Historic Bunbury women remembered in walk trail guide honouring suffragettes for contribution to city

Taking a walk down memory lane is a metaphor turned reality for Bunbury residents and visitors, after a community group established a historic women’s walking trail guide to recognise ladies long forgotten across the city. The lives of 12 women who played vital roles in the development of Bunbury were honoured by a series of plaques placed around the city in 1999 as a celebration of the centenary of women’s suffrage. The Bunbury Ladies Probus Club has spent the past year working with the Bunbury Museum to develop the Historic Women of Bunbury Walking Trail brochure, which they hope will share the history of the women who came before with the younger generation. Probus member Marianne Lehmann said the club hoped to collaborate with a local primary school to develop QR codes to make the walk trail interactive. “The brochure is a wonderful way to share what we’ve discovered about the suffragettes and show we have something to share and something to say,” she said. “We want to share what we know before it gets lost.” “The women of Bunbury can look at, reflect and pass on the history and stories of these great women to their own children and grandchildren,” said club member Carole Connolly. The brochures were distributed to more than 150 guests at the annual Probus South West Get-Together on Friday, with the remainder to be stocked at the museum and the Bunbury Visitor Centre.