Women's History Month...2023. Post 6. Rose Fuhrmann...The First Woman Elected To The Subiaco Council (1945).
This month is Women's History Month. I have decided to repost the stories of many of the wonderful women from Subiaco I have come across.
Rose Fuhrmann...The First Woman Elected To The Subiaco Council (1945).
Rose Fuhrmann was the first woman to be elected to the Subiaco City Council in 1945 as an endorsed Labor candidate. She was involved in the Australian Labor Party and worked extensively in the community and in particular Subiaco. Among her achievements were establishing a free kindergarten and Chairman of the Advisory Board to the King Edward Memorial Hospital.
In 1944, the year before Rose Fuhrmann was elected to the Subiaco Council and the newspaper the Westralian Worker provided a brief overview of some of the causes she was involved in as a member of the Subiaco branch of Australian Labor Party...
"All Labor women will be interested to know that at the last meeting of the Subiaco A.L.P., Mrs. Rose Fuhrmann, who is a lifelong and most active member of this movement, was elected president of the branch.
Mrs. Fuhrmann has been for years the chairman of the State Children's Boarding-out Committee; she is vicepresident of Perth Labor Women, a member of the Central Executive, treasurer of the Women's Justices' Association, and when the Advisory Board to the King Edward Memorial Hospital for women was recently reorganised by the Minister, Mrs. Fuhrmann became its chairman. Not only her services but also her home in Subiaco has long been at the service of the movement and many socials and welfare work gatherings have been held there, as well as meetings of the A.L.P. and electioneering committees..." (Westralian Worker, 5 May 1944)
In 1945 the Westralian Worker reported Rose Fuhrmann's success at being elected in the Subiaco City Council...
"Labor Women Mrs. Fuhrmann Succeeds. Most cordial congratulations go out from all Labor women and men in this State to Mrs. Rose Fuhrmann, J.P., who, on Saturday last, won a seat in the Municipality of Subiaco. This was Mrs. Fuhrmann's second try. She has a splendid record of social service to the State as well as to Subiaco. She conducted her campaign, as becomes every Laborite—without personalities of any kind. She won entirely on her merits and that is the right way.
Labor women will, we feel sure, give her every possible help and we know that she will do us honor. It is more than gratifying to know that Mrs. Fuhrmann achieved her victory as an endorsed Labor candidate, and should clear up the doubt as to whether or not endorsed Labor candidates can win In municipalities..." (Westralian Worker, 30 November, 1945).
This following article from the Westralian Worker in 1942 provides an extensive overview of Rose Fuhrmann's involvement and community work in Western Australia... "Mrs. Rose Fuhrmann. This week we will try to review the very effective work for Labor of Mrs. Rose Fuhrmann, who was born in Jarrahdale. While his family of five was still very young, her father, a railway ganger, was injured in an accident. A spinal injury left him a cripple for the remaining ten years of his life. His wife, with her large family and maimed husband, had no compensation which should make us all appreciate things as they are to day, though much is still left to be desired. On the very day which the family came to Perth to attend the funeral of her father, the first train ran from Perth to the Bunbury races, the Government having taken over the line from the late Neil McNeil.
Mrs. Rose Fuhrmann first came into contact with the A.L.P. through the Timber Workers' strike, her husband afterwards becoming one of the stewards of the union. In 1907 Mr. Justice Burnside made a timber workers' award of 52 hours per week, the rates of pay ranging from 12/per day to 7/3 per day. This was no good for men with large families who were kept ever on the breadline; so they resolved to strike. This strike was a wonderful effort by men who were not properly organised, and it lasted 14 weeks. A committee was formed and delegates were sent to Perth to ask help from Labor members, especially the late J. B. Holman (reports of whose good work on the goldfields had reached the Southwest). Mr. Holman and his colleagues worked hard in this connection and paid many visits to the scene of the struggle. The men returned to work with better hours, a small rise in pay, the right to organise, or to carry on the mills on a co-operative basis. Mr. Holman was appointed secretary.
The women of Jarrahdale played their part well in that conflict as when Mr. Teasdale Smith brought men from another part to work the local mills the women formed a line (through which the new arrivals had to pass) and interviewed each one personally, with the result many of these men, after hearing of the misery the wives and children of the strikers had endured, did not start.
