Category: Community

THE Country Women’s Association of Albany has begun a desperate search for new members in an attempt to return the group to its former glory.

Branch president Abigail Parker said the branch began in 1938 but was forced to fold in 2006 due to a drop in membership.

Since then, Ms Parker said the group’s current home – the CWA Hall on Serpentine Road – had been privately leased out, until earlier this year when the group took back the reins of the hall in February.

She said she hopes to reinstate the CWA branch and get the group involved in the community once again.

Ms Parker said she and secretary Anne Barton are now on the look-out for new, young members to continue the traditions and activities of CWA.

“CWA isn’t just for when you retire,” the pair urged.

“We need some young blood to keep it going and bring new ideas in.”

Ms Barton said she remembers the CWA Hall being a hive of activity back in its day, hosting birthdays, social gatherings and ‘28 and Overs’.

She too wants CWA Albany to grow again and bring women across generations together to encourage friendships and lesson sharing.

“It’s not just about scones and tea,” Ms Barton said.

“Our goal is to create a vibrant branch that gets out with the community,” Ms Parker added.

“CWA is about what women want it to be about, and the projects we do are based on what the members want to do.”

The pair said in order for the CWA Hall to offer classes such as the traditional cooking classes, it requires refurbishment in the kitchen, a disabled toilet and disabled access.

They said they are currently in the process of applying for grants to fund these fixes, and hope more people can join the group to increase the group’s likelihood of attracting funding.

If you would like to join the CWA Albany branch, you can contact Ms Parker on 0403 783 669 or Ms Barton on 0412 937 641.

ON THE heels of a recommendation that police dogs and horses be afforded protection under Western Australia’s Animal Welfare Act, the Superintendent of Police for the Great Southern says a police dog is a distinct possibility for the region.

“We’ve been pushing for a while, and they are reviewing trying to get a police dog in our district,” Superintendent Dom Wood told The Weekender.

“We think we will get one, but when, I don’t know.”

He said drug detection dogs sometimes saw action in his district, as recently as last week in a rural area.

“It would be difficult to justify a general purpose dog for tracking and all that, because we just don’t have the level of burglaries and crime that they have in the metro area,” he said.

“But certainly there is talk of an agreement that we can get a drug detection dog down here at this point.”

Mr Wood said that, most likely, one of the existing patrol officer positions in the region would be converted to a dog handler position.

“All we would have to do is find a position, for example we could have an officer down here who puts their hand up and says ‘I’d like to become a dog handler’, and he or she could do the [handler’s] course,” he said.

“And, if the time is right, the next dog that is available would come down here.”

Mr Wood said police horses also helped patrol the region from time to time.

“Over the summer period, we had a little bit of an increase in crime in the Albany town centre, so we did actually bring the horses down [from Perth] and we coincided that with the 150-year anniversary of the police station, so they came down for that,” he said.

The Weekender has learned that WA Police Union President George Tilbury wants a Parliamentary committee to recommend that the existing Animal Welfare Act be amended to prohibit the “assault” of a police animal.

In a letter dated April 18, Mr Tilbury tells the Legislative Council’s Standing Committee on Legislation that the police force has about 40 dogs and 20 horses.

“Police animals provide alternatives to using lethal force and it has been said by officers from those units that a dog is worth six officers and a horse is the equivalent of 10,” he writes.

“The WA Police Union is advised that police horses are worth approximately $150,000 after their initial purpose and associated training.

“The monetary worth of a general duties puppy can also be as much as $15,000.”

Mr Tilbury advises that about four police dogs are injured on average each year.

“Police animals are often deployed in dangerous situations for the purpose of law enforcement,” he notes.

“The Act should be amended to reflect the gravity of assaulting one.”

ARRANGING a successful handover of the family farm to the next generation will be the subject of a workshop to be held in Ongerup on June 8.

Ellie Stone, whose family grows wheat, canola, barley, lupins, and merino and cross-bred sheep at Boxwood Hill, says succession planning regularly comes up in conversation in regional areas.

“Many family farming businesses have completely different structures to one another, but a lot of the issues remain the same – what’s going to happen in the future, when will it be my turn to take on the farm, how do I keep Dad happy, how do we keep the lines of communication open?,” she says.

“I think that marrying into a farm business, it can be quite hard coming into a family that has its own way of communication, and finding your place in the farming business.”

Ms Stone, who is president of the Ongerup branch of Women in Farming Enterprise – better known by its acronym, ‘WIFE’ – says there is no one-size-fits-all solution to farm succession.

“But I think the core values of how to communicate better and how to approach things, and how important planning for the future is, always stay the same across the board,” she says.

“We’ve got four sons, aged four, eight, and the twins are five, and they’re already mad-keen farmers.

“So, for my family, we’re looking for the future of how we can set ourselves up for our sons’ opportunities to work on the farm if they wish to, or in other avenues if they choose.”

WIFE will run a workshop on farm succession at Ongerup Sporting Complex from 9am to 2.30pm on June 8.

All comers, including blokes, are welcome to attend.

Farmer-cum-accountant Ben Thompson, from Ironbridge Group, and Michael Pyne from HPH Solutions, will talk on the day.

“I suspect a lot of the younger generations who potentially married in to farming families will participate on the day,” Mr Thompson says.

“A lot of the farmers who started farming in the ‘60s and ‘70s are now starting to get to the point of retiring and there is a big difference between that generation of farmers and these ones.

“The younger generations want to know what’s happening and how things are going to be structured, whereas you only have to step back a generation and it was pretty much: ‘You do what you’re told and you don’t ask questions, and we’ll tell you when it’s time to be told’.”

He says that especially when a farming enterprise is carrying a lot of debt, securing a comfortable life for retiring farmers and security for their families while ensuring the future viability of the farm is a challenge.

He says a particular concern for women is securing a future for their off-farm children.

“A lot of them are used to a huge proportion of assets ending up with a son coming home to the farm, and the off-farm children being left with not much,” he explains.

“I think a lot of women want to ensure there is a balance, that it’s not all about the farm and the pressure that comes with that.

“It can’t always be equitable – otherwise, in many cases, you’d have to sell the farm – but I think it can be fair.”

WIFE members can attend the workshop for $15, and non-WIFE members for $25.

RSVPs to [email protected] by June 1.