Country Women's Association in Wheatbelt town saved by Young Community Citizen of the Year

Bonnie Telfer was awarded 2024 Young Community Citizen of the Year for saving her local CWA. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)

In the sheep-farming town of Darkan, an old house painted robin egg blue stands in contrast to the golden fields on the horizon.

The house is old, but within its walls youthful exuberance is breathing new life into an institution that has supported women for 100 years.

Bonnie Telfer may not seem like a quintessential County Women’s Association (CWA) deputy president, but the 23-year-old almost single-handedly saved her town’s branch from imminent closure in 2021 after it membership fell to single digits.

“I think the CWA is an important part of our community, always has been, and it’s so iconic it would be really sad to see it go,” she says.

“There were four members, but they couldn’t continue due to health reasons. They put an ad in the local paper saying they needed more members, otherwise the CWA in Darkan was going to close.

“I saw that in the paper and Mum and I messaged everyone that we knew in town who we thought would be able to help.”

The phone tree worked and a branch that was teetering on the edge of irrelevance in the town of about 200 people now boasts more than 30 members.

A place for women to ‘be themselves’ 

Ms Telfer said the CWA brought women together in a community where neighbours could be separated by fields of hay or paddocks of sheep.

“It’s a chance for women to get together and just be themselves,” she said.

“They don’t have to be the mother or the teacher. Whoever they are in the community, we can just come together and get to know other people.

“I’ve met people and become close with people that I wouldn’t normally be close with if it wasn’t for the CWA.”

With more than 30 per cent of Darkan women active members of the CWA, Ms Telfer was awarded the 2024 Young Community Citizen of the Year Award for her work.

The CWA has particular prominence in the Wheatbelt community, which is 210 kilometres south east of Perth.

One of its former members, Ita Spencer, rose to the position of WA state president, while the association’s blue hall, built in 1952, was placed on the town’s heritage register.

Fun, friendship and a few drinks 

For Darkan’s new branch president, Eloisa Goss, a mix of new and traditional values was one of the reasons the association had become so popular.

“It’s all about fun, friendship and bringing women together, particularly rural women, giving them an opportunity in our meetings where we’ll have dinner, maybe some drinks and lots of conversations,” she said.

“We’re trying to attract younger members and particularly young mums

“A lot of them have married into the farming community, so they’re not going to have their support network.

“They’ve been able to connect with some older women who have already had children and provide them with some support.”

100 years in the making 

The resurgence of the Darkan branch comes during an auspicious time for the CWA of Western Australia, which is celebrating 100 years since country women first came together under its banner.

State chief executive Trish Langdon said the revival in Darkan showed the best of the association and offered to provide a model other branches could use.

“It’s incredibly exciting and we’re absolutely thrilled about how that happened,” she said.

“I think it was like a model that we can employ in other places and think it’s about communicating to younger people that we are still relevant for them.

“It’s not just a matter of getting together and having scones and tea.

“It’s actually about how can we make the world a better place? How can we make our community really be responsive? How can we have a thriving community? And Darkan is just that.”