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The South Australian Country Women's Association Inc.. (1929-)

Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-720064

Biographies

Australian Women's Register

The South Australian Country Women's Association is a non-sectarian, non-party-political, non-profit lobby group and service association working in the interests of women and children in rural and urban areas. Although ostensibly non-party-political, in practice the group has tended to bolster conservative politics. The State association was formed in 1929. The first branch of the Association in South Australia was actually formed in 1926 at Burra by Mary Warnes. By 1988, nearly every small settlement in South Australia had a CWA branch and the Association comprised 270 branches with 7,500 members (at its peak in 1956 the Association boasted 277 branches and 14,000 members). The Association has engaged in an enormously diverse range of service and lobbying activities since its inception - from the provision of rest rooms and holiday houses for members, and handicraft and homecraft instruction, to the provision of health services in rural areas. Much of the Association's energy has been directed towards providing relief in times of recessions, droughts, floods, war and disasters. Its size and scope made it one of South Australia's most significant women's organisations. Archival note: It is the policy of the headquarters archives to call in all paper-based material relating to all branches when no longer required. For many years the South Australian Association was also responsible for branches in the Northern Territory.

The first moves towards forming a state-wide Country Women's Association in South Australia actually took place in 1926 when Mrs T. Bowman, then president of the National Council of Women of South Australia, called a meeting of all country Mayoresses and wives of chairmen of district councils. No one replied. However, Bowman held an informal afternoon tea of country women which inspired Mary Warnes, of Koomooloo station, to establish the first CWA branch in Burra. Warnes saw the need for country women's rest rooms, where children could be fed and tea made when women from rural areas had to visit town, and for the need to reduce the isolation experienced by women in the country. A Metropolitan branch formed in Adelaide in 1928,with a Metropolitan Younger Set forming soon after.

By late 1931 there were8 branches and by 1937 there were 51 branches and six 'Younger Sets', totaling 3000 members. By 1946 this increased to 141 branches and by 1956 there were 277 branches with 14,000 members. By the 1970s members decreased to around 10,000, declining to 7500 by 1988.

The early activities of the Association included the establishment of rest rooms in regional centres and the creation of a circulating library by the Metropolitan branch. They provided relief to rural families during the Depression and droughts of the early 1930s. From the 1930s they ran a kiosk and rest room at the annual Royal Show in Adelaide. In 1932 they also assisted with the establishment of the Baby Health Train, which provided much needed health services to remote areas, and worked with the Mothers and Babies Health Association.

As in other states, handicrafts have featured prominently in the Association's activities, and they have also produced numerous cookbooks and local histories. They also supported 'Wool Week' by holding exhibitions of woolen articles made by members. Many branches devoted their time to fundraising and organising social events. From the mid-1930s, several holiday homes for members were also purchased.

During the war years, much energy was directed towards supporting the war effort, although normal Association activities were also continued. They assisted particularly with the Women's Land Army, the nationwide CWA camouflage net making contract (of which 20,000 were made). Thousand of pounds were raised and donated to purchase medical equipment for the army, a trainer plane for the RAAF and to provide meals and other 'comforts' for soldiers in training camps, as well as large donations to the Red Cross. Almost every branch had an Emergency World Circle which made up various woolen garments and other items, as well as sheepskin vests. They also supported 'Food for Britain

One of the most immediate postwar developments was the flowering of music, drama and graphic art under the direction of the Combined Arts Advisory Committee for in 1947. Handicrafts activities also expanded - with numerous courses being held in branches across the state. The association also took an interest in new migrants and supported the work of the Good Neighbour Council. From 1957 they also held an annual Homemakers' School at their headquarters and club in Adelaide as well as in regional centres.

