Dr Laurie Margaret Cowled of Noosaville felt immense pride to be recognised with a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in this year’s King’s Honours List for her significant service to philanthropy in the arts, education and health sectors, and to women, but also “rather naughty“ to receive an award for doing something which has brought her “so much joy“.
Over the past 20 years Dr Cowled, who will be 95 on 9 August, has gifted donations to artistic and educational institutions including NIDA and the Australian Ballet and scholarships to more than 250 women through these institutions and universities in Brisbane, Sydney and the Sunshine Coast.
Born a sheep farmer’s daughter in 1929 at Bethungra, near Cootamundra, at the start of the Great Depression, Laurie Cowled attended her local primary and secondary schools, walking across paddocks to get there, before going to work in the Commonwealth Bank, where she enjoyed a “worthwhile“ 35-year career before marrying and moving to Noosa 40 years ago.
She chose career over marriage and children, at a time when women were forced to give up their jobs on their engagement to marry. In a surprising twist, through her philanthropic work, she has amassed a large and expanding family.
“I had wonderful jobs, a whole career at the bank, as you did in those days,“ Dr Cowled said.
“I became very attached to it. I had very good jobs, I was one of the first 30 women in the bank they gave equal opportunity to. I was very proud of that.
“I did everything back to front. I retired from the bank and got married and came up here to live with my husband.“
Sadly, 21 years later in 2005, Laurie’s husband, Ron Macnamara, died, the couple having agreed the remaining spouse would leave their money to charity.
“I didn’t just want to leave it in a will,“ Dr Cowled said.
“I decided I wanted to educate young women and make up for the girls who missed out like I did.“
As a child she was interested in the arts but there was little scope for her ambitions in regional Australia.
“When I was growing up, of course, I wanted to be an artist or ballerina,“ she said.
“There was no one in Bethungra to tell me I had no talent at all,“ she laughs.
“I began to wonder how I could help cash-strapped country girls get educated.“
By chance she heard the Queensland Premier speaking on the radio about a proposed Queensland Community Fund that would enable people to invest and use their dividends into charity.
“I thought that was fantastic. I rang him the next day. That’s how I got started,“ she said.
Dr Cowled then got in touch with QUT and arranged to donate a block of land she had bought at Noosa Waters to the university on the priviso they sell it and match it dollar for dollar. The Cowled Gift, a scholarship program is funded in perpetuity.
She now funds 16 undergraduates scholarships, all for women, at QUT.
Each of her many scholarships have resulted from a journey of their own.
Her husband, a pilot for more than 40 years had always wanted to be a doctor. This led her to provide scholarships to women in the area of health.
A keen bridge player, Dr Cowled was interested to hear of research at Neuroscience Research Australia on the benefits to the brain of bridge playing.
In no time she had a scholarship organised at NRA for a woman to do her PhD and has provided six more since.
After hearing of plans by University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to build an Indigenous regional college for Indigenous and non-Indigenous she became one of first donors to the project’s capital works.
More than five years on she also provides a scholarship at the college for an Indigenous female to undertake undergraduate studies.
“The first girl came from Kempsie. She was the first to go even to high school in her family, the first to go to university. Her brothers had no idea of going to university but did after she did and her mother went to college and became a councillor. It’s pebble in a pond,“ she said of the way in which some of her scholarships have delivered expanding benefits.
It was a tribute to her sister Ruth that she established scholarships, the Ruth Cowled Memorial Scholarship and Ruth Cowled Design Fund, with NIDA. The sisters had been very close and travelled together in Europe as young women.
“My sister Ruth was very artistic. She went to teacher’s college. She was particularly interested in stage stuff and did stage designs when they put on plays at university,“ she said.
After further studies in Bristol, Ruth returned to Australia, where she suffered an aneurysm and died at the age of 25.
“That was very sad,“ she said.
“All the same I’ve had a lot of girls go through NIDA.“
Dr Cowled oversees and keeps in touch with many scholarship recipients.
“Some like to keep in touch, some don’t. I keep up with some of them and I really like to do that,“she said.
Among the five recipients of her scholarships with the Australian Ballet is Evie Ferris, an Indigenous ballet dancer who has since become a member of the Australian Ballet and is also a Wiggle.
“She’s doing very well with the Wiggles and the Ballet,“ she said.
“I’m very fond of her whole family.“
“To have these wonderful young people as part of my life when I should be sitting in a chair twiddling my thumbs is simply marvellous.
“I feel rather naughty that I’ve got this award because I’ve got so much joy out of all I’ve managed to do. It’s been a fantastic time.
“More than 250 young country women and Indigenous women from anywhere have been empowered by benefits of education or training that would might not otherwise have been available to them.
“I’ve come to believe education is the key for everyone especially Indigenous people.“
The principal patron of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) and a supporter of The Australian Ballet since 2005 Dr Cowled has provided numerous scholarships across the Arts, Education, STEM, Agriculture and Health across different institutions.
Her scholarships at QUT include the Cowled Gift, Women in Leadership scholarship, a learning potential fund for undergraduates and PhD students, rural nursing scholarships and Indigenous scholarships for business studies.
At USC she established a regional scholarship and Women in Engineering prize.
Dr Cowled provides a postgraduate research scholarship for brain research at Neuroscience Research Australia and several scholarships at UTS for indigenous female students.
Dr Cowled is also a benefactor of Queensland Ballet, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Theatre Company, Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Foundation, Room to Read’s Education Resilience Fund, Royal Flying Doctor Service, the Laurie Cowled International Scholarship for Costume, NIDA and has established the Ruth Cowled Memorial Scholarship, NIDA and Ruth Cowled Design Fund, NIDA.
Internationally she is a supporter of Indian health program and established Trust Banks in 2008 in West Timor.
Dr Cowled received an award for Outstanding Philanthropic Support for Higher Education, at the Business-Higher Education Round Table Awards in 2012 and the Premier’s Award for Queensland Seniors in 2010.
In her self-published book of the same name, Dr Cowled describes her philanthropy as her ‘joyous addiction’.
The Governor-General David Hurley last week announced Honours and Awards for 737 Australians in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours List.
“On behalf of all Australians, I thank recipients for their service and congratulate them on their recognition,“ he said.
