Always A Mater Girl

Tricia attended Mater Christi from 1965 – 1969; a time she recalls with great fondness.

“I had a lovely group of friends, and I was treated the same as everyone else in the Mater Christi community.”

However, in the 1960s,the life expectations for people with disability, and indeed for women, were very different than they are today. People with disability were expected to work basic jobs, if they worked at all, and women were expected to go into nursing, teaching, or secretarial work until they got married. 

As a woman with a disability, Tricia was placed in the ‘commercial’ (rather than the academic) pathway in secondary school, which concluded at the end of Year 11. She did not have the option of going to university.

At that time, Tricia’s father, who saw no reason why she should not set her sights on a career, spoke to the local Bank Manager and got her a job in a bank.

From there Tricia went on to work as a radio operator in a remote town in the Northern Territory, in a factory, and later the public service.

But it wasn’t until her mid-40s that Tricia finally made it to university, completing a degree in anthropology and criminology while working for the Victorian Police.

“I had always wanted to be an anthropologist; to study people and culture and examine how different cultures operate.”

Yet, even after finishing her degree at Latrobe University in 1996, Tricia wasn’t given the opportunity to formally graduate because the stage at the graduation ceremony wasn’t accessible. On principal, Tricia chose not to receive her graduation certificate, rather than have it mailed to her like a consolation prize.

Today, at 70, Tricia has an incredibly successful career by anyone’s estimation. She is the Chief Accessibility Advocate for the Department of Transport and Planning. She runs a successful business providing training to people with disabilities who want to run their own businesses and is an advisor to government and non-government agencies and organisations.

“My interests now extend to ‘corporate anthropology’ – looking at how culture works within an organisation.”

Tricia also sits on the National Disability Insurance Scheme’s (NDIS) Independent Advisory Council-advising the government on how to improve the NDIS.

“The NDIS is one of the best things Australia has ever done. It allows people with disability to have a place in this world.”

Adding to her long list of achievements, Tricia has also received a Medal in the Order of Australia for her work empowering people with disability. She has been inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and the Disability Honour Roll for her work advocating for women with disability.

Tricia was most recently made a Paul Harris Fellow and awarded the Rodney Warmington Estate Churchill Fellowship, which enabled her to travel to Canada, the USA, France, the UK, and Ireland in 2024 to research end-to-end public transport journeys for people with disabilities.

When asked to reflect on our 2024 College Theme of Kindness Transforms Community, Tricia says:‍

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“I was brought upon the concept of kindness and the idea that through kindness, you empower others and that kindness follows on.  

I’m a lucky person. I have a loving family, a kind and caring husband, a home, a meaningful job – but many others don’t. Despite advancements in this space, people with disability are still excluded from society in different ways. I gained access to a good education, I have developed a lot of skills in my life so far, and Iam comfortable talking to people at high levels, so I use those skills to improve the lives of others.”

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