 When back in Massey, she attended the New Zealand Ecological Society annual conference on 29 August 1957, where she discussed her research paper "Ecology of some New Zealand seabird colonies".Gillham left Auckland, New Zealand by air for Sydney, Australia on 21 December 1957, also visiting Canberra and Corowa in the following days.She began an exchange lectureship working as a Senior Demonstrator at the Department of Botany at University of Melbourne, Australia on 3 March 1958.