CWA Far South Coast group conference 'a united voice' serving the community

Members from Batemans Bay in the north to Eden in the south attended to elect office bearers, present badges, discuss motions, and present awards - five of which went to Bodalla.

Bev Davis gasped upon hearing her name get called out when she was awarded the Molly Jaggers Trophy for best branch cultural activities book, the prize a print of the painting 'The Harvesters' by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

Her jaw dropped once more when she tied with a lady from Bermagui to win the Norma Allen Perpetual Trophy, in recognition for being the individual with the most entries at branch level for Land Cookery, in the form of a silverplate salver.

Bodalla also received the Myrtle Milne Trophy for attendance, the Bega Cheese Trophy for branch with the best average number of entries per member, and the branch with the highest percentage of member participation.

Pambula-Merimbula, Cobargo, and Bermagui also received awards.

Tilba Dairy's Erica Dibden was the guest speaker, and spoke about food security and resilience. She said growth occurs through diversity and adversity, while "relationships need to be nurtured, fed, fertilised and looked after".

Mayor Russell Fitzpatrick opened the event and welcomed the members to Pambula.

"[My message is] that we work together, we're one community, the CWA take away their motions to their state executives and also federal executives, and if we can work with council, that we take away the same motions to our state government and local government of NSW," Mayor Fitzpatrick said.

"Around homelessness, around affordable housing issues, also other issues, the cost of living, and stuff like that, so that we're all basically agreeing on the same motions, and coming from a united voice.

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"We should be one community sticking together, the power is, you've got the power of a collective instead of a single voice."

Reverend Jean Shannon blessed the conference with a prayer, and used a scripture to show how different roles and gifts can be used for the common good, reiterating the importance of diversity.

"Bringing together women in towns and properties, pooling the breadth of skills and experience has given you a powerful voice to advocate for environmental, social, health, safety and conservation concerns," Jean said.

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