In March 2022, Jobs Australia opened Allawah Cottage in Gunnedah, a stand-alone house designed to house women and their children who are the victims of domestic violence. Fast-forward to 2024 and the house is now in so much demand that they are now seeking funding to build another dwelling, and they need it as soon as possible.
The Development Coordinator in Social Enterprises for Jobs Australia, Tracey Reid, has been with the project since the beginning.
“We’re turning away families every day, we desperately need this second house,” said Ms Reid.
“Allawah Cottage is unique to other domestic violence shelters in the area because it is a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom designed to just house one family at a time.”
“There are bigger group shelters in Moree, Narrabri and Tamworth, but, asides from the fact that they are all also always full, we generally find that most of these families have gone through too much trauma to benefit from sharing with others, they need their own space.”
Allawah Cottage came to fruition after Ms Reid was tasked by Jobs Australia to find out why many women either weren’t coming to their appointments, or didn’t seem to be fully accessing of having enough to get by from the supports that were being offered to them.
“After about 8 months of research, we discovered that a lot of it was to do with domestic violence, in a wide variety of forms, and that women were either being prevented from coming to appointments with us, or were not being allowed to access the funds that were being offered to them,” said Ms Reid.
“We also realised that domestic crisis shelters were very thin on the ground in the area and from here we were able to build a case and build Allawah Cottage.”
“It has been fully occupied since the day it opened.”
Another way that Allawah Cottage is unique is that it allows families to bring their pets with them.
“It sounds trivial but it’s a really significant thing for families who are going through a traumatic event like this, especially for the kids to have their pets with them – sadly we often find that even the pets are victims of domestic violence too,” said Ms Reid.
“Families are welcome to bring their dogs or cats with them to stay, and we have an agreement in place with the Gunnedah Show Society where they will care for horses on behalf of the family while they stay with us.”
In the all-too-common instance that they have to turn families away from Allawah Cottage, Jobs Australia does have funding for families to stay in motel accommodation, along with alternative care arrangements for any four-legged friends.
“I want to emphasise that whilst Allawah Cottage is an initiative for women in crisis, domestic violence is not exclusively an issue for women. We actually had a dad contact us a little while ago needing help and we were able to offer him a motel to stay in until he could find other arrangements, so it’s definitely an issue across our community regardless of gender,” said Ms Reid.
She also stresses that domestic violence is nuanced and comes in many forms.
“Every situation we’ve had come through Allawah Cottage is different, no story is the same,” said Ms Reid.
“The current cost of living crisis is definitely making things harder too; people are under a lot of stress and financial abuse is becoming really prevalent – it’s so hard for families to survive on a single income.”
Given the high-need in the region, Ms Reid’s focus is now very firmly on building a second cottage.
“We have enough room on the land for a 2-bedroom cottage behind Allawah cottage, and we’ve had the quote done up for us by Austam Homes in Tamworth for a little pre-fab which will be perfect,” said Ms Reid.
“The total cost will be $250,000 and we’ve raised $30,00 so far. Mark Coulton (MP) is also working really closely with us to try and find out where we can get some further government funding from as well so I’m very hopeful we can make this happen.”
“We’re all doing what we can do but you know what, I wake up everyday and think that I am lucky and blessed to be able to do what I do – I get to get up everyday and want to go to work so that I can help people.”
To find out more about Allawah Cottage, and how you can help, you can visit their website and they’ll also have a stand at the upcoming AgQuip event in Gunnedah.
Something going on in your part of the region you think people should know about? Send us a news tip or email newsdesk@netimes.com.au.