Margaret Campbell has always had a passion for helping others.
It started when she was a primary school pupil in Queensland and was treasurer of the junior Red Cross, and the passion continues to this day in her role as a board member of the Wyndham Community and Education Centre.
Mrs Campbell’s extraordinary commitment to the community was honoured last month when she was named Wyndham’s citizen of the year.
Mrs Campbell joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1954 when she settled in Werribee. “I never felt like a newcomer here,” she says. “Werribee has always had a sense of community, which is something I’ve always loved about it.”
A member of the Wyndham Community Arts Alliance committee for 16 years, Mrs Campbell was also part of the former Citizen’s Advice Bureau; she sat on the advisory body for developing the Wyndham Cultural Centre and is a long-time member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reference Group.
She’s also an accomplished author, specialising in poetry, war and Wyndham’s history including the books All In Together, which is a history of the Werribee Community Centre, and From There to Here, a collection of first-person accounts of 160 immigrants to Wyndham from the 1840s to 2000.
“People were so open about telling their life stories,” she says.
“One family was gathered around and as the mother started describing the difficulties they faced after arriving here, she started to cry … when we finished the interview, we hugged and she said, ‘Thanks for letting me tell my story’. It’s incredible to think of how much some people left behind to come out and make a new life for their family.”
The transformation of Wyndham Community and Education Centre (formerly the Werribee Community Centre) is also a source of enormous pride.
“It’s such a positive place,” Mrs Campbell says. “From the settlement services for new migrants to helping young people finish school through VCAL, there’s so many people doing such wonderful work here.”
As a member of Western Women Writers, the Fellowship of Australian Writers, and Werribee and District Historical Society, Mrs Campbell has mentored for 20 years through her young writers group.
“I don’t look at myself as a teacher; we’re fellow writers.”
