Did you know that Bardon women created their own civic club nearly 100 years ago to take a greater role in community affairs, building an organisation that lasted more than seven decades but excluded Catholic women for most of its history?
The Bardon Women’s Club held its inaugural meeting on 19 November 1926 and continued until 1998. Its history spans 72 years of evolving community involvement, membership, and suburban life.
A voice beyond church
The club grew from an idea developed by Bardon mother and former schoolteacher Vera Jones, who held a Master of Science degree from the University of Queensland.
Jones consulted Elizabeth Exley, a long-time Bardon resident involved in community services for women and children. Exley helped establish Queensland’s first branch of the Mothers’ Union and was involved in establishing the District Nursing Association.
Jones wanted women to have opportunities to participate in community affairs outside the church-based organisations through which much voluntary activity had traditionally been organised.
Most founding members were young mothers who brought their children to meetings. Club gatherings combined community issues, educational interests, guest speakers and social activities.
Most Queensland women had gained the right to vote in state elections in 1905, while Irene Longman would not become the state’s first woman elected to Parliament until 1929. The club emerged during a period of expanding opportunities for women in public life.
Books, welfare and public life
The club’s first recorded achievement was establishing a members’ library.
Members followed organisations involved in district nursing, temperance and welfare. In contrast, many founding members were involved in the Lyceum Club, the kindergarten movement and the campaign for a University Women’s College. The club later affiliated with the National Council of Women.
During the Depression, members worked with relief organisations including the Ithaca Benevolent Society. During the Second World War, the club joined the Women’s National Volunteer Register with other women’s organisations.
Its broader civic connections were still visible decades later. In 1957, Bardon Women’s Club appeared in Queensland parliamentary proceedings among organisations affiliated with the National Council of Women.
Membership had limits
Participation was not open to every woman in Bardon.
The club’s historical record states that membership was restricted to non-Catholic women. The rule remained for most of the organisation’s existence despite its purpose of giving women greater involvement in community affairs.
Its constitution was amended in 1996 to allow non-Protestant women to join. The historical record states that the change was made in accordance with Queensland anti-discrimination legislation.
The Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 contained provisions prohibiting discrimination in club membership and affairs, subject to specified exemptions. No available source reviewed for this story records a tribunal finding or other ruling against the Bardon Women’s Club.
Younger members disappear
Membership reached its highest levels in the early 1950s before gradually declining.
After the Second World War, the club became more socially focused than in its earlier years of community service. By the early 1990s, members were concerned about attracting younger women. A club member writing in 1993 attributed the problem partly to younger women working or being occupied with small children.
The Bardon Women’s Club held its final meeting in 1998.
Records preserve the story
Minutes, annual reports and correspondence covering the club’s history from 1926 to 1998 are held in the John Oxley Library collection at the State Library of Queensland.
A century after its first meeting, those records document an organisation that gave generations of Bardon women a place in community life while preserving evidence of the membership boundaries that remained in place for most of its existence.