Special guest speaker Loretta Smith, author of ‘A Spanner in the works’
Melbourne author Loretta Smith will be talking about her book ‘A spanner in the works’ which brings to life the amazing story of Alice Anderson and Australia’s only ‘all-girl’ garage. As Melbourne’s best known woman in the 1920’s, Alice established a motor garage in Cotham Road Kew staffed only by women, and did so many other amazing, pioneering things that we will hear about at the meeting.
The book has also been made into a play, ‘Garage Girls’ which is enjoying a sell out season at La Mama theatre in Carlton.
From the end of the Great War and into the 1920s, Alice Anderson was considered nothing less than a national treasure. She was a woman of ‘rare achievement’ who excelled as a motoring entrepreneur and inventor. Young, petite, boyish and full of charm, Alice was the only woman in Australia to successfully pull off an almost impossible feat: without family or husband to back her financially, she built a garage to her own specifications and established the country’s only motor service run entirely by women.
There will be a few copies of her book available for purchase at the meeting. Bring Cash.
Meals are availabe from 6.00 pm excellent value, with most $25-$28. The bar will be open with our own servery into our meeting room.
So remember, it’s the first Thursday in August and it’s 7:30 pm meeting start, Oakleigh – Carnegie R.S.L. 95-97 Drummond Street, Oakleigh.
Please come along for a great social and entertaining night. Bring a $5 note or more to enter the raffle for a chance at the pocket Gnome or it’s full size sibling.
Photos from Kew Historical Society
