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"Just moral pressure really, we could have legislated if we had chosen and they knew that, and we didn't do that. We just required that they respond to a reasonable use of the public land that they occupied"

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route to membership...

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"It was embarrassing in a way, for example the story of the white line at the race club, at the Flemington Racecourse the male members and the all male committee then allowed women into parts of the course, but they put a white line across part of the membership area and across that line women were not allowed to proceed. And they had employees who would push women back if they stepped too far, the whole thing was quite bizarre."

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"I became a member of the MCC, my father had been a member, he was a trustee of the ground and he nominated me for membership when I was quite young so I became a member in 1949 as a junior. There was a drought in memberships during the war I think, I don't know to what extent, but it was easier to get in then than it is now."

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"Growing up as a child in  a Labour household and at school and at University in the 40's and '50's we were a racist society we were a sexist society we discriminated heavily against women, we were an ageist society and most of all we were sectarian I would have to say, we were a very narrow society I think"

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(10:06) Are you happy with the way things are moving for women.

A club that’s 180 years old and you’ve only admitted women in more recent times, 1984. It is going to take some time before our women’s membership is equal to our men’s. We have about 22 per cent. It’s still skewed in favour of men.

(11:35) I do not think there are any structural or attitudinal issues that are holding women back from becoming members or engaging in the fullest extent.

(12:40) What is thrilling to see if you go to an induction evening, where we invite people to come learn about the club and meet other people, it is just fantastic to see how many young women there are coming through in the cohort. They often come to those evenings with their father’s or mothers.

(13:16) The thing I still find shocking at those events, a young women will come along having just been admitted as a member and she’ll come with her member and I will ask the mother if she is a member and she’ll say,’no, I didn’t put myself down. When we put our daughter down.” It’s a lovely intergenerational thing for families to do.

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(5:37) It is open to anyone, you can find a couple of people to nominate you - it doesn’t depend on privilege, it doesn’t depend on patronage, but rather it is a club and an facility.

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"So we were on a bit of a crusade I suppose but we were the first Labour government in Victoria after many years and an example had been set by the Whitlam government nationally from '72 - '75 so I think that Australia was awakening from a long sleep around all those issues."

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(10:57) When our little boy was born, before they signed the birth certificate, he signed Henry’s MCC membership, there were two forms set out on the sideboard, on the birth certificate and MCC nomination. On the nomination form you write down which club the nominee supports and so Steve had it ready to go - nominated by me and by him, Team: Hawthorn.”

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(7:53) To be able to take Mum, Day, Henry and Chris (my brother) it is a family alliance. That really has brought us together on the weekends in Victoria - that was the most noticable - me as a daughter and me as a mother.”

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"I made it clear within weeks of our election that the MCC who were on public land, but a private club, and a number of racing clubs who were similarly placed that they had no business continuing to exclude half the population from membership of their private clubs on public land. That was not warmly received to say the least."

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(3:48) I  have always been in a family where sport, watching sport and playing sport was a really loved thing, there wasn’t ever this idea - you are a girl so you can’t become a member of the MCC, there was never a conversation like that and I would imagine that would be true for a lot of people.”

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"I've got two daughters, my eldest daughter who is nineteen is a provisional member, she became a member last year and my youngest daughter who's seventeen on the weekend she has just been offered provisional membership."

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(24:11) “The proposition is put up, the world has changed - that was the year Jane was born and prior to that you couldn’t add females to the waiting list, it was male only.”

(24:46) “I’ve got a daughter, I am blessed you treasure your offspring, so of course she got put down.”

(26:51) I had two daughters, I want the best for my daughters. So irrespective. So me personally, all I can say I imagine

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Do you feel that it is a residually sexist environment? (8.49)

“No, I don’t at all. I think the AFL in general and I think the MCC have done a very good job of including women. That’s changed over the years, given there was the lady ticket aspect in the past. I could not claim it to be a male dominated environment.”

“I have a lot of girlfriends that go and are members. And I think that it is just as much female participation as it is male participation.

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“We were dairy farmers so we were always working and always milking cows, but I do recall, we would get the afternoon off from milking cows to be able to drive down and go to the Grand Final, we might not find a seat or we would be high up in the stands, but it was such a fun day.”

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The foresight (19:17)

“For years and years, I treasured, it is a privilege and I regard myself as extremely fortunate to be put in this position, it wasn’t something that I had to dwell on and give thought to, it was an automatic thing, my grandfather did it for me, I am going to do it for my offspring.”

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"Any organisation or club, the more diverse it's membership the stronger it is, and that's sex, age, race or the like, you end up having a much more integrated club that is inclusive."

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"total current number of female members is around 28,900 out of the total of about 121,000 so close to 24%"

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"The other thing that occurred, existing full members had a guest card entitlement which was then able to be converted into what they called a provisional membership for a female from the 1st April 1984. That new class of membership really allowed male members to nominate a female member in exchange for relinquishing that right to that guest card. It was all designed to fast track, obviously, the number of females becoming members of the club. Rather than having to wait on the waiting list to become a member.

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“Pressure was put upon the club by the state government to cease the practice of only admitting males, the rules were amended about midway through the year, about June following a postal ballot vote by members so from that time the first females were entered onto the waiting list. So full members could nominate a female to enter onto the waiting list from June 1983”