Country Women's Association Heritage Highlight

Country Women's Association (CWA) members have been baking their way into showgoers' hearts since a CWA kiosk opened at the Sydney Easter Show 76 years ago, but RAS links with the CWA go back much further than that.

The Country Women's Association (CWA) of NSW celebrated its centenary in 2022. The organisation evolved from the Bushwomen's Conference of April 1922, which was held in conjunction with the Sydney Royal Easter Show that year. At the conference an organising committee was formed which included Miss Florence Gordon and Mrs Grace Munro. Grace was elected the CWA of NSW's foundation president and she was also the mother of, soon to be elected RAS Vice-President, Douglas Munro. The family's long history with the RAS and as award-winning cattle exhibitors at the Show, have been commemorated in the naming of the current Munro Pavilion.

Another very active CWA executive member in the 1930s and 40s, with close links to the RAS, was Mary White of Saumarez, Armidale.  The sister of RAS councillor Colonel Harold Fletcher (Bill) White, Mary was part of the White family after whom the White cattle pavilion at the showground has been named.    

Formed out of a desire to improve the lot of rural women, the CWA has long had a prominent place at the Sydney Royal. When the export wool market collapsed during the Depression of the 1930s, they were determined to encourage the use of more wool in a bid to help woolgrowers.

At the 1938 Show, which commemorated the nation's 150th anniversary, the CWA mounted a comprehensive display of the many uses of wool. They held practical demonstrations of spinning, weaving, quilting and of the making of mattresses, rugs and carpets. But what stopped show-goers and the media in their tracks that year, was the CWA's intriguing Wool House. Staged in the Commemorative Hall at the Moore Park Showground it was described in the Sydney Mail as being "as novel as it is attractive. All its furnishings – carpets, tapestries, curtains, chair coverings etc – are also of wool".

After the Second World War, the CWA opened its first kiosk at the Show as a fund-raising venture and since then, CWA tea and scones has become an Easter Show institution. Over a hundred thousand dollars is raised each year from scone sales alone and in 2022 the CWA showbag celebrating the organisation's centenary, was a hot ticket item.

Still the largest women's organisation in Australia, the CWA is committed to improving the lives of women and their families right across the state and tantalising the taste buds of all at the Sydney Royal.