The Geography of Heart – Karen Abercromby (1980)
Karen Abercromby (Class of 1980) is a Cultural Heritage Planner at the City of Perth with over 35 years of experience across Australia and the United Kingdom. Her work involves assessing the cultural significance of historic places and working with communities and traditional owners to conserve them for future generations. She shares her story with us.
Kaya, my name is Karen Abercromby, and I am delighted to share with you snippets of my career since graduating from Santa Maria College in 1980. I am a Cultural Heritage Planner at the City of Perth. What does such a role involve, you may well ask. In a nutshell, we assess the aesthetic, historic, scientific and social value of places and their rarity, integrity and condition to determine their cultural significance, and help conserve these places for future generations. In doing so, we as a profession are guided by the Australian ICOMOS Burra Charter, which is an internationally recognised set of principles for cultural heritage conservation.
Cultural Heritage Planners work with communities and traditional owners to ensure their perspectives lead and inform the management of cultural sites. As a group, we manage heritage places, present talks, publish papers and hold events, including the annual Boorloo (Perth) Heritage Festival, to share stories and dive into Boorloo’s intriguing natural, cultural and built histories.
Childhood Memories That Sparked a Passion
The green shoots of my career sprang in childhood, growing up opposite an old farmhouse in Como. My brothers and I would often visit Mrs Mac(Dougall), hand feed her chestnut mares, play in the paddocks and quench our thirst from the fresh rainwater tanks. Though the horses, tanks and windmills have sadly gone, Mrs Mac’s cherished farmhouse, with its deep verandahs, stables and milking sheds, remains.
McDougall Farmhouse is now heritage listed. The place was conserved for some of the very reasons why I and my brothers loved it. The place was so distinct from the rows of houses around us and reminiscent of South Perth’s early farms, providing fresh milk and produce for locals. The farm was owned by Neil and Hazel McDougall, early settlers who bequeathed their farm to the City of South Perth for recreation, wildlife protection and community arts and crafts.
Inspired by Geography at Santa Maria
My lifelong fascination with cultural geography was enhanced at Santa Maria, where we were blessed with a gifted geography teacher in the form of Miss Sam Rifici. Miss Rifici was impossibly cool, driving a red convertible stag to school and possessing the unique ability to engage her young, aproned students in the value of cultural difference. This was in contrast to the late 1970s monoculture we were tightly bound by inside and outside the school grounds.
Cultural geography analyses how cultural practices vary across regions and how these variations in turn contribute to the unique character of a place. Cultural practices at a dairy farm in Como in 1937 were different from those undertaken by the Sisters of Mercy carving out their new convent school in then-remote Attadale bushland. Yet both are unique and significant. To understand these interrelationships between culture and place, cultural geography draws from diverse fields such as anthropology, economics and history.
Building a Career Across Australia
Experiences that have shaped my own life along the way are borne from working and living in various places around Australia and overseas. Firstly, though, I undertook a Degree and then a Graduate Diploma in Urban and Regional Planning at Curtin University. After graduating, I worked as a Planning Officer in the Perth hills and then interstate in the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria.
Hiking through the Dandenongs and the Canadian Rockies honed my love for rainforests, wild rivers and wildlife. As such, I seized the chance to work as a Town Planner in the City of Albany and Shire of Denmark to make the most of the rugged land and seascapes at their doorsteps.
Life and Work in London
In a change of scene, I moved to London in 1999 and made this gritty, fascinating city my home for the next four years. This desire to work and live in a new cultural setting changed my life in many ways. I met my future husband there, and we travelled throughout Europe, even venturing to St. Petersburg by train along the Baltic Sea from Helsinki. A trip you can no longer do.
London itself is laid out at such a dense human scale; it is possible to experience different sub-cultures by tube stop. Chelsea and Brixton, whilst only 7 kilometres apart, are culturally worlds apart. We were fortunate to experience living in an old Victorian flat replete with a private square in South Kensington and a 1960s terrace backing onto the Thames, on land that had been bombed in World War II.
During this heady time, I worked as a Researcher at the Association of Commonwealth Universities in Bloomsbury. A highlight was jointly presenting a paper to UNESCO in Paris. However, whilst I enjoyed this role and made lifelong friends there, I was more intrigued by the richly detailed buildings and places around me.
After taking a deep dive into the intricacies of the London-based planning systems, I was fortunate to land a role as a Town Planner at the London Borough of Wandsworth. A highlight was being involved in the regeneration of a derelict waterfront site on the Thames.
Returning Home and Continuing the Journey
On returning to Perth to raise our young family, I worked part-time as a Planning Consultant for Development WA and at the Department of Communities facilitating the supply of urban regenerated land for housing. I commenced at the City of Perth in May 2017 as a Cultural Heritage Planner.
To hone my skills in this field, I undertook a Graduate Certificate in Architectural Conservation at UWA, in which I graduated with honours in 2024.
Coming Full Circle
In full circle, I recently had the opportunity to draw cultural heritage focus to the site of the first Convent of the Holy Cross led by Mother Ursula Frayne in 1847. The Sisters faced relentless hardships, yet selflessly dedicated their lives to others. Ministries throughout Australia sprang from this humble convent, built at Mercedes College 178 years ago.
In turn, the Sisters of Mercy’s pursuit of access to a Catholic education for girls led to the establishment of the boarding school here at Santa Maria in 1937. Continuing the family tradition, we sent our own daughter to Santa Maria, and Anna is now undertaking a Psychology Degree at Murdoch University to support others in need.
Advice for Future Creatives
In conclusion, advice I would humbly share with young creatives interested in cultural geography and heritage is to follow your passion and trust your inner voice; no-one else knows what sparks true joy in you other than you.
Don’t look for someone else to make your own life’s journey worthwhile and meaningful. You are the carriage of your own destiny. Find out as much as you can from the experts in your chosen fields, open your heart to different cultures and be endlessly curious.
- Catholic Girls School Perth, City of Perth heritage, cultural heritage planning Perth, Featured, girls school Western Australia, Mercy Education, Santa Maria College alumni, SMC Class of 1980, women in planning
Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.
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