History of Wollundry Rotary
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On the 13th February 1978, South Wagga Rotary Club under the presidency of Bassil McMullen, held an interest meeting at which local businessmen were invited to attend, with the view to establishing a new lunch time club At the conclusion of the meeting, 21 fellows agreed to proceed with the formation of the new club and to meet again on the 28th February to establish a Wagga Wagga Midday Rotary Club. At this meeting, Graham Hornibrook was elected chairman, together with interim committee members Gordon Braid, Graham Burmeister, Graeme Maher, Greg walker and Tony Youngman Sel Rawlings was elected the Sergeant of Arms. Following many suggestions as to the name of the new club, it was finally agreed that we would be know as the provisional Rotary Club of Wollundry – Wagga Wagga With 29 financial members, Wollundry was born. On the 4th April, local artist Ron Pratt was our guest speaker and at the conclusion of his address, presented the club with a sketch of the Wollundry Lagoon, which became the clubs emblem. Our official charter was issued on the 13th may, which was presented to President Graham Hornibrook by PDG Ken White at our charter dinner on the 1st July Wollundry was now an official member of Rotary International, with 30 charter members whose names appear in tonight’s program. The difficulties of fund raising was short lived when John Skeers and Leon Flegg travelled to Canberra, to inspect the Belconnen Rotary Club Trash & Treasure Markets With the full support of members, our first market was held on the 4th February 1979, with approximately 2,000 attendees supporting the 29 stallholders. At our next meeting, members were ecstatic when it was announced that we had raised $418. Always on the lookout for other opportunities, our fund raising activities expanded with the first Farmers Market in 2001, followed by the Food & Wine Festival in 2002 and more recently the successful Beers & Gears. We can be justifiably proud of Wollundry’s forty years of service to the local, national and international communities. In conclusion, it is noted that at our 10th anniversary,y there were twelve charter members still at Wollundry, which by our 30th anniversary had reduced to five. From these numbers, it is evident that Burmo and I may not be around for the 50th anniversary celebrations. |