The Australian Women's Register

A Memorial to past committee members of Women on Farms Gatherings was initiated by the Ouyen Gathering in 1998, and since then has been displayed in a prominent place at each Gathering.

The women acknowledged on the plaque include: Eileen Patricia (Pat) Hall, Sea Lake 1991; Kathleen (Kath) Paynter, Swan Hill 1995; Rhonda Weatherhead, Warragul 1990; Muriel Dick, Warragul 1990 & 1999.

In 1988 the Embroiderers’ Guilds of Australia presented a commemorative embroidery to the Commonwealth Parliament as a gift to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary. This presentation was the culmination of eight years of unprecedented collaboration among the eight State and Territory Guilds, overseen by a standing committee of the ACT Guild – the Parliament House Embroidery Committee – convened by Dorothy Hyslop. Over 1000 women from all over Australia were involved in the work and the Guilds donated not only their embroidery skills but also the fabric and thread and the administration of the project.

The embroidery is one of the two major artworks hanging in the Great Hall of Parliament House. Designed as an eight-panel frieze in the tradition of the Bayeux Tapestry, 16 metres long and 65 centimetres deep, the embroidery’s theme is ‘the settlement of Australia’, in tune with the theme of ‘the land’ for all the public areas of the House. The exquisite embroidery is universally acknowledged as a nationally significant artwork and has given prominence to a long undervalued medium.