Bulletin of the Rotary Club of Ocean Grove Inc.
Winner of the Holmes Trophy for the best attendance by a Club at the 2006 District Conference
www.rotaryoceangrove.blogspot.com
Volume 25 No 8
Notice for the Meeting at the Ocean Grove Hotel, Tuesday 29th August 2006, 6.30 for 7.00.
This will be a very special partners’ night and you are urged to attend.
Speaker Richard Barras Subject ‘ My experiences in the Maldives following the Tsunami’ Chairman Alison George
Assistant Cashier & Thanker David Cornwell Greeter & Assistant Sergeant Bob Smith
Birthdays & Anniversaries 29th Hazel Ford
2nd James Turnbull, Rod & Patsy Bush
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Notice for the Meeting at the Ocean Grove Hotel, Tuesday 5th September 2006, 6.00 for 6.30
Speaker Brian Hamilton Subject ‘Sounds Amazing’ Chairman Geoff Chandler
Assistant Cashier & Thanker Trevor McArdle Greeter & Assistant Sergeant Bill Steains
Birthdays & Anniversaries 8th Martin & Anne Geerings
11th Charles & Lois Dawborn
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Desalinization of seawater can’t be far away for most of our large coastal cities!
In my lead article last week about RI President William Boyd’s encouragement for Rotarians to ‘Lead the Way’, he had selected water as his first emphasis. That is the subject of this week’s editorial.
Jan and I travelled frequently between Robinvale and Ballarat during the six years from 1979 to 1984. There was always plenty of water to see on the way, despite the traditional dryness of the Mallee and Wimmera. Lake Tyrrell at Sea Lake, although mainly salty, always had some visible water and the Wooroonook Lakes, south of Wycheproof, were always a haven for yabbies.
Then there was Lake Learmonth just north of Ballarat and of course, the centerpiece of Ballarat itself, Lake Wendouree, which they used for the rowing events at the 1956 Olympics. Not any more. You can walk across Lake Wendouree; the other lakes mentioned above are bone dry! Wurdiboluc, Geelong region’s main reservoir,
is a fraction of it’s capacity, and if we needed any proof of the effect of ten years of drought, we only need to look at the graphic photos featured in the ‘Geelong Advertisers’ recent features on the drought.
So what are we doing about it? Well, we make little or no use of storm and waste water run-off. Most of Ocean Grove’s is deliberately drained into the sea, a very large portion used as a very effective mosquito breeding ground as it meanders through the ‘swamp’ easement which COGG has created through Bill Steains property.
Adelaide relies heavily on the Murray river, which, by the time it wanders down to South Oz, is nothing much better than a saline drain, hardly surprising as it is used to flood-irrigate wasteful and completely inappropriate crops of cotton and rice much further upstream. In this the driest habitable continent in the world!
The problem is not just here. Read the page 12 article in ‘The Age’ of Thursday August 17 – “Water Crises everywhere, the First World warned to think”. The world’s highest rainfall, at almost 11,000 mm., fell in India. All the world’s highest rainfalls occur in a band around the equator. The ‘First World’ doesn’t live there.!!!!!
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10th Australian Transplant Games September 16th – 23rd ,2006
Many of our members volunteered for duties. By now, they should all have received advice from Karen Knuckey enclosing details, including a roster. If you haven’t, and believe you should, e-mail mary2ken@bigpond.net.au or phone 52613310 or 0429613310. I will bring my copy of the roster to every meeting until 12th September.
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We need more members
At our meeting on 15th August, Trevor McArdle screened a membership development video and organized groups to list potential new members. You all have nomination forms. How about you use them!!
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An entertainer masquerading as a fly fisherman
That’s what tonight’s guest speaker, Trevor Mueller was! He started out, just a few years ago, choosing that fascinating hobby,[or is it a sport?] as an alternative to an otherwise sedentary existence. Not an inexpensive exercise, Trevor spent a fortune on such things as night flies, royal wool and Mrs Simpson, who, I hasten to assure you all, is not a shiela.
With all those scores of pretty flies, a delicate cast, a range of rods, more specialized clothing than a Field Marshall, and infinite patience, the poor bloody trout doesn’t stand a chance! I didn’t quite follow how a trout finds a kangaroo attractive, but Trevor’s favorite aquatic mate in the King Parrot Creek at Flowerdale never got more than a sore mouth, as Trev always let them go. I feel sure that our guest speaker was never more entertained than we were tonight. A really great talk, and a coup for programmer Charles Dawborn.
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News in Brief
• There will be a working bee at neighborhood house in The Parade next Tuesday at 9.30. Bring a spade and a rake. We are going to make a garden and the Board has approved a grant.
• Peter Cullen wants to arrange a work place visit and seeks suggestions.
• David Tyrrell has an idea for a ripper of a ‘vocational’ quiz, and will divulge details in due course.
• Alex Magee is promoting a golf week at Warrnambool / Port Fairy, 19-23 March 2007.
• Colin Brown has issued a revised market day car parking roster. Forget last week’s issue.
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Don’t you just HATE answering machines?
I dialed a number and got the following recording;
“I am not available right now, but thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes.”