From 1934 the CWA was allocated a page in the Rural Review to report on its activities. From 1953-1971 they produced their own weekly newspaper, The South Australian Countrywoman. From 1971 this appeared as weekly segment of the Farmer and Grazier and from 1975 this became a monthly newsletter.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Related people and organisations

Resources

Selected resources (29)

Australian Women's Register

  1. A Continuation of the History of the CWA on Eyre Peninsula
    Beard, Mary
    [1985]
    Published: Cleve Printery, Cleve
  2. Our First Forty Years: The South Australian Country Women's Association, Inc. Willunga Branch, 1947-1987
    Young, Bertha
    [1987]
    Published: The South Australian Country Women's Association, Inc. Willunga Branch, Willunga
  3. South Australian Country Woman
    [1953-1971, 1975-]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association
  4. Annual Report
    South Australian Country Women's Association
    [1949-1981, 1996-]
  5. The rural review: A weekly journal published in the interests of primary producers in South Australia
    [1934-1953]
  6. Musing and Amusing
    Parker, Heather
    [1981]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association, Kent Town
  7. The First Fifty Years: Golden Jubilee History of the South Australian Country Women's Association
    Parker, Heather
    [1979]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association, Kent Town
  8. Fifty years of CWA at Tarcowie
    [1988]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association, Tarcowie Branch, Tarcowie
  9. Melrose CWA: 50 Years of History
    Bishop, Jennette
    [1989]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association, Melrose Branch, Melrose
  10. So We Grow
    [1954]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association, Adelaide
  11. The Passing Years
    Snashall, Evelyn
    [1946?]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association, Clare Branch, Adelaide
  12. Carinya 1956-1989
    Ashby, Marjorie
    [1989]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association, Clare Branch, Clare
  13. The History of the Geranium CWA Branch 1946-2000
    Hughes, Ann
    [2000]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association, Geranium Branch, Geranium
  14. In Their Own Words: History of the South Australian Country Women's Association from 1979 to 1999
    Zabukovec, Victoria
    [2000]
    Published: South Australian Country Women's Association Inc., Kent Town
  15. Kimba CWA, 1931-1981, Golden Jubilee
    Kimba Country Women's Association
    [1981]
    Published: Kimba
  16. The Many Hats of Country Women: The Jubilee History of the Country Women's Association of Australia
    Stevens-Chambers, Brenda
    [1997]
    Published: Country Women's Association of Australia
  17. Getting things done : the Country Women's Association of Australia
    Country Women's Association of Australia
    [1986]
    Published: The Association, [Cheerybrook, N.S.W.]
  18. 150 plus far west favourites
    Country Women's Association of South Australia, Far Western Group
    [[1987]]
    Published: Country Women's Association of South Australia, Far Western Group, [South Australia]
  19. Interview with Valmai Webb [sound recording] Interviewer: Neil Baron
    [Audio ]
    Recorded on 23 June 1994. 2 cassette tapes, 1 hour 45 minutes. Full transcript available (33 pages) Valmai Webb, nee Glover, was born at Tumby Bay, South Australia and grew up on the family farm at Yeelanna. She attended the local one teacher school for her primary education and then went on to Cummins Area School for three years. Valmai stayed at home for the next seven years until her marriage in 1960 and describes her busy social life in the interim. She discusses the birth of her youngest sister in 1951, when Valmai was 14, and the likelihood that illegitimacy would have been suspected had she been boarding away from home at the time. Valmai joined the Country Women's Association soon after leaving school and took a great interest in home crafts. She and her husband Richard moved to a property at Ungarra after their marriage. They had one daughter and three sons.
    2 Audio tapes
    State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana
    OH 326/21
  20. Interview with Martha Kernich [sound recording] Interviewer: Neil Baron
    [Audio ]
    Recorded on 28 May 1994. 2 cassette tapes, 1 hour 51 minutes. Full transcript (30 pages). Martha Kernich, nee Scherer, was born at Cambrai, South Australia, the daughter of a Lutheran minister and one of 11 children. When she was 18 she moved to Adelaide to enter domestic service, first at Immanuel College and then private homes until she married her sister in law's brother in 1942. They moved onto his family's farm on Eyre Peninsula. Martha and her husband had three sons and a daughter and Martha became involved in the local branch of the Country Women's Association and in exhibiting at local shows. Martha and her husband separated in 1956 and she and the children settled in Freeling. She remarried in 1963.
    2 Audio tapes
