Summary

Image taken at the 1995 Swan Hill Women on Farms Gathering during a tour of a local nursery.
Part of Museums Victoria's Invisible Farmer Project Collection. The Invisible Farmer Project was the largest ever study of Australian women on the land, uncovering the histories and stories of Australian women in agriculture. It began as a pilot project (2015-2016) and evolved into a three year (2017-2020) nation-wide partnership between rural communities, academic, government and cultural organisations, funded by the Australian Research Council.the absence of rural women in mainstream histories and museums.

Description of Content

A group of women standing at a nursery during the 1995 Swan Hill Women on Farms Gathering.

Physical Description

Colour Digital Photograph

Significance

Tours have been a central feature of the Victorian Women on Farms Gatherings ever since the first tour, which was held at the 1991 Sea Lake Gathering. The purpose of tours is to give participants the opportunity to witness local farming practices and in doing so, to learn new skills and diversify their knowledge base. In the early 1990s the tours were mostly restricted to farm-based tours. However, as the Gatherings themselves evolved to include a range of broader rurally based activities and issues, tours too stated to become more diverse and include a range of non-farming educational opportunities. These tours are significant to the Victorian Women on Farms Gatherings, and also more generally in terms of their place in Australia's rural and social history. Situated in the wider context of the rural women's movement in Australia, these tours represent a collective move by rural women to educate themselves about farming enterprise, raise their public profile and in doing so, to challenge the dominant representation of rural Australia as a male domain.

More Information