In 1946, Fry was awarded a scholarship by the Thyne Reid Education Trust,[2] to study child development at the University of London.
She left the teachers’ college in 1973 and authored the government publication ‘Care and education of young children: report of the Australian Pre-schools Committee’ published in 1974.
[7] Throughout her career, Joan Fry advocated for quality early childhood education and care.
[12] In the 1970s, as a policy advisor to the Australian Government, she visited and had discussions with Aboriginal early childhood education services in the Northern Territory, Australia.
[13] A biography of Joan Fry’s life and work authored by Leone Huntsman was published by SDN Children’s Services in 2016, and won an Australian Society of Archivists’ Mander Jones Award.