Life and Career
Margaret Packham Hargrave was born as Margaret Ruth Packham on 8 November 1941 and grew up in the Sydney suburb of Auburn. For secondary education she attended Sutherland High School. Her tertiary studies were at New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music where she studied voice with Raymond Beatty and viola with Georgiana Maclean; and concurrently at Sydney Hospital where she studied nursing (January 1960 to December 1963). Subsequently, she completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English and Psychology, and Master of Letters in Middle English/Chaucer at the University of New England and a Diploma of Education at Mitchell College. She had an early career as a nurse (March 1964 – June 1967) including as a lecturer in Nursing Studies, publishing a research paper, "Literature in the Nursing Course" in The Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing (1985). From July 1978 to December 1984 she worked as a poultry farmer near Dubbo and was a freelance journalist for the local newspaper, Daily Liberal. She then became a teacher of secondary English (February 1987 – August 2006) before committing herself to writing.
Since August 1974 Hargrave has also worked as a freelance writer and has had short stories and poems published in various magazines or newspapers: Westerly, Meanjin, The Sydney Morning Herald, Cleo, Grass Roots and Matilda. A book of her poems, Midnight Fugue, was published in 1983. She developed an interest in screenwriting and her first short film, A Difficult Patient, – based on her book, A Woman of Air – was produced and directed by Tony Chu of NAFA Productions was exhibited at the Cannes Short Film Corner, 2009. Original music composed by Nathan Chan. In September, 2008, she was elected to Sutherland Shire Council as one of the team of Shire Watch Independents and left the council in September 2012.
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