President Bob Hall was back in the chair at the Geraldton Golf Club at 7.00 am. Grant Woodhams gave the invocation and the toast. Barry Dring was Acting Sergeant. Karina Thomason was the guest. Peter Moore was in the room.
Meeting at a Glance
Bob Hall in the chair; Acting Sergeant Barry Dring; invocation and toast by Grant.
Guest and speaker: Karina Thomason. Welcome Peter Moore.
Apologies: Di Gilleland, Clare McElhinney, Peter Sukiennik, Jim Dillon, Bob Urquhart and Leni Tenwinkel.
Welcome home from Landor. Board on Monday, in person, at Mid West Financial.
Bicycles for Humanity past 4,000. Christmas list still empty.
Newsletter question to Bob Symington. Heads and tails to Ian Taylor.
Opening the Morning
Barry welcomed the Landor crew home. One party went up through Mount Magnet and Cue and came back through the Murchison. Jim Dillon overnighted at Meekatharra. About seventy-four cakes went out. The banners are still on their way home.
Thought for the day: wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from lack of wisdom.
Home — Bob Hall
Scotland is beautiful. There is no place like home. The flying was the pain: more time waiting for planes than in them, the best part of two days door to door. Aberdeen added two fines for a bus lane he had not seen.
Thanks to everyone who went to Landor, and to Barry for teaming up with the crew. A fuller report when the rest are back. Thanks also to those who hosted the Bicycles for Humanity riders in his absence, and to Bob Symington for the panels hired to Dongara.
Change of plan on the board. It will not be online. Monday 12 October, 5.30 pm, in person at Mid West Financial Services. Agenda items to Grant before the night, so they can be listed: Secretary Grant.
Four thousand bikes — Peter Moore
Peter is still alive, which the room took as good news. Bicycles for Humanity Geraldton has now sent more than 4,000 bikes. The latest thirty included machines for people with a disability.
A question from the newsletter — Hugh Lavery
The Breeze went out in four versions. The meeting note went to 51 people, and about twenty answered within two minutes. The question, for a bottle of wine: who spoke last week? Bob Symington was first. Rosie Vlahov. He is in the draw.
Christmas — Grant Woodhams
Saturday 12 December, Tarts & Co. The list has nobody on it. Names to Grant at a meeting or by email, so the kitchen can be told.
Heads and tails, with a shell coin from the Cook Islands, went to Ian Taylor. Then the box.
All who did not go to Landor. Bob Hall, a re-entry tax, Scotland to the Golf Club. Hugh, for alumni: a single person is an alumnus, and a charter member is not a foundation member.
Erin, Hugh’s youngest, turned 33 today. Born with two holes and one valve in her heart, operated on at three months in Melbourne. Without it, they were told, she might have lived to six or seven. She is 33.
Barry fined himself. His sister’s birthday was Sunday, and he was at Landor. The Rotary badge went home last week and has not come back. He wore a jeans badge.
Russell McKinnon: five years since his first Landor. Ian Taylor, still a Ten-Pound Pom: the British passport that walked him in would not walk him out. No Australian visa on it. The Australian one clicked.
Karina, for the steps to Nature’s Window. Hugh made 582 metres of the downhill, as a recent heart patient, and then remembered the uphill. He fined her as the person responsible for Kalbarri.
Bob Hall, for the drive in. Hugh followed him to the overpass. Bob kept going, in the new car. He will do it again. Russell, last: the BMW overheated on the way to Perth, and he sold it for a dollar. $197,000 new. He is still to see the money.
A Word of Thanks
Thank you to Bob for coming home, to Barry for the box and the Landor miles, to Grant for the invocation and the empty list, to Peter for the bikes, to Hugh for the question, and to Karina — for Tokyo, the blazer, and a daughter on her way to Italy.
Karina Thomason, Parks and Wildlife, speaking to the club.
Hugh introduced her as Karina Thomason, previously Karina Day, daughter of Wade Thomason. Wade was a charter member of Geraldton-Greenough in 1986, and is in Northampton now. Hugh had the photograph: Wade second from the left in the front row. The clubs merged in 2022. The family is still in the story. In 1990 Karina was that club’s first outward student. Her daughter Lara Day, head girl at Champion Bay Senior High, is ours for 2027, bound for Italy.
Geraldton-Greenough charter photograph, 1986. Wade Thomason is second from the left in the front row.
She had worked with a number of the room already, Bob Hall among them, through her own jobs and through her father’s. She was glad to be back, and she took it from the exchange to now.
A year in Tokyo
She heard about youth exchange in 1987, applied in 1988, finished Year 12 in 1989, and went in 1990. First outward Rotary Exchange student from Geraldton-Greenough and first student that Tokyo club had taken in. Small town to the great metropolis, and since both clubs were new to exchange Karina didn't receive as much support that students receive these days.
