Country Women’s Association NT History unveiled in new book

AUTHORS Peter and Sheila Forrest have documented the long and colourful history of the Country Women’s Association in the Territory

Clare Jones and son Oliver looking over the book Together, The Country Women’s Association of the Northern Territory

AUTHORS Peter and Sheila Forrest have documented the long and colourful history of the Country Women’s Association in the Territory.

The recently released book Together shows how women, acting together under the CWA banner, have improved the welfare and circumstances of women, children and communities in the NT.

Ms Forrest said their many connections to women’s organisations, aimed at improving the lives of rural communities, drew them to the project. “Telling the story of the CWA in the Northern Territory been a labour of love for us,” she said.

“It has been our homage to the far sighted and decisive women who saw that by making lives better for women and children in remote places they would be making lives better for everyone, everywhere.”

Ms Forrest said their approach was to tell the story of the CWA in the context of the Northern Territory’s broader social development.

“We saw the story as being about women coming together, to act together, not in isolation, to make lives better. Hence our title,” she said.

Together takes the reader on a journey from when the first branches were formed to what it is today.

The CWA began in Sydney in 1922.

The organisation’s first Territory members joined neighbouring branch Camooweal in Mount Isa, which was established 1924. Now almost 80 years on, the Territory has six branches with 160 members

The book is available for purchase from local book stores or via orders to [e-mail]