From the 1950s to the 1970s, Wollongong was booming with steelworks, migration and rapid population change. The city’s practical needs came first: ports, trains, factories and housing. Its cultural needs were viewed as optional. That is, unless you were Ethel Hayton. 

Ethel was determined to bring culture, music, theatre and art to a city that many outsiders dismissed as too rough or too industrial to care about such things. To some people she was a breath of fresh air with her hats, jewellery and mischievous charm. To others she was a nuisance or a busybody who was trying to impose English culture on a steel town. But, if you ask me, Ethel was someone who simply refused to accept the idea that Wollongong could be a city of factories but not a city of culture.

Ethel built the institutions that still define this city. Her impact includes the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music, the Steinway concert grand piano for the Town Hall which was considered one of the two best in Australia at the time, the Wollongong Art Gallery and Wollongong University. She later donated the ceremonial mace and lectern and left a fellowship in her name.

If something was happening in Wollongong, Ethel was there. People joked that she was at every wake and every wedding.