The Meaning of a Bushwalk with the Melbourne Women’s Walking Club, 1922–45

Abstract

What drove a small group of Melbourne women to form Australia’s first women’s walking club in 1922? Building on Melissa Harper’s study of bushwalking’s explosion in popularity in the early twentieth century and drawing on the records of the Melbourne Women’s Walking Club (MWWC), this article asks what participation in the male-dominated pastime of organised bushwalking meant to women, both as a physical encounter with nature and as a form of community. MWWC members drew solace and excitement from spending time in natural spaces and held genuine affection for the places and wildlife they often fought to protect from development or destruction. For women, bushwalking could also represent a temporary and thrilling escape from domestic spaces and responsibilities, an avenue for close relationships with likeminded women, and an opportunity to experiment with new and feminist modes of dressing and behaving.