Country Women's Association celebrates 90 years in outback town
An outback branch of the Country Women's Association (CWA) is celebrating 90 years of service in one of Australia's most remote towns.
The Tennant Creek branch in the Northern Territory was founded in 1936 during a gold rush in the area, when local men outnumbered women ten to one.
It is the longest continuously active branch in the NT, and it still serves the town's population of about 3,000 people, nearly 1,000 kilometres south of Darwin in the Barkly region.
Founded in 1922, the CWA has more than 1,000 branches across Australia and aims to improve the lives of women and children through community service and supporting cultural and welfare projects.
Celebrations for the 90th anniversary will include an afternoon tea and a fashion parade. (ABC Rural: Charles Geary)
Women vastly outnumbered
When CWA Tennant Creek formed, women made up 45 of the 600 residents, and after two years of informal catch-ups over cups of tea, the branch was officially launched.
President and life member Roddy Calvert said the CWA gave women and kids in the town a chance to find connection in the outback.
"I think it was for the companionship in those earlier days because a lot of these men … they were out on the field and often they just had their mine lease away from the town," she said.
"There just wasn't telephones and all that back in those days at all, so they just leaned on each other."
Roddy Calvert is a CWA NT life member and has been a Tennant Creek resident for over 45 years. (ABC Rural: Charles Geary)
Service to the community
The Tennant Creek branch fundraises for various causes in the Barkly region, including supporting women's shelters in local Aboriginal communities and community groups.
The group also provided support during national emergencies, including to stationed soldiers in World War II and evacuees after Cyclone Tracy destroyed Darwin in the 70s.
CWA Tennant Creek volunteers supporting visiting soldiers during World War II, less than a decade after the branch formed. (Supplied: CWA Tennant Creek)
For many volunteers, the community spirit in the CWA was instilled in them from childhood.
Volunteer Helen Kempe regularly travels more than 1,000km from Mount Riddock cattle station to Tennant Creek to ensure her family's long association with the organisation continues.
"Both my grandmother and my mother were CWA members, so I know what it's all about," Ms Kempe said.
"So I think it's a great honour to be a member and I'm glad I joined."
Helen Kempe joined the branch while living in Tennant Creek and continues to volunteer despite living more than 550 kilometres from the town. (ABC Rural: Charles Geary)
Looking towards a century
While excitement about the milestone is high, membership has fallen to fewer than 20 people in recent years, with fewer young people involved compared to the past.
However, branch member Alba Brockie said the CWA will always have a place in remote areas like Tennant Creek.
"The things that CWA have always fought for around isolated people, isolated children, women and children's health, those issues remain important," she said.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.