Bright's town centre was a sea of purple-clad people last Friday, as representatives from 39 local participating businesses, Rotarians and community members gathered to mark the end of their 'Purple Friday' campaign to tackle the tough subject of family and domestic violence.

Some 170 purple shirts were worn to work and around town every Friday by the participants, to lift awareness about domestic violence prevention and raise funds for the Wangaratta Centre Against Violence.

Bright Rotary Club member Jenny Chellew said Purple Friday started with five pubs participating in November 2025 and has grown into something much bigger than expected.

"This is the conclusion of our 13 weeks...what we wanted to do was create awareness and start conversations and I think that's what we've done," she said.

"We've had a huge presence...a lot of businesses have spoken to me about incidental conversations they've had from people asking about the shirts.

"They've stopped us in the street, they see us at the [Rotary] barbeques and it's what we want.

"We want conversation and we want our community in Bright, Porepunkah, Wandiligong, Harrietville and beyond to know that if you are in a domestic or family violence situation, our community stands behind you.

"We will, wherever we can, support people."

Ms Chellew said unfortunately there were no services nearby for domestic violence survivors.

"We have little public transport, we have no taxis, we have no counselling or physical support here and the closest is the Centre Against Violence in Wangaratta," she said.

"It has to serve a huge area for people who are in these situations and need to escape domestic and family violence.

"Certainly when small communities lose those services which were once here, we've got to show and advocate to get them back."

Ms Chellew said the response received from local businesses reveals just how important this issue is to the community.

"Everybody who showed up today has a job...they've closed their shops, they've enabled their staff to come over here today and [demonstrate] a collective show of support for the cause and obviously, turning up every Friday wearing these shirts is amazing," she said.

"I really do feel we've accomplished what we set out to do with this initial campaign: we will be back.

"These shirts are going to have a long life and we hope going forward we're able to advocate for better support systems within our community.

"That's our long-term goal."

According to the Crime Statistics Agency's latest data, there were 146 family violence related incidents in the Alpine Shire for 2025 - a decrease from 146 the previous 12 months.

If you need help you can call:

• Family violence crisis line 1800 015 188;

• Sexual assault crisis line 1800 806 292;

• Centre Against Violence Wangaratta (03) 5722 2203; or

• if unsafe call police on 000.