Preservation Matters - Women take on war burden

The Australian Women's Land Army (AWLA) should conjure images of young women clad in fawn dungarees and gumboots, in a field harvesting a crop by hand, driving a tractor, milking cows or even shearing sheep.

Or you might imagine her dressed in the ubiquitous corduroy jodhpurs, green jumper and tie, with felt hat at a jaunty angle, the AWLA badge front and centre.

Unfortunately, these hard-working women are not recognised often enough in Australia, but they should be.

By July 1942 the World War II pre-war work force was down by two thirds, yet it was vital that food production continue at strength.

The Australian Women’s Land Army members were the workers who helped feed a nation and its troops.

These women also kept the agricultural sector from collapsing due to worker shortage.

Membership of the AWLA was purely voluntary unlike their sisters in the UK.

Women came from all walks of life - some having no real understanding of rural life, not knowing one end of a cow from the other.

Don’t forget this is the 1940s, imagine the strength of character and pure gumption required to leave home to learn a new job.

At the same time, it was a certain sort of freedom for these women, stepping outside the expected societal norms and even wearing trousers! But the girls faced much prejudice.

Some country wives did not like the idea of young and fit women working with their husbands and were imagining the extra work the girls might make for them.

Farmers claimed women workers wouldn't have the strength that the job required even though their own wives were already doing it.

Tasmanian Women’s Land Army girls were trained at private farms across the state and later at the training school in Cressy, now the Cressy Research and Development Station.

They received hands-on experience in sheep work, dairying work, working a horse team, piggery work, driving tractors and equipment and implement maintenance.

The success of the Women’s Land Army was proven as requests for Land Army workers on farms far outstripped available members.

Despite the prejudice, long hours, the hard work, being away from home for long stretches and being paid half of what a man was for the same job, these women excelled in their new field, made long lasting friendships and no doubt learned something of themselves they were able to take away from the experience.

The Australian Women’s Land Army was never thanked for its work.

It was not formally recognised as a service so members did not receive pensions from the government, nor were they allowed to join the RSL until 1991.

It’s time now, especially in light of it being International Day of Rural Women on October 15, to remember these women who fought so hard on the home front and to learn more about women on the land.

Pearn’s Steam World at 65 Meander Valley Rd, Westbury, is currently displaying the Women on the Land exhibition.

The museum is open seven days a week from 9.30am to 3.30pm (except Anzac Day and Christmas Day).