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Print FriendlyCity folk often marvel at the seemingly endless hospitality and generosity of people in the country. Those who have left the conveniences of the city for the bush know better than most that a strong community network is a vital part of country life.
For thousands of city women who have moved to the country it was the support network of local women that kept them sane. Even women who were desperate to leave the city for the wide open spaces relied on being part of a community.
In Ros Bowden’s book Women On The Land (1), Patricia Leighton, a farmer from Western Australia told her story of being brought up in suburban Sydney in the shortages of the postwar years, and “really wanting to get out into the back blocks.”
Patricia identified the importance of the community in the tough early days. “Everybody supported everybody else. It had to be that way, because you were all so dependent on each other for your development and for your family security…It was like a great big extended family, and that included the men and the women, and it was something quite special.”
For Wendy White, it was the little things that made the difference when, with two small children and pregnant with the third, she and her husband moved to Edgeroi in northern NSW. “Just knowing which creek was going to rise when there was a flood and that the school bus had broken down, but not to panic because Mr Bristol would see that all was right. That made the difference.”
Wendy is a member of the Country Women’s Association, the oldest rural women’s group in Australia and, with more than 40,000 members, also the largest. For many women in rural Australia organisations such as the CWA have provided physical and psychological comfort for families and communities.
Virginia Falls, a pig producer from Casterton in Victoria, has had a different experience. While she readily admits moving from Sydney when she married Geoff at 26-years-old was ‘a big adjustment,’ she is part of the push for women to be equal partners in decision-making in agriculture and rural policy development. In just 12 years this city woman has emerged as an Australian farm leader. She represents the pig industry on the Victorian Farmers Federation, is on the executive of the Victorian Rural Women’s Network and the only woman on her community’s aged care board.
Virginia said it is often women who are the business drivers in a farming partnership, attending field days, workshops and seminars to ask questions about how to get ahead. “As rural women we have come a long way, but we are at a cross-roads. We hit the ground running, but now have to decide whether we will continue with the big issue stuff or become more industry focussed. If we aren’t converting our efforts to decision-making positions we may as well be back where we were.”
References
Bowden, R. (1995) Women on the Land, ABC Books, Sydney
Useful links
Victorian Rural Women’s Network |
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ABC Rural |