A feeling of anticipation prevailed at the last meeting of the Bogan Gate branch of Country Women's Association as we made final arrangements for our 90th birthday, which is a grand milestone for such a small town.
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We were very proud to celebrate our 90th recently with a very enjoyable luncheon at the Bogan Gate Hotel, with 16 attending.
Our Birthday Cake was made and beautifully decorated by Kath Swansbra and 3 of our Life Members Shirley Hunter OAM, Esther Moore and Hilda McPherson, cut the cake for us, and Ida McIntyre another Life Member sent her apologies.
A slideshow presentation compiled for our 80th celebrations with old photos collected by members brought much laughter and some gasps of disbelief as we saw photos of ourselves taken 30 years ago or more!
Ros Edwards presented us with a brief history of our branch with the inaugural meeting being held at the home of Mrs W Black on 7th November 1931.
The meeting was opened by Miss Warby, State Treasurer. During the War years the members of CWA were called upon to do many extra tasks.
For many months they ran a canteen for soldiers at the nearby Army Camp, the people who ran the Canteen would drive into town in their sulkies and tie up their horses in the back yard of the garage.
Almost every woman in Bogan Gate had a camouflage net on a stand and as soon as one was finished, another would be started.
Most ladies knitted socks or made pyjamas, khaki shirts and fruit cakes to include in comfort parcels which were packed once a month during the war years.
The activities of CWA are many and varied, our members have earnestly tried to continue the work to the best of their abilities. Birthday parties were real fashion parades with hats being popular.
The two functions which raised the most money were the annual Ball, with Debutantes making the Balls doubly interesting and the Flower Shows, when the flowers and floral art became a feature of special interest and admiration.
Our Branch has witnessed two Younger Set branches, the first was formed in 1938 with 13 girls joining.
In 1967 a new group was formed with 11 girls joining. Other girls joined later and this Younger Set was responsible for the addition of the Ladies Powder room to the Hall.
They closed in 1973 as they were getting married or moving away from Bogan Gate.
In our 90 years we have had a lot of very valuable members and Gail McKay told us that we have awarded 13 Life Memberships, four 50-year badges, since 1968 33 Long Service Bars and we have had 16 junior members over the years, a great achievement!
In 90 years Bogan Gate CWA has greeted a huge number of members with some only staying a short while and some others staying with us for a long while.
The Branch has witnessed lots of babies and lots and lots of different events, activities and just many things happening in our district, all of which we are very proud to have been part of.
In recent years our 50th, 70th and 80th birthday celebrations have been big affairs and we are very excited even though we are now a small branch to still be here to celebrate our 90th birthday which was on 7th November.
The day gave us the opportunity to rekindle past friendships and reminisce about the wonderful years of enjoyment and satisfaction gained through our association with the Bogan Gate Branch of CWA.