What a wonderful 38th birthday party Canterbury Rotary had on Monday night!
That’s correct, the Rotarians for Bees, ‘Your Garden-Our Future’ event happened to fall on the exact date that RC Canterbury was chartered. It was fitting that charter members, Doug Hawley and Alan Stevens, were present to enjoy the fun.
I was most impressed by the support shown by our club members for this event. More than 35 were members and partners and there were plenty of family and friends brought along as well to take the room to capacity. The hard work of John and Liz McCaskill and their team was evident with the great turnout, beautiful display of the items for sale/raffle, pollinator plants to purchase, professional slideshow of the auction and raffle items, lovely (lucky prize) flowering plants on each decorated table and the volunteers working hard to sell raffle tickets, take payments, run the IT and media, welcome guests and speakers and mc the night. Many people worked hard before the event to secure donations of goods and services from various businesses and others donated items themselves. All the speakers were fabulous and each added a piece to the story of why gardens and growing plants is so important for our, and the world’s, physical and mental health.
If you feel like another fun night out with a bit of glam, support Kew Rotary by attending their Gala Dinner tonight, Thursday 10th, at Kew Golf Club. See flyer for details.
This week has been very busy, including President Elect and leadership training at Bendigo last weekend for Jillian and myself, our bees event, meeting with potential members for coffee and a chat and a site visit to the proposed garden with Steve C and Jen Martin, a landscape architect who provided her insights and some advice about the proposed plan.
This Monday, 14 April, is our last Rotary meeting at the Canterbury Centre in Rochester Road. It will be another milestone in Canterbury Rotary’s history and it will be marked by the induction of a new member, Craig Smith. Please make every effort to be there to welcome Craig into our club.
Rotarians for Bees staged a fundraiser event last Monday which provided a pot-pourri of speakers, stories and projects. The piece de resistance was, of course, Costa Georgiadis. Nonetheless, the range of topics covered at the gala function was profoundly deep.
The first presentation was from Aris Petratos who had the unenviable task of updating the audience about the varroa mite.
Next from the Wheen Bee Foundation was Fiona Chambers who is passionate about advocating for biodiversity and the importance of pollinators. The three prongs of her discusssion - research, awareness and connecting people - are integral to her institution. We were shown five flying insects and asked the provocative question - Which of them is a bee? The response, not surprisingly, is that there were two bees, but we were introduced to flies and wasps. Fiona wants us all, each one of us, to do something practical to encourage bee keeping. Furthermore, there is no national plan for pollination in Australia.
One of the two separate presentations included Emma Cutting, from Heart Scapes. Her goal is to develop the Melbourne Pollinator Corridor to insects. She has managed to attain forty-six gardens, but intends to achieve two hundred altogether. The other presentation was that of Murray Wilkinson, from The Rotary Club of Balwyn, whose project consists of transforming nature strips.
Andrew Laidlaw, landscape architect at the Royal Botanic Gardens, emphasised the intense relationship between humans and gardens. He described the Royal Botanic Gardens as the green lungs of Melbourne, which is surrounded by the CBD Heat Bank. It is an area of eighty-three acres, with a swamp which has been transformed into an ornamental lake. He stressed the importance of landscape succession planning. He also highlighted the fact that the Royal Botanic Gardens is like a piece of theatre, moving from space to mass, and then to void. The very moving description of the origins of the grotto, the spiritual connection and the sense of loss of family members who find solace in the garden, where they can slow down and find peace.
Our very special guest from Sydney, Costa Georgiadis, praised the work of Andrew Laidlaw and described the strategies and tools which can be applied in attempting to explain the way nature works and how it affects people. We, as individuals, should be the story tellers, with a story both to tell and one to learn more about . In his words, Costa stressed that having a large goal for the whole world, we should be creating a ripple. Waves can destroy whatever is in their way, a ripple, a smaller movement, gives people an opportunity to observe and thus, learn. It is all about how people tell the story. People, thus, become the amplifier for other members of the family. We should all attempt to learn live " in nature time", which builds in a concept of patience. Furthermore, Australia is an island-continent. We should all be able to either be onboarded or making a claim, with our current documentation.
One of the highlights of the event was the presence of four school children Jacob Niven, Emily Padman, Sophia Tehranitash and Ezekiel Raebel. They are from Parkmore Primary School in Forest Hill and were accompanied by parents Michelle and Jacob Niven and Box Hill Central Environment director John Erlington and his wife Ruth.
The students represent the BEAP (Bee Education and Protection) Team which has been selected to represent Australia at the International Future Problem Solving event in the US in June. They spoke with Costa about the beginnings of their school pollinator project and with great joy about the upcoming trip to America
The students recorded a video with Costa and it may appear on his ABC Gardening program later this year. It was fantastic for all in the audience to see such enthusiasm from our junior citizens about pollinators and caring for the environment.
Many thanks to John McCaskill and all who contributed to the organisation of the very successful event and the audience who supported the event, the auctions, raffle and other fundraising activities.
Max Holland manages the "Tour de Canterbury Rotary" and provided this update of the recent adventures of the rotary bike group.
This week, the ride started at Epping, then went south along the Darebin Creek Trail, and east to University Hill, where we had an excellent coffee at The Jolly Miller Cafe.
We then went further east to join the Plenty River Trail. The following link shows a series of views along this Trail.
The photo is of the suspended cable bridge crossing beside Whatmough Park. Note the separately suspended cable for the treated effluent pipe on the left side of the bridge.
The ride continued southwards to join the Yarra River Trail and then to Kew East for the Rotary lunch at the Harp Hotel.
The Canterbury Rotary Club lunch usually meets bi-weekly at 12.30 for a meal and some fun. The above photos is from the lunch this week at the Harp Hotel which looks like a terrific outing for the group.
David Zrna looks after the reservations for the lunch group. Please contact David at david.zrna@canterburyrotary.org or on 0467033092 to advise that you will be coming to a lunch.
On 10 April the Kew RC are hosting a fundraising gala at the Kew Golf Club.
Please see the flier below for all the details. To book please scan the QR code or on your computer enter www.kewgala.com.au (unfortunately, the Book Now link does not operate when documents are included in the Bulletin)
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