The Narre Warren & District Family History Group general meeting will be held  on Saturday, July 16, 2022 at 2.00pm.  Venue:  L’Arte Central Café Training Room, 65 Berwick-Cranbourne Road, Cranbourne East & via Zoom.

The guest speaker is Katie Wood – Pioneer Girls and Flappers: Australia’s early female munitions workers. During World War Two, tens of thousands of Australian women found work in the munitions industry in a period when women’s industrial employment was regarded as a novelty. The stories of our mothers, aunts or grandmothers’ exploits in the new-found freedom of waged work, or the danger and monotony of the factory are a part of our family histories. What many don’t realise is that women’s work in munitions began far earlier, all the way back to the 1880s, when hundreds of young women worked at the Colonial Ammunition Company in Footscray. Their story is a rollicking tale of explosions and strikes, politics, picnics and more. In this talk, historian and archivist Katie Wood will bring to life this fascinating history, which has touched so many families. Katie is a PhD Candidate in History at La Trobe University and Senior Archivist at the University of Melbourne Archives.

All are welcome to join us for lunch in the L’Arte Central Café Training Room at 12.30 pm. To attend in person or via Zoom bookings are essential – Eileen  secretary@nwfhg.org.au