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Radio girl : the story of the extraordinary Mrs Mac, pioneering engineer and wartime legend / David Dufty.

By: Series: Dyslexic booksPublisher: Crows Nest, NSW : Allen & Unwin, 2020Copyright date: ©2020Description: 302 pages, 24 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cmContent type:
  • still image
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781760876654
Other title:
  • Radio girl
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 621.3092 23
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: 1.Austinmer -- 2.A Tale Of Two Engineers -- 3.The Wireless Shop -- 4.The Metropolitan Radio Club -- 5.Wireless Weekly -- 6.Love And Loss -- 7.The Phillip Street Radio School -- 8.The Electrical Association For Women -- 9.The Body On The Lawn -- 10.Cooking With Electricity -- 11.The Australian Women's Flying Club -- 12.The Women's Emergency Signalling Corps -- 13.A Sense Of Rhythm -- 14.Women In Uniform -- 15.The Woolshed -- 16.Women For The Air Force -- 17.The Arms Of The Navy -- 18.Harman -- 19.An Sos From Mary Bell -- 20.The Next Eight -- 21.Musical Morse -- 22.The General And Mrs Mckenzie -- 23.Harbour Intruders -- 24.Corvettes -- 25.The Lady At The Top -- 26.Peacetime -- 27.Einstein's Correspondent -- 28.Honours -- 29.Out Of The Woolshed -- 30.The Sailor's Lessons -- 31.The War's Long Reach -- 32.Ex-Wrans -- 33.The Pilot Flag Flying.
Summary: All around Australia, former WRANs and navy men regard the woman they know as Mrs Mac with a level of reverence usually reserved for saints. Yet today no-one has any idea of who she was and how she rescued Australia's communication systems in World War II. As you climbed the rickety stairs of an old woolshed at Sydney harbour in 1944, you would hear the thrum of clicks and buzzes. Rows of men and women in uniforms and headsets would be tapping away vigorously at small machines, under the careful watch of their young female trainers. Presiding over the cacophony was a tiny woman, known to everyone as 'Mrs Mac', one of Australia's wartime legends. A smart girl from a poor mining town who loved to play with her father's tools, Violet McKenzie became an electrical engineer, a pioneer of radio and a successful businesswoman. As the clouds of war gathered in the 1930s, she defied convention and trained young women in Morse code, foreseeing that their services would soon be sorely needed. Always a champion of women, she was instrumental in getting Australian women into the armed forces. Mrs Mac was adored by the thousands of young women and men she trained, and came to be respected by the defence forces and the public too for her vision and contribution to the war effort. David Dufty brings her story to life in this heartwarming and captivating biography.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book Jessie Street National Women's Library 621.3092 MAC (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available for reference in the library and ILL 69308

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1.Austinmer -- 2.A Tale Of Two Engineers -- 3.The Wireless Shop -- 4.The Metropolitan Radio Club -- 5.Wireless Weekly -- 6.Love And Loss -- 7.The Phillip Street Radio School -- 8.The Electrical Association For Women -- 9.The Body On The Lawn -- 10.Cooking With Electricity -- 11.The Australian Women's Flying Club -- 12.The Women's Emergency Signalling Corps -- 13.A Sense Of Rhythm -- 14.Women In Uniform -- 15.The Woolshed -- 16.Women For The Air Force -- 17.The Arms Of The Navy -- 18.Harman -- 19.An Sos From Mary Bell -- 20.The Next Eight -- 21.Musical Morse -- 22.The General And Mrs Mckenzie -- 23.Harbour Intruders -- 24.Corvettes -- 25.The Lady At The Top -- 26.Peacetime -- 27.Einstein's Correspondent -- 28.Honours -- 29.Out Of The Woolshed -- 30.The Sailor's Lessons -- 31.The War's Long Reach -- 32.Ex-Wrans -- 33.The Pilot Flag Flying.

All around Australia, former WRANs and navy men regard the woman they know as Mrs Mac with a level of reverence usually reserved for saints. Yet today no-one has any idea of who she was and how she rescued Australia's communication systems in World War II. As you climbed the rickety stairs of an old woolshed at Sydney harbour in 1944, you would hear the thrum of clicks and buzzes. Rows of men and women in uniforms and headsets would be tapping away vigorously at small machines, under the careful watch of their young female trainers. Presiding over the cacophony was a tiny woman, known to everyone as 'Mrs Mac', one of Australia's wartime legends. A smart girl from a poor mining town who loved to play with her father's tools, Violet McKenzie became an electrical engineer, a pioneer of radio and a successful businesswoman. As the clouds of war gathered in the 1930s, she defied convention and trained young women in Morse code, foreseeing that their services would soon be sorely needed. Always a champion of women, she was instrumental in getting Australian women into the armed forces. Mrs Mac was adored by the thousands of young women and men she trained, and came to be respected by the defence forces and the public too for her vision and contribution to the war effort. David Dufty brings her story to life in this heartwarming and captivating biography.

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