Academic Activist Was 'always An Agitator'

Illawarra Mercury

Thursday May 25, 2006

By JENNY DENNIS

WINIFRED Mitchell - historian, feminist, daughter of Wollongong - has died in Lismore aged 89.

Over a long life of activism, Dr Mitchell fought - among other things - for the rights of older women and for the legalisation of marijuana.

When she moved from Austinmer to the state's Far North Coast in the late 1990s and found there were no facilities for seniors, she set about establishing an old people's home at Nimbin.

In 1999 the then 82-year-old led the Nimbin Older Women's Forum down the hippie town's main street and blessed the "big joint" and the Cannabus Convoy as it started out on a journey south to the NSW Drug Summit organised by then Premier Bob Carr. Pictures of the octogenarian show her holding a handmade "Grannies For Grass" sign aloft.

A one-time history lecturer at the University of NSW, Dr Mitchell had mentored a young Bob Carr in his student days. They shared a passion for history and had a lot of ideas in common, although drug reform was not one of these, she conceded.

After retiring from UNSW, Dr Mitchell turned up at the University of Wollongong in a casual role, filling in for an academic who was on leave.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Robert Castle remembers her as particularly student-focused.

"She came to us late in her career, replacing someone on leave, and ended up staying for close to a decade," Professor Castle said.

Every time she left, another fill-in position seemed to turn up.

"I think we had more farewells for Winifred than Dame Nellie Melba managed," he said.

Her daughter Caroline, who lives in Austinmer, remembers her as "always an agitator".

"She was kept very busy organising Wollongong."

Dr Mitchell was a Fellow of the University of Wollongong, founder of the Wollongong Art Gallery, received an Order of Australia Medal for services to the University of Wollongong, co-wrote a book about growing up in the Illawarra, ran a soup kitchen for addicts in Nimbin and conducted a radio program for housewives in Adelaide.

She is survived by her two daughters, Caroline and Kathryn, and by five grandchildren, one of whom was holding her hand when she died last Thursday.

© 2006 Illawarra Mercury

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