Harriet DumoloPrint Page

The Harriet Dumolo Memorial Room commemorates Harriet Alice Dumolo (1875-1944), kindergarten teacher. The room is located at the former Sydney Kindergarten Teachers College which is now part of Waverley College. 

In 1897 Harriet, known to her family as Haddie, was one of the first five students to be awarded a kindergarten teacher's certificate by the Teachers' Association of New South Wales. In 1903 she was headmistress of St Philip's kindergarten, then entered the Kindergarten College, graduating in 1905. In 1907 she became director of three kindergartens at Newcastle and was in charge of training student teachers until 1909 when she joined the staff of the college. Next year she visited England and Europe. In 1912 she was appointed acting principal of the college, becoming principal next year.

Two members of a family with a distinguished teaching record, Misses Elsie and Nona Dumolo, were among the 400 guests present at the opening of the Harriet Dumolo Memorial Room at the Sydney Kindergarten Training College, Waverley, yesterday. The late Miss Harriet Dumolo was the first Australian-born principal of the college from 1911 until 1932. Her sister, Miss Elsie Dumolo, who officially declared the Memorial Rooms open, is a speech-training teacher who taught at the college. Many of her former pupils, including the present principal of the college, Miss Jean Wyndham, who was also a pupil of Miss Harriet Dumolo at the college, were among the guests. A number of the present day students are Old Girls of N.E.G.G.S., Armidale, where Miss Nona Dumolo was principal for many years. Miss Elizabeth Northcott was present at the opening and later inspected the Memorial Rooms, which will be used as a reception and reading room for the students. The rooms, one of which has a deep red ceiling with oak beams, are decorated throughout in pale muted greens and beige. Two former colleagues of Miss Harriet Dumolo, Misses Zoe Benjamin and Florence Sulman, paid tribute to her work. Efforts are being made by both past and present students to raise funds to pay for the building of the memorial rooms which, because of the rise in building costs, more than trebled the original quote of £350 in 1949. The finished work in 1951 cost £1,200, more than £400 of which has been paid from existing funds.
Sunday Herald (Sydney), 15 July 1951.

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