Dorothy ‘Dot’ Hennessy OAM, Lord Mayor of Wollongong Councillor Tania Brown, Felicity Skoberne and Honourable Linda Hurley. Photo: Wollongong City Council.
Wollongong stalwart and long-time Rotarian Dorothy (Dot) Hennessy OAM commissioned a special purple rose to honour inspirational women, including her late mother, a deaconess in the Anglican Church during the Great Depression.
Called “Inspirational Women” and created by Brisbane-based rose breeder Vivienne Dixon, three of the roses were donated by Dot to the Wollongong Botanic Garden’s rose garden, which were planted during a ceremony on Friday (22 November) with two other women who inspire Dot.
They were Wollongong’s first female Lord Mayor Tania Brown and the Wollongong Botanic Garden’s first female curator Felicity Skoberne.
A rose was also gifted to former Governor-General David Hurley and his wife, “First Lady” Linda Hurley, who Dot was “humbled” could attend after inspiring the idea for the rose.
“I was pretty chuffed we had our first lady Lord Mayor, and our curator of the garden is also the first female curator. I then started thinking about my mum,” she said.
“It’s really about my mum, her sister, and Bob’s mum – the three most significant women in our lives and their values and all they did for us and others.
“I wanted to do something to honour them and all the inspirational women who have made a difference in our community.”
Dot said the rose’s origins traced back to meeting the Hurleys during their time as patrons of the Rotary Emergency Services Community Awards.
“This rose became a reality when I was at Government House in Sydney many years ago, and Mrs Hurley shared with us that she had a rose bred by Colin Hollis, who was a former member of parliament and lives in Jamberoo, and he just loves roses,” she said.
“She had this rose bred in honour of the wives of the governors, because there was nothing to recognise the wives of the governors and their service.”
As a Rotary member, Dot was also inspired by the Rotary Inspirational Women Awards.
“Behind it was that my mother was always an inspiration to me and an amazing person,” she said.
The ‘Inspiring Women’ purple rose. Photo: Wollongong City Council.
Dot set out to create a similar tribute, finding one of only two Australian female rose breeders in Vivienne who created the new rose through hybridisation, which involves cross-pollinating two different roses to produce a new variety.
‘Inspirational Women’ is a Floribunda Rose and has deep purple petals that frill around the edges and fade to white with a nice perfume.
Timing the planting ceremony the day before her late mother Adelaide Elizabeth Denton Tickell’s birthday, she began to learn more about her early years studying theology and becoming a deaconess in the Anglican Church while living in the Newtown area.
“I reached out to the Anglican Deaconess House in Sydney,” she said.
“I got a phone call two weeks ago from a lovely lady saying, ‘My husband and I have researched your mum, and she was an amazing woman.’”
Dot said along with becoming a deaconess, Adelaide was also in the Australian College of Theology class of 1930, where she topped the Associate in Theology class list for men and women.
“In those days, even though the women were top, they were never recognised because the women were never allowed to read the gospel in the Anglican Church,” she said.
“This lady said to me, ‘Those deaconesses at that time, they really did a wonderful job’. It was during the Depression and then the start of the war.”
Dot was sent a series of articles, including one from The Sydney Morning Herald in 1932 about the Ladies’ Home Mission Union conference, which Adelaide spoke at.
It read:: “The object of the conference was to promote fellowship between members and between the branches and to discuss methods for raising money for the year.
“Miss Gillespie spoke on fellowship and Miss Young (general secretary) gave an address on the responsibilities of the union. Deaconess Tickell told of her work among the poor.”
Dot’s mum Adelaide (back left) in a photo that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald in 1932.
“I thought, ‘That’s just so you, Mum,’” Dot said.
“My mother was out there – a bit like me.”
However, she said she was also a practical person, which often led to her being in trouble by the rector for putting other people’s welfare over attending church.
Adelaide died young of breast cancer in 1963 on Ascension Day, “which is pretty special”, but not before making an impact in the Illawarra, where the family moved when Dot was just eight.
“We had the shop in Port Kembla, opposite the school that’s no longer there,” she said.
Her parents were renowned for looking out for many people in the area.
Dot said the joy of the planting ceremony and donating the roses with her husband of 63 years, Bob, was the list of 50 people who attended.
She said that also included people that made an impression on her from those early years in the Illawarra, such as Member for Wollongong Paul Scully’s mother who lived down the road from Dot’s parents.
“We wanted Wollongong to have something tangible which will continue to bloom like these incredible women.”
Councillor Brown said she was honoured to acknowledge and celebrate inspirational women of the past, present and future.
“Since taking office, I’ve been touched by the warm reception I have received, particularly from young women. This rose is for you all,” Cr Brown said.
She also returned serve to “the dynamic and relentless Dorothy Hennessy”.
“Dot is a dedicated community volunteer and an absolute trailblazer, being the first female president of the Rotary Club of Wollongong.”
Wollongong Botanic Garden opens daily from 7 am.
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