Green lady at pedestrian crossing in Richmond commemorates amazing woman

THE green lady symbol on a Richmond pedestrian crossing will mark the outstanding contribution of Victoria’s first female councillor, writes Yarra mayor Roberto Colanzi.

WENDY Tuohy’s column published on 22 March about the green lady pedestrian light for Richmond was mischievous and completely missed the mark.

The green lady symbol is to be introduced on one pedestrian crossing only, in a joint initiative by VicRoads and Yarra Council, to commemorate the outstanding contribution to Victoria of Mary Rogers who, in 1920, became Victoria’s and Richmond’s first female councillor.

The idea originated in Wellington, New Zealand, where they did the same to commemorate suffragette, Kate Sheppard.

Pedestrian signals have also been changed from the traditionally recognised symbols in other countries, such as Germany.

COUNCIL PASSES MOTION FOR MORE ‘GREEN LADY’ PEDESTRIAN SIGNALS

Also the green lady symbol was produced at no cost to Yarra Council. VicRoads, as the responsible agency, was able to easily incorporate it into a new pedestrian crossing to be installed in May at the corner of Bridge Road and Bosisto Street.

I announced the green lady initiative just before International Women’s Day as a way to highlight the achievements of this amazing woman.

Mary Rogers was born in 1872 and worked as a cleaner and raised four children (a fifth died in infancy), following the death of her husband in 1910.

She was a Richmond councillor for almost five years, and led groundbreaking progress in the areas of welfare, neglected children, education and family issues, initiating the first community maternal and child health services in Victoria.

Mary was also active in the Australian Labor Party, working as secretary and later president of the Women Office Cleaners’ Union. In 1923 she moved a resolution calling for equal pay for women.

She was one of the first women appointed a Justice of the Peace in Victoria in 1928 and was a special magistrate at the Children’s Court in Richmond.

The Bosisto Street pedestrian crossing site is a short walk from Mary Rogers Square on the corner of Church Street and Bridge Road and the Richmond Town Hall.

If only Ms Tuohy had contacted me to check the facts, I would have been happy to have answered any questions and she could have written an accurate story. Instead, she chose to paint this initiative in a negative light to inflame readers and advise Yarra Council how to promote gender equity, an area which we are widely recognised in local government as leading.

Yarra was one of the first Victorian councils to develop a Gender Equity Strategy from which we have introduced Family Violence Leave, a Flexible Work Policy, Parental Leave Policy and a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex & Queer Working Group.

We have a longstanding commitment to equity and inclusion, and we believe that a diverse and inclusive organisational culture is more innovative, productive and engaged.

Council, through its community grants program, supports many important initiatives and social enterprises that empower and help women while our economic development program has a range of programs and events specifically to help business women.

Only two weeks ago I was very pleased to open the new Richmond headquarters of Sisterworks, a women’s social enterprise which enables vulnerable women who are seeking asylum, or have refugee and migrant background, to work towards financial independence.

Each year, Yarra runs our Inspirational Women of Yarra Awards, and actively supports White Ribbon Day and International Women’s Day — this year’s theme was gender equity and I was a guest speaker at three events on the day.

Also at our last council meeting, we passed a resolution to engage with the community on a six-court indoor sports stadium and I spoke about the many requests I’ve had from women’s sporting clubs and groups wanting such a venue. Council has advocated for this for the past 13 years, with female sportspeople in mind.

Wendy, you are most welcome any time to come to Yarra and find out for herself exactly what we have done on gender equity, and the passion and commitment of staff and the community towards this.

On a final note, I have been inundated with comments from Yarra residents who thought it was a good idea to light up the crossing in celebration of Mary Rogers.