Interesting People

Freda Whitlam modestly summed up her life in these few words:

The description does her no justice. It is a black and white treatment of a life that was lived in technicolour.

Freda is so well known in Western Sydney she scarcely needs an introduction. A respected former principal of the Presbyterian Ladies College, and a former Moderator of the NSW Synod of the Uniting Church, she is the daughter of one of the founders of Canberra, and sister to a prime minister. She was awarded the OAM about 1987 and has appeared on Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals.

She moved to Penrith because she believed it to be a growing and developing area. She had the experience to assist with that growth.

One attraction was the College of Advance Education which grew into the University of Western Sydney. A UWS building is named in her honour, and her contribution to the local community is significant and continuing. Freda Whitlam is truly an inspiration.

At the time of revising this page (September 2010) Freda teaches two U3A classes: India and Her Religions and Latin. Previously she had also taught a course on Christianity in the Nineteenth Century.

I asked why she had specifically chosen the Nineteenth Century her enthusiasm was evident. "It was a great century," she said. "So much happened. The Church was constantly under attack, but it was also a time of enormous expansion."

She explained that the work of John Wesley led to the abolition of slavery, the industrial revolution was at its height, and yet there was the Irish famine. Darwin launched his Evolution of Species, the growth of the railways opened up opportunities for travel, and there was great missionary activity. (It was at that time that medical missionary, David Livingstone, took modern medicine to Africa.)

Freda's love for her topic is such that anybody listening to her would find their interest piqued.

But it is Freda's Advanced Latin class that gave this page its title. She said the people who want to learn Latin are so interesting, and so interested in everything around them, that it is a pleasure to teach them.

Her first Latin class was for a group of Catholics who wanted to be able to understand the Mass in Latin, but they have since moved on and those who attend now are people who love the language for itself.