Studying history in school we learnt about how life was in our parents and grandparents’ day and the long struggle undertaken by pioneering women who changed the way we are perceived in society.  The transition of women from being bred to care for the men and populate the country, to being individuals with intelligence and freedom to choose a path. With encouragement from both parents, I was inspired to work hard to achieve my goals.
 
The place of women in Australian society fitted the typical stereotype staying at home to look after the house and any children. However, When World War I broke out, many women took on different roles:

• volunteering in the Red Cross
• working for soldiers' comfort funds
• raising funds for wartime charities that worked overseas

 
In the UK and Australia, the men were sent to fight the war while the women filled their jobs in manufacturing, agricultural etc on the home front. Their work was vital in keeping things going until the men returned and resumed their jobs. Others provided support on the front lines as nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, and translators. They were not considered suitable for front line duties.

However, World War I didn't create lasting changes in the roles of women. They had to relinquish their jobs to the men when they returned. They still worked in traditionally female roles at the end of the war, and by 1921, the number of women in paid employment had actually declined considerably compared to 1911.
 
During the 1920s and 1930s, Australia developed the Anzac tradition that had begun in 1915 (and that we still observe today). The Anzac legend became an important element in Australia's remembrance of the war and its national identity. The war was mostly fought by men, so the ANZAC legend focussed on men's achievements. At that time, the role of women was commemorated in a much smaller way, with a focus on nursing.
 
Women's organisations that were active during the war included:

• Australian Women's National League
• Australian Red Cross
• Country Women's Association
• Voluntary Aid Detachment
• Australian Women's Service Corps
• Women's Christian Temperance Union

Melbourne woman, Vera Deakin, set up the Red Cross Missing and Wounded Enquiry Bureau. The organisation tried to get information to the families of soldiers who either:

• had been killed
• were listed as missing
• were wounded
• had been taken prisoner

 
Women could join the services in clerical type roles, communications and plotters, as well as nursing. Those involved in code breaking, communications or plotting were essential in combatting our enemies. Australian Nurses played a vital role in caring for the injured. It was not until World War II that women took on service jobs, working in areas that were previously male-only occupations. The women’s services were operated as separate entities alongside the men. So, the WRENS, WRANS and WRAAF was born. However once married, they were encouraged to resign. 
 
Later in the 1980’s things began to change and the women’s services gradually blended with mens and we all became Army, Navy or Airforce. Women today are deployed into war zones, on overseas duty and are actively involved in the Defence of our country.  
 
Here in Benalla, we have a female Petty Officer who was the first female to serve aboard an Australian submarine.  In the cemetery here lies Sgt Mabel Shannon, a Wangaratta lady, who enlisted in the RAAF in 1942. Her unit was No1 Wireless Air Gunners school. Sadly, she passed away in 1943 from illness while employed as a drill instructor, before she could realize her full potential.
 
As has been made known recently with the unveiling of the memorial in Devenish, Vivian Bullwinkel was an Australian Army nurse born in S.A. She was the sole survivor of the 1942 Banka Islan massacre, served in Singapore and Malaya. She found herself on Banka Island after the ship she was travelling in was sunk by the Japanese.
 
Whilst this may sound like a women’s lib speech, its more about how things have changed over the years. Acknowledging the work done by women but also being an advocate of equality in that anyone has the right to learn, grow and achieve in this world, regardless of gender, colour, religion or race. 


Heather Hartland
​May 2023

(With apologies for compounding two topics - "One Moment this Year" and "Learning from History")

At lunchtime on 20th July, 1969, I stood in my boss' office listening to the radio.  With me were my boss, Jim Smith, and Pam Robinson (Pam was later to be awarded the Australian Medal. AM.)

Pam, like me, was an employee of James H. Smith & Co. (later to become Smith, O'Shannessy & Co.)

The occasion of the 20th July was to be the first landing, by man, on the moon.

I was itching to get home for my lunch break so that I could witness the landing on my television set.

As I drove into the driveway of 137 Clarke Street, Apollo 11 was landing.

At home I witnessed the magnificent feat and heard the historic words "THE EAGLE HAS LANDED".

I saw astronaut Neil Armstrong alighting from the landing module and taking his first step, as he uttered the words - "ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND'.

He was accompanied by fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.  The whole world population was euphoric.

The exercise had involved, worldwide, 40,000 engineers, technicians and scientists.  The cost?  A staggering 24 billion dollars (in today's values, close to 100 billion.)

What would be, and at what cost, the world's next venture?

​The landing was the result of extensive research and planning, and was the forerunner to much space travel and exploration, including a further six moon landings.

