In order to fully understand the student experience at Mount Lawley Teachers’ College (MLTC), it is first necessary to focus in on the backdrop of events that were happening at the time. The 1970s was a decade of great economic, political, social, and technological change. It was also a period in Australian following on from world-wide student protest movements seeking to gain real student participation in the governance of higher education.

In 1970-71, when the first and second intakes arrived at MLTC, post-secondary education was mostly only available for the wealthy. Teachers’ Colleges, under the auspices of the Education Department, bonded their students. They provided a small stipend, which increased annually throughout the course, but which was below the “dole”. Those from the country also received a living-away-from-home allowance. This made post-secondary education affordable, as students did not have to pay for their education.

However, if after graduation the student did not teach for a time equivalent to the length of their course, they were required to repay the money. The Education Department, organised jobs for graduate teachers and supplied many of them with Government Employees’ Housing Act (GEHA) accommodation in country areas. Once the Whitlam government brought in free education, the bond money, for those unsuited to teaching, was waived or partially waived.

In the early 1970s, women were still largely just expected to marry and have children in their teens. This trend can be seen within the students in the first and second intakes, who often married during their course or shortly afterwards. It was noted in the 1970 Annual Report that three women had resigned for marriage. At this time, the Department would not accept married women as bonded students and the employment of married women in WA schools was not encouraged. By the second intake, as shown in the 1971 Annual Report, married students, who numbered 11, could continue their course with allowances. It should be noted that in the Education Department, women graduates from the teachers colleges who did resign from teaching to marry had to pay back the ‘bond’ or an amount equivalent to their training stipend.

In 1964, the National Service Act introduced a scheme of selective conscription in Australia, designed to create an army of 40,000 full-time soldiers. Many of them were sent on active service to the war in Vietnam. Despite there being a greater number of women to men in primary teaching, male students going to Mount Lawley Teachers’ College, in 1970, could be conscripted. Any of the 42 males in first intake were at risk. However, should they have been conscripted, they would have been allowed to complete their Teaching Certificate, and then sent to Officer School.

In May 1970, more than 150,000 people participated in a Moratorium march, to protest against Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. These were the largest street demonstrations in Australia’s history. Popular opinion had turned against the war, and nightly television reports showed graphic footage of the realities of the conflict.

Thankfully, at the end of 1972, Gough Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to election victory for the first time in 23 years. In the first days of government, Whitlam abolished conscription, and ended all military involvement in Indochina, which must have been a great relief for males in the first intake.

The White Australia Policy was finally dismantled by the Whitlam government removed any ethnically specific criteria for evaluating prospective migrants adding to the idea of a multicultural Australia. The early 1970s must be remembered as a time when large liners arrived from Italy, Greece, and the former Yugoslavia. There were also a number of refugees, from World War 11, who came to Australia to make a new life. However, in the early years of MLTC, immigrants’ children were largely Europeans, as evidenced by the surnames of the students of the first two intakes.

As mentioned previously, education was expensive, thus MLTC was a way for the children of the less well-to-do, and immigrants to pursue an upwardly mobile route in their employment. Many of these children, took education seriously and worked hard to achieve a qualification.

At the time of students starting at MLTC, there were not many roles for women.  The main career choices were: hairdresser, secretary, shop assistant, waitress, nurse, librarian and teacher. These roles were the traditional roles ascribed to women. At the time, a woman, such as a teacher, would get considerably less than a man with the same qualifications, working in the same job.

In December 1972, under the new Whitlam government, the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission approved the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. There was also greater support for single parents, for those whose marriage may not have worked out. From June 1973, maternity leave was granted to women employees in the public service.

Whitlam reforms also focused on the area of “self-determination” for Indigenous Australians and land rights. MLTC, started off with two Indigenous students, one of who was Ken Wyatt, a Noongar, Yamatji and Wongi man. Ken went on to teach primary school from 1973 to 1986. In the early 1990s, he moved into leadership roles in Aboriginal education for the Department of Education of WA serving as the Director of Aboriginal Education. He later became the Minister for Indigenous Australians.

Another Aboriginal student, who was enrolled in the third intake was Colleen Hayward. She ended up as the head of ECU’s Centre for Indigenous Education and Pro-Vice-Chancellor. Her father was the first Aboriginal teacher then Principal in WA.

Because of the lack of knowledge of how to teach in Aboriginal children more effectively in schools, the Whitlam government granted a large amount of money to be spent rectifying this issue.

Other major changes in the early 1970s included: the dropping of the drinking and voting age to 18, and the sexual revolution, due to the availability of the contraceptive pill. With education fees abolished, university became available for everyone, so students from MLTC could add to their qualifications if they wished to do so. When MLTC changed to WA College of Advanced Education, it was possible to undertake additional courses such as a Post Graduate Diploma of Intercultural Studies, which focused on Aboriginal and migrant education.