meetings were taking place there. Planning for the building of the museum then started. It met with problems faced by many who build in heritage areas, especially as they wanted to build a museum in a residential-zoned area, but eventually all objections were met and the museum built and opened, in spite of bushfires, on Saturday November 30, 1968.

Beryl McLaughlin and Ida Lane were able to enjoy their gift to the Society and to the local community. There were to be two final gifts. The first gift had been the museum and the land on which it stood.

The second gift, shortly before her death, occurred when Beryl McLaughlin transferred to the Society the southern half of the property, on which Tarella was situated. The third gift, in her will, was sufficient money to renovate Tarella and to extend the existing museum building, helping to create a research centre.

We remember Beryl (and her sister Ida) because of this magnificent McLaughlin donation that supports our history. A cottage, built in the 1890s, still stands today because of her vision. Children and adults are able to venture into a time-warp when they visit the Tarella Cottage Museum. The past comes vividly alive as we wander along the corridor, looking at the artefacts and thinking of how they lived in the past.