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President's Message 23 November 2024
Bruce Turner
President’s Message
Greetings and welcome. Thank you for joining our online news and updates.
The usual Club Meeting was replaced on Monday night with the running of the 2024 Torquay Business Awards which were presented by Commerce Torquay and The Torquay Rotary Club. Ten of our members joined with over 100 other guests for the presentation at The Sands to celebrate the success of local businesses. Now in its third year, the organising committee are to be congratulated on what was a very enjoyable and successful evening. Credit must also go to Trevor Hall who was the inspiration and driving force responsible for getting these awards off the ground. Trevor was also one of the judges who had quite a difficult job in selecting the winners this year.
Twenty three businesses were listed as finalists across seven categories. Congratulations to the winners:
Not-for-profit: Torquay Community House
Trade Services: Winki Energy
Retail: Wolf Telstra Partner
Tourism and Hospitality: Go Ride A Wave
Professional Services: Nelson Financial
Business Leader of the Year: Craig Smith – Champion Blinds
Business of the Year: Surfcoast Women’s Health Group
I would like to make a special mention of, and pass on our congratulations to Torquay Community House for winning the 2024 Commerce Torquay Not For Profit Award, proudly sponsored by Torquay Rotary!
Updates for members:
Fyansford Paper Mill Precincts petition reminder: You may be aware that Highton Rotary has become very involved with Tours of the Fyansford Paper Mill Precincts, which have been operating since November 2022. The Fyansford Paper Mill’s Water Race is/was Australia’s only intact water race, (i.e. until the 10 metre mid-June 2021 breach in the upstream wall). Built over the years 1876 to 1878, it is listed by Heritage Victoria and the National Trust, and is of State and National significant industrial history.
A breach in the water race wall, approximately 900 meters upstream from the Fyansford Paper Mill, was identified in June 2021. Photo: ROD MORRISON
Currently, Highton Rotary has an E Petition and Paper Petition seeking to have the breach in the water race repaired. We have had 1,646 people sign our Petition. We need 2,000 signatures, i.e. another 364 signatures required with only 5 days to go until the Petition closes on 24th November. Here is the link to the petition if you have not signed it Restore the Fyansford Paper Mill water race wall - Petitions - Parliament of Victoria
Rotary Foundation: the following note was received from Anthony Olsen regarding methods of depositing funds:
“I have had a number of requests on where to send and/or deposit funds to the Rotary Foundation, be they for Polio or other areas of the Foundation. There are a number of ways to do this:
The Lost Petition is an ongoing textile artwork that lists women and children who have lost their lives to male violence in Australia since 2008. This work is 30 metres long and proceeds to grow in length as women's and children’s lives continue to be lost to male violence.
An Awareness Walk in Torquay will be held on Tuesday 26th November at 0930.
We would like as many people as possible to attend this, hopefully for an hour, and we can follow that up with coffee if you would like.
If you do not have a purple T-shirt, please wear purple or orange. Orange is the colour Zonta wears on their walks to raise awareness of this dreadful gender abuse.
I will have posters to place in the coffee shop/café toilets prior to the 16 days of Activision to increase awareness.
This is a serious issue within our communities, and we need to increase awareness.
