Passionate advocate for the retention of Ballarat’s Uniting churches in congregation ownership and former Liberal Party member for Ballarat South, Mrs Joan Chambers has died aged 86.
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Mrs Chambers will be remembered in recent times for her determined opposition to the Uniting Church Synod’s planned fire sale of historic properties in order to address a $36 million debt it had incurred through the collapse of it school Acacia College.
The proposed sale of St Andrew’s in Sturt Street and the Pleasant Street Uniting Church caused enormous concern for their respective congregations.
“We have a beautiful church and a beautiful congregation," Mrs Chambers said at the time of the sale.
"The most awful thing is that these Christian people are quite oblivious to what they are doing to the people in the pews."
She threatened to approach the then attorney-general Robert Clark and premier Denis Napthine to assess if the sales would be legal.
The Uniting Church backed down on the sales.
Her successor in the seat of Ballarat South Frank Sheehan remembered Mrs Chambers as a strong competitor, committed to her ideals.
“She was the first woman to stand for Ballarat South, which gives some indication of her willingness to work hard,” said Mr Sheehan.
Mrs Chambers was born Joan Heywood Murray in Elsternwick in 1930. She attended Ormond State School and Tintern Church of England Girls Grammar School before receiving a Bachelor of Arts (1950) and Diploma of Education (1951) from the University of Melbourne.
She later taught secondary school at Kyabram, Hampton, Mortlake and Ballarat. She married Major John Alexander Chambers, a soldier-turned-farmer, in 1953. They had five children.
Joan Chambers joined the Liberal Party in 1969 and held a number of positions including secretary of the Alfredton branch, a member of the federal electorate council for the Division of Wannon, and a member of the state executive.
In 1979 she was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for Ballarat South, but she was defeated in 1982. She unsuccessfully sought pre-selection for Warrnambool in 1983, and ran again for Ballarat South in 1988, losing narrowly and taking the result to the Court of Disputed Returns.
