Our history –
The history of WHGNE
In 1992, a group of women from Shepparton and North East Victoria decided that a first step towards improving the health of women in the region was to establish a Women’s Health Service. A steering committee successfully obtained funds to undertake a Consultation and Needs Study, in the development phase of the Goulburn North Eastern Women’s Health Service, known as NEWomen.
In March 1993, the report “Health Needs of Women in the Goulburn North East” was completed. This report identified the disadvantage of rural women in relation to access to health services and information.
Funding was obtained to establish an autonomous regional women’s health service and following months of negotiation with the Department of Human Services (DHS), the Women’s Health Service was established as a program of Ovens & King Community Health Service. The first Manager, Dee Basinski, was appointed in March 1994.
Between 1993 and 2000, we operated as NEWomen, a program of Ovens and King Community Health Service.
In 1998 the DHS commissioned NEWomen to develop a Women’s Health Plan for the Hume region. The Women’s Health Plan Hume Region identified three major goals:
- To identify regional priorities for the improvements of health outcomes for women
- To ensure that health service to women is appropriate, relevant and effective
- To ensure a coordinated approach to addressing women’s health issues across the Hume region.
In mid 1999, a group of women gathered to work towards establishing the women’s health service for the region as an independent organisation.
A public meeting was held in Benalla on June 20, 1999, and a decision was made to proceed with establishing a new autonomous organisation. With the support of Terry Garwood, Regional Director DHS, and Suzanne Cooper, CEO Ovens & King Community Health Service, Women’s Health Goulburn North East (WHGNE) became an independent entity March 2000. It was established in July 2000 and incorporated as an independent organisation under the Associations Incorporation Act 1989.
The history of the Victorian Women’s Health Program
Victoria’s women’s health sector grew out of the dire need to put women’s health, equality and safety in the public health spotlight. Across the 1970s and 1980s, the women’s liberation movement agitated for an end to the lack of research, funding and attention to women’s health. Fed up with being left out of public conversations about their health and lives, women across Victoria came together to form the networks, advocacy groups and organisations that would eventually become the women’s health sector.
The 1985 state government discussion paper Why women’s health? was developed to support a new Victorian women’s health policy. It drew on community consultation with 7000 women, including the early incarnations of present-day women’s health services. The subsequent report recommended the establishment of a dedicated Victorian Women’s Health Program (VWHP). Existing women’s health services would receive programmatic funding from the Health Department for the first time and new women’s health services would be established so that there would be one in each region by 1991/1992. The sector would deliver a dual strategy of working with directly with women, while also working with service providers to improve their responsiveness to women.
A 1987 tender process identified the first VWHP-funded Victorian women’s health centre and statewide women’s health information centre. Over the two decades, VWHP-funded women’s health services were established across the state, each growing out of existing place-based women’s health networks, groups and services. After a long history working alongside the women’s health sector, Women with Disabilities Victoria received VWHP funding for the first time in 2022.