WWHC’s founder Jan Roberts with Museum of the Riverina’s Sophie Magnusson at the 2024 launch of The Incredible Feminist of Wagga Wagga exhibition. Photo: Shri Gayathirie Rajen.
With the Wagga Women’s Health Centre (WWHC) embarking on “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence” we thought we’d look back at the origins of this important and embattled local service.
2025 has been a tough year for the centre which was stripped of more than half a million dollars in annual funding by the NSW Government. But it’s not the first battle WWHC has faced since officially opening its doors in October 1979 in the face of some fierce local opposition.
The sexual revolution and the introduction of the pill into Australia in 1961 had given women unprecedented reproductive control and opened new pathways into education and employment.
Social change did not happen overnight and initially birth control medication was restricted to married women who could afford the added “luxury tax” of 27.5 per cent.
In the early 70s as attitudes changed and increasingly empowered Australian women advocated for greater access to contraceptives, they succeeded in abolishing the tax in 1972 and the Whitlam government included the pill on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
There was funding too for grassroots women’s health centres and crisis support, but little flowed beyond the cities or the coastal centres to meet the needs of women and families in the regions.
In Wagga in 1979 there was just one female doctor and physicians commonly refused to provide prescriptions to unmarried women, if at all.
Poor access to birth control, limited health information and judgement-free support were among a range of issues that spurred on a group of eight local women to fight for better services and to establish a place of their own.
Jan Roberts was one of the founders of WWHC and spoke to Region in 2024 at the launch of her exhibition The Incredible Feminist of Wagga Wagga.
“Wagga has been traditionally a very conservative community, and it’s quite remarkable that we established something seen as the epitome of women’s empowerment,” Jan said.
“We said why the city always has things and rural and country areas don’t have them, and we established the first one in a country area with the support of other centres.
“It’s important to understand that a group of citizens, if they choose, have the belief and endurance, can change the culture and thinking in the community.”
As Jan’s exhibition explained, the deputy regional director of health, Dr David Law confirmed in December of 1978 that there would be no government support for the maverick Wagga women “because they would only benefit part of the community”.
Determined to go it alone if need be, they raised funds through regular community donations and a team of volunteers stepped up to make it happen.
Despite their limited means, the group signed a 12-month lease on a rundown property at 131 Edward Street for $45 per week and launched the first meeting of the Women’s Health and Support Centre on Saturday 2 June, 1979.
A quote from co-founder Bev Stuart in the Incredible Feminist exhibition captures how big the leap of faith had been.
“When we opened, for the first six years, no one was paid by the centre for any of their work because there was no funding,” she said.
“When we’d gone through all this process of trying to convince the system that we needed this centre and we were looking for some funding, we just assumed that that would come and then we’d employ some people to work.”
The rapidly growing number of women knocking on the door served to highlight the need and the centre rolled out a range of services including counselling, pregnancy testing, health resources and crisis support.
From the very first day, the WWHC became a safe haven for woman experiencing domestic violence and the numbers have continued to grow.
In 2025, it was unsuccessful in obtaining a new grant through the Primary Prevention Multi-Year Partnerships scheme that funded its community-based domestic violence initiatives.
Forty-six years after opening its doors, the WWHC (now on Peter Street) remains an independent not-for-profit community organisation supporting women’s rights and well-being.
They are asking the community to join them in solidarity to support the 16 Days of Activism that began on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25 November)and will conclude on International Human Rights Day (10 December).
