THE Country Women's Association of NSW was formed in 1922 out of concern for women living on the land, particularly in isolated areas.

So said Nola Pinnuck, of Finley, when she opened the Town and Country Women's Day Out at Tocumwal on Friday.

It's no surprise then after a decade of drought that a new branch of the organisation should emerge in this rice, pasture and crop-growing area that's been so badly hit by drought and low water allocations.

It's called the Murray Hut CWA.

It was formed four years ago and on Friday it demonstrated that the CWA's 1922 dictum is truly alive and well when it laid on lunch, a high-calibre line-up of speakers and tackled the big topic that the blokes at home on the farm don't want to, can't or won't admit is happening and that's climate change.

Skirting smartly around CC, the speakers at The Town and Country Women's Day Out instead chose to talk about climate variability or our changing environment.

There are few more powerful ways to support women marooned in change, with husbands struggling to cope and farms under enormous economic pressure, than to explain what's happening and why and introducing and clearly explaining the tools that can be used to adapt.

Throughout the day, it became clear that the basic language surrounding climate change and especially words about the ways farmers could adapt, words like soil sequestration and carbon trading, were not understood.

That's dangerous because you can bet your bottom dollar that if the women from the farms of the Murray Darling Basin don't understand this language then their men don't either and for a country desperately needing to adapt, that's not good news.

What was apparent though is the enthusiasm of the women to learn and understand more. (There were 150 present from Jeriliderie, Finley, Cobram, Barooga, Tocumwal, Yarrawonga, Mulwala, Deniliquin and elsewhere.)

Yes, there was tea and some rather delicious and highly decorated cupcakes, alongside a splendid lunch.

But carbon and climate matters dominated the day, not knitting and cross-stitch as might have been the case with yesteryear's CWA.

Australia's first professor of Gender, Leadership and Social Sustainability, Margaret Alston, told the gathering that women and poor women in particular are most affected by climate change and by disaster in particular, most often because they're the ones trying to protect their children when disaster strikes. (Ninety per cent of 140,000 people who died in the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone were women.)

Professor Alston said research showed that regardless of the country or culture women on farms were experiencing the fallout from changes such as community decline, loss of social capital and declining levels of resilience, all brought about by lack of irrigation and subsequent lack of productivity.

Finley farmer Jennie Hawkins, who travelled internationally on a Nuffield Scholarship to find out how she could begin measuring, storing and trading carbon on her farm, said even at the highest levels there was great ignorance about agriculture and how it would be affected or how trading schemes could be practically applied.

But she urged women to accept that climate variability was happening and said they must prepare themselves and their farms for carbon trading.

Deniliquin livestock officer Michael Cashen demonstrated the significance of reducing autumn rainfalls and furniture-making entrepreneur Margot Spalding and comedian and men's health specialist Neville Brady added a healthy dose of levity.

Events like these signal that the CWA is as vital as ever in country areas.