Media Releases
LAST STEPS IN A HUNDRED YEARS OF WALKING!For immediate release, 3 January, 2022:
On the brink of its first century, members of the Melbourne Women's Walking Club (MWWC) are stepping up to celebrate a century of walking together.
Founded in 1922 by a small, enterprising group of women who were excluded from the only walking club that existed in Melbourne then - not open to women at
that time - almost a century on now, the MWWC is enjoying the highest number of members ever, for whom the pleasures of walking together
still thrill.
A hundred years of getting out, going places!
And how things have changed! In the early days, stepping out meant doing it in cumbersome long dresses, prompting experimentation with jodhpurs, then shorts,
for ease of movement. Transport was either by train, packhorse, furniture van or charabanc and the essential items of equipment were such simplicities as
a hessian bag and a billy. Such a far cry from the high-tech materials for clothing and footwear today, not to mention lightweight backpacks complete
with solar panels to recharge mobile phones, all while moving about with GPS pinpoint accuracy!
But the companionship remains the same.
To mark this extraordinary club milestone, a range of events are planned to take place this year (pandemic permitting), including a 'no pants' picnic,
a series of walks that have particular historical significance to the club, as well as the publication of a book documenting the club's history -
Still on Track: 100 years of the Melbourne Women's Walking Club - that includes a great collection of the adventures experienced by its trail-blazing members,
along with descriptions of what the club has meant and given us.
From the days when walking meant a hard slog over unmade roads - then waiting hours at a railway siding, perhaps boiling a billy to share with the station
master to refresh the spirits - before a lengthy ride home again, to trips overseas with organised accommodation and guided wanders, the Melbourne Women's
Walking Club has lasted the distance through it all.
On the brink, now, to start another century of walking!
For more information and media enquiries, contact Maria Zijlstra:
mwwcmedia@hotmail.com