During that strenuous time Mrs. Fuhrmann came into contact with the Holman family, and Messrs. Collier, Troy, Walker, Bath, Mamie Swanton, and others. When, after the strike, a big social was held Mrs. Fuhrmann's home was used as a dressing room and refreshment centre, when the helpful members of Parliament were presented with polished jarrah walking sticks.
On another occasion Mrs. Fuhrmann's home was the scene of a dinner tendered to the then Labor Premier, Mr. J. Scaddan; Mr. Peter O'Loughlin and Sir. Dave Watson, by the Timber Workers' Union. At this time the two latter guests were working hard to establish the "Worker," in which the Fuhrmann family are shareholders.
Soon after the Fuhrmanns moved to Perth and settled in Subiaco, where Mrs. Fuhrmann took an active part in the conscription campaign and in most of the Parliamentary and municipal elections which have happened since. After establishing her home in Perth Mrs. Fuhrmann spent two years in Collie. With Mr. Wilson she had travelled that electorate to meet Mesdames M. Green and the late Jean Beadle, who were engaged in platform work in a State election. About this time Rose Fuhrmann chaired a women's rally in Collie of which Collie Women's A.L.P. was born. This branch has the biggest membership roll of any women's branch in the State.
One is often astounded in reading up the lives of many Labor leaders at the multitude of reforms and alleviations for the masses in which they took a part. But to read the life records of many of those women now in the movement who are apt in some quarters to be regarded as just members of a gossip group, is to have one's eyes opened indeed, creating a lasting wonder as to how so many women with such large families found time so to spend themselves in an honorary or any other capacity. Returning to her home in Perth Mrs. Fuhrmann became a delegate to the Labor Women's Central Executive and to the Metropolitan Council, and also vice-president of the Perth Labor Women's Organisation.
She was an official visitor to the Aged Women's Home, helped in the establishment of an infant welfare centre and a relief committee at Subiaco, and in raising funds to found a free kindergarten. She remained for years the trustee of £74 collected, which was finally handed over to the Kindergarten Union to be used in Subiaco for the purpose named. That dream is not yet realised. This comrade was very active years ago as a member of the Housewives' League in helping the agitation to establish proper markets in the city, and as a first result the kerbstone markets in Wellington-street were opened opposite the Goldfields Hotel. After that, when Mr. Troy was framing the Markets Bill, she was one of a deputation which discussed the Bill with the Minister and made certain suggestions in respect of it for which he thanked them warmly.
Mrs. Fuhrman has always taken a keen interest in everything that has to do with child-life and was long since appointed to the State's boarding-out committee for poor children. In due course she was appointed secretary, which position she held for five years, while for the last four years she has been the chairman of the committee. Mrs. Fuhrmann is a Justice of the Peace and has been treasurer of the Women Justices' Association for some years, active in the local R.S.L., whose funds she has audited for years, delegate for Perth Labor Women on the Fellowship of Educational Research. and a canteen worker for soldiers. She was a member of the Labor Women's Choir, founded by the late May Holman and is now senior vice-president of the Labor Women's Central Executive. All will agree that the name of Mrs. Fuhrmarm is justifiably added to the Labor Women's Roll of Honor.
A footnote can be added that Mr. Fuhrmann has been an ardent and loyal trade unionist throughout, who has aided and abetted his wife in the good work (Westralian Worker, 24 August. 1944)..."
In 1950 Rose Fuhrmann wrote the following letter to the Age newspaper correcting them on a story about women Cabinet ministers in Australia. Mrs Florence Cardell-Oliver member for Subiaco in the Legislative Assembly was the first woman to hold such a position.
"Women in Cabinet A statement appeared in your issue of April 5 claiming that Dame Enid Lyons is the first woman to be appointed to Cabinet rank in this country. Mrs. Florence Cardell-Oliver, member for Subiaco in the Legislative Assembly of West Australia for 12 years, has held Cabinet rank ever since the McLarty L.C.P. Government was elected three years ago first as Assistant Minister for Education and afterwards as Minister for Health, and also ; for Supply and Shipping, with cabinet rank. She has proved her ability in these important Cabinet positions— (Cr.) ROSE FUHRMANN, J.P, (Subiaco, W.A)" (The Age 12 April 1950).
The articles and photographs are from Trove, the database of the National Library of Australia. No copyright infringement intended.
