Coming Up

Late News: (See attachment)

Tuesday (tomorrow)  6th October - It's Cuppa time and you're invited!

QE2 88 Duriacher st, Geraldton WA 6530 

Where: October 6, 2026 from 9:30AM onwards 

When: Contact joanne.yates@myway.org.au 

Geraldton Dementia Carer Support Group

Wednesday 7 October - Fellowship and Connection

Geraldton Golf Club, 6.45 for 7.00 am. Guest speaker Karina Thomason, Parks and Recreation in the Midwest.

Late News: (See Attachment)

Wednesday  7th October 

Growing a Dementia Friendly Geraldton Presented by: Zena Ferguson, DEMENTIA AUSTRALIA

1pm - 3pm  QEII Seniors & Community Centre (See attachment)

Monday 12 October — Club board

Back on Track, and Oceans to Outback.

Wednesday 14 October - Fellowship and Connection

Geraldton Golf Club, 6.45 for 7.00 am. Guest speaker Trudi Cornish, Big Sky Writers and Readers Festival.

Guest Speaker — Rosie Vlahov, OzFish Unlimited

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.

Rotary Connection

Seeds for Snapper, and our 76^th Birthday

Club Meeting Highlights  • Wednesday 30 September 2026

Acting President Jim Dillon was in the chair at the Geraldton Golf Club at 7.00 am, with Landor still on his mind and the bitumen not cooperating. Ian Taylor gave the invocation and the toast to Australia. Rosie Vlahov of OzFish was the guest speaker. Paul Blackwell was back, which is becoming a (good) habit.

Meeting at a Glance

• Jim Dillon in the chair; Sergeant Bob Urquhart; invocation and toast by Ian Taylor.

• Guest and speaker: Rosie Vlahov (OzFish). Welcome back Paul Blackwell.

• Apologies: Bob Hall, Di Gilleland, Clare McElhinney, Peter Sukiennik and Leni Tenwinkel.

• Landor roads closed; a major police operation at Moonyoonooka.

• Bob Symington: the sea containers, and the work that put them back.

• Grant: hospital book launch Thursday 1 October; two items for the board on 12 October.

• Ian: a Gate 3 wedding, national television, and a grand final that got away.

• Raffle to Jim. Meeting closed at 7.59 am, which pleased the chairman.

The Original Rotary Charter — 2 October 1950

Serving the Community for 76 Years

Two days after this meeting the Club turned 76. The certificate is the one Rotary International issued on 2 October 1950, admitting the Rotary Club of Geraldton, Western Australia, as Club No. 7614, under Service Above Self and He Profits Most Who Serves Best. The club’s own account names Dr Jim McAleer, then Mayor of Geraldton, as foundation president.  On 30 June 2022 Geraldton and Geraldton-Greenough merged as the Rotary Club of Greater Geraldton and kept it. The 75th was marked at breakfast on 1 October 2025.

Charter of the Rotary Club of Geraldton, Club No. 7614, 2 October 1950.

Opening the Morning

Ian blessed the food and the fellowship and led the toast. Jim had road news. The roads to Landor were closed by rain. His son had left Moora at 2.00 am hoping for the Murchison. Peter Sukiennik was aiming for Meekatharra, and that road was shut as well. Jim would try for Meekatharra and go on the next day if the country allowed. Landor, for the moment, was cut off.

Barry’s On This Day was a full card: Mozart’s Magic Flute in Vienna in 1791; Dr Morton’s first ether anaesthetic in the United States in 1846; Chamberlain’s “peace in our time”; the Nuremberg trials in 1946; and The Flintstones arriving on the small screen in 1960. Thought for the day, Mark Twain: a clear conscience is a sure sign of a bad memory.

The containers — Bob Symington

Bob had been waiting for President Bob Hall. Bob is not back until next week, so he gave the credit now, and said the work cannot be understated. After a flood soaked one container, Bob Hall, Barry Dring and Bob Urquhart emptied it, dried the lot, and for security jammed two containers into the one that was left. A new container was bought. Damaged decking was replaced. They were supposed to send for him when the shift into the new container happened. They did not. He went to look and found it already done. A great effort by all those involved — thank you.

The containers are an important part of how this club operates. One of them holds the hire panels. Dongara Quilts were due on Friday at 11.00 am to take the lot, about $1,000, back on Monday. The A-frames and panels also come out for the radio auction.

From the Secretary’s Desk

Members are invited to the launch of Geraldton Regional Hospital Since 1966 on Thursday 1 October at 2.30 pm, in the courtyard next to the foyer. The club helped fund the research and the publishing. A second launch sits in the Big Sky Writers and Readers Festival on 20 October.

Two approaches will go to the board on Monday 12 October. Back on Track Foundation, which supports children and teenagers recovering from cancer, is looking for Rotary partners. Last year it supported 145 children and 44 siblings and worked with 89 schools; 83 Western Australian children are waiting. Rotarian Kero O’Shea has asked the club to join a Rotary and Friends team in Oceans to Outback, for the Flying Doctor. Both are membership questions.

