By Jamie Salter
Murdered Pakenham community stalwart Carol Clay has been honoured by her CWA friends at an annual Women Walk the World event.
The ladies of the Pakenham CWA branch, along with Cardinia Shire councillors, proudly walked around Lakeside on Friday 29 April in Ms Clay’s memory.
Ms Clay was a long time Pakenham CWA member, who served as branch president and state president before she and camping partner Russell Hill went missing in 2020.
Sadly, Ms Clay and Mr Hill’s remains were found in Victoria’s high country in February 2022.
Pakenham CWA members have participated in the worldwide Associated Country Woman of the World’s (ACWW) international network event for more than 10 years.
The walk aims to raise awareness for ACWW projects in developing countries that address climate smart agriculture as well as rural women’s health and education.
On the second walk the group held, Ms Clay walked around the lake with a bucket filled with a small quantity of water in recognition of women who have to walk long distances to access fresh water.
Current Pakenham CWA branch secretary Vicky Birch said the sub-branch decided to honour the memory of Ms Clay by repeating her actions all those years ago.
“It’s one way of us showing just how much she did do in the community and statewide for CWA,“ she said.
“We actually attended her memorial recently and there was a number of organisations she was involved with, not just the CWA.
“We miss her terribly and this was a way to express our appreciation of what she’s done.“
Cardinia Shire councillors Graeme Moore, Carol Ryan and Brett Owen also took part in the walk on Friday.
“We’ve come to support Carol Clay and what she did for the community which was nothing short of sensational,“ Cr Moore said.
He said the walk also helped to raise awareness for the conditions in third world countries.
“We are privileged here and we think it’s a God given right, but overseas they’re subject to carrying buckets of water home, so this is to create awareness and extend our minds out to other countries.“
