Mrs Wicken at Sydney Technical College

The new Sydney Technical College building at Ultimo from the Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1890.

Mrs Anne Fawcett Story began her tenure as teacher of domestic economy and cookery at Sydney Technical College in 1884.[1] When she resigned 1888 Miss Mary Stewart Gill, yet another graduate of the National Training School for Cookery, took over the position. Gill’s tenure was short lived. She married in December 1888, the position was readvertised, and Harriet Wicken was appointed to the post in January 1889.[2]

Sydney Technical College had begun in 1878 as an adjunct to the Sydney Mechanic’s School of Arts. In 1883 the government assumed full financial responsibility for the college and appointed a Board of Technical Education. In 1889 the Board was dissolved, and responsibilities transferred to the Technical Education Branch of the Department of Public Instruction. Until purpose-built accommodation opened in Ultimo (in March 1891) the classes run by the Department of Public Instruction operated from various venues scattered throughout the city.[3] Wicken began teaching cookery in the new premises set up for the purpose at 301 Pitt Street, next to the Temperance Hall.[4]

Both Wicken’s schedule of classes and her remuneration were dependent on enrolments, and numbers in the classes were initially restricted by the temporary accommodation which she considered ‘not at all satisfactory’.[5] She was paid by the lesson at the rate of 10s per one hour lesson or 15s per two hour lesson, in addition to which she received a portion of the fees paid by her students.[6] Her overall salary then was dependent on how many students she could attract. It is perhaps also no surprise that her earnings were very much less than the fixed salary paid to some of the male instructors, who were also entitled to fees from students and, in some cases travelling expenses and reimbursement for cost of materials.[7]

An advertisement for Wicken’s classes in The Cook’s Compass indicates the basic schedule, although the details varied from term to term. On Tuesday she might give a practical lesson in the morning and a demonstration lesson in the afternoon, on Wednesday a demonstration in the morning and on Friday morning another practical class. If there were sufficient numbers another afternoon practice class could be arranged. In addition, special lessons in household management and private lessons in advanced cookery could be given on Wednesday afternoons.[8] Classes ran for around 90 minutes while demonstrations lasted two hours which resulted in somewhere between seven and eleven hours of face-to-face time per week.[9]

Wicken based her instruction on the course of study laid down by the National Training School in London, and the recipes were chiefly those from the Kingswood Cookery Book ‘carefully adapted to the needs of the Australian housekeeper’.[10] Her workload also involved giving free lectures under the auspices of the Technical College in order to promote interest in the classes.[11] In between times she organized all the raw materials for the classes and supervised the preparation and cleaning required.

By 1891 the cookery classes had moved into accommodation at the newly opened college in Ultimo, where the course of study comprised plain and advanced cookery and household management. Conditions were still not perfect:

Considering that there has been no opportunity for the students to make such dishes as require long preparation and are difficult to carry away, the progress has been satisfactory, and the difficulty of teaching them practically soups, gravies, stews, &c., will be overcome when a daily luncheon is served. The number of students has been large, and there is every reason to expect an increase in the coming year.[12]

Selling the products of the cooking classes to the students at the college for lunch was one way of recouping some of the costs associated with materials required. 

Unfortunately for Harriett her years at Sydney Technical College coincided with a nation-wide economic Depression, at its worst between 1892 and 1894, strikes by workers (1890-1894) and severe drought in 1894. In 1893 funding for technical education was cut to almost half that allocated in 1892 and the Department of Public Instruction was forced to instigate retrenchment and reduction in salaries to make ends meet.[13] Twelve branch schools were closed, some subjects were discontinued altogether and others allowed to continue but without government funding:

The teachers of the following subjects were allowed to continue teaching, to be remunerated only by the fees of the students, and to defray all expenses of lighting, cleaning, &c. Short-hand, Book-keeping, Mathematics, Calligraphy and Correspondence, Tailors' Cutting, Design, Cookery, Dresscutting, and Dressmaking.[14]

