Posted on Aug 03, 2021
Todays meeting August 3, 2021
 
President Richard opened the meeting and decided to play a rendition of the National Anthem at the start of the meeting.  Sounds like a bad omen to sing before an event as the Wallabies do that before every Bledisloe and it doesn’t seem to help. That was followed by a Rotary grace from a Club in Nigeria.  It was equally as bad as our own performance.
 
Phil Burgess was an apology as he was carted off to Hospital but tells us that he is improving quickly and won’t miss much Rotary.
Geoff Breust let us know that guest speaker from the previous week, Jessica Horner, wanted all the Wollundrians to know  that the $1000 she won in the photo competition was sufficient to set up her own business and was very grateful to Wollundry for hosting the event.
 
The members draw was won by Darren Wallace
 
Members Choice
 
Col Duff gave us a review of his Rotary trip to Vanuatu a couple of years previous. The trip was organised by the Rotary Club of Bowral/Mittagong to build a toilet block for the local school. The team of tradies included engineers, electricians, builders, lawyers but, alas, no plumbers which was unfortunate as most of the work was centred on plumbing.
 
To get the 4000 and 5000 litre tanks to the small island, two boats were tied together, framework assembled and the tanks tied on. The lack of rough seas for the crossing ensured that the tanks arrived in one piece. The 4000 litre septic tank was to be installed underground so they set about digging a huge hole by hand. The whole project was completed in two weeks under the Rotary banner of FAME (don’t know what that is. Ed)
 
These projects are great for Club fellowship and can easily be grouped with another Club or two. When Covid is off our agenda our Club should look for similar options. The school in Vanuatu is now looking for some funding for furnishing the classrooms. Members can make individual donations as can the Club. Col will speak with the Club project Director.
 
If you want to make a financial contribution, please see Col Duff

Rotary Information by James Ross
 
James Ross was a bit short of Rotary information but took the opportunity to share with some of the early days of Pony Club in Holbrook. This was significant as the trainers were none other than Jim Hoy and son Andrew, notably, Andrew being selected for his eighth Olympics representing Australia in Tokyo in Equestrian.   Andrew achieved two medals and is the oldest competitor to represent his country.  Fantastic achievement.  James remembers his Brother having a Shetland pony as his horse but the horse needed for James to be a little bigger (why would that be? ed).
 
The Ross boys' Dad took his sons to Pony Club each week until he chose the local Footy Club games. The Footy Club also had the advantage of serving beer.
 
Andrew Hoy resides in the UK most of his time and handled the horses for Princess Anne and Mark Phillips.  Andrew made the statement that he will be getting ready for Brisbane 2032.
 
Guest speaker
Today guest speaker, Luke Grearly, was introduced by John Gray whose wife Norma had worked with Luke Grearly at the Wagga Cty Council many years ago.  Luke left the Council entering private enterprise in the Event Hire business but retired from that industry and returned to the Council as Manager of The Museum of the Riverina.
 
The museum is based at Willans Hill and is the process of redevelopment.  Part of the large redevelopment will be housing the winning portraits of the “Bald Archey’s” donated to the museum by the Late Peter Batey OAM. This is a fantastic opportunity for the museum and the Wagga City Council has committed to undertaking the annual awards.
 
Part of the new premises required the packing up, cataloguing and moving some very sensitive objects to temporary locations, some at the CSU, some at Council depots and some at Riverina Water.  The old building was insufficient to house the large number of acquisitions over the years. Some of the new items have been donated to the Museum have come from the Wagga Base Hospital including historical baby scales, a large number of items from Eilish Kendell relating the history of Kendell Airlines and prior to that being Premier Airlines.
 
The redevelopment is being funded by Government grants totalling $7.4M and the new area will have eight new galleries with the old Museum being storage.
 
At present there are 25000 visitors to the Botanic Gardens each year but only a small number venture to the museum.  Luke wants that to change after the redevelopment as there will be a wonderful display of Wagga and District history.  In the receipt of new donations to the new museum, they attempt to build the history of the particular items to ensure that future will have an understanding of the display and the story.
 
The recent completion of the book Huthwaites, The Friendly Store was very successful and contained a detailed history of retailing in Wagga Wagga.

Luke was thanked by our current Mayor, Greg Conkey, who is retiring from Council at the next Council elections. Greg was very upbeat about the new museum and commented that we lucky to have someone of the quality of Luke in the position of Museum manager
 
And for those Church going Rotarians....be careful....with an Irish touch
Father O'Malley answers the phone. 'Hello, is this Father O'Malley?'
 'It is!'
 'This is the Taxation Department. Can you help us?'
 'I'll try!'
 'Do you know a Ted Houlihan?'   
 'I do!'
 'Is he a member of your congregation?'
 'He is!'
 'Did he donate $10,000 to the church?'
 'He will!'
 
Presidents report
Another busy meeting today meeting downstairs felt so deja vu as like back in the Riverine Club; very cramped for room.
David Benn stood in for Phil Burgess who had some medical issues today but should be back next week.
 
Colin Duff did members choice at short notice and talked about his time on a small island of Vanuatu. The island was damaged after a cyclone and the team there helped redo the school and provide desks, and a lot of other good deeds so hats off to him and his crew.
 
James Ross gave a brief talk on his equestrian days and his involvement with Andrew Hoy many years back. sadly he gave up on horses!
 
Today's guest speaker, Luke Grearly, gave a very enthusiastic talk about his job with the museum and how the new building is going. He also talked about the Herculean task involved in sorting and packing hundreds of items for storage, with a chance to rationalise many of the objects in the collection. Fortunately the council has had grant monies to help all this happen. He has a lot of local histories about people and places in Wagga and is keen for more.
 
The members signed a condolence card for Paul Murray on the loss of his daughter in law who passed away in the USA where they lived. 
 
The next meeting in a week I will be there; but after that I am having a knee replacement, so may be a while until I am back on deck. Wish me well!
Have a good week and see you then