Personal Stories
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue12 1–31 January 2021
The ten-year-old girl, second on the left in this pic of the 74-inch dome, back in 1980, dreamt of being an astronomer. She never really thought she would ever get to work at Mt Stromlo, and she never did become an astronomer, but life has a funny way of coming full-circle. So grab a cuppa and settle in for the story of what she did do and how she got to go back to Mt Stromlo.
I did honestly want to be an astronomer at that age. However, the adults and teachers in my life at the time always commented that I would have to be very good at very hard maths and physics. Although I was pretty good at maths and science, I picked up the messaging that I wasn't good enough at those things and listened to them (Narrator: she would have been good enough at those things with some hard work and should not have listened to them).
I ended up at Sydney Girls High School for Year 11 and 12, where I did well enough in maths, chemistry, and physics, but excelled at (now defunct) 3 Unit Geography. So I went to the University of NSW and got a BSc (Hons) in Applied Physical Geography. I did my Honours thesis on Downstream Variations in Modes of Floodplain Formation of Webbs Creek, which is fluvial geomorphology (Google it – it's very entertaining to introduce yourself as a fluvial geomorphologist to people at parties and see their reactions).
I decided that I didn't want to dig auger holes and analyse soil/sediment samples for the rest of my life, so I did not pursue a geomorphology PhD. Instead, I snagged a job at the Parramatta office of the NSW Department of Water Resources. I policed sand and gravel extraction from south coast rivers and gave farmers and local government advice about river management. There's nothing quite so character-forming like doing a site inspection in the hills behind Eden, by yourself, before mobile phones were a thing, as a 21-year woman, where the landowner greets you with a sawn-off shotgun. It certainly helps develop your oral communication skills!
I took various other roles in Tamworth, Sydney and Perth, where I learnt so much about managing programs, budgets, supporting a geographically dispersed team, and working with the media and general public. Occasionally, I got to dress up as a giant blue thumb!
Life then took a bit of a detour, as I got married and decided to try a few new things, such as an ecotourism course, a wholesale travel agent, and having a baby. Turns out, being near family is helpful in those early days and sleepless nights, so we moved back to Sydney, where I quickly had another baby. Wanderlust soon kicked back in, and we moved to near Noosa, Queensland to run a resort. After about 18 months of being trapped in the resort with two young pre-schoolers (what were we thinking?), we bought an electronics and music shop on the NSW South Coast, and I retrained as a Science teacher. Because they don't have enough teachers to go around, I also taught Mathematics, Marine Studies and Dance (I trained in classical ballet, tap and jazz as a kid/teen).
However, my kids were determined to make my life even-more-not-boring, and I ended up homeschooling them for a few years (so I also technically taught English, History, Art, Music, PE and Japanese). To pay the bills, I worked casually in our local library, marked NAPLAN writing tests, and was a Discovery Ranger for NSW National Parks and Wildlife, leading tours of rock platforms and geology, night-time spotlighting tours, and developing school education programs.
We decided that Canberra held more opportunities for us and the kids, who were now approaching university age. I got a job as a travel agent (again – you think I'd learn my lesson). After 12 months of below-minimum-wages and a free cruise to the Australian Open (because I was awesome at selling cruises), I moved back to STEM and people I enjoyed working with. I was the Inspiring Australia ACT manager, based at the fantastic CBR Innovation Network. I was working on National Science Week and combining STEM and entrepreneurship, and immensely enjoying myself there until Brittany Carter spotted the ASTRO 3D Education and Outreach Manager position, and the rest, as they say, is history.
All of the different experiences I had in all those roles helped me do what I do now: the Chief Operating Officer of ASTRO 3D. I have learnt so much astronomy! After recently writing a teacher resource on analysing galaxies' rotational velocities using SAMI spectroscopic data to calculate the mass of dark matter, I can finally look back at that ten-year-old at Stromlo and feel like some of her dreams finally came true!
Ingrid McCarthy
