Olayinka “Yinka” Hakeem Babalola is sitting on the wrong side of his desk, staring at the tiny squares on the laptop perched in front of him. He’s just finished speaking on a call with 300 Rotaractors from the African continent and other parts of the world, Rotary’s president-elect explains as he turns down the volume. “They held a celebration for me because I’m a past Rotaractor,” he says. By seeing Babalola, himself once in their shoes, embarking on the highest position in Rotary, who knows how many of the 300 he will inspire. It’s early October, less than two months since the Rotary International Board of Directors selected Babalola to lead Rotary, in a special session in late August after the resignation of RI President-elect SangKoo Yun, who died shortly after, following months of cancer treatment. Taken from the “Rotarian” Magazine - view the full story at https://www.rotary.org/en/the-game-changer 

On March 5th, PP Derrick Marsden shared with members his life-long love of cricket, his long-term involvement with Rotary Fellowships and in particular, his experiences with the International Fellowship of Cricketing Rotarians. He also provided a great overview of the various Rotary Fellowships available and encouraged members to get involved. It was an entertaining and engaging presentation and we thank Derrick for sharing his cricketing story - which he plans to continue in the coming year. Click “Read more…” for more pix of the night.

Club members were engaged and inspired on Thursday February 26th when Major Vanessa Evans from the Salvation Army shared her story about working against Gender Based Violence in the Solomon Islands over recent years. Vanessa and her husband both worked with Salvation Army in the Solomons for around eight years and were key figures in initiating a Gender Based Violence information program that touched the lives of hundreds of islanders.

Click this link to go to the page or type the link into your browser: https://www.rotaryimpactsummit.org/ 

At the February 20th meeting, PP Brian Reed entertained and informed members and guests with a comprehensive overview of the “sport” of “bellringing”. Brian was introduced to Bellringing whilst attending St Pius X Church at Heidelberg West and since then he has become a bell ringing Captain and quite the expert. Attendees discovered there is much more to bell ringing than simply pulling a rope and waiting for the “dong”. See “Read more…” for more pix.

Directors and members met together on Thursday, February 12th for the eighth Board meeting of our club in this Rotary Year. We spent quite a deal of time discussing several issues and some of those will require further research before we can report on them. However, we did decide a few things. Given that we have a series of three-monthly Presidents in this and the next Rotary years, we agreed to NOT hold a public Changeover Dinner as such at the end of June, and instead, conduct new President inductions each three months. We confirmed that the Program committee will now meet on the third Tuesday of each month instead of the second. And, directors wish to advise all members that we will soon need to select or confirm the Secretary, Treasurer, Administration, Membership, Public Image, Rotary Foundation and other important club roles for the 2026-27 Rotary year so that office holders may participate in upcoming District training and /or have time to orient themselves with their new positions. 

At our February 5th meeting, PP Andrew Harman from Wendouree Breakfast Rotary Club updated us on their Ambon Project. The Wendouree Breakfast club have been providing grass roots assistance to the Ambon Island community in Indonesia for around twenty years, largely due to the efforts of past club member, the late Rob McDougal. Over that period, a total of around forty Rotarians have visited the island six or seven times to provide funds and practical assistance for various community driven projects. Another tour will be taking place later this year and members of our club are invited to hop on board.

There will be a proposal put to our upcoming Board meeting that our club subsidizes the purchase of some updated Club shirts. The argument is that some members do not have club shirts at all and others have a variety of shirts, and it would be good if we presented a uniform image at the upcoming “Wheels and Wattle” event. The proposed shirts are pictured above and are sold by RDU (Rotary Down Under) as “Rotary Focus Polos” with separate models for Males and Females. The proposal is that the shirts would be engraved with the words, “Maryborough Rotary Club”. Currently the shirts sell for $47.00 each and the engraving would be an extra $13. The proposal will be that the club pays $30 or 50% of the tab for each shirt. Contact Max Berry for more details.

Congratulations to Kerrie Dowling from Next Gen Rotary for her “Community Festival” being awarded Best Community event of the last year at the recent local Australia Day Celebrations.

