President David welcomed the 85 members and guests to the 35th Anniversary Dinner to commemorate the foundation of the Rotary Club of Dalkeith. He asked John Thornton to lead us in Advance Australia Fair.
President David commented that both he and Rick Hart, ex-president of the Dockers, were a little taken aback by the colour scheme on entering the venue this evening, However, rest assured that the blue and gold theme is to celebrate the RI colours, not the West Coast Eagles.
He welcomed Rick and his partner Lena to the dinner and looked forward to his presentation later in the evening. He also welcomed John Hopkins, and his wife Katrina, who is just back from the US and the Masters. He will introduce Rick later in the evening.
David was pleased to announce that we had 48 paying members this evening and this meant, in the club tradition, that an extra bottle of wine was available for each table should they require it. Russell Hawkins has picked out a red and a white from the list and they are available at the bar upon request. Enjoy.
The members then introduced their guests, mostly partners, and David introduced Roz Baker, Nigel’s partner, who is a member at the new RC Perth City East.
David then asked John Lindquist to come forward, on behalf of the charter members, and propose the toast to the Rotary Club of Dalkeith.
John quoted RI President’s theme for the year, “Be the Inspiration” and thought this typified the many great works that have been achieved in the club over the last year. He named many and here are a few for the record:
- Anita Bourke for her great work in fundraising for Nokor Tep hospital in Cambodia plus the highly popular movie night.
- Tom Langley for his great work as webmaster for the club.
- Younger members for the great new projects they have bought to the club.
- Ken Illet and Peter Webb, plus the International team for their work on getting a matching grant for the first time from District and RI.
- John Hopkins for his continuing great work on organizing speakers for the club.
- Richard Goreham and Michael Bisset for their efforts in raising the money and the smooth operation of the Rotary Science and Engineering Challenge event at the Showgrounds.
- Trevor Gorey and his team for the launching of the Menshed.
- John Saleeba for his ongoing support of the Esther Foundation and their milestone of moving into their new location in Kalamunda.
- Wyn Jones for his continuing support of the John Fawcett Foundation.
- Kim Smith and his team for the reinvigoration of the club’s youth initiatives, especially the exchange student program. Cadu has been a credit to this program this year and a real contributor at club level.
- Anthony McGrath for his work in assisting ex-District Governor Lindsay Dry with the District Conference organisation.
John praised the efforts of the club in raising more than $1.5 million in the last 10 years through both the club and the charitable trust. The charter members are very proud of these works.
John also sent out a message of support to Barry Evans as he continues his fight with Parkinsons, was glad to see Ian Ritchie able to attend a meeting without stairs and sent out a Vale to David Foulkes as a real club leader over many years.
Lastly, John thanked President David for his leadership during the last year. He proposed a toast to RI.
President David thanked John for a great speech. A video was taken of this speech and we hope to have it on the website shortly.
Entrée was then served, wild tomato tarts with rocket dressing.
After Entrée Craig James presented two Paul Harris fellowship awards to Trevor Gorey and Peter Marfleet. Trevor was almost speechless, a first I believe.
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Paul Harris Award presentations.
President David Ellis said, "it is with great pleasure that I can announce that the Board on behalf of the Club has determined that Trevor Gorey OAM and Peter Marfleet should be so recognised tonight for their contribution to Rotary and the Community".
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Peter Marfleet Trevor Gorey
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Main Course was then served, an alternate drop of roast beef or Thai style salmon.
All agreed the food was top quality though there were a few grumbles about a lack of dessert. Only so much you can do on a $50 budget.
After mains Trevor Gorey, Sergeant was asked to give his presentation. He chose not to apply any fines but rather to give out some annual recognition awards, as follows:
- James Bond Award – Hugh Stowell for driving the latest model Aston Martin
- John Longley Award – Bob David for continued stellar performances in his sailing.
- Daniel Ricciardo Award – Graeme Sansom for continued high-speed driving!
- Romeo Award – Peter Panek for taking Jomay to Geraldton for their honeymoon and Pinjarra for their first anniversary.
