The Karratha Women’s Place Inc. aims to make a positive difference to the health and wellbeing of women living in the City of Karratha by providing a range of programs, activities and services that will empower women of all ages, religions, sexual orientations and cultural backgrounds.

History of The Karratha Women’s Place

The Karratha Women’s Place was founded by Dee Van Beek.

Upon moving to Karratha in 2009, Dee quickly realised how socially isolating it can be for women living in the area – their partners or husbands often work long shifts, and they have often moved away from family and friends. To reduce feelings of social isolation and loneliness, they find themselves needing to re-form social networks, which can be particularly difficult if they do not have school-aged children.

As a consequence, in October 2009, Dee formed a ‘Coffee & Chat’ group for women to meet up at Muffin Break in the Karratha Centro Shopping Centre on Saturday mornings. Dee’s idea and passion to help increase social connectedness for women became more focused in February 2012 when she visited the Women’s Wellness Centre in South Hedland. This sparked Dee’s imagination, and her vision of a similar centre here in Karratha was born!!

Despite dedicating a number of years working towards establishing the Karratha Women’s Wellness Centre, a lack of funding and, consequently, a redundancy in 2017 made it seem like this unique service for women would no longer come to fruition. However, Dee didn’t give up on her vision, and in 2018, she invited various strong women to come together and form a Board for what would become the Karratha Women’s Place Inc.

It hasn’t been an easy journey, and there have been many bumps in the road, but after many years of dedication, hard work, persistence, enthusiasm and passion, on the 8th of March 2019, the Karratha Women’s Place Inc. opened its doors for women of all ages, cultural backgrounds, religions and sexual orientations, living in the City of Karratha.

Our Vision

To ensure women of all ages living in the City of Karratha have the opportunity to achieve their full potential for emotional, mental and physical wellbeing.

Our Objectives

• To contribute to community change by working collaboratively with other organisations and community members.
• To promote and achieve positive outcomes for women’s physical and mental health as well as well-being.
• To advocate for the implementation of services to meet identified ‘women’s’ health needs.
• To address isolation by providing fun activities and events that encourage socially inclusive and intergenerational networks.
• To promote and provide preventative, effective and compassionate integrated health services for the benefit of all women regardless of age, religion, sexual orientation or culture.
• To support and empower women who are dealing with family and domestic violence.
• To offer health education programs and activities that will assist and empower ladies to make informed decisions about their physical, sexual and mental health as well as lifestyle choices.
• To foster interaction between the community and women’s health service providers.
• To encourage women to take advantage of existing community services by providing a resource and referral service.
• To provide a safe and homely environment that is welcoming for women of ages, cultures, sexual orientations and religions.