At last Thursday's meeting, our club thanked community members who had assisted Rotary at last year's Energy Breakthrough and other events. The event was chaired by new President, John Williamson and held in the meeting room at the Maryborough Uniting Church. Pictured is President Elect Terry Allan leading members in a toast the work of Rotary volunteers in the world. We thank the main organizers of the event, PP Alison Teese OAM, PP Garry Higgins OAM and Rotarian Geoff Bartlett. Click “Read more…” for more pix.

After presentations to the club, formation of an ad hoc committee, several meetings, and background work, including tapping the experience of local off-road riders, Maryborough Rotary Club is confidently and meticulously planning our inaugural Grand Final weekend cycling event, Wheels & Wattle.

We hit on the event name Wheels & Wattle to evoke Maryborough’s former much-loved Wattle Festival, which has not been held for many years but is still remembered with affection by many locals. The name also fits because at the end of September the local wattle will be in bloom – along with the similarly coloured canola! Pictured is the Start of the “Strawberry 10” Ride at Victory Park, Wagga Wagga - a possible model for our Ride. Click “Read more…” for more details and pix

Last Thursday, PP Derrick Marsden presented a great overview to our members of Rotary's RYLA program in District 9780. RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards and is an inspiring, 6-Day Personal Development program for young adults. It aims to develop leadership, decision-making, communication, conflict management and goal-setting skills based on each participant's personal needs. Most participants typically report that the program is positively “life-changing”. Our club has assisted many young people to attend  RYLA in the past and after last Thursday, many of us want to do so again. Click “Read more…” for more pix.

Ay last Thursday's Board Meeting, PP Martin inducted PE John Williamson into the office of President of our club for the next three months. We all congratulate John and wish him well in his Presidency and also thank Martin for a great job as President over the past three months.

Rotary International President-elect Olayinka H. Babalola called on members to Create Lasting Impact at Rotary’s International Assembly in Orlando, Florida, USA, on 12 January. He urged members to make their clubs more welcoming, carry out impactful projects, and allow their Rotary experiences to transform them personally. “If we can change ourselves, we can change our districts,” he said. “If we can change our districts, we can change the communities we serve. And if we can change our communities, we will change the world.”  Most Rotary members will be aware that Presidential Messages such as this one have replaced what used to be called the Annual Rotary Themes.

At January's Board Meeting, there were no committee reports, but members discussed several proposals in General Business.

1. Proceed with repairs and modifications to our Club Barbeque based on experiences at the recent Energy Breakthrough, PDG Anthony is handling this.

2. Continue to discuss with the City Council the possibility of opening the local Wading pool as soon as possible.

3. Allow PDG Anthony to explore, on behalf of the club, the possibility of setting up a "Go Fund Me' appeal to fund the transfer of more water into the Goldfield's res.

4. Explore the possibility of transporting recently acquired hospital equipment to the Alice Springs “Purple House” via private transport due to the prohibitive costs of commercial options.

5. Explore ways of how best to donate to fire affected victims in the District 9780 area.

6. Explore the possibility or value of offering “holiday stays” in our area to families of victims in the recent Bondi Massacre.

Due to the extreme heat warnings, we decided to hold our first meeting for 2026 at the Highland Society instead of at the Goldfields Res. as planned. Next week, we will be back at the Highland for our January Board meeting. On that night, we plan to induct our new President, John Williamson who will take over from President Martin. All members and partners are very welcome to attend.

Thirty members and partners from both Rotary clubs gathered in the Bull and Mouth Hotel on Thursday, December 18th to celebrate Christmas and the past year of Rotary service. We heard from Next Gen Chair, Veronica about planned links between the local police and Next Gen plans for youth service projects in the coming year, and we heard from PP Bec of the “Senior” Club about changes that have occurred in the area of family violence in our community. Bec reported that the number of incidents of family violence in our community has remained high, but perpetrators seem to be getting younger - a worrying trend. The information came from a recent meeting between Veronica, Bec, PP Garry and local police coordinator, Detective Senior Sergeant, Andrea Turner. 

At our recent Christmas party, we took the opportunity to acknowledge members who have reached further milestones in their contributions to the Rotary Foundation. Dr David Tynan, Alison Tesse and John Williamson were all presented with additional sapphire acknowledgements for their contributions of an additional US $1000 to the charity that has been recognized as one of the top five charities in the world for the past fifteen years.

