 She graduated from the University of Melbourne with a BA in history in 1950 and an MA from the same university in 1957 for her thesis, "The strike of waterside workers in Australian ports, 1928, and the lockout of coal miners on the northern coalfield of New South Wales, 1929-30".She was awarded a PhD in May 1966 by the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University for her thesis, "Reformists and revolutionaries