Icon selected to represent the Ararat Gathering.

Amidst all the excitement of the Gathering, no one seems to recall whether an object was passed on to the committee for the following year, and if there was, what it was!

In its absence, the basket which was used to carry the past years' icons has been nominated. The basket is still used every year during the hand-over ceremony.

Icon selected to represent the Sea Lake Gathering.

"We selected this object because we needed a backdrop for the stage. We wanted Year 11 and 12 students to have input. They made it at school. We wanted something that could be handed on to the following Gatherings."

- Jenny Simpson

Icon selected to represent the Kyneton Gathering.

"The hands rise from the earth and reach out over the ranges. Our hands are held out in welcome, are supporting, nurturing, touching and caressing. Hands are strong, hardworking, can hold, care and are flexible – all symbolised in women’s hands, made with clay from the earth."

- Bronwyn Wilson

Created by local potter/artist Peggy Thallong-Smith with assistance from local potter Pat Beasley.

Icon selected to represent the Glenormiston Gathering.

"The object decided on was $1,000.00 in Perpetuity National Bank Account. This amount was available because our budget was for 150-200 registrants and we had [340].

This was beyond our wildest dreams! Our one request was that this seeding money be acknowledged in the sponsors at each Gathering together with the other Women on Farm Gatherings that had contributed."

- Margaret Jansen

Icon selected to represent the Horsham Gathering.

The organisers of the Horsham gathering chose two interwoven cogs from a 'well used' Shearer grain harvester to 'symbolise how women are the cogs that keep the community turning.

Donated by Ros and Alan MacInnes.

Icon selected to represent the Bendigo Gathering.

Our Gathering was promoting Communication. The committee attempted to do as much work as possible on the computer. Most of us were raw beginners in this field. As rural women we felt it necessary to learn the new improved methods of communication.

"The Motherboard is the main component in a computer – if it doesn’t work, the computer doesn’t work. We felt as women we could relate to that!"

- Thelma Shearer

Icon selected to represent the Warragul (1999) Gathering.

"Women had been meeting at Gatherings in Victoria - to share experiences, learn skills, and develop an effective voice for rural women’s issues - for ten years. The boot was chosen to signify 'Stepping into the Future', as we were about to step into the new millennium and the modernising of farm techniques.

The boot was worn at the first tractor driving course in 1989 [by Win Macreadie]. It was then worn around the farm and after a good polish, by a WOF member to the Women on Farms Activities."

- Evelyn Lillie

Icon selected to represent the Healesville Gathering.

"The object represented the large number of horses in the Yarra Valley. A majority of the committee also owned horses. It was Kay Thomas who first wanted to host a gathering in the Yarra Valley.

Through the horseshoe she wanted to hand on our good luck to the next committee. Kay paints and decorates horseshoes."

- Diane McIntyre

Icon selected to represent the Yarram Gathering.

"The theme for Yarram WOFG 2003 is ‘Securing the Future’ – Lock and Key. The idea behind it is the key unlocking all the stories women have, unlocking all the doors that women need to open so that we enjoy our future and our children and grandchildren can enjoy their future by unlocking the doors.

Opening new avenues from our commodities and our markets and our future in Australian farming."

- Val Colbert

Icon selected to represent the Tallangatta Gathering.

The Magic Wand or Speaker’s Baton was a gift from Liz Hogan, the Rural Women’s Network Facilitator, when she handed total responsibility over to the organising committee. The Magic Wand was a symbol of the right to speak – she who held the wand had the ear of all present. There was no need for a formal meeting procedure, and with the wand there was equality and equity for each individual on the committee.

"It was a really positive experience to work with a group so committed to the idea of providing a forum for women, by women in a way that was comfortable for women.

A part of that positive feeling was seeing members of the group supporting each other in the planning process and willing to learn from one another. The culmination for me was to see those aspects strongly reflected in the Gathering."

- Liz Hogan

Icon selected to represent the Benalla Gathering.

Bonnie Leatham made the rustic iron rose token with barbed wire and an old tobacco tin.

The flower symbolises time needed to reflect on one’s self, and the barbed wire represents challenging times. The rose demonstrates that beauty can be found in the most unexpected places.

Icon selected to represent the Beechworth Gathering.

"The spring is the medium by which loads are lightened, shared, dispersed evenly and borne smoothly. The spring stretches to link two ends – the Past and the Future.

The spring signifies earlier times – a big old rusty spring speaks of an important job of support for the farming community, in transport, early machinery or even an old chair when the day’s work is done. It’s a simple piece of equipment with so much potential.

It works well individually but what a load it can carry when you put a few together. The NEW (North East Women) pioneers used it to ‘spring’ into the new millennium."

- Ann Jarvis

Icon selected to represent the Ouyen Gathering.

The ‘Mallee Jar’ was chosen to go with the theme as it was symbolic of individuals (represented by the grains of sand and seeds) who join, become solid and are powerful as one united group. The ingredients of the jar were collected and assembled by Colleen Morrish.

Icons selected to represent the Numurkah Gathering.

Numurkah is an irrigation and dairying area. These objects are symbolic references to the importance of water and dairying in the Goulburn Region.

Icons selected to represent the Swan Hill Gathering.

"The peaked cap with ‘Grumpy’ written on it was to indicate to the next group that a WOFG Committee will go through a very normal process before the Gathering actually happens. The ‘forming, storming, norming then performing’ process, during which it is important to remember the long term aims of the whole exercise and not become enmeshed in personality differences. The Mallee Root sawn in half is tough, resilient, drought resistant and able to spring forth with new growth when times are good. Knobbly and gnarled on the outside, but on the inside incredibly beautiful – 'like us Murray Mallee Women'. The Stone was used to make a broth that pulled us together to begin work as a team, as a committee. We all contributed something for the soup and prepared it together – a nutritious fun event that made far more than a pot of soup. The story ‘Stone Soup Revisited’ was read during the gathering."

- Yvonne Jennings