The Rotary Club of Maryborough wishes all our readers peace and joy this Christmas and throughout 2026.

Last Thursday, we held our December Board meeting which will effectively be our final meeting at the Highland Society for this year. Next Thursday, we meet at the Bull and Mouth Hotel for our Christmas Party. The main items of business for our Board meeting were to hear reports about the latest plans for next September's Grand Final Weekend Bike Ride, the combined report on our Energy Breakthrough activities, a report on the collection of no-longer-required hospital equipment to distribute to “Donations In Kind” and the “Purple House Project” and a decision to run with “Square” as our chosen method for point-of-sale activities in the future.

At last Thursday's Board Meeting, we were delighted to induct and welcome back two past members of our club: Marion Martin and Austin Taylor. PDG Anthony Ohlsen performed the induction ceremony in the absence of President Martin. Marion will join the Foundation committee and Austin will be part of the Fundraising committee.

Our club was recently awarded a Bronze Champion Award for the 2024-25 Rotary Year by the “Shelterbox” organization for our ongoing and generous support of the charity. See “Read more…” for the accompanying letter.

On Thursday, December 4th, club members listened to and discussed a videoed talk by Joshua Bengio, one of the pioneer scientists of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a developer of ChatGPT. Bengio shared his deep concerns about the unrestricted development of AI programs that have their own “agency” or independence, and he demonstrated that such programs are already capable of lying to preserve their autonomy. His team is advocating for a more controlled Scientist AI Solution that limits the agency of AI programs. We also had a live demonstration of Google's recent AI interface, “Nano Banana” to show what AI can do with our own photographs. 

Last week, President Martin Mackay and our club's Book program Coordinator, Alison Teese presented each Grade 4 student at Carisbrook Primary School with a book as part of our ongoing Book Week program. 

Rotarians Lowen and Adrian have just decorated the Bristol Hill Tower with orange lights for the 16 Days of Activism running from November 25th to December 10th. That should certainly get people's attention!

Seventeen members gathered at the Highland Society last Thursday to start the review process of our club's involvement in this year's Energy Breakthrough. A small committee involving members from both the Next Gen and Trad Gen groups will meet in the near future to prepare a plan of recommendations, but Thursday's meeting enabled participants to share what worked and what didn't work for them when working on the Rotary Food Stand. Overall, the comments were very positive, and we were delighted to hear that overall, a profit of around $10,000 was achieved from our five days of involvement. Once again, a big “THANK YOU” to all those members and friends who helped us out.

Our weekly meeting on November 18th was spent finalizing the set up for our Food stand at the 2025 Energy Breakthrough. Members from both the Trad and Next Gen Clubs worked together to set up the biggest and most comprehensive food stand we have had in the several decades of involvement with the event. We served Greek wraps, Kebabs, pancakes and fruit, tacos, quesadillas, sausages, hamburgers, steak sandwiches, bacon and egg rolls, corn chips, donuts, fruit cups, coffee, tea and hot chocolate to the public at set times from Wednesday evening until Sunday afternoon with assistance from partners, friends and members from our associated service groups. Thanks to everyone on our large roster of volunteers for your assistance - particularly those who had multiple, multiple hour shifts!!! This pic was from Saturday around 11am. Click “Read more…” for more pix at different times.

At our November Board meeting on November 13th, we confirmed the place, date and time of our Christmas Break-Up meeting (see below), we confirmed the time and place of our first meeting for 2026 (Jan. 8th at the Lion's Goldfields Res. Barbeque site), and the place and date of our January Social Event (Jan. 29th at John and Alison's home). We also heard reports from our new Bike Ride planning committee and our Satellite Club, and fine-tuned planning for the coming week's Energy Breakthrough. Members are reminded that we meet on TUESDAY evening this week to set up our Breakthrough site.

Last Thursday, our Public Image Chair Max Berry provided members and guests with fascinating overview of the history and major issues facing Rail Freight operators in Victoria. Max comprehensively covered topics such as the Importance of commodities to Australia, how those commodities are moved through Victoria, the main operators and marketers using Rail freight, the current status of Rail Freight in the state and the likely future facing the industry. It was a great talk, enjoyed by all. Click “Read more…” for more pix of the night.

