The Temperance movement in the Colony of Victoria picked up in the early 19th century, after the liquor licencing laws that had been inherited from the Colony of NSW, were amended to allow for an increase in liquor sales. Hotel licenses were allowed time extensions, and the licences to sell liquor was reduced from £100 to £25. There was concerns that the greater availability of alcohol would lead to social problems. As such, temperance organisations such as the Melbourne Total Abstinence Society, founded in 1842 at the Scots Church on the corner of Collins and Russell Streets in Melbourne. [2]
In 1885 an American Woman's Christian Temperance Union missionary Mary Clement Leavitt travelled to Australia to promote the Temperance Movement. She founded local unions around Victoria. In 1887, Marie Elizabeth Kirk an English Immigrant who had been involved in the British Women's Temperance Association, and the Reverend Philip Moses, a Congregational minister from of Armadale, founded a central organisation, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Victoria. [3] Kirk would be the organising secretary, and driving force of the organisation until 1913. Kirk was succeeded by Elizabeth Laurie Rees, who had been involved in the WCTU as a branch manager, and member of the executive. Rees would stay in the role for 20 years, retiring in 1933. [5]
Mary M. Love, another American who had been involved with the branch in the USA became the inaugural president. Love came to Australia in 1886 to visit her sister and on noting the large quantity of Breweries and public houses decided to get involved. [3] The organisation's primary focus was on promoting abstinence of alcohol and wished to change the legislation to put controls on the sale of alcohol. [6]
The organisation's second president Margaret McLean stated:
"One purpose was in the hearts of us all, that of doing all that woman can do, when inspired by the love of Christ, to rescue those who are enslaved by strong drink, and in every way consistent with women's sphere to help the suffering and to lead the sinful to a better life..."
The organisation set up a series of departments to divide up the activities associated with achieving their purpose. Each had an elected superintendent to lead the department. Some of the departments included:
- Department of Drawingroom Meetings: Recruitment of new members
- Department of Prison Work: Arranged prison visits, and support after release
- Department of Unfermented Wine: Encouraged Christian men to uptake non-alcoholic substitutes
- Department of World Peace.
- Department of Women's Suffrage.
- Department of Health, Hygiene, and Education.
- Department of World's Missionary.
- Department of Police Matrons.
Other departments have covered Aboriginal welfare, sex education, drug education, film censorship, peace arbitration, gambling, and drink driving. [1]
The organization adopted the white ribbon bow symbol from the international parent organisation, and the motto For God and Home and Native Land. [10] The motto was later changed to For God, Home and Humanity.
Suffrage
In 1890 they adopted a resolution that as men and women both have to obey laws, they both should be able to elect those who make the laws. [6]
The resolution stated:
"As men and women are alike in having to obey the laws … they should also be equal in electing those who make the laws; and, further, that the ballot in the hands of women would be a safeguard to the home, in which the interests of women are paramount, and as what is good for the home is also good for the State, the enfranchisement of women would be conducive to the highest national welfare." [1]
They then became one of the leading organisations in the State lobbying for voting rights for women. They were instigated the collaboration of the other suffrage organisations to collect signatures for the Victorian women's suffrage Monster Petition. They were also instrumental in the formation of the moderate Victorian Women's Franchise League in 1894, and the same year they joined the United Council for Woman Suffrage.
Children's Welfare
The WCTU was focussed on the welfare of children from the start. They pushed for reforms in the systems around 'Boarding out' and successfully installing inspectors. They also successfully lobbied to have the age of consent for girls to be raised on 12 to 16 years of age. [1]
The WCTU first started lobbying for a Children's Court in 1900. It was argued that children should be kept separate from the adult criminal system, and they should be provided with probation officers to guide them to avoid a criminal career. They used the American model as an example. They later teamed up with other women's organisation such as the National Council of Women to lobby successfully for a Children's Court bill in 1906, which saw the creation of the Children's Court of Victoria giving children under 17 private and separate hearings from adults with specialist judges, and probationary officers. Flos Grieg, an Australian lawyer who was the first woman to enter the faculty of law at Melbourne University in 1897 and to practice law in Australia in 1905, drafted the bill for amendments. [13]
In 1909, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union free Kindergarten, which was the first in Victoria. It also provided lectures from doctors and nurses in the associated School for Mothers. This was the precursor to Baby Health Centres. The kindergarten closed in 1953, and became a centre for children with intellectual disabilities. [1]
The WCTU ran a children's branch called the Loyal Temperance Union. [1]
WCTU drinking fountain
The various temperance organisations had installed a number of public water fountains throughout the city of Melbourne in the latter half of the 19th century, to provide an alternative to alcohol, which was the only easily available beverage at that time. In October 1900, Marie Kirk proposed that the WCTU undertake the "construction of a marble and granite drinking fountain to be donated to the City of Melbourne." The fountain was erected and unveiled by October 1901 on the corner of Elizabeth and Victoria streets. The inscription states that it is a commemoration the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, who would later become George V and Queen Mary of the United Kingdom, visiting Melbourne. The stone fountain is topped with a statue of a woman, representing hope. She has the index finger of one hand pointing to the sky, while the other hand rests on an anchor. [16]
