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Just as the Royal Australian Historical Society and the RHSV celebrate March as Women’s History Month by highlighting women who have contributed to our shared history in various and meaningful ways, so we in March 2025 acknowledged women from our area whose contributions have made a difference.
Helen Harris OAM, Secretary and Archivist with Box Hill Historical Society and Sarah Cruze, both of whom are professional historians, addressed the gathering. Helen spoke on the role of women in local government. She is well versed in this subject. Her book The Right to Vote; The Right to Stand, was launched as part of centenary celebrations on 6 November 2014. It was awarded a Commendation in the 2015 Local History Awards. Sarah is a younger historian who holds a PhD in history from the University of Melbourne. She has lived with her family in Ashburton since 2009. She published a history of her suburb – Ashburton Stories: A history of the Melbourne suburb. Sarah spoke on the importance of women recording their life stories.
We also made presentations to two significant senior women from our community – Barbara Potter AM and Elizabeth Meredith. Both these women have lived in our area for many years and made significant contributions to our community and on the wider stage. Barb trained as a nurse initially at the Alfred and Queen Vic. She worked at Tuberculosis Bureau of the Victorian Department of Health and later at Maud Street Infant Welfare Centre and Copelen Street Family Centre before she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel to the USA, England, Sweden, Finland, Turkey and Greece to study day care options for promoting the health, welfare and education of fragile young families. Another role was as Co-ordinator of the Community Options – a cutting-edge program to support older people, with a diagnosis of dementia, to remain in their own homes. Her creative solutions to problems improved outcomes for many, including her mother who developed Alzheimer’s. Barb became the first President of the Alzheimer’s Association of Victoria, was a Board Member for 13 years, and a much-valued sounding board for the Chief Executive Officer of Alzheimer’s Victoria, which ultimately became Alzheimer’s Australia. After she retired, Barb became involved with a number of local organisations, including Surrey Hills Neighbourhood Centre (SHNC) where amongst other roles, she became a member of the Management Committee. Barb was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 1990 – the award was given for the extraordinary work she had done over 35 years. She was made a Life Member of SHNC in 2014. Sadly, Barb died in September.
Elizabeth Meredith’s name may be familiar through her letters to the editor in The Age – her reflections on contemporary politics and issues of the day are often in print. A stalwart of our community, she has over 60 years of volunteering. Elizabeth taught at Kingswood College for 15 years, where she was also a member of the School Council. On the broader educational stage, she was a member of the Biology Curriculum Committee, the Janet Clark Hall Alumni and the Monash University Medical Selection Committee. After her retirement Elizabeth became focused on local advocacy work. It would be difficult to mention all the issues with which she has been involved, however, it began in 1965 when she and others fought for the creation of open space in Harding Street, now known as Bluebell Hill Reserve. She was a foundation member of West of Elgar Residents Association (WERA) when it was formed in 1995 to advocate on behalf of residents concerned about inappropriate development. This included the fight to protect Gardiner’s Creek parklands in the face of the Deakin University’s expansion plans. Her current focus is remediation of the former Brickworks site in Box Hill to create open space akin to the Darebin Parklands.
Cr Shima Ibuki and Cr Kirsten Langford presented Barb and Elizabeth with tokens of appreciation. We were also joined by the then Mayor of Boroondara, Cr Sophie Torney and John Pesuto, Member for Hawthorn.
Afternoon tea followed the formal part of the event.
We will again celebrate International Women’s Day in 2026.
