Impact: Community involvement is essential for Rotary's success.
Reach: Expanding to new groups.
Engagement: Retention and appreciation of all members.
Adaptation: Proceeding quickly with necessary changes.
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES
Nova Peris OAM:
Emphasized “Dream it, Believe it, Do it” as a life motto.
Highlighted media negativity towards Aboriginal health (74%).
Advocated for gender and racial representation in Melbourne’s statues.
Introduced the Nova Peris Foundation for food security and economic projects.
Brad Chilcott AM:
Criticized renaming UN’s day against racial discrimination to Harmony Day as "welcome washing."
Asserted that financial inequality, not migration, causes disharmony.
Urged Rotary to leverage privilege to fight inequality.
Eva MacKinley:
Discussed Middle East peace efforts and recommended watching "No Other Land."
Faith Coleman:
Addressed rising sea temperatures and hazardous algae blooms.
Proposed planting sea grasses to reduce heat retention in oceans.
ROTARY UPDATES & INITIATIVES
Jennifer Scott (Regionalisation Update):
Rotary clubs must strengthen community ties and boost retention.
Specialist hubs and workshops are available online for club support.
Andrew Plastow (Ngutu College):
The school integrates Aboriginal knowledge into formal education.
Encourages students to focus on creativity and their strengths.
Ian Steel OAM (Kick Start for Kids):
Provides school breakfasts, holiday camps, and uniforms.
Expands to mental health support and laptops.
Dr. Suresh Marcandan (Australian Rotary Health):
$55 million raised for research since 1981.
Focus on adolescent mental health (affecting 40% of kids).
Launched Suicide Prevention App and “Lift the Lid Walks” for mental health awareness.
27-MAY: 4-WAY TEST PUBLIC SPEAKING SHOWCASE
The Balwyn Rotary 4 Way Test Youth Public Speaking Showcase, for years 10 & 11 students attending schools located in the city of Boroondara, not only prioritize public speaking skills but also instils ethical values in our youth. Henk Kelly-Kobes, Dymocks Tooronga, has been a long-time supporter of this youth public speaking showcase, and the club is deeply grateful for his commitment. His support has helped nurture a program that not only enriches the lives of individual participants but also contributes to the betterment of society. By investing in the public speaking skills and ethical development of our youth, we are investing in a brighter future for all.
Finalists
Balwyn High School: Selina Wang
Camberwell Grammar: Dylan Hodges
Siena College: Ciara Whitehouse
Xavier College: Angus Dunne
Special Guests
Henk & Roxanne Kelly-Kobes
Peter Shepheard
(District Governor Elect Rotary D9800)
Michael Stillwell
(Area Governor Rotary Community Group 2)
L to R: Ian Davidson, Anne Frueh, Marc Mirams, Murrray Wilkinson, Helen Wilkinson
Congratulations to Kevin Purvis, who was named Volunteer of the Year!
A Highly Commended award also went to our very own Murray—well deserved!
It was fantastic to see such a strong Balwyn Rotary contingent in attendance, including Murray & Helen Wilkinson, Fraser (Murray’s son), Ian Davidson, Anne Frueh, Julie Mulhauser, Marc Mirams, Chris Finley and Delaram Kermany.
Ann Ballard was also there, showing her support for Suzanne Dunlop from Neighbourhood Watch.
A great evening celebrating the spirit of volunteerism!
BOROONDARA 2025 VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARD NOMINEES
Alex Podger-Devine
—Boroondara Youth. Solar Productions
All Jackson
—It’s the Little Things Community
Andrew Kegele
—The Fathering Project
David Stockdale
—Canterbury Toy Library
Eden Cvotkovic
—Boroondara Youth, Solar Productions
Fiona Dinner
—Thursday Girls Group
Graham Elkington
—Boroondara TAC L2P Learner Driver Mentor Program
Janet Hills
—Alamein Neighbourhood & Learning Centre
Janette Steer
—Access Health and Community
Joe Foley
—Melbourne Adult Migrant English Program, Volunteer Tutor Scheme
John Sutcliffe
—Bapicare
Kevin Purvis
—The Compassionate Friends Victoria
Murray Wilkinson
—Rotary Club of Balwyn
Nicholas Molnar
—Scouts Victoria
Richard Day
—Inclusion Melbourne
Rob Perkins
—Hawthorn Rowing Club
Rosemary Jacobs
—Boroondara Stroke Support Group
Rowan McClean
—Rotary Club of North Balwyn
Ruthie Scharley
—Back2Nettleton Friends Group
Suwen Liao
—Access Health and Community
Suzanne Dunlop
—Boroondara Neighbourhood Watch
Valda Lonnie
—Baptcare
Wendy Fleming
—Ashburton Netball Club
Yat Fung Ng
—BASScare
MEETING REPORT 20-MAY-2025
This meeting was a follow-up from last week’s presentation on the Club’s Strategic Plan.
