22 August 1934 – 5 June 2026
ITC has been informed of the peaceful passing of Professor Margaret Burchett on 5 June 2026, aged 91.
A long-term Lane Cove resident, Margaret, known to family and friends as Meg or Miggs, was a renowned plant and environmental scientist and a much-loved teacher. She will be greatly missed by her large extended family, as well as her many former colleagues and students.
Early life and education
Margaret Dorothy Christie was born on 22 August 1934 to Dorry and Frank Christie. Her younger sister, Frances Christie, arrived five years later.
The girls grew up in Chisholm Street, Greenwich, near the Shell fuel depot. Dorry and Frank both came from railway families and had met at the Railway Institute, an educational facility for railway employees and apprentices, where Frank taught English and Maths and Dorry worked in the library.
Despite the hardships of wartime and rationing, Margaret and Fran enjoyed a largely happy childhood. Neither of their parents had finished school, but both held an abiding commitment to education. Frank in particular insisted that his daughters attend matriculation schools and encouraged them to go to university, an unusual attitude for the time.
Margaret attended Greenwich Primary School, then Artarmon Opportunity School and North Sydney Girls High School. Academically gifted, she matriculated to the University of Sydney on a Commonwealth Scholarship.
At Sydney, she completed a Bachelor of Science and a Diploma of Education, intending to become a science teacher. While she was completing Honours, it was suggested she undertake a PhD with a view to an academic career.
During her postgraduate studies, Margaret worked as a lab tutor, including teaching students studying biology as part of an Agriculture degree. It was there she met John “Jack” Duloy, who was studying Agriculture and Economics, along with his friend Jim Burchett, then an up-and-coming solicitor in the Crown Solicitor’s Office.
Marriage and family
In 1957, Margaret and Jack married, settling into a terrace house in Glebe while they completed their postgraduate studies. They were still working on their PhDs when Jack was offered a lectureship in the economics faculty at the University of New England in Armidale.
After moving to Armidale in 1961, the couple had two children a year apart, Cathy and David. Their years in Armidale were broken by two substantial overseas trips: the first a six-month stay in Manchester, England, and the second nearly two years in Rome, where Jack worked at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). On their return, they lived briefly in Armidale before the marriage ended and Jack moved to the United States to take up a role with the World Bank.
Margaret returned to Sydney in 1970 with her children and soon took up a science teaching position at North Sydney Boys High School. Not long after, she was offered a lectureship at the NSW Institute of Technology, which would later become the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
The new role enabled her to put a deposit on a small house in Tambourine Bay Road, Lane Cove, with her father and uncle acting as guarantors, at a time when women often faced significant barriers to obtaining home loans in their own right.
Around this time, Margaret and Jim Burchett rekindled their friendship. Jim had married Jack Duloy’s sister, Jeanette, and they had four children (Ivan, Ingrid, Simon and Karen), but that marriage had also ended. Jim became a frequent visitor to Margaret’s Tambourine Bay home, helping with gardening and handyman tasks, and the pair married in December 1972. Jim, a barrister, was appointed a judge of the Federal Court of Australia in 1985.
They bought a home on Northwood Road and renovated it to accommodate all six children of their “Brady Bunch” family. Margaret and Jim were deeply committed to building a warm and close-knit household. While working full time as an academic, Margaret ran the home with generosity and kindness, regularly cooking dinner for the children, their friends and partners, and hosting huge celebrations for Christmas and birthdays. In later years, she and Jim became affectionate grandparents to 14 grandchildren, whom Margaret showered with love, kindness and her trademark humour.
Although very different in temperament, it is hard to imagine a better-matched couple. They shared values and a commitment to family above all else. Margaret supported Jim’s career as a barrister and judge while running the home and pursuing her own. Jim adored Margaret’s vivacity and sense of humour; she loved his intelligence, wisdom and deep integrity. Their politics differed: Miggs was a Labor voter and Jim a small ‘l’ liberal, but both were committed to social justice and to treating everyone equally. They shared a love of travel, music and the arts, and enjoyed many wonderful trips overseas together. They remained happily married until Jim’s death in 2012, following a chronic cardiac condition.
Academic career
Margaret was a renowned figure in plant and environmental science, and hugely popular with colleagues and students for her warmth, directness and common sense.
She completed her PhD at the University of Sydney with ground-breaking research in plant physiology, mapping the transport of sugars and other substances within plants. She went on to become a lecturer and then an Associate Professor at UTS, also serving as Head of the School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Deputy Dean, and director of various centres and courses.
Margaret is perhaps best known for her work on indoor plants and their role in removing indoor air pollution to make office environments healthier. This research drew national attention. But she made major contributions across many areas. She was instrumental in estuarine research of the Homebush Bay area, which informed remediation plans for the site ahead of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and as a consultant she was frequently sought out for her expertise in the environmental remediation of sites degraded by mining and other industry.
An innovative educator, Margaret drove visionary curriculum development, including the establishment of the nursing education course at UTS and articulated urban horticulture courses at Ryde TAFE and UTS. She was instrumental in establishing the Centre for Environmental Toxicology, an industry collaboration that continues to provide courses in ecotoxicology to this day. She also served for many years as a trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, a place she loved to visit right up until her final days.
A born teacher, Margaret could explain complex scientific concepts in simple terms, but her greatest gift was her kind and generous nature. She always saw the possibility in her students and helped them realise their full potential, with a habit of taking on postgraduate students whose supervisors had gone “missing in action”, even in fields outside her own expertise.
She retired as a full-time academic in 1994 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by UTS for her services to education. She continued working for more than twenty years afterward as an Adjunct Professor, supervising postgraduate students, supporting the Centre for Environmental Toxicology and contributing to many research projects.
Later life
Although devastated by Jim’s death in 2012, Margaret rebuilt her life with her usual grace and pragmatism. She moved from the family home in Northwood to an apartment near the Lane Cove centre, where she continued to see family and friends and to travel with her much-loved sister, Fran.
Frances Christie, also a well-known Lane Cove resident and historian, passed away in 2025 and was remembered in ITC here.
Following a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Margaret lived with her daughter Cathy and her family in Lane Cove North for three years before moving to Uniting Kamilaroi Aged Care home.
This tribute has been prepared with information and memories generously shared by Margaret’s daughter, Cathy Duloy.