Former male bastion now welcomes women with open arms

Following a lengthy battle to allow women to become members of the exclusive Brisbane Tattersalls Club, female membership has jumped 55 per cent in two years.

The former male-only Brisbane Tattersalls Club is doing okay on the gender equity front.

According to the latest annual report from Tatts, which some wags have dubbed the Queen Street Workers’ Club, women now make up 736 of the 5044 members, equating to around 15 per cent. That is quite a jump compared with the 474 female members out of a total of 4725 in 2021, which represented around 10 per cent of total members. That means female membership soared 55 per cent while male membership was up just 1.3 per cent.

One area where the club could push for more female representation is on the club’s main committee, where Mary Collier remains the only female representative among nine men. Collier, a former Queensland racing executive and radio host, joined the club’s powerful main committee last year three years after a historic vote that allowed women to join Tattersalls as full members.

City Beat readers will recall that a long and hard battle was fought over many years to allow women to become members of the Queen St club, which is famous for its pea and ham soup served on fine china in the ornate members dining room.

Mary Collier

Like most city clubs, Tatts found the going tough during the pandemic but president Michael Paramor has told members that Tatts is financially sound with a growing membership.

Total income last year rose from $9.7m to $11.56m with losses narrowing from $725,978 to $607,088 over the period.

“The growth of our membership in 2022 has been the single largest contributor to the reinvigoration of our club and is validation of the wisdom and necessity of broadening our membership base,” Paramor wrote in the club’s annual report released last month. The club’s annual meeting will be held on March 21.

Up and Away

Flight Centre is offering travel grants for SMEs seeking to grow their business as the corporate world gets back to face-to-face contact.

Flight Centre Business Travel’s corporate travel grants are now open for applications with over $40,000 in travel prizes available to successful grant applicants. Entries close on March 31. Flight Centre Business Travel’s global leader Cameron Harris says that with travellers feeling more confident about travel and airlines responding with increased capacity, face-to-face meetings are being preferred over virtual. “In 2023 travellers are taking advantage of opportunities to grow their businesses and meet in person,” Harris says. Brisbane-based Flight Centre is awarding one business a grant valued at over $30,000 to help support their growth and success, while four runners-up will share in $10,000 worth of travel credit. Harris expects travel and accommodation costs to level out once demand and supply is normalised.

Business travel is back

Talk fest

The East Brisbane offices of Elevate Communication were buzzing this week with Act For Kids boss Katrina Lines, chief operating officer of bdna Karyn Smith and AAP’s future transport reporter Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson holding court. Hosted in honour of International Women’s Day, the breakfast panel moderated by Elevate’s head of marketing Shannan Peters was watched by more than 50 clients and industry partners. Although themed around the UN’s 2023 focus - DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality - the floor was opened to questions at the end, with some of the most engaging coming from male business leaders such as Battery World general manager Johnny Kennedy.

Elevate managing director Mel Deacon says the event – the company’s first in-person event for 2023 - was a resounding success.

Dr Katrina Lines.