It was variously described as an Ideas or a Think Tank session and members were asked to propose ideas which had the potential to develop into full-scale projects for the club.
The club was previously involved in a project called Top Spin. You have no doubt seen that a member of the public is asked to toss a coin at the start of a tennis match at the Australian Open. Well, this all started from an idea started by our club back in 1998 – a national raffle was organized and the winner got to toss the coin. The project raised $104,000 in the 3 years that it ran before it was taken over by Tennis Australia. It was a great idea initiated by our club.
The following list of ideas are all at a macro-level and it is now up to the relevant avenue of service to investigate them further and hopefully make them into a club project.
Enhancing Mental Wellbeing in Immigrant Communities (Delaram paper)
Computers for Disadvantaged kids
Rotary bag of groceries for those in need
Rotarian library of Volunteers across Boroondara clubs
Biodiversity in Golf Clubs eg. Freeway North Balwyn
Nature Strip project – promotion & target spread to other clubs throughout Australia
Addressing loneliness & isolation in Boroondara
A small item from our Sunday Market – a new stall-holder was so impressed with the market that they donated a small quality wooden chopping board to Rotary to be used as a raffle prize. It is now part of our door prize – a choice between it and a bottle of Penfolds Red wine. Enjoy.
Future dates to put in your diary –
Tuesday 27th May
Grand-final of 4-way Test Speaking Competition with representatives from Camberwell Grammar, Xavier, Siena, Balwyn High.
Tuesday 17th June
Breaking the Silence on Men’s Health – lunchtime at Hawthorn Arts Centre – joint project of RC Kew, Camberwell & Balwyn
Tuesday 17th June
Rotary New Year function @ Green Acres in the evening – it is different as it not a Changeover this year.
KEVIN WALSH
Vice President / Co-President Elect
ROTARY DISTRICT 9660 MOBILISES FOR FLOOD RELIEF ACROSS NSW
As communities across New South Wales face one of the most devastating flood emergencies in recent memory, we are once again called to act with compassion and urgency.
In just two days, parts of the state have received four months’ worth of rain, triggering flash floods that have inundated homes, cut off entire towns, and tragically claimed lives. Over 50,000 residents have been warned to evacuate or prepare for isolation, with major flooding affecting areas such as Taree, Wingham, Dungog, and the Mid North Coast.
Emergency services are stretched thin, conducting hundreds of rescues while many residents remain stranded. The full scale of the disaster is still unfolding, and the need for coordinated support is growing by the hour.
Rotary District 9660 is mobilising to assist affected communities. Disaster coordinators are being appointed, and collaboration with local authorities is underway. As with the Queensland response, mental health support will be a critical focus in the recovery phase.
Yours in Rotary Service,
DG BRUCE GEORGE and DRFC KEN HALL Rotary District 9660
BALWYN ROTARY PROUDLY SUPPORTS KEW ROVERS’ BIG FREEZE 11 EVENT
Balwyn Rotary is proudly supporting the Kew Rovers Football Club in the Big Freeze 11 Campaign, a national fundraiser for Fight MND. The Kew Rovers, with strong ties to the Daniher family and Neale Daniher, were personally chosen by Jan Daniher as this year’s Community Club for the campaign.
Their major fundraiser will be held on Sunday, 1st June, 4:30–6:30 pm at Stradbroke Park, East Kew, featuring a giant waterslide, ice-themed relays, a live DJ, BBQ, and bar. To support the cause, Balwyn Rotary is funding the $4,000 cost of the waterslide, encouraging community involvement in the fight against MND.
Together, we can help make a difference—one icy slide at a time.
