Cartographer's legacy nurtures next-gen geographers

For Margot, the 2025 recipient of this scholarship, the financial component alleviates considerable stress by allowing her to reduce paid work commitments and giving her more time and energy to devote to her studies.

This is particularly critical during the Master’s degree, where capacity to focus on an extended piece of research is imperative.

“I am honoured to receive this award, especially given that many of its previous recipients are women who I have looked up to and respected for several years.”

“It is both heartening and invigorating to stand alongside highly intelligent women with whom I share a passion for geography.”

Margot and Joyce’s shared passion for food, learning and geography are being woven into Margot’s research. “I am currently conducting research into local student food initiatives, with a particular focus on how ‘successful’ initiatives are defined, evaluated and worked towards. I’m interested in the complex interplay between social, emotional and economic factors that contribute to students’ experiences of food insecurity.”

Ultimately, Margot’s work will yield findings that help universities understand and address food insecurity for young adults at this critical time in their lives.

A legacy that continues to nurture the next generation

Margot shares, “I am a passionate dinner party host, and I relish any opportunity to cook for and feed the people I love.”

It is probably this enduring passion for food that first informed my interest in the field of Food Geography.

Like Margot, Joyce was a consummate dinner party host. Her gatherings were legendary, not only for their culinary fare but for the carefully chosen guest list, designed to elicit the most vibrant and robust conversation.

“Dinner parties at Joyce’s apartment often turned into the pursuit of knowledge on a variety of obscure topics,” recalls her godson Charles, who created the scholarship in Joyce’s memory. “If she or her guests were unsure of something, her fine library was rarely unable to throw some light on the matter in question and frequently coffee cups and wine glasses had to be cleared to make way for the reference books brought to the table. She often said ‘when in doubt, find out’ and she lived by that motto.”

A pioneering spirit

Joyce herself was an extraordinary woman for her time. She was the ‘last of the cartographers’, based in the Department of Economic Geography at the University of Melbourne from 1935 to 1975. An intrepid explorer, the books on land use she illustrated became seminal textbooks for over 30 years. She also worked for the Department of Defence during WWII. This was at a time when women were few in number in cartography, and geography in general.

In addition to the pride that comes from supporting research that will make a positive difference in the world, Charles shares, “I had no idea how much pleasure I would derive from seeing the scholarship in action, meeting the recipients and from my ongoing association with the University of Melbourne. Each year the recipient has been a remarkable young woman. Joyce would have been proud of them.”