Koko Patience Samuel (left) is a community health worker trained in maternal and child health care through Together for Healthy Families in Nigeria, a Rotary Programs of Scale grant recipient. She’s also part of a vast, but sometimes overlooked, workforce in public health. Around the world, millions of community health workers provide essential frontline care in low- and middle-income countries. They’re not medical professionals, but they can perform basic health interventions and advise people on topics including maternal and child health, nutrition, vaccination, and family planning.

Members received a special treat last Thursday when Maryborough Education Centre students, Naomi Henderson and Renae Neilson, provided an impressive report on their experiences at the recent “Defy the Drift” program held at Longerenong Agricultural College. The program is a District 9780 Rotary program designed to introduce country students to the many meaningful employment options available which enable them to continue living and working in rural areas. By helping to pay some of the costs involved, our club assisted Naomi and Renae to attend the event. Click "Read more… for more pics

Our Board and other members met for our October Board meeting on Thursday the 16th. We decided to continue the practice of combining our Board meetings with the third regular meeting of each month, we confirmed our decisions concerning changes to our Constitution and Bylaws, confirmed two new members (both past members) - Austin Taylor and Marion Martin and heard reports from our Governance committees. 

No, this isn't our leadership team - but at last Thursday's meeting, whilst we celebrated Australian Rotary Health Hat Day (hence the hats), we held our Annual General Meeting and confirmed most of our responsibility positions for the 2026-27 Rotary year. We will again have four Presidents over the year - Terry Allan (Jun-Sep), Shane Dellavedova (Oct-Dec), John Williamson (Jan-Mar 27) and Max Berry (Apr-Jun). Many thanks to each of these Rotarians for committing to this joint role in our next year. Secretary will again be Thea Allan, but we still have to finalize the Treasurer position - anyone interested? So the door opens (see the pic) on another Chapter for our club!

“Lifting the Lid” is the current name given to Australian Rotary Health (ARH) Hat Day (October 10th) when Rotarians support the work of this great Rotary Program which provides funds for Mental Health Research. Hats protect heads, and ARH helps to protect mental health in Australia where one in every five people suffer from some kind of mental illness. At Thursday's Rotary meeting, members wore silly (and not so silly) hats to celebrate the work of ARH, and by paying for the privilege, the dozen or so of us raised $215.00 for the cause. Thanks to all members who contributed.

At the October 2nd. meeting, President PDG Anthony inducted our second President for 2025-26, PP Martin Mackay. Martin will serve in the role until the end of December, and then Rotarian John Williamson will take over from January until March 2026. Congratulations Martin on taking on this role, and Congratulations and “Thank You!!!” to PDG Anthony for leading our club from July until now. Without Anthony taking this initiative at this time last year, our 73 year old club would quite possibly not be operating now - which is a timely reminder that next Thursday, at our Annual General Meeting, we need the names of a Rotarian or Rotarians who will lead us in 2026-27. Please think seriously about this and inform President Martin if you are willing to take on the leadership role next Rotary year.

Members are invited to participate in a community wide expression of activism against gender-based violence during the 16 Days of Activism program from 25 Nov to 10 Dec 2025 - initiated by the Zonta Club of Central Goldfields.

Possible activities could include:

• Displaying signage or create a display window in orange
• Check out the orange lights display around Maryborough – council buildings, hospital, Bristol Hill tower
• Wearing Orange during 16 Days of Activism
• Attending Orange nail salon in High St, Maryborough on Thursday, 27^th November
• Attending Goldfields Reservoir Parkrun on 6^th December at 8am
• Visit ‘R’ for RESPECT garden bed in Phillips Gardens
• Hold a morning or afternoon tea featuring orange food
• Storytime, book club
• Art & craft
• Visit Calico Ceilings -Women of the Goldfields Painting exhibition at Central Goldfields Art Gallery Sat 6^th December
• Other – please specify how you might get involved

We need to advise Zonta of our involvement by Friday 17th October 2025 to enable marketing of all activities. Rotarians, please pass your ideas to PP Garry Higgins OAM.

Click “Read more…” to learn more about 16 Days of Activism.