SERVING HOPE ON WHEELS: THE BALLARAT SOUP BUS EXPANDS REACH
The Ballarat Soup Bus, a project of the Ontrack Foundation Inc., continues to be a beacon of compassion in the community, delivering after-dark meal services to the city’s homeless and vulnerable. Operated by an experienced, locally-based not-for-profit charitable foundation, the Soup Bus has long been supported by the generosity and cooperation of the Ballarat community.
Now, in an exciting development, the Ontrack Foundation is nearing completion of a second Soup Bus, designed to extend support to the under-served communities in the southern parts of Ballarat. This new initiative involves co-funding the installation of a commercial kitchen in the second vehicle, further enhancing the organisation’s capacity to provide practical, on-the-ground help where it’s needed most.
Balwyn Rotary has proudly contributed $50,000 to support the fit-out of this second Soup Bus. This significant funding demonstrates Balwyn’s ongoing commitment to addressing homelessness and supporting regional communities. Rotary Club of Ballarat has also played a key role, acting as a major source of volunteers for the Soup Bus’s nightly operations. Both clubs’ involvement reflects the spirit of Rotary—engaged, responsive, and deeply connected to community needs.
The transformation of the second bus is almost complete, with approximately 90% of the internal fit-out finished. Final touches are expected to be wrapped up by the end of June. The exterior painting and signage have already been completed, giving the bus a fresh, professional appearance that proudly reflects its mission.
This project is more than a mobile kitchen—it’s a symbol of hope, dignity, and community care. And with the second Soup Bus soon ready to roll, even more lives in Ballarat will be reached with a warm meal and a sense of belonging.
PROPOSED SATELLITE CLUB – A BLAST FROM THE PAST
The proposal to set up a Satellite Club based on police members (which I thoroughly endorse) reminds me of an episode in my mis-spent youth, 1970 to be precise.
At that time I was deeply involved in car trials / rallying, both as a driver and as a navigator. I got a request from someone asking if I would navigate for him in the coming Round Australia Ampol Trial. I had never heard of him, which meant he was not a regular competitor, and I was not silly enough to team up with someone who could not drive competently. However he seemed to have good sponsorship and I could otherwise not afford to compete in this prestigious event, so I talked to him. It turned out he was a fairly senior policeman, and was fully qualified by the police to drive its cars at insane speeds, so I presumed he could drive.
He also had arranged a lot of accommodation with police contacts along the way, which reduced the costs of competing.
His car was a Volkswagen 1500S – 1500 cc and the sporty model with twin carburettors. It developed about 65 HP from memory, which is not much. However, Volkswagens were competitive in those days on slow, gravelly and muddy roads because of their good traction. They were hopeless on fast roads because of their low power. The car was not new, but had been fitted with a brand-new (sponsor donated) Repco reconditioned “Gold Star” motor and pretty thoroughly mechanically overhauled, all by sponsors.
The event itself was “Round Australia” only because it started from every capital city and took all competitors by presumably similar distances and (boring) major and minor roads to a central point at Port Augusta. Our route from Melbourne included 300 km of dirt road and heaps of cattle grids along the Darling River between Burke and Wilcannia.
From Port Augusta there was a competitive stage of 24 hours or so to Alice Springs via some very interesting roads, tracks and dry river beds through the Flinders Ranges.
We lost no points to Port Augusta which was good, but so did heaps of others.
Between Port Augusta and Alice Springs, my driver was indeed pretty good, but insisted on fairly low tyre pressures, which are faster on loose gravel roads but prone to damage. OK, but the (donated) tyres were of low quality. We destroyed two of them, which were all we carried, and managed to change them without loss of time on transport sections. I kept suggesting higher tyre pressures with some success. That slowed us a bit but preserved the lousy tyres. However, perhaps more by good luck than good management we reached Alice Springs intact and won our class to that point, which put enough back into the kitty to buy us a full set of decent tyres and a heap left over for future contingencies. We were in good shape and well accommodated in Alice Springs by police contacts.
I should explain that the organisers recognized that cars would consume many tyres during the event, and provided “tyre trucks” which carried all the spare tyres owned by each competitor, and available to them at each rest stop.
So we set off from Alice Springs. At that time, “Round Australia” events tended to be very long; lots of 36-hour stretches with many transport (easy) sections and a few competitive sections thrown in on each stage. Pretty dangerous in terms of fatigue, but that is how it was then (and still is for long distance events). However, one of us could sleep a bit on transport sections.
