Mandy Sayer vividly remembers the night she, her mother and young brother fled their home in their pyjamas in the middle of a downpour to escape years of unimaginable domestic abuse.
Without any money, the trio hailed a cab but had nowhere to go - except for a shelter her mother had read about in the Women's Weekly.
"We pulled up at two o'clock in the morning, banged on the door, woke up the entire household," Ms Sayer recalled.
"All the women came down, let us in, paid the cab driver, fed us, clothed us and took great care of us."
They'd arrived at Elsie Refuge in Glebe in Sydney's inner west in 1977, Australia's first shelter for women and children.
The refuge has just been awarded NSW State Heritage Register honours for its central role in the nation's fight against domestic violence.
"I doubt whether we'd all still be alive if it had not been for those women and their absolutely brave and fearless activities," Ms Sayer said.
Elsie Refuge was founded in 1974 in the midst of the Women’s Liberation Movement, quickly becoming a symbol of the the era's fight against domestic violence.
Using squatter's rights to claim abandoned houses, a group of activists including journalists Anne Summers and Bessie Guthrie created the refuge, which soon became known for its strong links to women’s activism and a model for hundreds of other shelters that came after it.
The State Heritage Register plaque installed on the building includes a quote from Catie Gilchrist for the Dictionary of Sydney, stating “armed only with broomsticks, shovels and energetic determination, they changed the locks to establish residency and claimed squatter’s rights."
Dr Summers said while it may now seem radical that a group of women broke in and claimed the houses, the truly radical act was creating a space where women could escape and talk about domestic violence.
"We were radical women, it was a radical act to say that women escaping violence needed somewhere safe to go and somewhere where they will be looked after," Dr Summers said.
She said while the house may have been "grotty" it was safe and paved the way for hundreds of other safe havens, sparking a national conversation about domestic violence that is still happening.
"It was needed to bring violence out into the open so we could start addressing it, and that is what we have been doing ever since," Dr Summers said.
Member for Sydney and senior federal minister Tanya Plibersek pointed out the attitudes of a different era, saying that at the time some parliamentarians had said refuges would ‘break up families’.
“Establishing Elsie, and the refuge movement, has changed Australia – providing safety for thousands of women and children, and advocacy to change our laws and systems," Ms Plibersek said.
The buildings are no longer used as a refuge and are instead occupied by tenants, whose home now bares the heritage plaque.
NSW Heritage Minister Penny Sharpe said Elsie was an important piece of Australia's social history which continues to inspire action and advocacy.
"It's about the changed lives, it's about the movement that created women's refuges and really started the conversation about domestic violence," she said.
