Darkan CWA plans International Women’s Day sundowner featuring Mia Davies, Gay Growden and Tania Taylor

Members of a reinvigorated CWA of WA branch in Darkan are planning their first major event, a sundowner featuring three guest speakers to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8. The headline speakers are Central Wheatbelt MLA Mia Davies, Dunsborough CWA chair Gay Growden, and Bodhi Day Spa owners Tania Taylor. With 50 years of involvement with various branches of the CWA of WA, Ms Growden left Darkan several years ago and joined the Dunsborough CWA. While Bodhi Day Spa founder Tania Taylor is well-known in WA’s wellness scene, not all would know she originally hails from Darkan. She recently opened Peninsula Cafe in Maylands. Darkan CWA president Eloise Goss said: “We are very proud to say she is one of us.” “We love that she has grown up, gone away and had great success in business.” A range of food and drink will be on offer, with local food from Paddy Wagon and a sweets grazing board provided by the Darkan CWA. The group has gone through a major change in the past year, with a new committee meaning the five original ladies would take a step back while still being involved. With just five members in early 2021, the branch looked likely to shut down until mother-and-daughter team Caroline and Bonne Telfer “messaged everyone they knew”. After realising the important history of the Darkan-based group, local women rallied and now about 30 have joined the “reinvigorated branch”. “We are really opening up people’s knowledge of what CWA offers, and how it is about supporting regional women,” Ms Goss said. Learning about the history of the CWA of WA was first on the agenda, and then the group’s attention turned to the perfect mixture of fundraising and funds. “We did a lot of things to find out feet last year, because we had a new president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer and none of us had anything to do with CWA before,” Ms Goss said. “We really tried to bring in a fresh set of eyes and take the load off… the next generation of people has come on board.” Among their first activities to bring women together were cake stalls, a cupcake decorating course, a flower decorating course, and an information session on motherhood and raising babies. For those in a more mature age bracket, a different workshop focused on menopause and peri-menopause which Ms Goss said allowed local women to share their stories. “We have tried really hard to get those intergenerational connections happening… across different groups,” she said. “Often when your children grow up and you leave the parents and citizens group, there are no other groups. “So this was about bringing all women, from all walks of life, together to celebrate fun and friendship, to have a cup of tea and figure out some fundraisers we can do.” It’s a busy period for the Darkan community, with a local group called the Darkan Hotel Community Project working to reopen and renovate the town’s pub and hotel, and the town holding its annual Darkan Sheepfest earlier this month. Locals are also taking part in WA-based Peter Kowald’s Bank of Ideas program, which Ms Goss said would help the town to develop a community strategic plan. “We are consulting a community action development plan… so looking at what the assets are in a town and how you can build upon the assets to build the town,” she said. “It is about building assets to bring people to your town and then getting them to spend money to support the economy.”