Women's history takes centre stage on city walking tour

As the first woman director of the Illawarra Folk Festival and a longtime promoter of gender equality on stage, Shane LadyMoon knows a thing or two about trailblazing. Now, as a She Shapes History tour guide, she is championing the rights of women past and present.

“In Australia, when it comes to the bronze statues, only four percent of them are actual historical females in our country,” Shane told her group at Flagstaff Hill.

“There are more bronze animals than there are historical women.”

It’s 10am on Saturday, May 30. While it's only Shane’s fourth outing as a She Shapes History guide, she is leading the largest 'Wicked Women of Wollongong' crew since the tourism business expanded here in November. We are a group of 24, including Tania Brown, Lord Mayor of Wollongong; Alison Byrnes, Member for Cunningham, and David Laing and Craig Morris, executive members of Healthier Illawarra Men (HIM). 

“I absolutely love Wollongong, and what a great opportunity," said Shane, who recently joined the team to lead weekend tours.

"It's such an honour to enrich our stories."

For example, Shane said: "We are about to talk about the mining disaster, we know about it – but take that deeper look into it…"

Gathered on on the grass beside Blue Mile, our group hears the story of the explosion on 31 July 1902 at Mt Kembla Colliery, a tragedy that killed 94 men and boys.

Shane tells it from the perspective of the era's first responders: "The morgue in town was filled with women. They laid these bodies in the front rooms of their houses, washed them, tended to them, prepared them with dignity – could you imagine doing that?"

Tour booked out

The big turnout is a tremendous show of solidarity a week after a She Shapes History group was harassed at Flagstaff Hill, ironically in an incident involving 20 to 30 boys on e-bikes.

It's a sunny winter's morning – perfect for a stroll – and the only potentially tough crowd Shane faces are Wollongong locals, born and raised on steel town legends. The Lord Mayor is one of three generations in her family to attend St Mary’s, and knows all about its founders, and how the Sisters of the Good Samaritan turned an old pub into a distinguished school for girls. Alison Byrnes, meanwhile, not only knows about convict turned matriarch Mary Wade, but was a guest of honour at last November's ‘family reunion’, held at Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort to mark the 250^th anniversary of Mary's birth.

Both politicians, however, told the Illawarra Flame they learned new things about their home city on the tour.

“It's been wonderful to hear about our history and places we walk past all the time,” Tania said. “We know one version of the history, and now hearing that there's so much more to it. I'm hearing about the women change makers that have helped make Wollongong's history." 

Tania knew about the Nuns Pool, carved by convicts into the rock shelf below the lighthouse in the 1830s and 40s, but not its original name – the Chains Bath, for the chains strung between posts for surf safety – nor how colonial officials used the women-only baths as early destination marketing material to attract to families.  

“I just assumed it was started for the nuns, but clearly it had a history before that,” the LM said. “It's nice to hear about that extra dimension to the areas that we enjoy so much, particularly around our harbour and the Blue Mile.”

David Laing, part of the Migrant Heritage Project team advocating for an Illawarra museum, as well as the nonprofit HIM group, said he was there to show support for women, their history and everyone’s right to walk the streets and feel safe.

“The event that happened last weekend, as a group, we all thought that was a pretty disgusting act, and exactly contrary to what we're trying to do through our Tomorrow Man program or other education programs. We called it out early, and how better to show support than come along yourself?”

David said history gave context to city sights. “We’ve just talked about the history of the steelworks, and part of that is the struggle for equal rights for women, and the role of women in what's seen to be a traditionally blokey sort of occupation.” 

His takeaway: “History – it’s about more than rocks and rubble and stones and buildings, it's the stories that go behind all of these things.”

An 'extraordinary' tour

Federal Labor MP Alison Byrnes signed on “to show solidarity, show support … to make sure that this tour continues”. 

“Learning all about our history, our pioneers, our change makers, the women that have really shaped our region in so many different ways, it's been absolutely extraordinary," she said.

“It's great to see also Healthier Illawarra Men here today too.”

Alison said she knew of Mary Wade and Women of Steel director Robynne Murphy – a leader in the 1980s Jobs for Women campaign – but she didn’t know of Lady Jane Franklin, who is remembered in a plaque overlooking the sea, despite only having visited Wollongong for a week.

In introducing Lady Jane, wife of Sir John Franklin, the lieutenant governor of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Shane said: “Lady Jane makes history because she refused to be the ornamental role of the governor's wife. She was quite the powerhouse, actually, in her own right as an explorer, a writer, a social reformer. She is believed to be the first European woman to travel overland from Melbourne to Sydney … she visited Wollongong, May 1839.” 

“Back in Tasmania, she worked tirelessly to improve the lives of female convicts.”

However, this is where Jane’s story turns: she took in two Palawa children as an experiment in assimilation that ended in tragedy, “creating the first generation of stolen children”.

Dr Bess Moylan, who took a She Shapes History tour in Canberra and “really enjoyed it”, joined the Wollongong event to back her local branch. Bess was also struck by Lady Franklin’s story, and the questions it raised about her legacy and right to a plaque. 

“It's interesting to have a discussion about why people are memorialised, and how they make the decision about who's memorialised.”

Bess said she would “absolutely” recommend the tour: “It’s fun to walk around, it's fun to meet other women and other people from Wollongong, or even those just visiting, and it's a good way to reflect on people who've been here before us.”

A friend of Shane’s who grew up in Wollongong, Face Sauvage liked the idea of walking tours highlighting the endeavours and impact of women. “The concept is incredible,” Face said.

“It appealed to me, being a raving feminist, and supporting my friend, and supporting a small business that is encouraging people to overthrow the patriarchy. Lord knows it needs it. 

“And also storytelling – information is power and I think there's a lot of unsung history in our society. A lot."

Face said it was important to have more history, and more accurate accounts of it. "So we can have a well-rounded idea of what history actually happened.” 

To book a tour, visit the She Shapes History site.