Dorothy Hill: from researcher to cipher officer

By Suzanne Parker

What does the ‘Anzac spirit’ mean to you?

Is it success in a theatre of war? Is it helping your mates to just get through the next few minutes?

Or is it ‘reckless valour in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship and endurance that will never own defeat’, as official war historian Charles Bean suggests?

Whatever your definition, UQ pioneer and trailblazer Emeritus Professor Dorothy Hill AC CBE FAA FRS certainly demonstrated this ‘spirit of comradeship, courage and sacrifice’ during WW2, but from the vantage of a civilian cipher officer, where her efforts were not so publicly known.

She admitted to finding her war work ‘interesting but terrifying’ and said in an interview with UQ historian Dr John Cole in 1981:

“Even the fact that we might be bombed I found exhilarating, and I guess this is how people react in battle: they get exhilarated, they don’t get their tails down.”

Balancing research and war

In the years preceding WW2, Dorothy Hill was making a name for herself as a geologist both in Australia and overseas. Like many others, she put her career on hold to play her part in the war effort.

At the outbreak of WW2, on 3 September 1939, Hill was working as a researcher for a Council for Scientific and Industrial Research project on Palaeozic corals, as well as lecturing at UQ. She continued this work for as long as she was able and volunteered for the war effort in her spare time.

When Japan bombed Darwin in 1942, bringing the war much closer to home, Hill was in Sydney visiting the Australian Museum and immediately spent nearly a week packing up all its important fossil specimens ready to be sent ‘behind the ranges’ for safekeeping.

In Brisbane, she and her sister, Edna, became volunteer air wardens and joined the Mine-Watchers, a volunteer group organised by the Royal Australian Navy under Lieutenant Commander Bowden to spot any mines that might be dropped in the Brisbane River by enemy aircraft.

In August 1943, she enlisted in the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service (WRANS), where she served as a Third Officer assisting the Staff Officer of HMAS Moreton.

Her role was to lead a civilian team of mostly (female) undergraduates and typists to decode naval signals sent in from around the world.

Article published in *The Argus* newspaper, 4 October 1944. *Image: Trove*

Article published in *The Argus* newspaper, 4 October 1944. *Image: Trove*

Much of the work was monitoring shipping movements in and around Moreton Bay to determine which were civilian and which were military operations. The team also decoded highly sensitive messages intercepted from the US and Europe, such as details of the D-day landings in France.

Her analytical scientific background meant Hill found the cipher work easy. Initially she worked a few eight-hour shifts a week, spending the rest of her time at the University, but this quickly changed as the war progressed. During the middle stages of the Pacific campaign during 1943/44, she was working up to 96 hours a week on WRANS duties and had to take leave of absence from UQ so she could devote all of her time to the war effort.

Dorothy Hill's WRANS commission letter. *Item held in Fryer Library UQFL472, Box 8*

Dorothy Hill's WRANS commission letter. *Item held in Fryer Library UQFL472, Box 8*

Hill recalls receiving signals in the middle of the night saying that half the Australian fleet had been sunk, or the British fleet, or the American fleet, and wondering if she would have to escape to the air raid shelter when she arrived home.

In late 1944, Hill moved to Melbourne, where she became secretary and representative of all women’s services for the inter-service demobilisation committee, being promoted to Second Officer in the process.

Article published in *The Courier-Mail* on 16 February 1945. *Image: Trove*

Article published in *The Courier-Mail* on 16 February 1945. *Image: Trove*

Her final assignment was to ‘draw up and plan to demobilise the three women’s services, WRANS, AWAS and WAAAF’.

_{Background picture: Women's Army Corps on parade at UQ St Lucia, 1943. Held in UQ Archives S178, Box 54}

Women's Army Corp out the front of the Forgan Smith Building at UQ

Life after war

Prior to the war, Hill had achieved a first-class undergraduate degree, winning the University’s Gold Medal for Outstanding Merit, and completed her Master of Science in 1929, before moving to Great Britain and completing her PhD at Cambridge University, and then later returning to UQ to teach and conduct research in the School of Geology.

Once peace was declared, she quickly resumed her position as geology lecturer and researcher, a job she very much enjoyed.

Between 1946 and 1951, Hill was officially appointed as lecturer at UQ, becoming a senior lecturer in 1952, reader in 1956, and then research professor in 1959 – all the while conducting her own research on corals. She remained at UQ until her retirement in 1972 but continued working part-time at the University until 1987 as emeritus professor.

Professor Dorothy Hill in later life participating in a geological field trip. *Item held in Fryer Library UQFL25, Box 63*

Professor Dorothy Hill in later life participating in a geological field trip. *Item held in Fryer Library UQFL25, Box 63*

Thanks in part to her time at Cambridge, Hill was passionate about the importance of a good library for producing quality research. Throughout her life, she invested much of her own time and money in building extensive academic resources that she shared with others. The Dorothy Hill Engineering and Sciences Library at UQ is named in her honour.

Esteemed around the world for her pioneering research in geology and palaeontology, Hill’s legacy is ongoing. She became the youngest fellow of Newnham College in 1932. As secretary to the Great Barrier Reef Committee from 1945–1955, she helped establish the Heron Island Research Station. She also amassed a number of ‘firsts’: the first woman president of the Royal Society of Queensland, 1949; first woman professor, 1959, and first woman elected president of a professorial board, 1971, at an Australian university; first woman fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, 1956, and later its first female president, 1970; and first Australian woman fellow of the Royal Society, 1965.

Dorothy Hill’s dedication to science was recognised with many awards, including the ANZAAS Medal in 1983, and her professional approach to research inspired generations of scholars.

Contact would like to thank Kellie Ashley and the staff of the UQ Archives for their assistance in preparing this article.

Dorothy Hill (cream uniform) hurdling at UQ in 1928. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL466, Box 19

Dorothy Hill's life membership badge for the Queensland Women's Hockey Association. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL472, Box 9

Dorothy Hill (middle row, far left) in the 1928 UQ Hockey team. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL25, Box 63

Dorothy Hill pushing a float in the 1928 Commemoration Parade. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL466, Box 11

Dorothy Hill at her UQ graduation in 1928. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL466, Box 18

Dorothy Hill (second from left, back row) attending a dress-up party at UQ, 1928. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL472, Box 4

Dorothy Hill on field trip near Cambridge in 1932

Dorothy Hill on fossicking trip in 1932 with colleagues from Cambridge University. Image held in UQ Archives SEES, folio 2

Dorothy Hill with Nancy Rees in Cambridge in 1932

Dorothy Hill with Nancy Rees, exploring the Cambridge countryside in 1932. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL472, Box 9

Dorothy Hill on field trip in Cambridge in 1932

Dorothy Hill with horse on field trip outside Cambridge, 1932. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL466/ Box 18

Dorothy Hill on motorbike on the Isle of Man, 1932. Item held iN fryer Library UQFL472, Box 9

Dorothy Hill on the tennis court at Cambridge in 1932. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL472, Box 4

Dorothy Hill driving a car in England in 1932

Dorothy Hill in the car she purchased for eight pounds in 1932 in Cambridge. Item held in Fryer Library UQFL25, Box 2