“AND on the motion of Mrs Belbridge, seconded by Mrs Welsh, it was unanimously decided to form a branch of the CWA in Albury.”
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On April 5, 1927, a meeting at the Albury show society rooms saw 16 inaugural members start a group that continues to serve its community.
An afternoon tea on Tuesday marked the branch’s 90th anniversary, held in the Kiewa Street hall that has been its centre for more than 80 of those years.
Albury members were joined by visitors from other district branches such as Holbrook, Oaklands, Albury Evening, Table Top and Jindera. Guest speaker Gail Commens, South Pacific Area president of the Associated Country Women of the World, represented the wider movement.
Albury branch secretary Roma Freeman said the group had wanted to hold the event as close to the milestone date as possible.
“When we had our 80th we carried it over until June and it didn’t mean the same,” she said.
Ninety years ago, the need for an Albury baby health centre prompted the branch’s foundation and numbers grew rapidly from the founding 16.
“By the end of the year they had 50 members and in 1933 they had about 130 members,” Mrs Freeman said.
The original hall, built on a former paddock for police horses, opened officially in 1935 and was extended to its present size in 1956.
“Since 1969 to my knowledge the floor has been replaced twice in the rear hall but never in the original building,” the secretary said.
During World War II, membership numbers rose to up to 200 as the building became a hub for the war effort. First a casualty clearing station, then used for air raid precautions, the hall held bandages, dressings, instruments and lotions, with weekly first aid and home nursing lectures.
Knitting to support causes has been a key activity of the CWA, along with catering and providing entertainment for migrants and pensioners.
The baby health centre continued under the CWA umbrella for about 53 years.
“I used to bring my babies there, my mother brought me there,” Mrs Freeman said. In 1981, the Department of Health took over that service.
The same year Merle Saville joined the Albury branch, encouraged by Mrs Freeman’s mother.
“She kept saying to me, ‘When are you going to join CWA?’, and I had three schools to go to at that time with the children, and I said, ‘When they’re out of my hands, I will go’, and I kept to it,” she remembered.
Now 87, Mrs Saville still comes along to meetings.
“It’s very nice to meet all the ladies and hear all their stories,” she said.
