Unforgotten: Nancy Donkers and Jess Boccia admire Christian Waller’s stained glass in Christ Church.
KIM WATERS
A stained glass artist, a Victorian suffrage society president and an Australian Centenary Medal winner are among Geelong’s historic “unrecognised” women, according to city feminists.
The trio’s stories will be told during an educational Herstory bus tour on Tuesday to celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day.
Event organiser Nancy Donkers said tour participants would visit sites of significance to hear about the Geelong women and others whose stories remain hidden and left out of the glossy tourist brochures.
“There is Christian Waller, who designed a stained-glass window in Christ Church in 1942. She was one of the first Australian female stained-glass artists and a book illustrator,” Ms Donkers said.
“Then there’s Queenscliff’s Henrietta Dugdale who became president of the first Women’s Suffrage Society in Australia in 1884.
“We’ll also visit the Ford factory where women took over the work when many of the men enlisted during the Second World War and include the history of the Blue Triangle Community, formed by middle-class Geelong women in 1924 to prepare young women at 14 for their entry into the workforce.”
Ms Donkers said the Herstory Bus Tour would depart Kitchener House at 5pm on Tuesday.