I haven't taken to following space exploration in the decades since that momentous occasion, but surely one could be forgiven for questioning the earthly value of the exercise.  I have an open mind, but do, at times, ponder what would be the effect on world homelessness if 24 billion dollars had been diverted to countering it.

Surely the homeless people of the world would experience a far better existence!

Google tells me that the estimated world homelessness has increased from 100,000 people in 1969 to an unbelievable 150 million today.

Where are our priorities?


Ray O'Shannessy,
​May 2023

During my time with this group I have written about a number of lessons learned from my past. I will not repeat any of these writings, however I will state that a number of instances from my past have made me very suspicious of ‘shallow’ friendships that have presented in my past.

On a number of occasions I have been befriended by people who may not have my best interests at heart. On the other hand I have been contacted by certain members of the community who require my expertise to assist certain community groups with special projects and activities. Having spent 50 years of my life so far, growing up and living in small rural communities, I am well aware of the ‘self-help’ and ‘community support’ philosophy that exists within rural communities. I have always been willing to participate in any activity that will be of benefit to the broader community, and it has always been done ‘pro bono’. Unfortunately there are a very small number of people in the community who participate in these activities, with their own personal benefit being their priority. I have learnt through experience, over many years, to be somewhat suspicious of any person who puts themselves forward in a forthright manner to become involved in any such community activities.

Over the years I have also been the target of baseless and defamatory rumours about certain community activities, however upon investigation, these rumours have been initiated by the very people who are involved in these activities for their own benefit.

Needless to say, that over the years I have developed a very cynical approach to people, until they prove themselves worthy of my trust. I trust nobody, until I am satisfied that they share my passion for supporting the community by way of voluntary contribution, not self-gain.  Many may find this ‘probation’ offensive, but that is the way it is, and if you don’t like it, then you best leave, because you will not fit the desired criteria, and will most likely not show the desired commitment and passion for advancing the benefit for the broader community.

​
Barry O’Connor
10 May 2023. 

​A challenging question, which over the last twelve months, has been commonly asked of me.
 
Why would I leave Tathra with its regular passing pods of whales, it’s beautifully restored hotel incorporating a small theatre, regular live entertainment and a mini brewery? Tathra’s wonderful bush walks and majestic views. Its proud indigenous heritage and engrossing stories of bravery and tragedy.
 
It’s all a history of ‘leaving the shore’! (Although with our floods last year, I thought I had discovered a new one).
 
My family history, which I researched and wrote, was titled ‘Leaving the Shore’, based on a longer sentence written by André Paul Guillaume Gide  - Nobel Prize in Literature 1947. He wrote ‘Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore’ Equally applicable to women.
 
I began to ‘leave the shore’ early in my life, when at 10, I decided to attend a school that was quite a few Sydney suburbs distant from where I lived. At 11, I was travelling four hours a day to get to and from school.  In retrospect, I was already distancing myself from my family. My parents took on fostering and later adopting other children into the family. I admired their Christian charity but found myself on the fringe and in my last year of high school, when my family moved to Port Macquarie, I boarded in Sydney to finish my final year.
 
The easy answer to my opening question is that I left Tathra to be closer to my eldest son and his family in Melbourne.
 
Yet I recognize, as I welcome my mid seventies, that there are deeper and more complex reasons.
 
I am indeed learning to love Benalla. The lake, the gallery and the botanic gardens restore my soul.  The street art, the silo trail and Winton Wetlands feed my pride and my joy in sharing why I live where I live. Not least also is the nurturing and supportive U3A family and the community service, engagement and spiritual journeying through the local Uniting Church.
 
Most significant though, is that Benalla has provided me with an opportunity to explore my inner life.
 
Recently two sentences have guided my reflections. Firstly, ‘life is a tapestry with various threads running through’. By looking at our personal history, significant threads will emerge.

Secondly from a book titled ‘Songlines’, these words. ‘When you look behind you, you see the future in your footprints’.  Suggestion for a ATGB theme next year?

Now I haven’t come to Benalla to seek out the next great adventure, or the next ocean shore. Yet in fact a personal journey inwards, through contemplative prayer, perhaps is offering the greatest adventure of all.  In fact, I am finding that the quiet and solitude with which I am privileged, envelops me and invites me to acknowledge a thread through the history of my life.

I am feeling drawn to a role as an end of life friend or perhaps, an end of life chaplain.
My son observed wisely that perhaps I needed to be this old to fulfill such a calling.  
Indeed, in my reflections, this calling would honor a recognised thread through my life, and can be seen retrospectively in my, sometimes meandering footsteps.


Graham Jensen
May 2023