The majority of refuges were adapted to accommodate a range of homeless clients, which resulted in them being less suitable for women and children fleeing domestic violence.
Existing services were put out to tender and the agencies who then undertook management were often religious charities who did not necessarily share the feminist framework originally established by the NSW Women's Refuge Movement.
The first women's refuge in Australia was Elsie Refuge which was started in the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe in March 1974 by a group of Women's Liberation feminist activists including Anne Summers, Jennifer Dakers, Bessie Guthrie, Robyn Kemmis, Kris Melmouth, Margaret Power, Carol Baker, Diana Beaton, Christina Gibbeson and Trudy Brickwood.
[1][2][3][4] After months of unsuccessful approaches to government and private developers to secure premises, the women squatted illegally in two vacant houses in Glebe.
The NSW Women's Refuge Movement also played a key role in raising awareness about domestic violence and its social and financial impacts on individuals and the community.
[2] However, meeting the administrative costs of the NSW Women's Refuge Movement continued to be a struggle and the movement was effectively dismantled by the NSW Government's 'Going Home, Staying Home' reforms in 2014 overseen by New South Wales Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister for Social Housing, Pru Goward.