In person, 5.30 pm, Mid West Financial Services. Not online. Agenda items to Grant before the meeting. Back on Track and Oceans to Outback are already listed. A thought of a breakfast at Levy Street Life in Rangeway, late November, can also be considered by the Board.
Wednesday 14 October
Geraldton Golf Club, 6.45 for 7.00 am. Guest speaker Trudi Cornish, Big Sky Writers and Readers Festival.
Friday 23 October — End Polio dinner
Royal Perth Golf Club. Keynote Professor Barry Marshall.
Bob Urquhart introduced her as the granddaughter of David and Mary I’anson. David, who died earlier this year, was a Rotarian. Rosie grew up in Chapman Valley, and said she still has strong roots here. She works for OzFish Unlimited (Fremantle Chapter).
OzFish, she said, is a conservation charity across Australia, there so that people can fish for the future. Most of the work is community-led: habitat, grants, education. Forty-eight chapters. Until earlier this year Western Australia was two people. There are four now, and they want more. She would like a Geraldton chapter. It is not up yet. Next year, she hopes. In the meantime, the updates sit on the Fremantle page.
Along the coast: Monkey Mia has the largest seagrass meadow in the southern hemisphere, and it needs restoring. Cockburn Sound is the largest community-led seagrass restoration in Australia, about eight hectares and eight years in, which is where most of the Western Australian work has been done. There is also goldfish taken out of rivers, and a project called Pimp My Jetty, artificial habitat under jetties so mussels can settle, filter the water and clean the way. Coral reefs get the publicity. Seagrass, she said, is equally deserving, and often overlooked. She could talk about it all day. She could talk about it underwater. It is beautiful down there.
What the nursery looks like: fish over a seagrass meadow, from Rosie’s slides.
Seeds for Snapper is the one coming to Geraldton, on the Cockburn model. Last year that project collected two million seeds, with more than 200 volunteers. Divers and snorkellers collect the fruit of Posidonia, ribbonweed, the long thin one that washes up. There are twelve seagrass species in Australia. The fruit comes into season around November. It goes into tanks at the Batavia Coast Maritime Institute. The husks fall off, the seeds drop, and local fishers put them back on the dedicated grounds, often while the whites are running. The husks must come off, or they decay and take the seed with them. That is a job a group can do. She encouraged any local fisher to drop seed at the institute.
Bob is a retired Policeman, former CGG councillor and former President of Geraldton Lions Club. He reports on the recent President's Elect Training Seminar (PETS) in Perth.
The PETS training took place at the old Gateway Inn in Irwin St, Perth with a diverse range of Rotarians represented by both individuals and groups.
Many of the metropolitan clubs are struggling to maintain membership numbers.
There was considerable discussion about the creation and utilisation of satellite clubs.
The PETS session stressed the importance of Rotary activities outside club meetings.
The question of clubs amalgamating was discussed.
Rotary procedures and policies were also prominent topics.
Questions from Grant Woodhams and Bob Urquhart, vote of thanks by Ian Taylor.
President elect Bob Hall represented our Club at Geraldton Universities Centre (GUC) on March 19th for the Hollomby Foundation scholarship announcements. We have contributed $5,000 this year. A final year Bachelor of Education (teaching) student, Maryka Connolly, is the recipient. We hope to have her at one of our meetings in the near future.
Rotary Club of Greater Geraldton – 75th Anniversary Newsletter
Celebrating 75 Years of Service and Fellowship – October 1, 2025
A Milestone Celebration Breakfast
The Rotary Club of Greater Geraldton marked its 75th anniversary with a joyous breakfast meeting on October 1, 2025, filled with fellowship, reflection, and exciting plans. President Hugh welcomed special guests, including past presidents Geoff Crothers and Greg Cooper, Julie Urquhart, Kelly Bennett (Host-Mum), and exchange student Esther (Brasil). Esther is enjoying “holiday mode” before heading to Perth for an orientation camp with Rotary and then Outward-Bound Camp with the Grammar School.
Warm Welcome and Festive Atmosphere
The morning kicked off with light-hearted banter as Hugh greeted visitors and checked the tech—though the camera had a mind of its own! A toast to the King set the tone, followed by introductions of guests. Bob Urquhart introduced Julie, his significant other and Greg Coper, while Barry welcomed Geoff Crothers, a past president and neighbour. Geoff’s unique name badge sparked smiles, and the group warmly greeted Kelly and Esther, who shared her relaxing weekend in windy Kalbarri, spent reading in bed.
Breakfast was (self) served and Hugh ensured everyone was captured on camera for the milestone occasion. The group enjoyed a delicious meal, a celebratory cake, and plenty of camaraderie, with laughter and stories filling the air.