    State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana
    OH 326/13
  21. Interview with Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Walsh [sound recording] Interviewer: Margaret Allen
    Recorded on 13 March 1973. 1 cassette tape, 46 minutes. Interview log available (3 pages) Note: Technical quality very poor. Mr and Mrs A. L. Walsh were amongst the original residents of the Cabin Homes at Salisbury and have remained in the district ever since. Mr Walsh, a carpenter, came to Salisbury earlier in the war years to build munition factory buildings. He was able to bring his family to Salisbury when the first of the Cabin Homes were available. Mrs Walsh remembers Salisbury at this time as one of the 'unfriendliest country towns' she'd ever been in and they both describe the problems involved in the lack of facilities and services provided to the new residents. Mrs Walsh became involved with the Progress Association and after the war helped the migrants moving into the area through her activities with the Country Women's Association, the Red Cross and the Good Neighbour Council.
    State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana
    OH 50/1
  22. Interview with Lorna Adams [sound recording] Interviewer: Neil Baron
    [Audio ]
    Recorded on 18 May 1994. 2 cassette tapes, 1 hour 51 minutes. Full transcript available (35 pages). Lorna Esme Adams, nee Eames, was born in Torrensville, South Australia. She trained at the Adelaide Teachers' College and met her future husband after taking up her second teaching post at Black Hill in 1942. In 1945 they began dairy farming at Black Hill, moving to Paracombe three years later. After their infant son died of cystic fibrosis and their older boy was also diagnosed, they decided to settle at Ponde for the drier climate. Their second son died in 1955. Lorna has had three enduring interests; the Girl Guides movement and the Country Women's Association, both of which she has represented at State level, and the Holstein-Fresian dairy cattle stud that she and her husband developed. Lorna and her husband Jack's surviving daughter has had nine children.
    2 audio tapes
    State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana
    OH 326/7
  23. Interview with Joyce Candy [sound recording] Interviewer: Neil Baron
    Recorded on 12 May 1994. 3 cassette tapes, 2 hours 20 minutes. Full transcript available (34 pages) . Joyce Candy, nee Cope, was born in Magill, South Australia, where she grew up much involved in community activities, particularly sport and church. She met her future husband at a Liberal Country League meeting. They married in 1942 and Joyce left her job with the Government Printing Office to move onto the Candy family property at O'Halloran Hill. She maintained her community interests and was a foundation member of the Happy Valley Branch of the Country Women's Association. The Candy's began to subdivide the property in the late 1960s. Joyce and her husband Dick had a daughter and a son.
    State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana
    OH 326/6
  24. Interview with Mavis Dawn Cooper [sound recording] Interviewer: June Donovan
    Oral History of Women's Political Activity Mavis Cooper, nee Price, was born in Bairnsdale, Victoria and grew up in Melbourne. She trained as a nurse and moved to Jamestown, South Australia after she met her future husband, a farmer, on holiday there. After joining the Country Women's Association's choir in 1957, she was soon an office holder in the local branch. Mavis outlines the CWA's aims and organisation in explaining her progression from Branch President to State President in 1974 and National President in 1977. She describes her efforts in travelling to meet and speaks with women so that she could correctly represent their views, and emphasises that many social issues concerning members are far from conservative and can be closely related to the women's and environmental movements. She speaks of the growing consciousness amongst members of the CWA as a powerful lobby group. She also speaks of the organisation's Women's Suffrage Centenary activities and her hopes for the future. Recorded on 9 March 1994. 1 hour 26 minutes, 1 photograph.
    2 cassette tapes
    State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana
    OH 250/8
  25. S.A. C.W.A., Kyancutta Branch
    [1936 - 1958]
    Minutes Books, 5 vols.
    0.05 m
    State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana
    SRG 69
  26. Country Women's Association of South Australia
    [1924 - 1988]
