The inaugural Dubbo Women’s Festival — International Women’s Day, Friday 8 March 2024, Western Plains Cultural Centre. Free, all day, built around the seasons of a woman’s life.

In her own words

I am a women’s health nurse, employed by the Western NSW LHD and based at Dubbo. I provide an outreach women’s health clinic to various towns within the local health district. Previously from the UK, I have been employed by the LHD for 23 years and worked as a WHN for 20 years. I have lived both in Walgett and Dubbo during my time in Australia and feel that I have a good understanding of the many issues impacting our communities and the health of our women.

I have an interest in endometriosis and premature menopause and enjoy educating women and young girls on reproductive health. My favourite part of my position is working in collaboration with other agencies to deliver programs and initiatives to the people in my district. I especially enjoy delivering programs to schools and teaching young people about health issues. International Women’s Day is one event that I especially enjoy, as it celebrates the wonderful women in our community.

Why the outreach clinic matters

Twenty-three years in the district; twenty of them as a women’s health nurse. Joanne’s clinic isn’t a building — it’s a route. She drives it, town by town, to women who would otherwise have to drive it themselves, on a weekday, with the kids, to a service that may or may not have a spot.

Endometriosis and premature menopause are exactly the conditions that go undiagnosed longest in the bush — both because the symptoms get normalised and because the specialist is four hours away. A nurse who knows the towns and has been in them for two decades closes a gap no amount of funding announcements can.

Not a guest — a builder

Joanne is one of three names on the inaugural festival’s event team, alongside Sharon Quill and Lorna Brennan. The reason the first festival was organised around the seasons of a woman’s life, and the reason a cervical screening was available on the day rather than a pamphlet about cervical screening, is that a working clinician was in the room while it was being designed.

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The day around it

Free admission. Childcare on site, so women could sit through a full session. Dedicated spaces for mothers and children. Free lunch. Transport arranged for groups who otherwise couldn’t get there. A separate early event for teachers and students. Two panels — the morning one on menstruation, contraception, fertility and the transition to motherhood; the afternoon one on perimenopause and menopause.

Women had a cervical screening on the day. Women made breast screening appointments they’d been putting off. That is what happens when you put the services and the women in the same room and remove every excuse not to turn up.

The event team was Sharon Quill, Joanne Phillips and Lorna Brennan, working with some forty local partners.

How one day became a week →  |  The festival programme →  |  First Believers →