100 and counting
THE Country Women’s Association of New South Wales held its 100th Annual General Meeting earlier this month and there were plenty of ladies from the Macquarie region on hand to commemorate the special occasion.
The event was staged at Sydney’s Royal Randwick and the theme was Embracing and Celebrating Diversity in our Centenary Year.
The crowd was welcomed by State President Stephanie Stanhope and there were special messages of good wishes including a letter from the Prime Minister and video messages from the NSW premier and the CEO of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The Official Opening was performed by Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AO QC.
Governor of NSW, who’s the Association Patron, spoke highly of the CWA and congratulated our organisation on its 100th birthday as we continue to improve conditions for country women and children.
‘’We are an organisation of doers.’’
There was a wonderful performance from the Moorambilla Voices followed by keynote speaker Layne Beachley AO, a former professional surfer from Manly who won the world surfing championship an incredible seven times.
She was an inspiration to all leaders as she shared her 40 years of experience as the most successful female surfer in history, telling how she had to show up every day and worked four jobs to achieve a successful career.
At the first business session we held a medical research fund cheque presentation, with $21,700 handed over to the University of Newcastle’s Brian Schloeffel for ovarian cancer research.
There were 38 motions to discuss during the four-day conference of which 34 were carried.
Health, education, agriculture, environment, transport and telecommunications were key areas where motions passed at conference become CWA of NSW policy.
Shane Fitzsimmons AO AFSM from Resilience NSW addressed the conference about the huge challenges the state has confronted in the past three years.
Sue Armstrong delivered the international report, there was a Welcome to Country and a one-minute silence was observed before she spoke about the difficulties during Covid.
South Pacific Area President Gail Cummins presented her report and spoke of the many hours taken up to Zoom meetings due to Covid but was pleased to announce that $80,000 had been sent to the Tonga disaster appeal to refurbish a pre-school in that tiny island nation devastated by a nearby volcanic eruption.
Speaker Liz Hartfull shared her experiences around writing the centenary book The Women Who Changed Country Australia.
We were told how the show catering committee worked extremely hard during the Sydney Royal with more than three tonnes of flour used for the scones and thanks to the The Little Big Dairy from Dubbo who donated all the fresh cream.
More than 300 volunteers worked at the show kiosk and lots of goodies were sold, enabling the show committee to present a cheque of $125,000 (from 2021’s effort) – a fantastic effort from all members.
The very first publicity stand was very well received, and the comments from the visitors were very encouraging.
The newly elected CWA State President for 2022/2023 is Joy Beames from Dunedoo Branch, Castlereagh Country – she’s been a CWA member for 30 years and we wish her well.
A very well-organised conference and a fantastic location.