On Tuesday night March 21, 2019, the Rotary Club of Ballarat West ran another successful Wine Auction, the auction was attended by over 80 people with a spirited bidding duel taking part between the bidders.
Sadly, at the end of the night, Auctioneer Barry Bedggood announced a 20 year affiliation with the auction would cease, saying I would like to thank everyone who has been associated with successful staging of the Ballarat West Wine Auction over the 20 year span, I may also add that my wife Marie who has also helped over the years and my partner in auction Dr. John Richmond will also take a step back to allow new blood to take over the auction.  
 
“The first wine auction was run in my year as President in 1999/2000 as an experiment to raise much-needed funds,” Barry said.
“Previous to that we had wine tastings that everyone eventually lost interest with the concept.  So, I came up with the idea of the Rotarians donating a couple of reasonable bottles of wine.”
“Running a night that consisted of a dinner and then auctioning off the donated bottles back to the Rotary members for a slightly inflated price, and calling it a fundraiser.”
“We then realised that if we increased the numbers, we could increase our profits.    Each year it grew bigger and better.  We then finetuned it even further, and we began to realize that it’s a numbers game.”
It’s all about the numbers of bums on seats that make it work.
 “History now shows that if we choose an organisation that will come to our wine auction and brings a table or two, they have a drink or two, and as they relax and unwind they buy a few bottles.  It spreads the load from only the Rotarians buying the wine, and that all makes a fun night.”
“Over the 20 years, our Rotary Wine Auction has returned close to $150,000, to our club coffers enabling the club to put it all back into our local community.”
“The only condition was, it must be spent on things that will help our local communities and organisations each year we ran the Auction, and that community gets one crack at it, thus spreading the money into different communities.”
“So, the time has come now for both John and myself and my good wife Marie, to hand over the baton to some younger members.  20 years is a long time, and we all have enjoyed being there and doing it.