Glenda Gartrell - Bush Childhood to City Activist

Name: Glenda Gartrell - Bush Childhood to City Activist
Start: 2026-08-20T18:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-08-20T18:00:00+10:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

6pm for 6.30pm Thursday 20 August

Glenda Gartrell in conversation with Dr Meredith Burgmann OA

Glenda Gartrell grew up on a remote NSW sheep station during the straightened 1940s. The second of four daughters, she had to change schools eight times, and at just ten years old, she was considered for sale.

Glenda launched a successful start-up business while completing two university degrees. She spent more than 50 years advocating for social change, from the Women's Movement of the 1970s to hands-on roles in community leadership and public policy. As a senior adviser to the NSW Premier, she witnessed the Opera House Bicentennial celebration in 1988 from the front row.

Glenda also recounts memories of her treasured husband, who was with her during these key phases of her life over their 59-year marriage.

'A clear eyed depiction of childhood in the bush…to reinventing your life as a single woman, and confronting the challenges of opportunities of being alone.' - Dr Mark McKenna, Emeritus Professor, Australian History, University of Sydney

'Glenda’s personal memoir provides a fascinating insight into how our society has evolved over almost the last hundred years, and especially the changing role of women and its impact. But Glenda is also a very impressive woman who has served her community well, and we can learn a lot and be inspired by her values.' - Dr Michael Keating, former Head of Prime Minister Cabinet.

Meredith Burgmann is a former academic who also served as a (Labor) president of the NSW Upper House. She is the co-author, with Verity Burgmann, of Green Bans, Red Union: The saving of a city, which was reissued twenty years after its original 1998 publication. Meredith has also authored books on ASIO and misogyny. She is the founder of the Ernie Awards for Sexism. On retirement from parliament, she was elected president of the Australian Council for International Development. Meredith is a Sydney Swans ambassador.