State Library of South Australia logo SA Newspapers
SA Memory. South Australia past and present, for the future




South Australian countrywoman
Title : South Australian countrywoman South Australian countrywoman
Add To My SA Memory
View a zoomable version
Source : South Australian countrywoman, 6 March 1953, p. 1
Date of creation : 1953
Format : Newspaper
Catalogue record
The State Library of South Australia is keen to find out more about SA Memory items. We encourage you to contact the Library if you have additional information about any of these items.
Copyright : This item is reproduced courtesy of South Australian Country Women's Association. It may be printed or saved for research or study. Use for any other purpose requires written permission from South Australian Country Women's Association and the State Library of South Australia. To request approval, complete the Permission to publish form.
Description :

For some time the C.W.A. (South Australian Country Women's Association) was given news coverage in the pages of the Rural review. A.P. Passmore, the owner, was also the printer of the C.W.A. recipe calendars and other publications. In March 1953 his newspaper was incorporated in the pages of a new weekly, the South Australian countrywoman. No other state had a weekly C.W.A. newspaper. The South Australian countrywoman reported on the activities of the C.W.A., both locally and further a field, and contained regular news from the branches. A page was given to agricultural news of the week, reflecting the rural basis of the Association. Recipes, knitting patterns and other handicraft articles, gardening notes and a questions and answers column were also featured. The South Australian countrywoman changed format in September 1971 and from this time it became a monthly magazine, with some of its previous coverage being taken on by the Farmer and grazier newspaper.

The South Australian Country Women's Association (C.W.A.) was founded to enable isolated women living in country areas of the state to meet together. Specifically, the organisation works for the welfare of women and children in country districts and promotes educational and health facilities and services. The C.W.A. has also had a strong focus on handicraft work. Formed in 1929 shortly before the onset of the Great Depression, the organisation found itself commandeered into working for the relief of the unemployed in country districts. Having a clear purpose it grew quickly and found strong support both from city sponsors and politicians, as well as amongst country people.

The establishment of the South Australian Country Women's Association followed the formation of groups in New South Wales and Queensland. In 1926 Mrs T.R. Bowman, president of the National Council of Women, was asked by the Council to speak to women in South Australia about forming a C.W.A. group. Following an informal discussion in Adelaide, one of the women at the meeting, Mrs Mary Warnes of Burra, then established a group in her home town. Eighteen months later a second branch was formed at Spalding and the name 'Country Women's Association' was adopted. The Second World War saw the Association fully involved in war work. Making 20,000 camouflage nets for the Australian Army, sewing sheepskin sleeping bags for lighthouse keepers, knitting for the navy and sending food parcels to Britain were just a small part of their work. After the War membership increased dramatically, with 141 branches by 1946. In 1951 the Association purchased an old home on Dequetteville Terrace, Kent Town, as its headquarters.

Subjects
Related names :

Bowman, T.R., Mrs

Passmore, Alexander Percy

Warnes, Mary Jane, 1877-1959

Farmer and grazier (Adelaide S. Aust.)

National Council of Women of Australia

Rural review (Adelaide, S. Aust.)

South Australian Country Womnen's Association

Coverage year : 1953
Further reading :
Parker, Heather. The first fifty years: golden jubilee history of the South Australian Country Women's Association, [Kent Town, S. Aust.]: South Australian Country Women's Association, 1979

Navigation

Home

About SA Memory

Explore SA Memory

SA Memory Themes

Search

My SA Memory

Learning

What's on

Contributors