Celebrating half a century

When five women launched a Cairns branch of the YWCA 50 years ago, they were young mums keen to support each other.

WHEN Pat Moloney and four others launched a Cairns branch of the YWCA 50 years ago, they were young mums keen to support each other.

It was 1966 and playgroups didn’t yet exist.

“We had young children and initially met weekly in each other’s homes in Edge Hill,” said the Cairns YWCA president.

“As we got more members, we hired the CWA hall, which was on the Esplanade at that time.

“We were there for a good 20 years.

“We had a babysitter each week and an activity that didn’t revolve around kids, nappies and soap powder. We had guest speakers, debates, demonstrations.

“Our idea was to have a non-domestic activity.”

In its heyday, the branch grew to 40 members and a second babysitter was employed to entertain the children.

But as playgroups developed in Cairns and women reentered the workforce, membership waned.

“We had a new president about every three years because we maintained you needed fresh blood, but our president wanted to close us down because we were not getting new members,” Mrs Moloney said.

She and others disagreed and felt the YWCA was still meeting a need in their lives.

“The members said at that time that it was something for us each week, so I said I’ll take on the presidency and we’ll meet in each other’s homes again.

“In the early days, the branch was guided by Marjorie Hicks in Brisbane. She maintained the Y’s philosophy was ‘the Y finds a need and fills it’, so that’s what we have done over the years. Now it’s a support group for us.”

As numbers grew again last year, Cairns YWCA moved to the Bungalow Hotel and has now returned to Edge Hill, where it all began 50 years ago.

“Over a happy number of years, age has crept up on us and we now meet weekly at the Edge Hill Bowls Club,” Mrs Moloney said.

“We still maintain we put the world to right every week and we have been doing that for 50 years. We’ve always maintained that our strength is the fact that we meet every week.”

Cairns YWCA meets 11am-1pm Wednesdays at Edge Hill Bowls Club, 181 Woodward St. For more details, call Mrs Moloney on 4053 4278.

CELEBRATION: Foundation member and current president Pat Moloney poses with fellow YWCA Cairns branch members Beverley Smith, Y'Gerne Lynch, Marguerite Sexton, Judy Wright, Mary Behnke, Barbara Formosa, Beryl Davis, Wendy Pink, Lynette Cresswell and...