Central Spoke 29.08.2023 (Aug 28, 2023)

Welcome to our Club!

Imagine Rotary

Wednesdays at 1:00 PM

Warrnambool Bowls Club

75 Timor St
Warrnambool, VIC 3280
Australia

Phone:

0434 600 114

Send Email to Club

Please join us for lunch at the Warrnambool Bowls Club.

District Site

Venue Map

President

Rob Harris

President Elect

North Northeast

Secretary

Bono O'Neill

Treasurer

Paul Reilly

Community Service

Min McGrath

Vocational Service

Gerald Irvine

Club Service

Bob McMillan

International Service

Bore Hoekstra

Membership/Welfare

Anthony Robinson

Environment

Anthony Davies

Youth Service

Lloydy Allison

Sergeant-at-Arms

Brian Dillon

Minutes:

Attendance: Sam counted 15 members present, so Matt’s time as stand in president is on an upwards trajectory.

Meal: Roast beef with gravy, roast vegies and warm bread roll. First class. Don’t mention it to Lindsay.

Dillo got the show on the road with a Tom Jones joke before introducing The Compass. Matt quickly ascertained that we had no guests of visiting Rotarians present before inviting reports.

Membership Director Robbo advised that he may have suppressed membership attendance this week by unknowingly coming to last week’s meeting with Covid.
Tony D reminded members to consider loging in to the Platy-project. See details below.
Bob asked members to suggest guest speakers. Talk to Bob or Gracey if you have a suggestion.
Boré reminded members of the Polio Plus movie night. See details below. Tickets are $25 each and available from Boré.
Boré has been in contact with Tony Austin about the situation in Papua New Guinea. Tony might come and talk to the club about this soon.
Boré also mentioned that the Rotary Club of Terang recently celebrated its 75^th anniversary. Pip noted that Bill Quinlan was a founding member. Boré suggested that we might have a significant anniversary coming up soon and we should do something to commemorate the event. Everyone agreed, but nobody seemed to be able to remember how old the club actually was or what anniversary we might be approaching.
Hutto informed us the 40 hour donated working bee is coming up soon. Stay tuned.
Brendan has completed a beautiful chess tablerd with handmade ceramic pieces. He proposed the table be sold as a club fundraiser. Thank you Brendan!
Hutto reported that Wilde Racing is very upbeat about Dirty Angel. Their view is that she actually ran very well despite her poor start.
Hutto also reported that Dillo’s horse, Sunfish, has been sold to Hong Kong ‘not as a meat pie’. Congratulations Dillo.
Ron recalled that he went to Hawaii in 1976 and visited Lahaina in Maui. Lahaina has a Rotary Club that meets on Thursdays for lunch. Ron proposed that we send a message of support to the Rotary Club of Lahaina.
Bob has put the footy tipping contest into lockdown ahead of the final round.
Pip reported that Bim Afleck had spoken very well at the RSL recently about his experiences in the Vietnam War.

Our guest speaker was Rowan, who spoke to the club about a significant past project. In 2002 the club built a house in Iona Avenue in Warrnambool. Proceeds from the sale of the house allowed the club to donate $160,000 to the Aquazone indoor pool development. This donation remains the largest single donation by a Rotary club in Warrnambool. Bill Quinlan and Paul O’Brien convinced the council to donate the block of land. Trevor Rowe designed the house. Rowan reported that the land was ‘sort of flood prone’ and so they decided to build the house a meter above Chris Preston’s house next door. This involved building the house with a timber floor and big footings that extended through a layer of fill to the solid earth below.

Rowan was the principal contractor and donated his time and expertise. Bill Quinlan was an important driver of the project and helped source a great deal of cheap or donated labour and materials. Most of the tradesmen worked for free or for greatly reduced wages. Every member of the club at the time contributed in some way to the project.

Bob recalled that he was promised $100,000 for Aquazone by 3YB on condition that he jumped from the three-meter diving board in the nude. Bob jumped and collected the hundred grand. Council decided to close the diving pool shortly after.

We thank Rowan for what was a fascinating discussion of this huge project.

Platy-project 2023.

The Australian Conservation Foundation is running their annual community-based platypus population project in September. The ACF is asking members of the community to get involved and Rotary District 9780 is encouraging its members to consider taking part.

All the details are available at

platy-project.acf.org.au

If you want to be involved here is what you can do;

1. Visit the website listed above.

2. Find a location to look for a platypus. There is a great map on the site showing you where platypuses have been seen in the past. Make sure the site is on crown land and is easily accessible.

3. Pack a phone, notepad, binoculars, sturdy shoes, water and snacks, warm clothes, and a raincoat.

4. Visit the site sometime in September. Dawn and dusk are the best time to see platypuses, but you can go any time.

5. Record the details of any siting, and get a photo if you can. Record the location using Google Maps or similar.

6. Upload the details on the platy-project website. Even if you did not see a platypus, that is still useful information.

There have been a lot of recent platypus sightings in both the Merri and Hopkins rivers, so there are plenty of good locations around Warrnambool where you have a reasonable chance of spotting a monotreme.

If members have any ideas or plans for a shared platypus spotting experience, let me know at bulletin.warrnamboolcentral@gmail.com and we can discuss them at a meeting. Good luck and give us a report on your experience at a club meeting or send a selfie or you looking for platypuses to the Central Spoke.

Rotary Horse Racing Update.

Confirmation this week that our friends at Wilde Racing have put Power of Song up for sale. Power of Song’s characteristic runs down the home straight, like a tractor plowing a field, have become a staple of mid-week racing at tracks along the Western Highway. It will be sad to see her go. We can only hope there is a part time trainer somewhere in South Eastern Queensland that sees something in x^song that nobody else is seeing. I do feel like our plucky horse has a place in a Gatton Hotel Handicap in her.

More exciting updates as they come to hand.

Ten Years Ago.

Ten years ago, we breached our normal policy of not discussing politics. Pip Ritchie had accepted a role in the upcoming Federal Election and we thought it was worth celebrating. At the time, the Woodford Branch of the Sex Party was a powerful force in local politics.

Our Club Fundraiser 2023 - every hand on deck!

Building on 2021-2023 - Supporting ROMP

Date TBC

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