Understandably there were teachers who declined to accept these conditions and their classes lapsed. Those who continued had to raise their fees, which naturally resulted in fewer students. Harriet Wicken was one of those who soldiered on but numbers in her classes fell dramatically, and she needed to find other sources of income to cover her costs.[15] She no doubt received some revenue from sales of her books and must have had some financial arrangement regarding the recipes she provided for Muskett’s Art of Living in Australia, published in 1893. In April she requested time off during the week to conduct private classes for Mrs R. Bowman of Parramatta, given that ‘money is so hard to get just now’ and the numbers in her classes were much smaller than they had been.[16] Later in the year she gave a series of classes in Maitland and was paid by the local council to give a demonstration of cooking on a gas stove.[17]

Harriett was far from idle offering courses over six to eight lessons for a variety of causes in different venues– for the wives and daughters of railway employees at the Railway Institute, for factory girls at their club rooms, for the Newtown Presbyterian Church Ladies’ Guild in the Newtown Town Hall, at Miss Shiel’s College in Manly and in Ashfield Town Hall – along with a weekly cookery lecture at the School of Arts in Sydney.[18]

Harriett also proved herself enterprising when faced with the challenge of finding rewarding employment. Possibly the most lucrative of all her ventures was a series of well-publicised lectures and demonstrations for the Fresh Food and Ice Company in 1894, promoting fish cookery and the use of the ice chest.[19] The following year, with the assistance of Miss Keagan, one of her former pupils, she took a room at the School of Arts where she was to give demonstrations, afternoon teas were to be served and Miss Keagan would take orders for cakes and pastries. There is nothing to indicate the success or longevity of this venture.[20] Although her Technical College salary was reinstated in 1895, Harriett also tried her hand at journalism with a column in the Australian Home Journal which lasted from May 1895 until June 1896.[21]

Perhaps Wicken’s most strategic move was to extend her cooking classes to Queensland. In January 1896 she gave classes in Toowoomba attended by large groups of women as reported in the Darling Downs Gazette and the Toowoomba Chronicle.[22] In May Wicken provided the Brisbane Technical College with her proposals for conducting classes for them (it is not clear from the extant correspondence who initiated this move) which were accepted.[23] The grounds on which Joseph Maiden, the Superintendent of Technical Education recommended Wicken be allowed to teach in Brisbane indicate how advanced technical instruction was in New South Wales:

In various ways during the last few years most of the Australian colonies (including NZ) have appealed to this branch for information to help them start technical classes, advice in the selection of a teacher or examiner, and in the choice of apparatus etc. We have also been asked to recommend teachers who have passed through the college. It is readily granted that we take the lead in the broad subject of technical education and I think it is a very desirable and friendly act to the educational authorities of another colony to help them wherever we reasonably can.[24]

Wicken’s leave of absence was duly approved but there was a sting in the tail. At the Brisbane Technical College she was to conduct classes in cookery, for which she would receive £25 plus all fees above that amount, and ideally, for an addition 5s, also provide instruction in clear starching.[25] This was a generous offer for only one month’s work but Wicken was required to cover the expense of providing a substitute teacher in Sydney and take full responsibility for the teaching of her ‘locum tenens’.[26] Wicken left her classes in Sydney in the hands of her assistant, Mrs Arthur (Jane) Small, and two of her students who had passed with honours, and proceed by train to Brisbane for one month.[27]

Her arrival had been much anticipated, and her classes were well attended but Wicken worked hard for her £25, offering a busy schedule, commencing on 24 June.[28] At her last class on 17 July, Mr McConnel, the Secretary of the Brisbane Technical College, thanked her for the ‘thorough and ungrudging way’ in which she had ‘carried out the onerous work which had been pressed into so short a time’ and announced she would soon become a resident of Brisbane and take charge of the Ladies’ Department of the Brisbane Courier and The Queenslander.[29]

So ended Mrs Wicken’s association with Sydney Technical College. Applications were sought from ‘people competent to teach cookery’ with experience in teaching both plain and advanced cooking and the ability to give instruction in fruit preserving, jam making, pickling, etc and, ironically given their earlier fractious relationship, Fanny Fawcett Story was appointed to fill Harriett’s place in August 1896.[30] The salary was now £100 per year plus a portion of the fees paid by students.

