The first branch of the Women’s Suffrage League in regional Australia was established in Goulburn on 2 November 1901. Its establishment resulted from the energy of an enthusiastic group of Goulburn district women, as follows:
In response to a comment in the NSW parliament that there was no push from country women for franchise, a meeting of “60 ladies” in Goulburn on 30 August 1901, decided to petition the NSW parliament in support of women’s right to vote. Within four days they had 1,000 signatures on the petition. They soon organised a public address by Rose Scott a leading Sydney advocate of women’s franchise; her address on 9 October 1901 in the Goulburn Town Hall was attended by 150 women (and some men), the largest gathering Rose Scott had ever addressed.
A leading figure in the Goulburnmovement in Goulburn seems to have been Mrs Burkitt who was elected secretary of the branch.
Image: Goulburn Evening Penny Post, Tuesday 5 November 1901, page 2; accessed from Trove at www.trove.nla.gov.au
