Playwright Kath Duncan was born with only half her left arm and half her right leg.

“The other limbs are sort of there but they’re a bit wonky too – parts of me are wonky,” she told AAP.

In 1961, her disability meant low expectations and schooling in a special education institution from the age of three.

Built on the site of a former dump and fenced with barbed wire, Duncan describes the school as a place where children were given hours of dull activities and could be removed from the classroom for testing at any moment.