Hilda Mulligan, pictured on the right with a student, was the first Australian accepted as a pupil at the Milan Conservatory and the first to become a full-time member of an Italian opera company. She studied under Giacomo Puccini and had a long and successful career as an opera singer, theatre director and producer. She then taught at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music (now Sydney Conservatorium of Music) for over 20 years.