Olga Masters

Like Charmian Clift from Kiama, Olga Masters from Cobargo was another extremely successful author whose works drew heavily on childhood experiences of living on the NSW South Coast.

Olga Lawler was born in Pambula in May 1919. Her father, Leo, was a labourer and the family was constantly on the move as he sought work. Eventually they settled in the Cobargo area, and until age 15, Olga attended Cobargo Public School.

Her early life was affected by the poverty that had resulted from the Great Depression, but she obviously received a good education because, on leaving school, she was employed as a journalist by the local Cobargo Chronicle.

In 1937, at the age of 18, she moved to Sydney where she worked as a clerk and typist, and met Charles Masters, a teacher. They were married in 1940.

Numerous teaching postings led to Olga and Charles moving around the state, for example to Urbenville (north-west of Kyogle, near the Queensland border), to Lismore and Grafton, before ultimately returning to Sydney. Olga would supplement the family income in each location by writing for local newspapers.

From an early age, Olga wanted to write fiction, but her first fiction work was not published until the late 1970s. Olga was then 58 years of age.

Success as a fiction writer and recognition quickly followed. For example, in 1979 and 1980 she received nine awards for her short stories, so from 1982 she became a full-time writer of fiction.
Olga’s fiction drew mainly on her experiences being part of a poor rural family during the Depression, and on her observations of small-town life as a country schoolteacher’s wife. She often wrote from the perspectives of children and women whose power to change their situation was limited but who cherished the small domestic pleasures that gave them hope.

Her collection of short stories, A Long Time Dying: A Novel, written with a $20,000 grant from the Australian Bicentenary Authority and published in 1985, is centered around the town of Cobargo. The families are large and the work roles clearly defined. The men often work outdoors, if they work at all, on farms that are usually too small to supply a decent living. When it comes time for meals to be prepared, they do not lift a finger. A pregnancy always results in marriage, and class and even financial barriers are rarely crossed. Its opening sentence announces the setting in time and place: Cobargo was a terribly dull place in 1935 where if you did not own a shop or work in one, or the post office or the bank; if you did not sharefarm or own a farm, were not a nun at the convent or a teacher at the public school, there were few opportunities for employment.

Olga enjoyed family life and often declared that her children were her greatest achievements. Six of her seven children also made careers in the media or the arts: Roy became a journalist and rugby league coach; Ian became a radio broadcaster; Quentin became a film maker; Chris became a journalist; Sue and Deb became media producers.

Olga died in Wollongong in September 1986.