Doreen White grappled with a double-edged sword when she became the first woman to sell homes and open her own real estate agency in Goulburn in the early 1980s.

On the positive side she well understood how a woman assessed a potential home. She was a novelty in Goulburn’s real estate sector and had invaluable help from an entrepreneurial, tall and handsome sergeant of police.

On the negative side were other agents in a male-dominated industry. When she came to Goulburn all of them rejected her attempts to get employment as a real estate agent.

Doreen had excelled in the industry at her previous town, Deniliquin. So when she came to Goulburn she persevered trying to get a job as a real estate saleswoman.

She followed up a tip from Goulburn accountant Robert Herries that a sales position was going at stock and station agency Cabot Laing and Co. One of the partners, Gordon Cabot, gave her the job.

A few years later, with runs on the board for healthy sales figures, Doreen’s husband Gavin, the good-looking policeman with an eye for business opportunities, suggested she go out on her own.

He had the perfect location, a shop front on the northern end of Auburn Street in Goulburn’s central business district, which would place her new agency first for people arriving from Sydney ahead of the other agencies located further along the main street.

A signwriter by trade, Gavin took care of her stylish signage on the front of her business.

“I worked seven days a week,” Doreen said. “We had moved around a bit. I knew police came to their transfers on a weekend looking for a house. Ambos and schoolteachers did the same. People in transit roles only had the weekend off to go and look for a rental or buy a home,” she said.

As the business became more established she employed Colleen Weston to take charge of the rentals, and her daughter Brooke as a receptionist, followed by others. Another sales agent joined the busy team.

Doreen White joined a stock and station agency in Goulburn, Cabot Laing, which added real estate to its services following her success in sales. Photo: White family collection.

Born at Moss Vale to assistant stationmaster on the railway, Thomas Mayberry and his wife Mary, Doreen is one of five children. She grew up in Penrith.

Years later when her husband Gavin was transferred with the NSW Police from Nowra to Deniliquin in the late 1970s, Doreen found work as a secretary for a furniture factory.

Also, a leading Deniliquin real estate agent, Lester Wheatley asked her to work part-time for him. “I kind of liked it – I liked houses, we had renovated a couple of houses and I thought, why not?” she said.

“I went to TAFE and worked for Lester for four years, I qualified and that was it,” Doreen said.

Lester was an ideal mentor, with extensive knowledge of the law and a sharp eye for detail in written documents which he passed on to Doreen.

She found it easy to develop a rapport with women when they came with their husbands looking for a home.

“They’re interested in the decor and presentation and that’s why I guess I was interested and why a lot of women chose me to sell their houses,” she said.

“Sometimes the blokes might say, ‘This is a kitchen’. But then the woman might say, ‘Now that is a really good stove and dishwasher,’” she said.

“Women live in houses, they choose the curtains and the carpet and all those type of things,” she said. “I had a little bit of an edge in that respect. I could suggest changes and I spoke mainly to the woman in the marriage, rather than the male. In my mind the males paid the bills and the ladies changed the house,” she said.

When she began selling real estate in Goulburn exclusive agreements between a buyer and agent were rare. People selling their home mostly went to every agent for a valuation of their home.

She worked in Goulburn for more than a decade. Gavin eventually left the police force, went to university in Sydney and qualified for his real estate certificate and worked alongside Doreen.

She sold the business in 1992 to John Newton.

“We sold up and went overseas for a while, returned and bought a real estate agency at Brunswick Heads,” she said.

By the time she left Goulburn about 10 other women were selling real estate in the city, following her exceptional accomplishments.

Original Article published by John Thistleton on About Regional.