Marie retired in 2003 after a career in corporate administration. Travel around Australia, Europe,
South America and Antarctica followed. Then Marie looked for volunteer work that would utilise her skills and provide plenty of people contact.
Volunteering for the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, Marie visits groups to talk about the Harbour Trust sites, helps to man the Visitor Centres at Cockatoo Island and North Head Sanctuary, and is a guide at both the 3rd Quarantine Cemetery at North Head Sanctuary and Macquarie Lighthouse at Vaucluse. Marie is now sharing her love of the Harbour by promoting sites which are now open to the public and being preserved for future generations.
For this presentation on Cockatoo Island Marie will delve into the history of this one-time convict penal establishment, reformatory school and shipbuilding yard. Hear how the island’s convicts were shaped by harsh living and working conditions, how vulnerable boys were gathered from the streets of Sydney and taught trades, and how shipbuilders made Cockatoo Island the major shipbuilding and dockyard facility for the South West Pacific in WWII.
