Hi Landcarer’s

The NSW Rural Women’s Gathering Committee held their last meeting this week.

This was an opportunity for the group to come together and review outcomes from the Gathering. What worked, what didn’t. The normal post event review.

We are pleased to report that even with the impact of Covid19 restrictions for close contacts, the event still came out ahead and we are pleased to be able to re-invest some of the proceeds from the event back in our local communities, which was one of the main reasons that we took on the Gathering back in 2019.

We hope that the Gathering as an event continues, but at this stage there are no plans for a future Gathering.

These events have provided encouragement, training and building of women from across rural NSW for 30 years.

Rural women’s gatherings provide the opportunity for rural women to come together to build resilience, network, learn, share experiences and support each other while gaining access to decision-makers, information and service providers. They also allow regional towns to showcase their local talent, produce and environment.

Central West Lachlan Landcare have been pleased to support the NSW Rural Women’s Gathering Committee since our submission that was originally undertaken to bring people to the town and Central West as a drought response measure. Also as an opportunity to encourage and support rural women who were at that stage in the most significant drought in modern memory.

So much has changed since then. Even though the impact of the drought is still in the back of minds, the current conditions make it hard to believe that at that stage it was so severe.

As a result of the Gathering there have been friendships forged and new vision established for how we can still deliver to our communities with the legacy of the Gathering.

We have been thrilled with the feedback received ranging from how fabulous and fortunate we were to have such a fantastic line up of local speakers and our guest speakers, to how fabulous the food was.

Here’s hoping that the Gathering has a life beyond Forbes and other women can experience the building of an event and comradeship of being part of a Gathering Committee.

For Landcare at least in the Parkes and Forbes Shires, we are looking forward to utilising the positive outcomes from this event to the advantage of our communities.

For further information on this article, please go to www.centralwestlachlanlandcare.org, twitter, facebook or Instagram @cwllandcare