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QUESTION: Women's Liberation squatting houses for a battered women's shelter (Australia)

Submitted by Anonymooose on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 5:18pm
question / pregunta: 

In 1974, members of Women's Liberation in Sydney, Australia, squatted two houses to found "Elsie," a battered women's shelter. Eventually, the group was given a lease and a federal grant to pay the salaries of Elsie's 6 staff members. Where would I find more information/documentation about the group and the house?

Answers

Answer posted by: dj

There are several libraries in Australia that hold copies of the Sydney Women's Liberation Newsletter. If you contact the Jessie Street National Women's Library with your query, they may be able to provide further assistance and perhaps even copies of relevant newsletter (or other) material.

Anne Summers recalled her role in the setting up of the Elsie Refuge in a newspaper article published in 1999. You may be able to access the content of the article via a full-text database of newspaper articles at your local library if you cannot access it via any other means. [(Anne Summers (1999, November 1). Memorable Summers; FEATURES :[Late Edition]. Sydney Morning Herald, p 15)]

Both Anne Summers and Marilyn Lake have written books that would contain material relevant to your question:

Lake, Marilyn, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, New South Wales, 1999, 316 pp

Summers, Anne; Park Ruth (foreword by), Ducks on the Pond: An Autobiography 1945-1976, Viking, Ringwood, Vic., 1999, 438 pp.

The Australian Women's History Forum may be a good place to visit both to find additional online resources that may be helpful and also to possibly make contact with Women who were directly involved with the refuge and Women's Liberation in Sydney.