WOMEN OF THE WEST

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 November 1943, Page 4

WOMEN OF THE WEST

AUSTRALIAN ENDURANCE

BRISBANE, October 24. Cheers for “the brave women of the west” were given by delegates at the annual meeting of the central divisions of the Country Women’s Association at Bundaberg to-day, following an explanation by Mrs. Bailey Flowers of why she arrived a day late for the meeting. She was the representative from Blackwater, 118 miles west of Rockhampton. After leaving home in a utility truck with her husband and children, she said, to catch a train, heavy rain fell and the truck bogged. Later one of the children reported that a dam had burst, and for some hours she assisted her husband to repair it. “You’ve all read in a school-book about a boy stopping a hole in a dyke with his finger,” she said. “Well, I had a similar experience—but I used my body. After we had repaired the dam with stones, darkness set in and rain was still falling heavily as we trudged back home for several miles. All I had on was my singlet and scanties. We waded through several creeks more than waist-deep. Next morning a horse was obtained for me, and after riding for nine hours over boggy roads I reached the station and caught a train for Rockhampton, and then came on to Bundaberg.”