We are an independent not-for-profit, community-based organisation that provides specialist family violence services in the north of Melbourne, Victoria.
We provide 58 crisis accommodation beds across two high security core-and-cluster refuges and six crisis accommodation properties. We also offer practical support, therapeutic interventions, and dedicated support for children and young people. We are governed by an independent voluntary Board.
Our People
Sandra Morris
Board Director and Chair
Sandra Morris brings over 25 years of experience in women’s health, gender equality, and family violence gained through leadership positions across government, health, and nonprofit sectors to the Courage Collective Board. As Director of Sandra Morris Consulting, she works to influence practice and policy in gender equality, family violence and women and non-binary people’s health. She has also supported emerging leaders through her long-standing involvement in the Safe and Equal's Fast Track program. Sandra joined the Courage Collective Board in February 2023 and is a member of the People and Governance Subcommittee.
Lara Pasquale
Deputy Chairperson
Lara Pasquale is currently the Director of Strategic Audit and Assurance at the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions. Her career includes extensive experience working for the Department of Justice and Community Safety, where she oversaw projects in strategy, governance, and corporate planning. Lara joined the Courage Collective Board in 2020 and chairs the People and Governance Subcommittee.
Jo Natoli
Secretary and Treasurer
After a 30-year career in the Commonwealth Public Service leading large and geographically diverse teams, Jo Natoli is now retired from full-time employment. She applied Agile and LEAN principles to translate strategy into practical outcomes, working collaboratively with stakeholders to deliver initiatives from concept through to implementation. Jo joined the Courage Collective Board in 2002, contributing to the organisation’s transition to its current governance model, and currently chairs the Risk, Audit and Finance Subcommittee.
Nisha Gull-e-Nishat
Board Director
Nisha Gull-E-Nishat is a strategic social impact and partnerships leader with over 15 years’ experience advancing community-led work across health promotion, wellbeing, inclusion, and gender equity. She brings strong expertise in systems leadership, cross-sector collaboration, and designing initiatives that create lasting community impact. She co-chairs the Multicultural Women’s Alliance Against Family Violence, and is the founder of Healing Noor Collective. Nisha joined the Courage Collective Board in 2023 and is a member of the People and Governance Subcommittee.
Jo McKay
Board Member
Jo McKay is a marketing and communications leader with 20+ years’ experience across Australia and the UK in retail, banking, health and member organisations. She has worked for major brands including Qantas, Officeworks, David Jones and News Corp Australia. Through her consultancy, she advises leaders and organisations on reputation, visibility and growth. Jo is a GAICD, Certified Practicing Marketer, and board member of Mallee Sexual Assault Unit and Domestic Violence Services. Jo joined the Courage Collective Board in 2026 and is a member of the Risk, Audit and Finance Subcommittee.
Kirsty McIntyre
Board Member
Kirsty McIntyre brings legal, advocacy and governance expertise to the board of Courage Collective. Her experience includes more than 25 years in the public sector as a General Counsel and senior executive officer, and as a Director on the committees of management of several community-based legal services and not-for-profit women's organisations. Kirsty joined the Courage Collective Board in 2026 and is a member of the People and Governance Subcommittee.
Michal Morris
CEO
Michal Morris became CEO of Courage Collective in 2024. Her extensive experience includes CEO of inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence as well as a senior leadership roles in community health and primary health networks where she developed programs that addressed complex needs, establishing workforces that mirror the communities they serve, and collaborating closely with governments, peak bodies, and other agencies to drive tangible change. She was a 2022 inductee into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and a finalist in the 2023 George and Ethel Swinburne Social Impact Award.
Tracey Edwards
Client Services Manager
Tracey Edwards joined Courage Collective in 2020 as Operations Manager before stepping into a 12-month appointment as acting CEO, becoming Client Services Manager in 2024. Tracey brings 13 years' experience in practice leadership and operational management to her role, including extensive experience in the child welfare, family violence, community, and not-for-profit sectors. As Child and Family Services Manager at Kids First Australia, Tracey led the integration of North East Child FIRST with one of Victoria's first Orange Door services. She has also worked as a Child Protection Practitioner at the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.
Kirsty Watts
Business Services Manager
Kirsty Watts joined Courage Collective in 2024. As Business Services Manager, she has been responsible for building a new corporate services division to accelerate Courage Collective’s development. Her experience includes consultancy roles focused on the government and not-for-profit sectors, and she brings skills in strategy development and operational management to her role. Kirsty has served on the Board of the Victorian Animal Aid Trust and the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation.
Publications
Our impact, strategy, and outcomes.
Please note a number of these publications use our previous name, Georgina Martina Inc. (GMI).
Our History
Courage Collective is both one of Victoria’s and Australia’s longest-standing refuges and one of its most innovative. Our history is deeply connected to Victoria’s early feminist family violence refuge movement and reflects the evolving understanding of and commitment to the safety of victim-survivors of family violence over time.
