Life as student waitress

In 1961, Aileen Brown (later Natera) and I were the first two women to be appointed as student waitresses in Ormond.

We went into residence in the second term of 1961 when the new wing for domestic staff, now known as the Oval Wing, was completed. There were four bedrooms. Three more students came in 1962, Helen Lloyd (later Johnston) and Rosemary Jame (later Tomkinson) came for half a year each, and Helen Young (later Tutt) was full-time.

Contrary to what is sometimes claimed, female student waitresses (also known as ‘maids’) were not introduced as a means of implementing co-education into Ormond College. I checked this myself with Davis McCaughey. Student waitresses were introduced because in the early 1960s, there was high employment and as a result, the College had trouble keeping staff. Queen’s College was already employing female students to wait on tables. I think another reason may have been that the number of (male) students was to increase dramatically in 1962 with the opening of Picken Court.

How did this come about?

Aileen was a good friend of the McCaughey family and she must have been asked to choose a friend to go into Ormond with her to introduce the student waitress system into the College. I played hockey with Aileen for the University of Melbourne and although we had gone to different schools, we had quite a few friends in common. Why she chose me, I do not know, but we have remained friends ever since.

I remember going home and asking my parents’ permission to take up the offer, as one did in those days. My mother was very dubious, but my father said that I could go and his reason was that ‘anything that Davis McCaughey sets up is bound to be above board.’ I remember his words quite clearly.

How did I find living at Ormond?

I stayed in Ormond for one and a half years (1961–62). I just loved it. I loved living away from home. I loved the independence. I did not have to travel about an hour to and from the University each day. I could go to the libraries at night and stay in bed longer in the mornings, I could get up at 8 am and be in a lecture by 9am. 

Looking back, we lived in a very different time. Now, when I tell people that I was a ‘maid’ in Ormond, they laugh at the use of the word. But the word ‘maid’ was used for a female servant. 

At that time, the male residents, however, were called the ‘gentlemen’. Each day the gentlemen had their beds made for them and rooms cleaned by other (female) domestic staff, some of whom had been at Ormond for years. The ‘gentlemen’ had to chop their own wood for their fires, as there was not central heating in the old building then. 

What did we do?

In return for full board, we had to wait on the tables in hall each night and one day at the weekend. Later generations of waitresses were also allowed to attend the College tutorials and become members of the Students’ Club, but these privileges had not yet been granted to student waitresses. The total amount of time we worked probably amounted to about 12–14 hours a week. 

Uniforms

We wore little black dresses with long sleeves and white collars and looked the same as the other staff. At dinner time, we lined up against the walls as the bell was rung by the Head Waitress. The men would rush in and sit at their places, newer students near the High Table, and the more senior students on chairs at the rear of the hall. Then the members of the High Table would march in, the Master said Grace, and the maids left to bring in the first course. This was served up by the person sitting at the head of each table. 

Meals

The food was not particularly exciting by today’s standards. Roast meat was served every second night, which interspersed with some sort of brown ‘pot’ (stew). Salad, served at weekends and lunch, was some sort of sliced meat, chopped up lettuce, a twist of orange and some beetroot – no rocket. 

I remember the milk coming in huge milk churns. It tasted delicious, the cream would rise to the top and we would pour this over our porridge in the morning. 

When there were special dinners in Hall, we added a frilly white apron to our black dresses. No alcohol was allowed in College, not even at formal occasions. The result of this ban was worse than if alcohol had been allowed, as the students would come to these dinners having spent some time already at Naughton’s Hotel across the road, or else would pour gin from a hip flask into the non-alcoholic punch. 

We maids ate with the other staff in the staff dining room. 1961 was just 16 years after the end of World War II. Some of the staff were migrants from Europe. One I remember telling us that at one stage she had only potato peelings to eat. Another member of staff, who manned the dishwasher, was Wally, an Australian; he had been a prisoner of war of the Japanese. When we had run out of toilet paper, we used to ask Wally for a ‘music roll’. This was a euphemism for a roll of lavatory paper. There were other old retainers, George and Les, who worked around the College doing odd jobs. 

College life

Men were not allowed in our rooms, though we could visit them, but only during approved hours, which were extended on weekends. I was very curious about the initiation rites that the new residents were put through. I never did find out what they had to go through. 

At the time of the annual Ormond Ball, there was much excitement among the maids to see who would be invited by whom. We also had to make our own dresses.

Changing times

After I left, the student waitress system was to expand to 12 maids. It operated until 1972, when Ormond began to take in women as official residents.

I sometimes wonder whether the current young women would be prepared to wait on Ormond’s young men (than always called ‘gentlemen’) as we did. Now, would they not expect the men to do an equal share of the tasks? Were indeed needy male students being deprived of a similar job?

We saw none of this as being elitist or sexist. Indeed, the word ‘sexist’ was not even in our vocabulary: its first recorded use appears to be in 1965. I knew that quite a number of things in life for women were ‘not fair’, but at this stage of my life I was not particularly bothered by them.

Regardless, I look back now and think my 18 months at Ormond was one of the best times in my life.