Carol Mazurek

Carol Mazurek grew up in Melbourne and had almost no connections to rural life in Victoria. But in 1973, she saw an ad in the local paper for an administration assistant at the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV). She got the job and started working in the dog section, processing registrations. Not knowing anything about dogs, she enjoyed learning about all the different breeds. As well as getting to know the competitors each year, Carol also fondly remembers the other staff she worked with.

It was like family. We all worked really well together, we socialised, we had a lot of fun and we all got on well. There's always someone in the office that you don't really get along with but on the whole it was really good, there was no animosity or anything.  We were just like a big family. It was really good times, good fun.

Carol and a number of her colleagues started a social club for the staff members. As she recalls, ‘we had picture nights, theatre nights, we'd go to the races Saturdays, we had a couple of dinner dances, we had discos, we had cocktail parties’. They all got along well and enjoyed working and socialising together.

The lead up to the Royal Melbourne Show was always busy. Before the introduction of computers, everything had to be typed manually. Carol recalls:

We were expected to work three nights a week overtime … The nights we worked we were given a three-course meal each night. We worked from five to nine those three nights a week, but everybody had to work, it was expected that you work.

At the time of her interview, Carol had been working for RASV for 43 years. She was given a gold watch in recognition of her long-standing service as well as a life membership of RASV. Having worked through a lifetime of changes to the Show and RASV, Carols says the biggest highlight of her career has been the friendships she’s made.

The people I've worked with and the friendships I've made, they're the highlights of it all. And I've seen, as I said, lots of changes – some good, some bad – but on the whole it's been a fantastic experience.