Squatting, kidnapping and collaboration: Australia’s first women’s shelters were acts of radical grassroots feminism

50 years ago, there wasn’t a single women’s shelter in Australia. Then feminists squatted two terraces in Sydney, opening “Elsie”, Australia’s first domestic and family violence refuge. Commissioned by Elsie co-founder Anne Summers, I’ve recorded oral histories with the women who built and sustained Australia’s refuge movement. Australia’s refuge movement is a story of courageous grassroots feminist activism.