ABSTRACT
Early in January of 1890, a few of the women journalists of Melbourne held an impromptu sort of meeting at a private house with the view of forming a Woman’s Club. Rumours of the Somerville Club of London, and still more of the new Somerville which sprang from its ashes, had come across the ocean frequently, neither was the Sorosis of New York altogether unknown, and it was felt that the time 15had come for Melbourne to make a beginning. It was found on inquiry that none of those concerned possessed even one copy of the constitution of either of those organisations, so that there was much groping in the dark as it were, but Mrs. Zadel Gustavson, of New York, joint author with her husband of a peculiar work, “The Foundations of Death,” was in Melbourne at the time, and was able to give some information concerning the Sorosis, but as, although a member, she had never attended any of the meetings, knew little of the procedure prevailing, and had been some time absent from America, her information was so vague as to be of no practical benefit. Attention had been awakened, however, and from five at the first meeting early in the month, the attendance rose to considerably over twenty at the third, before the month’s end; as we have said, the idea had been initiated by some of the women journalists, but as Melbourne, though a good sized city, is still considerably smaller than several of the bigger towns of Great Britain, it was felt from the beginning that it would be impossible to make a club out of the scanty ranks of press-women or writers, either amateur or professional. This difficulty was disposed of at the very first meeting, when it was resolved that the proposed club should be composed of women actively engaged in all professions. These early meetings were of the most intense interest, so various, and in many cases curious were the views put forth. Even those who first mooted the project were in anything but agreement as to its constitution, and had all the ideas put forward been adopted, the organisation would have been a trades’ union, a luncheon and dining-room, a boarding house, a young women’s mutual improvement society, a gymnasium, a mechanics’ institute, an amateur musical and dramatic club, and a mutual admiration society rolled into one. As it is, it is none of these things, though it partakes of the nature of some of them. A most animated discussion was that which decided the name. A large number of cognomens were proposed, only to be rejected as indescriptive or too general; even the picturesque and 16descriptive title of “The Ink and Art Club” was decided to be not comprehensive enough, and on the proposition of a member who knew something of the London Salon, the style and title became with geographical fitness that of “The Austral Salon.”