The standing dates remain: Gold Polio dinner Friday 23 October; Northam Rotary’s 80th on Sunday 1 November; RYLA applications to 30 November; Christmas at Tarts & Co. on Saturday 12 December.

Polio dinner bookings: trybooking.com/DPIZB

A wedding at Gate 3 at the “G” (MCG) — Ian Taylor

Ian was still processing Melbourne. West Australians had inundated the city, purple everywhere. Friends Matt and Danni had meant to have a private ceremony at 11.30 am outside Gate 3 at the MCG. A local report went national. Ian was taking the photographs when the cameras arrived, and the ceremony was carried live on Channel 7. Virgin Airways, having seen it, presented the “lucky couple” with flights for their honeymoon. The wedding party then walked to the MCG, bride still in the dress. The Dockers did not quite make it — they came second!

Youth, RYLA and The Breeze — Hugh Lavery

Leni is in Exmouth. Albany is next, then Outward Bound with Geraldton Grammar. The club is unlikely to see her before late October, and then only briefly. Perth has asked for the Northampton Show photograph and the Shine Aviation flight, to promote youth exchange.

RYLA applications close on 30 November. The leadership camp is in mid-January, for 18 to 28. The club would support an applicant, perhaps two.

The Breeze, on ClubRunner, takes up to two hours to put together, counting Grant’s notes and Ian’s photographs. Hugh asked members to read it and say what they think. Last week’s guest already has. Paul Blackwell wrote after the newsletter, and that exchange has turned into a possible vocational visit to Amazzini’s Stone Suppliers.

Fellowship and Fines

Docker tragics were called: Ian Taylor, Hugh Lavery and Paul Blackwell. The Sergeant has an anchor and some paint. After Saturday, the paint can wait until next year.

Paul Blackwell’s son was married 24 years ago on grand final day. Paul had asked, at the time, why that day. Hugh’s son-in-law Braden, married to Lorraine (Lolly), turned forty over the weekend. The party ran to about 78.

Anyone leaving without Rotary signage put in. One magnetic badge did not survive the walk to the car. Bob then fined himself. Out pulling the craypots he lost the marker flag, ran out of fuel in the dinghy, and had no oars. The EPIRB stayed in its bracket, 500 metres off a lee shore. They got the boat in. On the rule that it is never the skipper’s fault, he asked past member Glenn Filcock how he had managed it. A long and sorry tale, Grant notes, that deserves wider publication. The fuel cost $50. The fine was rather less.

Grant bought the box on Rosie’s behalf, and added the line she had not used: she was formerly the scoreboard attendant at the Chapman Valley Football Ground, Mazzuchelli Oval. Heads and tails, a bottle of wine. Acting President Jim Dillon took it, and was happy enough. The meeting closed at 7.59 am.

A Word of Thanks

Thank you to Jim for the chair and the road report, to Ian for the invocation and Gate 3, to Bob Symington for the containers, to Grant for the diary, to Hugh for Leni and The Breeze, and to Rosie Vlahov — for ribbonweed, and for a meadow that was still there six months later.

Leni — a spare seat and a few quiet weeks

Hugh reported that Leni’s host mother is in Perth, so Leni is staying with Theodore, the inbound student hosted by the Rotary Club of Batavia Coast. Last weekend Rotarian John Gooch of Shine Aviation offered a spare seat. She flew the Abrolhos. The club has sent a thank-you.

Leni in the right-hand seat with Shine Aviation — last weekend’s spare-seat tour of the Abrolhos.

She will be away for the next few weeks: Exmouth with host mum Janica, the Albany Rotary tour, and Geraldton Grammar’s Outward Bound. Hugh does not expect her back in the room until late October.

Before that stretch of travel she and outgoing exchange student Lara Day had already put in a day at the Northampton Show — high-vis on the gate, rams in the pavilion, and a python that took a liking to Lara.

Leni and Lara on the gate at the Northampton Show.

Lara Day and Leni Tenwinkel in the ram pavilion, Northampton Show.

Guest Speaker — Dr Paul Blackwell: Why the Midwest Crumbles

Grant introduced an old friend. Paul has lived in Geraldton since the 1980s, raised three boys with Glenda at Waggrakine, and was one of Australia’s leading soil scientists. In retirement he is trying to stop historically important buildings in Geraldton and the Midwest from fretting away.

The mechanism is simple and relentless. Winter swell throws an aerosol of seawater into the rain. That rain washes inland past Mullewa. In porous stone, brick and lime mortar the water soaks down, then rises again by capillary action. The sun and the wind take the water. The salt stays. Crystals of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate grow in the pores and prize apart the natural cement between the grains. Fretting is worst in the first metre above the ground. Pale sandstone suffers; darker, iron-rich stone and the rare blue, almost impermeable sandstone under the Anglican church at Nabawa hold.

Jim already knew the problem. His office faces the old railway station — 126 years old this year. He dug a metre down, carted waterlogged soil to the tip, and packed blue metal. No new damp course; the gravel broke the capillary path and shaded the base from sun and wind. Paul called it a solution without the textbook.

Experiments, churches and a handbook