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History

1. Beginnings

In June 1939 American writer, Hartley Grattan, visited Perth. Katharine Susannah Prichard and John K. Ewers organised a dinner for him with local writers. Only 11 West Australian writers were present and of those 11 not one writer knew all the others.

Following a suggestion by Grattan, the oldest writer present, Jesse Hammond, urged John K. Ewers to form an organisation where writers could meet and support each other.

After ongoing discussions with Henrietta Drake-Brockman, Gavin Casey and others, the first meeting of the new Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA) was held in October 1938 and Ewers was elected as Foundation President

Katharine Susannah Prichard was a founding member.

2. Constitution

Rather than form a separate group, the early writers formed a West Australian Section of the Fellowship of Australian Writers, founded in Sydney in 1928. A similar group was also formed in Victoria in 1938. This made FAWWA a part of a national network. Henrietta Drake-Brockman and Katharine Susannah Prichard were already members of the Sydney group. Gavin Casey was responsible for the final clause in the first Constitution:

Property. All property of the Fellowship, whether land and animals, buildings, slaves, jewels, bullion, stores of foodstuffs, drink, explosives, valuable manuscripts written by members, fishing rights, mining leases, works of art or articles of agreements or concessions of value of any kind, shall be under the control of the Executive.

3. H.G. Wells Visit

In December 1938 the newly formed Fellowship entertained visiting British author, H. G. Wells, at a dinner for FAW members only. Such was the rush to meet the famous writer that, according to Casey: ‘some 75 percent of Perth’s Paltriest People suddenly went literary.‘ In 1940 Casey wrote an account of the Fellowship’s year under the title of ‘A Year-old Infant Still Bellows Lustily’.

One half of FAWWA’s annual short story competiton is named after Donald Stuart.

4. Tom Collins House

In 1949 Samuel Furphy, youngest son of Victorian writer Joseph Furphy, bequeathed the wooden cottage his father had built in Servetus Street, Swanbourne in 1907, to the Fellowship to be maintained as a memorial to his father. Joseph Furphy is known as the Father of the Australian novel, because of his major work Such Is Life , written under the nom-de-plume of Tom Collins.

This is the first author’s home to be retained as a memorial anywhere in Australia.

In 1996, because of the development of West Coast Highway, it was relocated to Allen Park, barely a kilometre from its original site. It now forms the central feature in the Allen Park Heritage Precinct. The house is listed with the National Trust and the West Australian Heritage Council. As well as being the major Writers Centre in the Western suburbs, it contains most of the prize-winning copper repoussé work done in the early 1900s by Samuel Furphy’s wife, Mattie.

5. Mattie Furphy House

In 2004 the Heritage Council of WA asked the Fellowship if it would take responsibility for the large wooden home originally built for Samuel and Mattie Furphy. Begun around 1907, with a later addition, the house was built to feature the copper repoussé work made by Mattie during her studies at the Perth Technical School, with James Linton. The house is one of Perth’s finest examples of the Arts and Crafts, or Domestic Arts, Movement.

Mattie’s House was moved to the Allen Park Heritage Precinct in April 2005. Major restoration work is being done this year thanks to a substantial grant from Lotterywest. When completed the house will be the home of the Foundation for Creative Imagination, which will honour Mattie’s vision by encouraging creativity in all aspects of life.

Pattie Watts became a life member in 1993. She is still a dedicated supporter.

6. FAWWA and the Future

After a tumultuous start to the 2007-08 financial year – with FAWWA losing its funding and thus cutting back on its services – the organisation is on the cusp of a major transformation. We’ve done some serious soul searching, agonised over our role in life, cursed the possums living in the roof and grappled with the loss of funds, staff, management members and faith. But not hope.

Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, FAWWA is ready to reinvent itself once again and meet the challenges of being a small arts organisation competing for recognition in a culture largely dominated by sport, engineering and consumerism.

With a plan to restructure our committee into a focused, authoritative Board of Directors, a mandate to seek and develop both corporate and organisational partnerships and a campaign to re-energise our membership, FAWWA is preparing to lay the foundation for an exciting, prosperous and sustainable future.