Around 30 members from Far South Coast CWA branches shared their findings at their annual Cultural, International, Agriculture and Environment day in Cobargo on Monday, August 15.

Marisha Kelly of the Moruya branch and Far South Coast group publicity officer said members from branches located between Batemans Bay and Eden were invited to the event held at the Cobargo School of Arts Hall.

For the cultural segment of the day branches each took turns of reading poetry or performing skits before the women were treated to a lovely lunch of Latvian food to mark the introduction of their country of study for the year.

Pambula-Merimbula branch president and FSCG international officer Laraine Clarke said although she'd been to 38 countries, she hadn't yet been to Latvia.

The country of study was chosen by the NSW CWA head office.

She said she researched the country online and read books about the country but wasn't able to find someone locally from Latvia to speak to the group.

Ms Clarke said one of the most interesting pieces of information she found out was that Latvia's national animal was the 5mm two-spotted ladybird, and said it was quite the change from previous years which had featured tigers from Malaysia and zebras from Botswana - to name a few.

During a presentation from Ms Clarke to the group, she said mittens were an important part of Latvian culture and that traditionally several hundred pairs of handmaid gifts were given to newlywed couples.

"The most exciting fact is that every mitten had to be knitted in a different design using different patterns," she said.

CWA FSCG agriculture and environment officer Annette Kennewell was in charge of putting together a presentation and display about the primary product, fauna, flora, and foe.

This year's primary product was coffee, fauna was Australasian Bittern, flora was banksia, and the foe was black willow.

Some of the interesting facts she read aloud to the group about coffee was that Australia only grows one per cent of all coffee consumed here, despite Australians drinking an average of 14 cups per week.

Coffee that is grown here is from either the NSW Northern Rivers or Far North Queensland.

She said the Australasian bittern had sometimes been called the bunyip bird because the male bird's call, which can travel up to 2km, was thought to sound like a bunyip.

"Not that anyone knows what a bunyip sounds like, but still," she said.

Ms Kennewell said in NSW it lived in reeds and rushes, freshwater wetlands, and in the rice paddies of the Riverina.

The ladies in attendance found out there were 170 species of banksia in Australia for the segment on flora.

The black willow tree was the foe of the day and it was said to be a problem due to its invasive nature as a weed that out-competes native trees and changes water flow, which contributed to erosion.

After the information sessions, the CWA held a raffle with prizes distributed such as coffee and plants - not black willow.

The money raised through entry into the event and through the raffle would go to state office and be redistributed among the group.

Some of the proceeds raised on the day would also go towards some of the CWA International projects around the world.

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