02/08/2026
The Rotenberg Sisters
Extract from the PMS Society Newsletter - Museum Matters Section which featured Dora and her sisters Eva and Raina. Eva and Raina's section can be viewed using this link - see Issue 68 - May 2026. https://www.perthmoderniansociety.org.au/index.php/society/newsletters/ Raina was the only Australian woman to work for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Committee in Hiroshima and Kure. Many will find the newspaper articles contained in the May newsletter article from 1951 of interest.
This year in the Museum we enjoyed two visits from descendants of Issac and Rachel Rotenberg whose family history includes remarkable women born in the early 1900s. Thank you to Peta and Karen for sharing their family history and donating items to our archives including photos, copies of degrees and blazer pockets.
Isaac and Rachel Rotenberg migrated to Australia from Poland in 1889 and had five daughters, Sarah, Leah, Dora, Eva and Raina. Dora, Eva and Raina attended Perth Girls School and gained academic scholarships to Perth Modern School.
Dora attended Mod from 1915 to 1919. Dora received swimming, hockey and tennis colours. In 1918 she was Vice Captain of Red Faction and Captain of the successful tennis team that won the Slazenger Cup and Sandover Shield. At the 7th annual swimming carnival Dora won the 50 yards breast stroke and came first in the diving for plates. In 1919 Dora was Red Faction Captain, Hockey Vice Captain and the Tennis Secretary. Dora was one of twenty students in Western Australia awarded with a General Exhibition and also earned distinctions in Mathematics and Biology. She completed a Bachelor of Science degree at UWA, commenced training at Mod in 1923 and become an Assistant Teacher (1924-28, 1930-31). The August 1932 Sphinx Magazine records Dora joining the tutorial staff. The same magazine notes that Dora was “for some time past” attached to the correspondence branch of the Education Department. It also records Dora as receiving “an appointment on the School staff. Everyone is glad to see her back at school once more.” Numerous Sphinx magazines recorded that Dora assisted and took an interest in the girl’s tennis teams. Dora is also recorded as employed at Albany High III in 1933 and Eastern Goldfields II in 1935 and 1936.
The May 1928 Sphinx magazine records Miss Edith Tonkin (1921) and Miss D Rotenberg being “awarded travelling scholarships entitling them to free return passage to Europe……Miss Rotenberg who is teaching at her old school, proposes to do zoological research work in London and also obtain experiencing in teaching science in London secondary schools.” School Notes of the same Sphinx magazine states Dora “...proposes proceeding to England to continue research work under Professor Dakin at the Liverpool University.” In the September 1929 Sphinx magazine, it states Dora “is at present demonstrator in zoology at the University of Dublin.” In August 1931 the Sphinx magazine records Dora returning “after three years’ study abroad. She studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and the Imperial College of Technology at London…”
Dora was also awarded a Diploma of Membership of the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London (completed during the session conducted from October 1929 to December 1930) after undertaking a course in Advanced Study and Research in Entomology (insects). Dora was awarded a scholarship to Cambridge University to complete her master’s degree.
In 1936 she married Ian Cameron who was a Mining Engineer working in Boulder, Kalgoorlie. They moved to King Island in Bass Strait where Ian managed the scheelite (tungsten) mine. They retired in Melbourne where Ian passed away in 1977 aged 70. In the early 1980’s Dora moved back to Perth to the St Louis Retirement Village in Claremont and later to the Jewish Aged Care home. They had no children.
Ian and Dora bequeathed their estate to the The University of Western Australia.
This article was researched and written by Peta Edwards, Sharon Williams and Bob Johnson.
History at UWA Perth Modernian Society Australian Jewish Association - AJA
