About Glebe

• A Unique Village Environment
  
  
• History - Places
  and People
  
  
• Calendar of
  Events
  
  
• Walks in Glebe
  
  
• Map
  
  

Elsie (Women's Refuge)

In 1974, a small terrace house in Westmoreland Street, Glebe became a refuge for women and children trying to escape domestic violence. Glebe women, amongst others, were instrumental in its establishment and maintenance.

Elsie was the first such refuge to be set up in Australia and soon was burgeoning with people needing help. By 1999, more than 300 similar refuges had been founded in this country.

For further reading about Elsie consult our Bibliography.

Glebe was still heavily forested in the1850s and it is reported that Edmund Blacket, on returning home from his city office by ferry (to the wharf once at the bottom of Ferry Road), would employ an escort of four men to see him safely through the bushes!