Whether Wicken had gone to Brisbane with the intention of finding long-term employment there it seems she preferred the offer of a stable role as journalist to the more arduous one of teacher. Harriett and her son Arthur relocated to Brisbane in August 1896.[31] Part of her decision to move to Queensland must have been prompted by Arthur’s deteriorating health. She eventually purchased a small cottage in the centre of the town of Dalby, 200 kilometres or so inland form Brisbane, and opened The Kingswood Sanatorium, with separate bedrooms for four male residents, one of whom was Arthur.[32] Their time in Queensland was short. Both Harriet and Arthur had returned to Sydney by the time Arthur died on 5 July 1898.[33]

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[1] Mrs Fawcett Story’s appointment was announced in Evening News, 21 May 1884, p. 6 ‘Board of Technical Education’.

[2] A position for a teacher of domestic economy was advertised in April 1888 (Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) 30 April 1888, p. 14, ‘Advertising’. For Gill see The Australian Star, 26 May 1888, p. 7, ‘Board of Technical Education’. Marriage of Gill, SMH, 15 January 1889, p. 1, ‘Family Notices’ (marriage to Hugh Patterson). Miss Gill’s marriage was equally short-lived, see Evening News (Syd.), 7 November 1895, p. 6 ‘Divorce court’ and Wagga Wagga Advertiser, 9 November 1895, p. 2, ‘A matrimonial disagreement.’ Position advertised Daily Telegraph, 7 November 1888, p. 8, ‘Advertising’; announcing Wicken’s appointment SMH, 26 January 1889, p. 12.

[3] See Alan Barcan, Two Centuries of Education in New South Wales (Sydney: University of NSW Press, 1988), pp. 146, 157–8.

[4] Australian Star, 15 December 1888, p. 7, ‘Board of Technical Education’.

[5] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1890, Appendix XIX Report on Technical Education, with annexes, p. 285. SMH 27 November 1890, p. 9. ‘Technical college cooking class’.

[6] Daily Telegraph, 7 November 1888, p. 8, ‘Advertising’. Undated correspondence at Museums of History NSW-State Archives (hereafter MHNSW-St. Ac.), NRS 3830, Education Department Files, 20/12605, Cookery 1882-1892, indicates that Wicken received 50% of the fees collected from students. The other 50% went towards recovering some of the costs of provisions.

[7] Undated schedules of salaries at MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12605, listing amounts to October 1889.

[8]. Mrs. H. Wicken, The Cook’s Compass (Sydney: J.G. Hanks Co., 1890), advertising for the Technical College, p. 98.

[9] SMH, 18 May 1889, p. 3 ‘Advertising’.

[10] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1890, p. 285.

[11] For example, SMH, 24 May 1889, p. 3, ‘lecture’; 23 August 1889, p. 8 ‘lectures’

[12] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1891, Appendix XVIII Report on Technical Education with annexes, p. 183.

[13] Barcan, pp. 157, 158. 

[14] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1893, Appendix XX Report on Technical Education with annexes, p. 127. See also SMH, 19 January 1893, p. 5, ‘Technical Education Department. The proposed reduction in classes’; Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 5 August 1893, p. 288, ‘Hausfrau’s Lucky Bag. A visit to a kitchen.’

[15] For wrangling over the cost of gas consumed in the cookery classes see MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12606, Bridges to Undersecretary, 28 March 1893; Wicken to Johnson 11 April 1893; Wicken to Johnson, 21 August 1893; John Bruce to Bridges 11 September 1893; Wicken to Suttor, 3 January 1894.

[16] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12606, Wicken to Bridges, 21 April 1893. See also Cumberland Mercury, 22 April 1893, ‘Local and general’ p. 4. Classes began in the first week of May, Cumberland Mercury, 6 May 1893, p. 4 ‘Local and general’

[17] The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 28 October 1893, p. 4, ‘Local news’; 7 November 1893, p. 4, ‘Local news’; 11 November 1893, p. 4, ‘East Maitland Borough Council.’

[18] Railway Institute, Evening News, 3 April 1894, p. 6 ‘Brevities’; Factory girls, Daily Telegraph, 30 May 1894, p. 4 ‘Working girl’s club’; Newtown, SMH, 24 May 1894, p. 7 ‘Popular cookery’; Miss Sheil’s, Daily Telegraph, 16 June 1894, p. 2 ‘Cookery class’; Ashfield Town Hall, Evening News, 28 August 1894, p. 3; Sunday Times, 28 April 1895, p. 2, ‘The factory girl’s club’.

