Western NSW has some very talented performers if a recent event staged by the Country Women’s Association (CWA) Far Western Group is any indication. 

Almost 40 people gathered in the beautiful Nyngan Town Hall for the annual CWA Far Western Group Cultural, International, Agricultural and Environmental Day on August 26. 

The all-day annual event is held in Nyngan as a central point for the branches in the NSW CWA Far Western Group, which includes the communities of Wanaaring, Enngonia, Bourke and Brewarrina (north) Cobar and Nymagee (west), Hermidale, Nyngan, Trangie, Warren and Narromine (south). 

The cultural day is an annual event for the CWA Far Western Group and is held in Nyngan as a central point for the branches. The day featured a range of comedy skits and poetry recitals by various CWA branches and concluded with a spectacular musical performance by the talented team from Hermidale CWA. More than 20 items were performed across the day. 

Nyngan resident and president of the Hermidale CWA branch, Margaret Gudgeon, is also the CWA Far Western Group Cultural Officer. Planning and coordinating the annual day is her role, developing the program from items submitted by the various branches. Mrs Gudgeon expressed thanks to the Bogan Shire Council for its ongoing support for the event, which helped make the day possible at the town hall. 

The comedy skits were cleverly staged and very funny. Performed by Nyngan and Hermidale CWAs, they included a retelling of fairytales like Cinderella and Goldilocks by Nyngan, while Hermidale explored driving under the influence, and a tale of disastrous dining under the management of a “witty waiter”, among others.  

PHOTO: Things get sticky in the "Witty Waiter", one of Hermidale CWA's performances at the CWA FWG Cultural Day on August 26. 

Mrs Gudgeon said the inspiration for the skits often came from joke books.  

“I go through a lot of joke books and make a joke into a small skit. We also go back to some we’ve done many years ago.” 

She said that once she had the basic joke down it was fairly easy to develop a skit around the joke. 

Participants generally spend several weeks in the lead up to the annual event developing and practicing their skits or musical performances, Mrs Gudgeon said. 

PHOTO: It was Definitely Not Goldilocks in Nyngan CWA's fractured fairytale skit. 

The musical performed by the Hermidale CWA was the highlight of the day.  

“It was called Songs of Australia and we all dressed as different Australians. I was a Vinnies’ volunteer for 21 years so came dressed as that. Some came as CWA ladies. We had a soldier, a jillaroo, a surfer. Australian personalities. We sang all these wonderful songs and asked the audience to sing along with us. They were up dancing and singing with us,” she said. 

In a special segment before lunch, guest speaker and former World President of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW), Ruth Shanks AM from the CWA Dubbo Evening Branch, addressed the gathering about her international travels with the ACWW.

Mrs Shanks, who celebrated her 50th year in the CWA in 2019, displayed a range of fabrics hand-produced by women in East Timor, India and the South Pacific.  

PHOTO: Hermidale ladies raise their collective voice in song as part of the cultural day. 

The poetry recitals were part of an annual CWA Far Western Group competition honouring the late Neta Dewhurst, a former long-term president of the Hermidale CWA and former group vice-president. Born in Narromine in 1902, the then Neta Taylor was raised in Narromine, Peak Hill and Mogriguy, meeting and marrying Hartley Dewhurst in the latter community. The couple moved to Hermidale in 1929, where they lived until Mr Dewhurst passed away in 1971 and Mrs Dewhurst in 1984.  

This year’s Neta Dewhurst Poetry Award theme was “The Waterhole”, and five entries were submitted from Far Western Group branches. Authors present at the event recited their poems on the stage, each invoking different perceptions of what the theme meant to them. Ruth Hando of Narromine CWA was announced as the winner. 

As with every CWA event, the food at the cultural day was scrumptious. Hermidale CWA provided a delicious morning tea while Narromine and Warren CWA branches prepared tasty sandwiches and a variety of hot soups for lunch that warmed bellies on the very cool day. Nyngan CWA supplied afternoon tea. 

Reflecting on the day, Mrs Gudgeon hopes that other branches within the CWA Far Western Group will think about developing entries for future cultural days. 

“We would really like some more entries. It’s such a fun day.” 

PHOTO: Ruth Shanks AM spoke about her work with the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW), and sample fabrics she collected from her travels.