Community
27 March, 2025
Proctor captures history
COOINDA will celebrate a historic milestone with the launch of a new book penned by Mortlake’s Craige Proctor.
The beloved disability service provider will celebrate 70 years since its formation on Friday, April 4 with a lunch at the Terang Recreation Reserve from 11am to 2pm.
To accompany the milestone will be the launch of ‘A Happy Place – The Story of Cooinda Terang 1955-2025’.
The book’s author, Mortlake-based historian Craige Proctor, said he quickly became captivated with the story of Cooinda after being approached.
“I got a phone call from Janice (Harris, Cooinda chief executive officer) out of the blue, and she had asked whether or not I would be interested,” he said.
“All my life I had heard of Cooinda, but I’d not really appreciated what Cooinda was.
“It’s one of the things growing up which you read about in the Mortlake Dispatch but I had never looked in to it.
“The first thing I did was go to the website, find out what the idea of Cooinda is and, as a person with a passion for local history, I quickly discovered this was a local history story which needed to be captured.
“I became more and more aware this was not just a story of the organisation and what it has become, but a story of community involvement, engagement, passion and commitment from the parents and children confronted with a total lack of support for those with a disability.”
Mr Proctor said he began researching disability support which opened his eyes to both the vestigial horrors of how those living with a disability were treated from the early-to-mid twentieth century, and the determination of seven local women to change the system through what would become the south west’s first disability service provider.
“Parents were faced with the appalling choice of keeping their child at home, isolated, or institutionalising them and not seeing them,” he said.
“I don’t think we can appreciate how draconian and shocking the situation was.
“Yet seven women from the Terang area, all with disabled children, went to Melbourne and knocked on politician’s doors, demanding some sort of support be given.”
Mr Proctor spent countless hours visiting the State Library, pouring though copies of the Terang Express, interviewing those who have been part of shaping Cooinda and utilising all available resources to uncover the story of how Cooinda came to be.
He acknowledged traversing a history, from the bleak beginnings which motivated the desire to cultivate a trailblazing organisation, was a “marvellous story of community support and leadership enterprise”.
“It has been an emotional rollercoaster at times,” Mr Proctor said.
“It gets to you when you realise there are still people alive who, 70 years ago, demonstrated enormous bravery and commitment, courage and resourcefulness.
“It is the story of firsts – the first disability service provider in south west Victoria, the first to embrace vocational training, the first to establish residential villas, and other providers followed suit – Cooinda became the magnet for others from all over to look at what was being achieved.”
Mrs Harris said she was proud to see Cooinda’s rich tapestry captured from a humble beginning with just one employee to the more than 170 staff it has today.
“It’s amazing – the people who started this were before their time,” she said.
“The first disability act came out in 1986, which was about deinstitutionalisation, but before that time institutions were not great places with 15-bed dorms and things like that.
“It was prison-like, and these families wanted something better for their children and for them to be seen as individuals.
“People to this day are amazed at the range of programs we offer, where Cooinda has always been part of the community – people aren’t just going to a centre then going home, they’re part of the community.
“Be it going to the shops, or hairdressers, these are things we all do but take for granted each day.”
Cooinda general manager Phil Hose said reading the book had been an eye-opening experience.
“Craige has delved in to things I was largely ignorant of, and it’s been humbling to read the legacy of those families,” he said.
“It fills in some of the gaps which shows why the community has embraced Cooinda, and continues to do so to this day.
“This is a social story – we know the history of our agriculture and politics, our education systems, but to uncover the history of disability services in the south west that started from the passion and commitment of these women and families was an enormous eye-opener for me, which showed we have a real legacy, and a responsibility, to the whole region.
“We have to hang on to the values and vision of those families as we continue to manage what is a very different business and organisation than it used to be.
“This is a book we can learn from.”
Cooinda will host its 70th anniversary celebration and launch ‘A Happy Place - The Story of Cooinda Terang’ on Friday, April 4 from 11am-2pm at the Terang Recreation Reserve.
To RSVP e-mail administration@cooindaterang.org.au or call 5592 1533.
“There’s still a lot of stories to tell, and we wanted to capture that so it wasn’t lost,” Mrs Harris said.
“At the launch we’ll have guest speakers, including Craige and our eldest participant who has been with us for 50 years.
“We’ll cut a cake, do some tours of Cooinda so people can see both our first villa and the latest house opened, and have a walk through the farm.”
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