WOW Australia was once again pleased to support this year’s Channel Country Ladies Day. An annual celebration that takes place in the far western reaches of central and southern Queensland, the celebration was unfortunately cancelled in 2020, so this year everyone was raring to go.

Hundreds of women from regional, rural and remote townships and properties gathered to listen to inspirational speakers, take part in practical and artistic workshops, join in fun group exercise activities and of course, enjoy the fabulous dress-up evening events.

We were welcomed to Country by Mardigan woman Jocelyn Haylock.

Master of Ceremonies was the charming award-winning journalist Nicole Bond, who travelled from her home in Longreach to participate. Nicole gave a warm welcome and provided a sparkling presence across the weekend’s activities.

The festival goers were delighted with a powerful keynote speech from Olympic Gold & Silver Medal winner Brooke Hanson. Her stirring speech covered her incredible story of overcoming many obstacles on her path to the Olympics, including the path to self-belief. She very openly shared some hard moments in her life, which resonated with the audience deeply, resulting in a standing ovation.

Other esteemed speakers included Gunggari woman Sandy Gillies, who is the CEO of the Western Queensland Public Health Network (PHN). Sandy shared stories from her life growing up in Western Queensland, including when she became a nurse and some of the seminal moments that challenged her throughout her career, and why she is so passionate about reinstating the strong pathways to health services employment in the West.

Rachel Downie shared her journey, and spoke passionately about the two projects that she has created that led to her Queensland Australian of the Year Award in 2020. Stymie is an anonymous reporting system for school students to report bullying, and Bravely is a wellness program for school girls that focuses on body image, cyberwellness, bullying and harm and consent education.

Bec Fing of House Paddock Training spoke about regional women, their strength and resilience, and the challenges they face in prioritizing their own health and well-being. As a risk-management and business consultant, Bec had a lot of tips for how to prioritise and value your time and resources, and how to have it all, with having to do it all!

Entertainment on the weekend was provided by popular comedian Jenny Wynter, who presented a side-splitting set on the Friday night, getting to know women in the crowd and creating live spontaneous songs out of those same conversations! Mick Lindsay provided two nights of classic songs for the dance floor, and we were treated to workshops and dancing displays of 50’s style Swing and Jive dancing from Jean Mustafa and John Melhuish from Breakaways Rock’n’roll Club.

Workshops of many kinds took place, from early-morning aqua-aerobics at the local pool, to craft workshops in boro stitch, lamp-making and cyanotype printing, as well as a late-night photography workshop from official photographer Louise Gronold. Plus many more.

Painting by Lyn Barnes for Channel Country Ladies Day auction.

In addition, Channel Country Ladies Day also has a range of beauty and health services, with ladies able to book a GP appointment, get their nails or hair done, have a massage, receive some reflexology, have a breast or sexual health screen or get a Covid-vaccination. Needless to say, these services were booked solid for the weekend. Not-for-profit trust Pathways to Resilience offered a creative drop-in space and workshops on finding the calm within, and parenting workshops focused on understanding brain development in young children.

A highlight of the weekend was a catwalk fashion event with beautiful clothes from the Red Ridge ‘Georgina’ collection, modelled by women from the local region. The fashion was followed by a high-tension auction of a unique artwork by outback artist Lyn Barnes, which went for a record-breaking $20,000, of which 50% goes to the Royal Flying Doctors Service. The image features Baldy Top, a red rocky formation just outside of Quilpie, and onto the painting are many tiny figures of the women at Channel Country Ladies Day, each of whom painted herself in and signed the back – a truly unique artwork.

The event was an unequalled success, and a very welcome highlight of the year for rural and remote women of the Channel Country, who are a hard-working community with little opportunity to let their hair down and connect with other women en masse. A huge congratulations to the volunteer committee who contribute many hours of work over the year to make sure this event goes ahead in all its glory. It’s highly recommended to come out and connect with and learn from the local women, and of course, if you would like to be a part of the team, the Committee is taking applications from regional women for next years event.

This event was attended by Nadia Jade from WOW Australia on 16-18 October 2021.