Narrabri CWA celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, but it will do so without a home.
The branch sold its headquarters for $255,000 in an auction led by Landmark Harcourts on Friday, May 30. The sale was necessary as the branch could not afford to pay the property rates issued by Narrabri Shire Council, the CWA said.
Group president Rhonda McPherson said members were now seeking a new meeting place.
“The branch is still going to be active.
“Where they’re going to meet they’re not too sure at this stage, probably in the library.”
Narrabri, like other CWA branches in the shire, had been exempt from paying rates until recently.
“Because they’re an ageing group, they just couldn’t go out and do street stalls and those sorts of things to raise money,” Mrs Robertson said.
“But they still want to get together and have a chat, and that’s the friendship part of it.”
The branch has about 15 members as well as life members.
The CWA has a long and distinguished tradition in the country and as has famously been said, the organisation is about much more than ‘tea and scones’ and undertakes an enormous scope of work, raising funds for scholarships, medical research, disaster relief and with active debates on social and community issues from foreign land ownership to coal seam gas.
The CWA remains the largest women’s organisation in Australia, with more than 10,000 members in city and country NSW.