Will our electorate soon be named after a pioneering campaigner who worked with Lorne’s Frank and Lillian Beaurepaire?
The Australian Electoral Commission [AEC] has proposed renaming the Corangamite Electorate Cox to signify its changed dimensions and in order to commemorate Victorian pioneer swimming teacher, lifesaver, organiser, fundraiser and senior state government officer Miss May Cox (1883–1953). The renaming is part of a much larger redistribution which will see all Victorian federal electorates change their boundaries and four be renamed.
The End of the Seat of Corangamite?
In its long history, the seat has been held by both conservative and ALP representatives, including an original settler J. C. Manifold – twice – and an ALP Prime Minister J. H. Scullin and is currently held by Liberal Sarah Henderson.
A renaming is seen as necessary because the new electorate, which will now include all of the Surf Coast Shire, will no longer include Lake Corangamite after which the electorate was named in the original creation of Australian electorates in 1900-01.
The changes to the electorate also incorporate changing population densities in the Colac, Surf Coast and Geelong regions, and is in keeping with recent practice of naming electorates after people rather than place names.
While it may be sad that Corangamite will be no more, Miss May Cox is a most appropriate person after whom to name the electorate. New Seat to Celebrate the Marvellous Miss May Cox?
After an early career as a teacher in Albert Park, in 1910 May Cox was appointed as the first and only woman Supervisor of Swimming and Lifesaving in the Victorian Education Department.
She was a leader in swimming education in Victoria and Australia and one of few women to be recognised for her contribution in her own life time. She worked early in her career with Lorne residents, Olympians Frank and Lillian Beaurepaire to promote swimming and life-saving education throughout Victoria for both boys and – unusually for the time – for girls as well.
Lillian Beaurepaire is well-known to Lorne residents as a loved community member and philanthropist. She donated [anonymously] the funds which allowed the members of the Lorne Hospital Auxiliary to purchase the land in Lorne’s main street, and then build the nowfamous Lorne Community and Hospital Op Shop which has served the whole community for nearly 60 years.
Lillian’s many contributions to Lorne life were also memorialised in the Lillian Beaurepaire Memorial Swimming Pool which served Lorne so well until, despite strong community objections, it was creatively renamed Lorne Sea Baths
May Cox and Frank Beaurepaire created the Learn to Swim programme and promoted it across Victoria. As Dr Deborah Towns, sociologist and historian, demonstrates in her work on Miss Cox’s life and career:
“May Cox (1883–1953) was …one of the first women teachers to work in the head office of the Victorian Education Department. In her lifetime Cox was recognised as a leader in the Victorian community. Therefore her name acted as a drawcard for the Red Cross’s patriotic activities during World War I. In 1916 she was highlighted on a poster: ‘Miss May Cox, Chief Lady Swimming Expert in Victoria’, that advertised a ‘Grand Annual Aquatic Carnival’ as a fundraiser.
During her career she held two influential positions in Victoria. She was a swimming and lifesaving expert and managed the department’s World War I patriotic activities where her promptitude ensured that the department was the leading government fundraiser.
The public record shows that she had a forceful and engaging personality. One such example was in 1921 when a poem written by grateful teachers described her as ‘The Queen of all the hearts’ and ‘ready from dawn till eve to play the game’.”
Dr Towns describes Miss Cox as ‘a highly visible ‘superstar’ in her day – she was a forthright personality and had a wonderful sense of personal style’.
However, the creation of the new electorate celebrating Miss Cox is not yet certain, as Sarah Henderson has said in a recent press release, ‘I am pleased to confirm that the Liberal Party will be objecting to the draft boundaries and re-naming of the Corangamite electorate’.
Ms. Henderson is also apparently concerned that ‘the proposed new name has already prompted some ridicule on social media.’
By the sound of her, Miss May Cox would not have been at all bothered by that!
Deb Campbell
Deans Marsh
