Arrived in Queanbeyan as a six year old in 1889. Rosa showed an aptitude for music and learnt piano with Mrs
Harriett Woodward at Hibernia Lodge (69 Collett St) and later learnt music from the sisters at St Benedict’s Convent. At 14 years she and her family moved to Sydney where she won five gold medals in music exams. Her
music exams included piano and cello. During the war she wrote a patriotic song which sold well and in 1947 published a book “The Art of Listening to Music” under the anglicised spelling of her name: as “Rose Dornbush”. The book was compiled from articles she had published in the Sydney Morning Herald. Rosa was a music teacher at schools in Mittagong and Rose Bay.