- Coffin Cheaters Award – Peter Webb for wearing his leathers to a meeting
- Tiger Woods Award – Gary Dienhoff and Chris Cole for continued outstanding golf performances
- Dali Llama Award – Nigel Johnson for continued meditation during guest speaker presentations.
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President David then invited Rick Hart to give his presentation.
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John Hopkins introduced his longtime friend Rick Hart. Until this afternoon there had been no discussion on the topic of his talk.
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Rick described himself as a country boy, from Merredin, who came to the city and created a career in retailing.
There are 800,000 fridges sold in Australia every year; 80,000 of these in WA. Rick estimated that in his 44 years of retailing he had sold about 100,000 fridges.
In 1975 he obtained a container of damaged fridges and expanded from there. Other businesses with well-known names such as Vox Adeon and Joe Sarich had come and gone. Over 30 years Rick expanded his business to 18 stores with a turnover of $150 million.
He sold the business but stayed on as GM, retaining the name. Unfortunately, the business was let down by the Eastern States and went into receivership in 2009. It was the end of the Rick Hart brand.
In 2010 Rick saw a gap in the market and started Kitchen Headquarters. Every day was a new challenge, with new customers who wanted to personalise their new kitchen. He still finds it hard to recruit staff into retail.
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Rick reminisced on the changes he had seen during his career. 1975 saw the introduction of colour TV. The 40 brands available then (Philips, HMV, Panasonic, etc) have now disappeared and the market is dominated by Korea (LG and Samsung). The major fridge brands such as GE and Kelvinator have also gone and replaced by Korean products. Fisher & Paykel was started in NZ, but now Chinese owned,
One of his favourite subjects is retail trading hours. From trading Monday to Friday and Saturday morning only, there was first late night trading on Thursday nights. However there were anomalies in this in that he could sell fridges until 9 PM, but groceries could only be sold until 7 PM.
50 years ago his mother ran a small ‘corner store’ in Victoria Park. Some items on display had to be ‘caged’ as there were restrictions on the hours they could be sold, and there were inspectors who came to check.
Even now Bunnings can sell a barbecue at 7 AM, alcohol can be purchased at 10 AM, but you can’t buy a fridge until 11 AM.
Petrol roster stations brought back memories to most present. As always the nearest roster station was the opposite side of town.
Sessions at hotels began at ‘country pubs’, just outside the metro area. You had to travel to get a drink on a Sunday. This was eventually extended to metropolitan pubs. There was a 2 bottle limit on takeaways, so visits to numerous hotels were required if you were hosting a party.
Rick believes trading hours should be the consumers’ choice; it’s not about the retailers.
The changes in technology over his career were also interesting.
From Roneo machines (with their winding handles), to carbon paper, and then plain paper photocopiers. Fax machines were a great innovation, but the thermal paper caught a lot of people when their documents faded with time.
Rick first car phone was in 1976 and cost $3,500. The first mobile phones were hand-held ‘bricks’.
The CEO of Motorola stated that “the mobile phone market is not sustainable’. He went, and so has the company. Nokia became the largest producer of mobile phones, but as smartphones started to appear the CEO of Nokia stated: “smartphones are not sustainable”. He has gone, but the company is making a resurgence. The market is now dominated by Apple and Samsung.
The internet arrived, and letters and faxes were replaced by emails. Any information required is sourced from Google. Talking to someone on the phone has now been replaced by text messages.
Rick wondered what is the next stage in technology advancement.
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CLOSE: President David thanked Rick for his insights into the retail trade over the years.
John Bolto auctioned the floral setting from the tables @$60 each. 7 sold and two held back to present to the Dalkeith Nedlands Bowls Ladies who had assisted in decorating the hall.
President David thanked John Bolto, Richard Ranshaw and the Club Services team for a great evening which he was sure all the attendees enjoyed thoroughly. He closed the meeting at 8.35pm.
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Wine Sales:
Russell has managed to get some of Flying Fish Cove limited releases.
A Chardonnay 2017 and a Cab-Merlot 2014 selling for $125 per case, excellent value. All Margaret River grown and made, both wines typical of best varieties the region produces and very well priced.
He will circulate at the next meeting for orders, but will accept early orders.
