A former community nurse, Mrs Wilson is the current chair of the Canowindra Food Basket organisation.

“My work was all about community and people’s health, prevention of disease from a holistic point of view,” Mrs Wilson said.

“Being in the beginning of community health was not only a huge challenge but and extremely rewarding one.

“What we did all those year’s ago was most rewarding, exciting, challenging, scaring sometimes,” she says of her work as a community nurse.

“Working with communities in developing multi purpose centres and health councils, working with the Department of Health at state level on policies, actually did make a difference,” she said.

Mrs Wilson is a past Chair, District Council, Uniting Church in Australia; and current Cultural Officer, Canowindra Branch, Country Women's Association of New South Wales as well as a board member of the Canowindra Retirement Village Association.

She assisted in the development of Multi-Purpose Services in the region, co-locating community health services, aged care, residential care and acute inpatient services in the 1990's.

“I couldn’t get away from Canowindra quick enough when I was a child so I went nursing,” Mrs Wilson said of her career which eventually took her to many parts of the globe.

Her father encouraged her to work for a local accountant but she went nursing, working with the NSW Masonic Hospital.

During the end of her training she met her future husband Barry Wilson and their lives eventually lead them back to Canowindra.

They married not long after Marion completed her training and lived in Sydney where she was employed with a community based nursing service before moving into administration.

In the early 1970s they returned to Canowindra after her mother suggested she was going to sell the family business.

“Before I knew it we were back, I never worked in the business, Barry took it over,” she said.

In 1979 she got the job as team leader and area co-ordinator of Orange Health Centre which saw her commute every day to work.

Mrs Wilson held this position for a decade.

She was then appointed Director of the Health Promotion Unit which meant she had to be based in Bathurst.

After a short stint working in Orange a structural change saw Marion back in Orange where she began working on multi purpose services working with health in Sydney developing policies and procedures on how multi purpose centres should operate.

This saw Marion involved involved in the setting up of health councils and their appointment and how they would run.

“With another change coming I thought it’s time I went, the fire had gone out of my belly,” Marion said of her decision to retire.

“I decided to get more involved in the community and do things I couldn’t do before because I was so busy.

Marion’s love for Canowindra is obvious.

“I love the people, it’s a beautiful part of the world, I love the care and concern people have for others.

“I have strong roots.

“I’m comfortable here,” Marion said of the town she has given so much too.

“It’s 12 years since we started co-operating,” she said of the Anglican and Uniting Churches.

“We came together because it doubled our opportunities to bring the Gospel to people in the town,” Marion said of the move.

“Out of that came the food basket.” 

Three years ago she sat down with the head of the Uniting Church to discuss what should be happening in Canowindra.

“We then put together a reference group from Anglican, Catholic, Uniting and Cornerstone.

“We will be engaging all of the agencies that need to engage with dysfunctional families, we will build a kitchen to teach cooking, we will have an internet kiosk.

“We’ll have Uniting Children’s Services, Anglicare, and hopefully Centrecare operating from the centre.

“We’ll have a special children’s area, a meeting room, about four counselling rooms, the Food Basket will be part of it.

“It’ll just be a new way for the church,” Marion said of the proposed new development which she says will be her biggest achievement if it works.

Marion says if she could change one thing in Canowindra it would be the lack of good infrastructure.

“We put up with lack of services because governments of the day decided we don’t need a court house, all sort of things, our streets sometimes leave a lot to be desired,” Marion added.