Wollongong's bold new tour unearths the forgotten women who made history

She Shapes History, a walking tour focused on local women’s history, has launched its first Wollongong route.

Transcript

00:00She and her sisters were the hotel heiresses of Wollongong.

00:05History has long shone a spotlight on men, and when you walk around your town,

00:10it's likely to reflect that with statues, plaques and landmarks honoring their achievements.

00:17What we don't have on this plaque is Charles' wife, Elizabeth. She did some remarkable things

00:24in her lifetime. She Shapes History is working to change that narrative.

00:29Offering walking tours that shine a light on the women whose stories rarely make it into textbooks.

00:35She Shapes History is a feminist walking tour. Along the tour, we aim to uncover the hidden

00:41history and stories of women that the history books and the history books that you may not

00:45have read in class, that they don't show us. The group already operates tours in Sydney,

00:50Melbourne and Canberra, and has now launched its first Wollongong route,

00:55their first step branching out into regional communities.

00:59We'll be walking between streets that tell us the stories of men or plaques,

01:04that tell us the stories of how men have contributed to the community,

01:07and yet you can be forgiven when you walk around and you might miss or not realize that women have

01:14absolutely contributed a huge part to this community. So much so that one of the first

01:22advertising campaigns in Australia was to attract women to Wollongong.

01:27The Wicked Women of Wollongong tour highlights inspiring women as well as women who made history for all the wrong reasons.

01:36She had a taste for the finer things in life. Champagne tastes on a shoestring budget.

01:41She rolls up her sleeve, she learns how to chop up the meat and run the business and she runs it very well.

01:49And next time you're walking around, have a little look at the name on the laneway,

01:53or the plaque near the lighthouse. You might find that there's a few more women that we can uncover here.

02:00And then do your own little research, have a little Google, you'll be very surprised and pleased and

02:06interested to find the incredible lives these women led.