May 7th, 2025A Trewhella woman ahead of her time
Trentham’s Catherine (Kit) Anne Trewhella , pictured below was born on February 23, 1897 to William Trewhella and Margaret Landrigan.
William, was the designer of Trewhella Jacks and other innovative tools which he patented and manufactured at Trewhella Brothers’ Engineers, known locally as the Foundry.
After leaving school, Kit went to Melbourne to learn the skill of drafting with Johns and Waygood. She became a draftsman which was a rare profession for a woman of the time and on returning to Trentham, joined the office staff at the foundry.
Following with family tradition while working at the foundry, Kit was a trailblazer, inventing and patenting an automatic door closer. The family business was managed by male family members, while Kit managed the office in the roles of secretary and paymaster.
Financial decisions were usually made by males but that didn’t bother her at all. Kit, highlighting her individuality and technical expertise, was the owner of the first motor garage and hire car business in 1921 in High Street, Trentham where mechanical repairs were undertaken, petrol pumped, and cars hired with a driver. Her brother Harry was placed in the role of manager.
Kit was fortunate enough to be one of the first women in Trentham to drive a car and in fact own one herself. She realised cars were to be a way of life then and into the future. Kit never married.
She was a devout Catholic and her association with the church made her aware of the disadvantaged people in the town.
With her great friend, Dr Gweneth Wisewould, the local family doctor for the district, and Kit the office manager of the main employer in town, the private circumstances of most residents were known to them.
When crisis hit the town Kit and/or Dr Gwen would provide medical support, money, food, a place to sleep or whatever was needed, promptly and without the need for recognition.
Helping people in the community and hosting children from Catholic schools and orphanages at her farm in Newbury over the summer holidays was her way of giving back to the district. She was a role model for women and was looked up to in town.
For many years, she was the secretary of the Roman Catholic Church, taking a role often played by men, rather than the traditional female role in the Catholic Women’s Guild where they would run euchre parties and sell homemade goods.
Over a long life, she was a trend-setter, taking on female roles if necessary but determined to break with tradition and relishing in the male roles.
Though not universally loved later in life due to her forthrightness and abrasive manner, the town still respected and remembered her, putting her name forward for the Heather Mutimer Hepburn Shire Women’s Day Honour Roll.
Kit was posthumously added to the Honour Roll in 2015. (A local tells me Kit was fond of a man named Norm who helped out at the farm, but Norm never asked Kit to marry him.
A friend asked why she didn’t ask him and her reply: “It is manners for a lady to wait until she is asked. Hence, wedding bells never rang.”)
Words: Natalie Poole | Images: Courtesy of Trentham Historical Society
