Greater Geraldton Rotary Meeting 13/11/2024
Geraldton Golf Club 7am
President Hugh Lavery
Sergeant Bob Urquhart
Invocation and Toast: Geoff Wood
Attendance: Hugh Lavery, Bob Urquhart, Grant Woodhams, Laurie Dines, Jo Clarke, Phil Martin, Terry Stewart, Ian Taylor, Geoff Wood, Jim Dillon, Barry Dring, Bob Hall, Kevin Green, Rob Mosel, Viki Fennell.
Guests: Melissa Price, Brad Bell, Maeva Hall, Eugenie Burkett, Raelene Marianni, Sofia Underland.
Announcements
President Hugh –
Radio Auction. All information is now at Jim Dillon's office. 99644700
Outbound Exchange Student Psalm Talamo will be in Geraldton on Saturday, with her parents, Sonia and Travis. An informal gathering at Laian's Restaurant 10am – 1.30pm was very enjoyable.
Caption; BR Travis & Sonia Talamo, Bob Hall, Bob & Julie Urquhart, PSALM Talamo, Jo Clarke
FR:Kiera Foster, Laurie Dines, Grant Woodhams, Hugh Lavery
Next RCGG Board Meeting is Thur 21st November. Meeting at Board Room, Midwest Finacial Accounting (Jim Dillon) - 66 Chapman Road, Geraldton
Wreath laying at HMAS Sydney Memorial on Tuesday 19th Nov. 5:45 PM at the Sydney II Memorial. All Rotarians invited.
Geoff Wood -
B4H container won't leave until February at the earliest. Cost to ship to East Timor is approx $6,000. Phil Martin suggests we get Phil Doncon to paint it with Rotary logo.
11/04/25 is proposed date for music on the grass at Geraldton Golf Club. Geraldton City Band and Combined Schools Band to play. We have funded both parties in the last twelve months.
Barry Dring -Christmas Cakes are in transit; Last chance to send second hand eye glasses to Bali.
Phil Martin- Cocktails and tapas at Laian's Restaurant on Thursday 21st.
Guest Speaker Melissa Price MP Federal Parliament, Member for Durack.
A former Defence and Environment Minister in the Morrison Government she is he youngest of four children. She was born and raised in Kalgoorlie.
She has spent eleven years in Parliament and reflects that her travelling costs are higher than most members because of the size of the Durack electorate and the distance to Canberra.
She gave her talk a theme – What do you like about yourself?
She loves shoes and has over three hundred pair. Her current favourites which she is wearing are orange.
A former lawyer her ambition is not to be a typical cookie cutter in anything she does and advises that it is best not to pretend to be what you're not.
Her mother still lives in Kalgoorlie and complains that Melissa doesn't visit her enough. However the electorate of Durack which doesn't include Kalgoorlie is large – 1.4 sq million kilometres.
After being schooled by nuns in the Catholic Education system she left school at fifteen and eventually enrolled at the Eastern Goldfields Technical College (a precursor to TAFE) where she became the 1979 'typist of the year'.
Melissa who is a Liberal member of Parliament was born into a Labor family. Her Grandfather was David Dellar a Labor Member of the Upper House. Her Uncle Sam Dellar followed suit.
Melissa says she babysat prominent Goldfields Labor parliamentarian Julian Grill's children.
She worked in the United Kingdom for ten years and it was there that she gained her legal qualifications.
In Perth she and her sister walked the streets of Perth pushing their babies in prams trying to secure Melissa a job with a legal firm. She eventually ended up working for Clayton Utz and then moved to a position at Co-Operative Bulk Handling (CBH). She moved then to Crosslands which was very much part of the push for the port of Oakajee. She has also held positions on boards of Not For Profits like the Cancer Council.
In 2013 she stood as a Liberal for the WA State seat of Kalgoorlie but lost. In the same year she contested the Federal seat of Durack and was successful. She marvelled at her mainly Labor Party family supporting her as a Liberal and remarked that “Blood is thicker than water.”
Finally she says she loves to sing and it is a pity there isn't time this morning. Singing shows people who you are.
Questions from Ian Taylor, Phil Martin and Geoff Wood.
Caption :Hon. Melissa Price, MP, President Hugh, presenting a certificate representing 50 Polio Vaccines donated to Rotary International on Melissa's behalf.
Raffle: Heads and Tails. Woodhams G wins the bottle of red wine. (hic)
Fines Session managed by Viki Fennell
Asks us to confess about our misguided younger years. Many volunteer but few are prepared to admit their deeds except Hugh Lavery and his watered-down bottle of Mukinbudin beer and Grant Woodhams who stopped an escalator at Circular Quay railway station in Sydney.
Weddings, Parties, Anything:
Barry Dring and Eugenie Burkett have been together two years.
Bob and Maeva Hall have been married forty eight years.
Lorraine (Lolly) Lavery (Hugh's daughter) is having another 29th birthday.
1) Psalm Talamo our Outward Bound Exchange Student f(January 2025) from Warnbro High School.
2) Jamie Bravington our Rotary Youth Leadership Award recipient (January 2025) from Tom Price.
report with Norway's Sofia Underland:
<-- Caption - Host Mother, Raelene Mariani, Sofia Underland (Norway) 
President's Report - Hugh Lavery:
Australia’s worst naval disaster occurred on 19 November 1941 when HMAS Sydney II was lost following a battle with the German raider HSK KORMORAN, in the Indian Ocean off the Western Australian coast. Geraldton was the last port visited prior to her demise. The loss of the SYDNEY with its full war complement of 645 sailors remains etched in the nations psyche. The KORMORAN was also sunk, but 317 of its crew of 397 survived. The fate of the Sydney remained one of Australia’s greatest wartime mysteries until the location of the wreck in 2008.