    Photographs, newspaper clippings, letters and profiles of the founders of the Country Women's Association (CWA), 1924-1953 (4 folders). Minutes of current branches, groups and statse committees, 1926-1985 (12 metres of shelving). Report books of the State Committee of the CWA, 1929-1987 (1 metre of shelving). Correspondence, plans, minutes of the State Property Committee and branch property officers, 1931-1988 (3 metres of shelving). Certificates, photographs and sketches of the founders of the CWA and its activities, 1931-1984 (30 items). Minutes, receipts, accounts, donor lists of the Outback Relief Scheme, 1931 (1 packet). Minutes, scrapbooks, newspaper cuttings, maps and correspondence held by the Country Women's Association of South Australia relating to the Association of Country Women of the World, 1933-1988 (15 metres of shelving). Booklets noting the changes to the CWA constitution, 1934-1987 (1 metre of shelving). Minutes, notes and photographs of Handicraft Committee and the Schools of Instruction conducted over the years 1936-1988 (5 metres of shelving). Minutes and treasurers books of defunct branches, 1936-1988 (9 metres of shelving). Annual reports and newspaper reports regarding the Australia wide organisation, the Country Women's Association of Australia, 1936-1986 (1 metre of shelving). Minutes, directives, receipts for the making of camouflage nets, airmen's and merchant navymen's sheep skin vests, lifeboat slippers and mittens during the war, 1940-1945 (2 packets). Illuminated address books and the 'Book of Honour' dealing with luminaries in the CWA, 1941-1987 (3 vols). Details of fundraising for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, United Nations, National Trust, also includes surveys and submissions to Parliament as well as a history of the Northern Territory CWA, 1942-1988 (4 metres of shelving). Notes, minutes and correspondence regarding Housekeeping Scheme and flood relief during the 1956 flood on the River Murray, 1945-1980 (2 packets). Radio scripts and notes of radio broadcasts, 1949-1973 (1 folder). Publications relating to the history of the CWA in various country districts and on a State level, includes recipe books and home hints, 1950-1988 (2 metres of shelving). District and town histories prepared by branch members, 1951-1969 (8 folders). Photographs, press clippings, programs of Royal visits prepared by branch members, 1954-1956 (1 metre of shelving). Histories of branches and divisions, 1967-1987 (1 metre of shelving). Scrapbooks prepared by members in 1969 to mark the golden jubilee of the CWA in South Australia, material used dates from 1929 (2 metres of shelving). Newspaper clippings and photographs of various activities of the CWA, each volume devoted to a separate topic, 1969-1988 (22 vols). Correspondence and photographs relating to the preparation of branch banners, 1985 (1 metre of shelving).
    The South Australian Country Women's Association
  27. Interview with Kay Harding [sound recording] Interviewer: Neil Baron
    Perceptions of Lifestyle and Leisure of Rural Women in South Australia, 1940-1960 Kay Harding, nee Cowan, was born in Adelaide, South Australia and grew up in her family's large home in Tranmere in the eastern suburbs. After finishing high school she trained at the Adelaide Kindergarten Teachers' College for three years and then worked briefly in the country as a governess. She found that she enjoyed teaching older children and asserted her independence by gaining primary school teaching qualifications after a further year studying at the Adelaide Teachers' College in 1939. She was appointed first to Burra, where she recalls refugees from the Darwin bombing, and then to Black Springs where she was the only teacher. Ilsa met her future husband at a local dance. They married in 1944 and settled in the district. Ilsa joined the Country Women's Association, an involvement which has led to her taking up writing as well as participating in CWA activities on an international level. Kay and her husband Gordon had a daughter and a son. Recorded on 20 July 1994. 1 hour 44 minutes.
    2 cassette tapes
    State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana
    OH 326/30
  28. Interview with Mary Martin [sound recording] Interviewer: Neil Baron
    Perceptions of Lifestyle and Leisure of Rural Women in South Australia, 1940-1960 Mary Martin, nee Moody, was born in Hahndorf (her mother's home town) and grew up as an only child on her parents' farm at Hansborough, South Australia. She went to the local school for her primary education and then spent two years at boarding school in Adelaide until the outbreak of the Second World War when she returned home to help on the property. Mary met her future husband at a ball after he had taken up a bank posting at Eudunda when he returned from the war. She goes on to compare the social attractions of nearby Eudunda and Kapunda in this era. After they married in 1947, soon after her father's death, Mary's husband took on the running of the family property. Mary remained much involved in community activities, including the Eudunda Branch of the Country Women's Association which she first joined when it reformed in 1947. Mary and her husband Alan had a son and two daughters. Recorded on 4 July 1994. 1 hour 33 minutes.
    2 cassette tapes
    State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana
    OH 326/24
  29. Minnipa Branch, Country Women's Association
    [1931 - 1987]
    Minute books, 1931-1987 (10 vols). Cash books, 1945-1956, 1960-1965 (3 vols). Country Women's Association: correspondence, 1956-1984 (5 bundles, 2 bags).
    Australian Historic Records Register
    56

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