22-05-2007
Early Days #1
Past President Bob Mather (1958-59) spoke from a position of authority on the topic of The Early Days. His speech is reproduced below:
President Keith, Distinguished Guests, Ladies, Guests and Fellow Rotarians,
I would like to think that I speak to you tonight as the representative of the 22 Charter members on whose fellowship and efforts the solid foundation was laid on which this Club was built.
In hind sight, it would be fair to say that every one of those fellows were Rotarians at heart, before they pinned on the Rotary badge, but they realised that they could do so much more for the community collectively as Rotarians than they could individually, — and there was plenty we could do.
The Rotary area we were ceded by Bankstown Club covered the South Ward of the Municipality. Ten years before our formation the area was 70%TT scrub, 15% timbers, 10% farms and but 5% development but by 1957 we were faced with rapidly developing working class suburbs, young couples building homes to enable them to start families and entire families moved from the inner city into commission homes.
The whole area was devoid of amenities, we didn't have to look far to find worthy projects, — our main problem was that fund-raising required many man-hours and hard work as excess money was limited and we had to be very sure that our projects had popular appeal.
At the end of our first year we were able to present a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica to East Hills Boys High and East Hills Girls High Schools, themselves fledgling establishments. The Girls school opened in 1954 and it is indicative of the rapid growth of the area that in a few short years the school had the highest number of students of any girls high in the state.
In the second year our main project saw the creation of the Padstow Senior Citizens Centre. The concept of a senior citizens club was rather unique but advertisements in the local papers saw the initial meeting of 15 elect their own officers and grew steadily, meeting weekly in the Progress Hall. Our Rotary Annes were heavily involved preparing and serving afternoon tea and a group of fellows were on call to transport those who required it. It is very gratifying to know that the Club has prospered and is still operating.
The club operated smoothly until 1960 when we had the misfortune to lose two Presidents in the one year, the first as President Elect losing his classification barely a week before taking office and his successor forced to resign after nine months because of ill health. At this point our membership dropped to 15 - that was the lowest level our membership every reached.
Bert Tyson was elected President and filled that role for 15 months. Bert was a relatively quiet man, shy even, but a stint as Sgt-at-arms gave him confidence and on taking office was a confident and competent leader.
Our Rotary Annes had been providing transport to drive children to and from the Whitehall Handicapped Children's Centre in Revesby, but it was obvious that the Centre needed more help than our ladies could provide. Bert's project — an Art Union to provide a bus for the Centre — 100,000 tickets to be sold— a daunting task but 12 months later we presented the Centre its own bus. The Secretary Generals Department told us that we were the first Art Union fully subscribed by the advertised drawing date in years!!
Probably more important than the success of the project was the incredible atmosphere that existed between the fellows, we were welded into a team as we had never been before and when Bert stepped down our membership had climbed to 32.
Just a small item, probably not known to most fellows today, the idea of presenting a boomerang to our guest speakers originated in Bert's year. Our original boomerangs were fashioned from timber garnered from the mangroves in Salt Pan Creek by the aborigines from the La Perouse settlement.
It was not until 1980 when the Club organised and hosted the District Conference in Bathurst for District Governor Jim Stamford that we saw the same 100% participation by the fellows - every fellow was involved. The Conference received high praise and I'm biased enough to believe that at that point in time it was the best I had ever attended.
It would be remiss of me whilst speaking of foundations not to pay tribute to our Charter President, Mick Cannon. Mick was the only one of the 22 who had previously served in Rotary and he set the pattern for Presidents who followed and conducted the Club in a dignified and probably slightly staid fashion. Mick was a self avowed academic who in his own admission sometimes felt uncomfortable when mixing with fellows from other walks of life. He had no reason to feel that way. Aware of the fact that quite a few of the fellows were reluctant to speak in the Club, he organised a series of discussion groups held after the meetings to encourage public speaking.
I have heard the toast to Rotary International proposed in this country and overseas but the one I recall most was on the occasion of the Charter Night of Chester Hill Rotary Club. The responsibility for the toast to Rl was in the hands of our Charter President – it was brilliant —absolutely brilliant, but unfortunately Mick had no written record or notes of it.
One of the big advantages we had over programme directors of today was the relative ease we had to obtain guest speakers — today they would probably have cost a fortune.
We heard from the right Honourable J.T. Lang, ex Premier of NSW. 93 years old he stood and spoke for one hour without notes and spent 20 more minutes answering questions. For this night the Club invited 150 guests from the South Ward from probably every known classification. We repeated this large audience later when our guest speaker was Eric Baume, a radio personality who would be the equivalent of Allan Jones today.
Allan Davison, champion Australian Cricketer, Vie Patrick, Australian Boxing Champion, Ron Clarke 1500 metre Olympic Champion athlete and Leah Wilson, the first blind person to graduate from Sydney University who insisted on making her own way to our Club meeting in Gow Street, but allowed us to drive her home. I remember her lifting the cover of her watch, fingering it for a moment and than said, "Mr President I can SEE that I have come to the end of my time".
Fellow Vince Smith came up with the idea of making an emergency buzzer - a small battery operated device usually fitted to a front window and operated by a button positioned nearby a bed — press the button and the buzzer sent out a constant tap-tap on the glass, loud enough to attract attention and accompanied by a flashing light. They were much sought after and the fellows spent hours assembling the kits and installing them in homes. - We also sold a lot to other Clubs. In retrospect they could well be considered the forerunner of the emergency buttons we use today.
What of the future?? There have always been wars, poverty of many kinds, pestilence, famines and floods - there always will be and as long as that situation exists there will always be a role for an organization such as Rotary International and for the Rotary Club of Padstow.
One guest speaker I did not mention earlier was Ollie Oberg, Past First Vice President of Rotary International. Ollie was an orator who had the power to inspire his audience and he was much sought after to speak at Clubs, Charter Nights and District Conferences. I can think of no better way to wind up my remarks tonight than as Ollie ended so many of his addresses. He quoted an old Egyptian proverb which he introduced by saying:
"And remember, my fellow Rotarians, when you face your Creator on the day of judgement - remember:
God will not ask thy name, He will not ask thy birth, Alone he will demand of thee, What didst thou do on earth?
Last changed: 03:19:25 04-10-2008