Summary

Image taken at the 2003 Yarram Women on Farms Gathering. This image was taken at the beginning of the Gathering weekend, and depicts participants viewing a display board of workshop and tour listings.
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.

Description of Content

A woman stands in front of a display board at the 2003 Yarram Women on Farms Gathering.

Physical Description

Colour Digital Photograph

Significance

Workshops and tours are an important feature of all Victorian Women on Farms Gatherings. Tours have been a regular occurance at the 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.

Workshops have been a regular feature of all Victorian Women on Farms Gatherings ever since the first Gathering in Warragul in 1990. At the inaugural 1990 Gathering, workshops were inspired by the farm skills courses that had been running around Victoria during the late 1980s and that had been the forerunner to the first Gathering. These workshops were very hands-on and focused predominately on enhancing the practical farm skills of the women that participated. However, as the Gatherings themselves evolved to include a range of broader rurally based activities and issues, workshops too became more diverse and began to include a range of non-farming educational opportunities. Whatever their focus, all workshops have aimed to educate, inspire, up skill and rejuvenate the women that partake. Situated in the wider context of the rural women's movement in Australia, these workshops 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.

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