Bush Summit: Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader, Cherry Street Sports say no to domestic violence with Purple Friday

A Northern Rivers mayor – herself a domestic violence survivor – and a local sports club explain why donning a purple shirt speaks volumes on the fight to curb violence against women.

When walking around Ballina each Friday, the message is crystal clear – domestic violence has no place in the community.

The powerful message – conveyed by the hundreds of people donning purple shirts – is backed by arguably the shire’s top VIP, its mayor.

Ballina Shire Mayor Sharon Cadwallader does not just understand how family violence is a scourge on the community, she has actually lived it.

Helping her bring the message home is the Ballina on Richmond Rotary Club and Cherry Street Sports Group – with the latter winning the award for Social Inclusion at this year’s NSW Clubs & Community Awards for the role they played in launching Purple Friday.

Every Friday, purple shirts are worn in the area to spread the message that Ballina says ‘no’ to cowardly acts of domestic violence.

Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader and Jodie Shelley take a stand against domestic violence through the unique campaign Purple Friday. Picture: Luke Marsden.

The campaign has seen such success that other businesses, school staff, courtrooms, clubs, sporting groups – and many of the staff at Ballina Shire Council – now proudly wear their purple shirts each week.

Tragically, the campaign came as a result of the shocking death of Lindy Lucena, who was found dead in a laneway close to the Cherry Street Sports Club in Ballina – and the local police station – more than year ago.

Police allege her death was a domestic violence-related murder. Ms Lucena’s ex-partner Robert Karl Huber is accused of her murder, however, he plans to fight the allegations in court.

Ms Cadwallader said the “community-minded” club had donated $20,000 for the first rollout of the shirts a couple of years ago and staff were “amazing”.

“Every single Friday you will see purple shirts everywhere in Ballina,” she said.

“There’s more than 100 businesses involved and the awareness is amazing to see. We have local police on board pushing the message: Say no to DV and yes to respectful relationships.”

Club chief executive officer Tere Sheehan said: “The Purple Friday program started with the Ballina on Richmond Rotary Club. We started out by putting the shirts on our staff over the Christmas period in 2022.

Cherry Street Sports Club CEO Tere Sheehan is on board with Purple Fridays. Picture: NewsLocal.

“Unfortunately, on January 4, 2023, we had the first (alleged) DV-related death in Ballina and it made us realise we had to really ramp things up,” he said.

“We ended up donating $20,000 worth of shirts and haven’t looked back since.”

Mr Sheehan said the program was being rolled out in schools and students were taught about respectful relationships.

“Hopefully down through the generations we won’t have this problem,” he said.

Across Australia, a reported 17 per cent of women and 5.5 per cent of men have experienced intimate partner violence according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Most victims are women and mostly men have been the perpetrators.

Last year, 29 women were slain or allegedly killed by a partner Australia-wide, according to NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) data.

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Originally published as Bush Summit: Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader, Cherry Street Sports say no to domestic violence with Purple Friday