We went well for the first four days or so, which ended in Cooktown. We rapidly found out that the crucial maintenance need was to clean the VW’s air filter daily or twice daily, despite VW suggesting 6 monthly. The filter was always clogged by dust to the point of not working (never mind our lungs!)
There was a welcome rest in Cooktown because, unlike the bitumen highway these days, there was then only one track in and out, a very rough and dusty one. So all competitors had to rest for a full day to avoid on-coming rally traffic.
Off we went again. All good until we hit a dry river crossing too fast, and bent the right front wheel / suspension at 45 degrees. We pulled the bodywork off the mess and continued at reduced speed to the next overnight stay, which was far away in Townsville.
There, our police contacts were invaluable. The rules said we had 4 hours to service our car before it was locked away for 12 hours, supposedly forcing the crew to rest. Where would we get the parts to re-build and fit half a front suspension in four hours?
Our Townsville police friends were up to the task. They zoomed around the local wreckers with sirens blaring and collected the necessary parts in short order. We fitted them and bent the bodywork roughly back into shape with minutes to spare.
We were keen to sleep, but our hospitable hosts wanted to talk in the pub and hear all about the event. We could hardly refuse them so we started from Townsville very short of sleep.
The following stages were, from memory:-
Townsville to Brisbane via some interesting roads and tracks;
Brisbane to Adelaide via competitive sections in NSW – cannot remember where;
Adelaide to Melbourne via competitive sections in the Grampians and Mount Cole Forest;
Melbourne to Albury via the Victorian high country;
Albury to Cooma via the icy Omeo Highway to Bruthen. We eventually learned that we were only 20 minutes or so slower on the long section from Mitta Mita to Bruthen than the fastest time (by a factory sponsored car). Then back north into NSW at Cooma via roads and tracks through Murrindal, Nimmitabel and Numeralla;
Cooma to Canberra and then Bathurst, followed by a transport stage to the finish in Sydney.
The Melbourne to Bathurst stages were exhausting, with little rest.
We finished 49th outright out of 160 starters and 112 finishers. We would have done much better but for heaps of time lost between Cooktown and Townsville. Prize money from our class win from Port Augusta to Alice Springs was enough to rebuild and panel-beat the VW to a good standard and leave a fair bit in the kitty for future maintenance.
Over the following year we competed in the Victorian Police Rally Championship and won it.
Marriage and other priorities then tempered my enthusiasm for rallying, so the policeman, the VW and I parted company.
As I said at the beginning, truly a blast from the past.
All members: Philip Lambers sends out reminders a week before your shift.
If you are unable to do your rostered shift, you need to organize a swap and let Philip know.
Shift Times
OIC: 06:15 – 13:00
Set Up Crew: 06:30 – 12:30
Sunday 25-May-25
Ken McQualter (OIC),Stewart Ham, Chadstone East Malvern
Sunday 01-Jun-25
John Walker (OIC),Brian McGuiness, Tony O'Brien
Sunday 08-Jun-25
Marc Mirams (OIC) lan Davidson / Peter Little, Jim Thomson
Box Hill Miniature Steam Railway
Arrival time: 10:45
Trains depart: 11:00-16:00
Location: Elgar Park, corner of Belmore and Elgar Roads, Mont Albert North
Rosters are organised by Fred Gibbs and Clarke Ballard.
Any changes or alterations please send an email to bhmsr@balwynrotary.org.au
Rotary Controller: Clarke Ballard
Sunday 15-Jun-25
Clarke Ballard, Russell Jones, Philip Lambers, Richard Seeley, Pauline Wilson
Sunday 20-July-25
David Jones, Marc Mirams, John Walker, Bill Goodwin, Michael Curry, Clarke Ballard
Sunday 17-Aug-25
Chris Finley, Ian Davidson, Angela Ciliberto, Clarke Ballard
RIMERN
Tuesday 27-May-25
Chris Finley, David Hobson
Tuesday 10-Jun-25
Murray Wilkinson, Ed Frost
Tuesday 24-Jun-25
Kevin Walsh, Peter Frueh
Volunteers
Chris Finley, David Hobson, Ed Frost, Julie Mulhauser, Ken McQualter, Kevin Walsh, Marc Mirams, Murray Wilkinson, Peter Frueh, Peter O’Brien, Russel Jones
