MATILDA Dixie's teaching career began with much excitement in tent schools on the goldfields when a strong gale in September, 1854, blew the rotten tent away.
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When Inspector Venables visited Red Hill school in 1858 he found appalling conditions with Matilda teaching in ankle-deep mud.
Inspector Sircom, when visiting the Benevolent Asylum school in 1863, found her ``not deficient in energy or ability'' but, he thought, she needed ``a little more firmness in her teaching''.
Queens College in Ballarat was founded around 1877 by this remarkable woman.
Matilda Dixie nee Broadbent emigrated from Yorkshire in 1854 with her family which at the height of the goldrush had first tried mining in Bendigo and then Ballarat.
After teaching in some tent schools on the Ballarat goldfields, Matilda Broadbent married Joseph Dixie ( who was twice her age) in 1859. In July,1860, their son Arthur Willoughby was born.
Owing to Joseph's poor health the family sold all their belongings and left for South Australia. Unfortunately he died three months later leaving Matilda with a young child.
With James Oddie's help she returned to Ballarat and was appointed teacher at the Ballarat Benevolent Asylum Common School where she remained until 1868.
Much emphasis was put on the education of boys in the mid-1800s. However, Matilda strived to make the same education available to girls.
She thought that girls should be taught more than needlework and music. In 1874, only three years after the matriculation examination was opened to girls, Matilda Dixie, an excellent teacher, presented some successful female candidates from Alexandra College in Hamilton.
She left the Hamilton college in 1876, the year of her father's and sister's deaths and returned once more to Ballarat.
Councillor Shoppee, the owner of a substantial brick building at 98 Dana St, who was aware of her teaching ability, encouraged her to establish a school in Ballarat, renting out this building to her and sending along 13 little Shoppees for her tuition. Thus, she established an elementary and secondary school.
The first group of 30 girls reportedly began their tuition at the premises in Dana St in January, 1877, which she named Queens College.
Queens College is now amalgamated with Ballarat Grammar and is located in Forest St, Wendouree.
For many years the girls' school, Queens Grammar, was at 1200 Mair St, the premises now occupied by ACU Aquinas.
The curriculum established a by Matilda Dixie comprised grammar, spelling and composition, Latin, French, geography, history, arithmetic, Euclid, algebra, needlework, scripture, singing, drawing, music, daily exercise and chemistry.
Matilda's second marriage, to Frank Goldstraw, took place during 1878 and her subsequent children, Winifred and Amy Rose were born in 1880 and 1882.
Matilda Dixie outlived her second husband by two years, dying at Caulfield aged 69.