[19] Evening News, 11 May 1894, p. 5, ‘Fish dinner lectures,’ and Australian Star, 17 May 1894, p. 2, ‘How to cook fish’.

[20] Freeman’s Journal, 6 April 1895, p. 9, ‘Woman’s column’.

[21] Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1894, Appendix XX Report of Technical Education with annexes, p. 111, the teaching of classes for which no salaries were paid was continued, but in the final term of 1894 the teachers no longer paid for lighting and cleaning. Report of the Minister of Public Instruction 1895, Appendix XIX Technical Education with annexes, p. 109, Wicken’s salary reinstated. Wicken’s column in Australian Home Journal ran from 1 May 1895 until June 1896. Noted in ‘Women’s Column,’ Freeman’s Journal, 8 June 1895, p. 9.

[22] Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs General Advertiser, 7 January 1896, p. 2, ‘Local and general news’; Darling Downs Gazette, 11 January 1896, p. 43 ‘Mrs Wicken’s cooking class’.

[23] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, D. R. McConnel to Maiden, 7 May 1896, ‘Mrs Wicken has written to us in regard to proposed cookery lessons to be held here in the winter’; McConnel to Maiden, 11 May 1896; McConnel to Undersecretary for Public Instruction, 29 May 1896. David Rose McConnel was the secretary of the Brisbane Technical College. Joseph Henry Maiden was Superintendent of Technical Education in New South Wales, having taken over from Frederick Bridges in 1894. Bridges was now the Chief Inspector.

[24] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, Maiden to Chief Inspector, 18 May 1896.

[25] Clear starching was a process of using a transparent starch solution to stiffen fine, loosely woven fabrics like muslin without clogging the loose weave or thickening the fabric with visible traces of starch. MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, McConnel to Maiden, 11 May 1896. 

[26] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, Maiden to Chief Inspector, 18 May 1896.

[27] MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, Wicken to Maiden, 14 May 1896; Wicken to Morris, 19 June 1896. Dr. R. N. Morris had been appointed Superintendent of Technical Education, replacing Maiden, in June 1896, see Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 13 June 1896, p. 1247 ‘Grading the Education Department’, and Evening News, 20 June 1896, p. 9 ‘Technical College.’ Arrival in Brisbane, Brisbane Courier, 23 June 1896, p. 5, ‘Overland passengers.’

[28] Brisbane Courier, 3 June 1896, p. 1 ‘Classified advertising’ and p. 4, ‘Technical college cookery classes’; 20 July 1896, p. 3 ‘Woman’s World.’

[29] Brisbane Courier, 20 July 1896, p. 3, ‘Woman’s World’. The Queenslander was the weekly summary and literary edition of the Brisbane Courier, published on Saturday. ‘Woman’s World’ appeared daily in Brisbane Courier and was a column of social gossip. The ‘Ladies’ Column’ in the Queenslander was more comprehensive with recipes, fashion advice, housekeeping tips etc. Harriett’s ‘Ladies Column, writing as ‘Hafra’, ran from 15 August 1896 to 6 November 1897, see Queenslander, 15 August 1896, p. 316 and 6 November 1897 p. 901.

[30] Advertisement, Evening News, 21 July 1896, p. 8. Evening News 25 August 1896, p. 6, ‘Cooking and domestic economy’. Confirmation of appointment MHNSW-St. AC. NRS 3830, 20/12608, Bridges to Undersecretary, 23 March 1897. For the relationship between Harriet Wicken and Fanny Fawcett Story see ‘Cooking Up a Storm, part two’, 1 May 2024.

[31] Brisbane Courier, 3 August 1896, p. 5 ‘Overland Passengers’. 

[32] Kingswood Sanitorium was officially opened on 16^th September 1897. For opening of Sanatorium Queenslander, 18 September 1897, p. 578, ‘Sanatorium at Dalby’.

[33] ’ SMH, 6 July 1898, p. 1, ‘Family notices’; Brisbane Courier, 11 July 1898, p. 4, ‘Family Notices’. SMH, 7 July 1898, p. 10 ‘Family Notices’, Arthur Smith Wicken members of the guild of St. Lawrence requested to attend the funeral of their brother and then to Waverley cemetery. For details of Harriet Wicken’s subsequent activities see ‘Mrs Wicken: her career as a cookery teacher in Australia’.