ONE of Myrtleford’s most well-known social groups, the Savoy Ladies, celebrated their 40th birthday last Thursday at their regular haunt Club Savoy, with speeches, songs and special guests from the group’s history marking the anniversary.

Around 60 attended the lunch and raffle, which included guests from the North East Multicultural Association, and performances from accordionist Mario Panozzo.

Club president Gabriella Bettio said the lunch was excellent, and they were lucky to have strong attendance, even though they may not command the numbers they used to.

“We all get together - Mother's Day, Christmas, Easter – we’re still strong,” she said.

Last October the group had organised a trip to see murals along North East Victoria's silo art trail, and while Ms Bettio said they had an excellent time, they didn’t have enough ladies attending to justify the cost of the bus.

She said they are still planning an October trip this year, but it will depend on how many can attend.

Ms Bettio was one of the original members of the ladies’ group, and said with four daughters she couldn’t make it every time in those early days, but generally all the ladies were committed to attending the fortnightly get-togethers.

“We're very lucky - they never said no to coming out,” she said.

“They always put the effort in to make themselves comfortable, clean and presentable.”

One of the attendees, Lois Knox, helped found the social group in 1983 as part of her role as a community health nurse.

“One of the Catholic nuns, Sister Mark, and I could see that the women were always on farms that were isolated - and it was a fairly patriarchal environment,” she said.

“We started visiting women on the farms and just suggested they might like to meet at the Savoy Club.”

“The bottom line was the women were free to be themselves - if they wanted to get up and dance, they could get up and dance; if they wanted to burst out singing, they could burst out singing.”

Ms Knox said she was helped by a group of grant-in-aid workers – local women who assisted in enquiries from the Italian and Spanish community and other cultural groups, and referred them to available services.

She worked with the Savoy Ladies group for around 15 years, but over time the group became more independent, she said.

“If they wanted a guest speaker or something like that, I was able to put them in the right direction to organise themselves,” she said.

“The whole idea was for them to become, in a sense, socially independent.”

The Savoy Ladies group meet every second Thursday from 1:30pm at Club Savoy in Myrtleford for tombola and afternoon tea.