By Andrew Wood, from Bulletin 1 of 2026 (March)
‘Norma was a Glebe icon, a treasure, a great community member, a wonderful and amazing person who contributed so much to all the lives she touched, how lucky we were to have her on our side.’
Norma Margaret Disher was born in Bega [1]. She had two younger brothers, her father was a coach builder and wheelwright and her mother, a talented seamstress, worked in a drapery store in the town. At age 14, following her mother’s death, she moved to Sydney where she lived with friends of the family and gained her Intermediate Certificate at St Mary Magdalene High School in Rose Bay.
After completing Technical College courses in dressmaking and millinery, she worked as music librarian at radio station 2SM. In 1948 she joined New Theatre, designing costumes and directing plays. She was made a Life Member in 1964. Later, Norma was a co-founder of the Waterside Workers’ Federation Film Unit – the films are now part of the National Film Archive.
In 2020, Norma was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the University of NSW for ‘her eminent services to the arts, to social justice and to the UNSW’. Her citation, reported in the November 2020 Bulletin, covers the extraordinary breadth of her work and interests.
Norma and her husband, Bruce Hawkins, joined the Glebe Society after moving to St James Avenue in 1980. Their house backed onto John Street Reserve and in autumn 2005 Norma observed that Superb Fairy-wrens were feeding young birds in the backyard. It is very likely that they represented the last breeding event of wrens in Glebe.
Concerns about the future survival of small birds in our suburb led in 2007 to the formation of the Society’s Blue Wren Subcommittee and Norma was a founding member. She continued as an active and enthusiastic member of the Subcommittee for the next 19 years. She also made a significant financial contribution to the Subcommittee to support the Society’s biodiversity lectures as well as the Craney Small Grants Program which provides funds for biodiversity projects in local schools.
In recognition of Norma’s outstanding contributions to the Blue Wren Subcommittee, in 2021, the Society arranged for the City to plant a tree (Melaleuca linariifolia) in John Street Reserve.
On the occasion of her 100th birthday, Ian Stephenson, President of the Society, presented Norma with a bouquet of flowers and said ‘Norma has had a rich and interesting life. Norma has a generous heart, a lively mind and is a great conversationalist. On my recent visit we talked about theatre, ballet, poetry and our interactions with birds. We finished by reading aloud Judith Wright’s poem, ‘Magpies’.
On 23 February 2026, Councillors Matthew Thomson and Sylvie Ellsmore moved a Vale motion at the City of Sydney Council meeting, noting that Norma was a community champion, passionate about the arts and biodiversity, who made significant contributions to Sydney’s theatre and film industries, and the advocacy of biodiversity conservation in Glebe.
[1] Biographical details from her entry in New Theatre’s history site.
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