In 1907 an exhibition of Women's Work was held at the Exhibition Building in Melbourne. It went for five weeks, had 16 thousand displays and was visited by over 250 thousand people.

The spirit of federation, which came into force on 1 January 1901, is evident in the work produced by the women, which displays sentiment for Australian flora and fauna. Occurring a year prior to non-Indigenous Victorian women achieving suffrage, the exhibition also celebrated women's political citizenship.

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TRANSCRIPT

[MUSIC PLAYING]

JANE CAREY: Here we are outside the exhibition buildings, where in 1907 the first exhibition of Australian women's work opened to great fanfare. The exhibition ran for five weeks. It had 250,000 visitors over that period. There were 16,000 displays. And this was a very significant event, if we look at it in terms of women's world history. If we put it on that broad scale, It was quite unique. There had been nothing quite like it before.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

LAURETTA ZILLES: The exhibition was really important, because what it did was it brought women out of the woodwork and gave them an opportunity to show their work to the world and also to each other, because many of these women were probably working away in their own little groups and own little communities, and didn't have the opportunity to actually meet with other women or see other women's work. I think the time was certainly ripe for it to occur, but also with federation and wanting to unite the nation. It was such an important thing for women to have a face and to be able to come out and say, well, this is what we have to offer this new nation.

[APPLAUSE]

KIRSTEN MCKAY: There was the middle class wealth that led to a plethora of interesting crafts being undertaken at the time-- Women taking up China painting, wood carving. And there were those that then took it on and actually made a career of those particular interests. After the federation, there was great nationalistic sentiments throughout music, the arts and design, and everything really diverged on the Australian flora and fauna.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

JANE CAREY: The exhibition also certainly served in many ways as a celebration of women's political citizenship. Australian women in all Australian states and nationally had already achieved the vote by this stage. Victorian women hadn't yet achieved suffrage, but they were going to get this the next year, and it was seen very much as inevitable. So it wasn't political in that sense, in terms of political rights. But the very idea of discussing women's work in this way was political at this time.

LAURETTA ZILLES: It was a revolutionary moment, and it was an evolution as well. I think it's really important to revisit history, to go back and see what was achieved and to appreciate what we have now, and to build on that as well. It's a real shame that it did get lost for so long, but it still has relevance today, I think. And I think it's still motivates women that what they're doing is worthwhile, and that it should be shown and should be happy.

[MUSIC PLAYING]