Our beginnings
In 1893, Melbourne confectioner MacPherson Robertson built “Carmelea”, a large home at 43 Station Street, Fairfield. In 1921, scientist and committed Methodist Georgina Sweet—Australia’s first female associate-professor and the first woman to be awarded a doctorate from the University of Melbourne—decided to offer part of her inheritance to Melbourne Central Methodist Mission. Her donation enabled the Mission to purchase Carmelea, where they established a “maternity home”.
In January 1922, “Fairfield Girls Memorial Home” opened, and the property would provide accommodation for unmarried pregnant women for the next fifty years. At its peak in the 1960s, the property housed around 150 women per year, all of whom still faced strong discrimination against those who became pregnant outside wedlock.
“We went there because we were pregnant. We went there because society couldn’t bear us being out in the open.”
– Janet, Fairfield Girls Memorial Home resident.
Becoming a refuge
By the early 1970s, the availability of the contraceptive Pill, changes to adoption laws, and the introduction of the single parent pension had created a new era for women. Recognising this, Melbourne Central Methodist Mission closed Fairfield Girls Memorial Home and began preparing to reopen the property as emergency accommodation.
Lifeline was by now one of the most important services run by Australia’s Methodist Missions. In 1973, the Melbourne Mission employed former Lifeline employee Rhoda Sheffield to manage the Fairfield property as its first emergency accommodation service. The refuge was named Georgina House in honour of Georgina Sweet.
In a history of the Mission’s work, Sheffield is quoted as saying: “[Women] just came flooding in…The big majority were battered wives running away from their husbands.” The next 10 years would see the establishment of many more refuges for women facing domestic violence, but in 1973, Sheffield was entirely alone in her work at Georgina House. “We had a battle with the managing committee…[but] we did eventually get another person,” she said in a 1976 interview.
Georgina House immediately faced capacity issues and funding challenges, but none of this dimmed the enthusiasm of refuge staff. A history of the organisation states: “Georgina House was unique in the early 1970s for not encouraging women to return to marriages at all costs; instead taking the position that in cases of violence, marriage was untenable.”
During the 1980s, Georgina House was joined by a wider network of refuges, and Melbourne Central Methodist Mission, now Wesley Parish Mission, became more focused on community-based care. In 1984, the Mission sold the Fairfield property to the Housing Ministry. Georgina House operations continued at other, smaller houses in the surrounding area, and its staff formally parted ways with the Mission in 1989.
From 1990, the Housing Ministry operated the Fairfield property as rooming house for women. Marjorie Oke House—named in honour of a lifelong Melbourne campaigner for women’s rights—was redeveloped in 2019 and reopened in 2021. It now offers social housing for women as Marjorie Oke Apartments.
“In those days you didn’t look for the services that would help [women in refuge], you just provided the accommodation and listened and talked, there weren’t the networks to refer them to.”
– Michelle, Georgina House worker.
Creating a sister refuge
After separating from Wesley Parish Mission, former Georgina House workers established Georgina Collective Inc. In 1990, the Collective secured a government grant to buy its own property, which became Georgina Women’s Refuge.
By 1995, Georgina Women’s Refuge was operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That same year, government changes enabled Georgina Collective to purchase a second property. This new refuge was named “Martina” after champion tennis player and LGBTIQA+ icon Martina Navratilova. Auspiced by Georgina Collective Inc., Martina Women’s Refuge welcomed its first residents on 27 December 1995, and accommodated 40 women and children during its first six months of operation.
Over the next 15 years, Georgina and Martina Women’s Refuges would provide accommodation and outreach for thousands of women and children escaping family violence. In 2011, in recognition of both refuges, Georgina Collective Inc. became Georgina Martina Inc.
A new home
In 2016, the findings of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence were released, committing to the implementation of all 227 recommendations. These recommendations included transforming communal refuges, where all residents lived inside the same property, into core-and-cluster residences that gave each victim-survivor the dignity and autonomy of living in their own unit.
By 2018, Georgina Martina Inc. had been granted two sites for the development of core-and-cluster properties in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. These two properties continue to carry the names Georgina Refuge and Martina Refuge today.
In 2026, our organisation embarked on a new chapter under the name Courage Collective. Our name reflects our vision of a society in which everyone plays a role in breaking the cycle of family violence. Together we can protect, care for, and empower each other, and find the courage to start again.
References
Victorian Heritage Database Report: Carmelea
Howe, R. and Swain, S. 1993. The Challenge of the City. The Centenary History of Wesley Central Mission 1893-1993. Hyland House.
Fairfield Girls Memorial Home (1922-73)
Wilson, R. 2007. Shelter: An Oral History of Marjorie Oke Rooming House for Women. Black Pepper Publishing.
Taylor, S. ‘Carmelea’: A house biography of a women’s housing site in Melbourne, Australia. Unpublished article.