Registration closes on Tuesday evening, 2nd December 2025.
It's that time of the year when we deliver the fruits of the Christmas Hamper Appeal for 2025. We will be again providing hampers to homeless youth through Steps Outreach Service recipients, and refugee families through the Lentara Uniting Asylum Seeker Project.
Entertainment will be provided by Harambee A Cappella Group.
If you have guests or know of attending visitors, please share this Humanitix registration link with them to book ahead.
We look forward to seeing you at breakfast at the Savoy Hotel, 630 Little Collins Street in the Spencer Room.
Thank you to the 47 (85%) members who completed the Membership Survey. I also want to thank Paul Fowler and Donna Thibault for preparing and coordinating the survey. The results will be presented to the Board in December and shared with members in February.
Our Paul Harris Breakfast attracted the largest attendance since COVID lockdowns including representatives from 16 Rotary clubs and raised $10.4k for the Rotary Foundation. Baethen Mullen provided an informative and thought-provoking speech. Well done to Rhys Williams, Kevin Love, Elias Lebbos and Campbell Chambers for arranging this event.
Our Sausage Sizzlers were again busy raising $4.7k for our projects. We delivered our best ever results at Bunnings Collingwood and Bunnings Port Melbourne. A big thank you to Neville John who coordinated both events and volunteered the whole day at both sites.
Thank you also to the Rotarians and family members who volunteered at the DIK and RIMERN warehouse working bees.
I am now looking forward to our Christmas & End of Year Event on Tuesday 9th December and in particular welcoming two new members to Rotary Central Melbourne.
The purpose of this important Club event is to raise money for the Rotary Foundation to complement member subscriptions and other individual donations to the Paul Harris Society and end-polio activities. It is a priority for the Club because the Foundation is the heart of the value that Rotary offers the world and its members. Hence, I am pleased to advise members that the Club will net approx. $10,300 this year for the Rotary Foundation from our 33rd event held on Tuesday 18th November at the Windsor Hotel.
Of our 140 attendees, approx. 30 members/honorary members attended, many with partners/guests, and 13 Rotary Clubs were represented.
Speaker Baethan Mullen, CEO of the Superpower Institute, provided a very thought provoking presentation. It covered:
A summary of the history of Australia’s successful response, in the postwar period until now, to global opportunities which saw massive investment in fossil fuel and mineral resources for export to meet the industrialising needs firstly of Japan, then South Korea and finally China. Exploiting its competitive advantages successfully, apart from often squandering the export earnings, today Australia is one of the world’s great resource countries often from remote and harsh locations. This has created great wealth for each Australian, unparalleled infrastructure, and world-class technical, financial and export capability
Today, we face a changed global environment. The world must rapidly decarbonise if it is to avert environmental disaster from a climate which is warming too rapidly. Importantly, we must respond to the new demands of our trading partners, which requires that Australia pivot rapidly away from fossil fuels. However, like in the earlier postwar period, there are significant competitive advantages for Australia in this transition, and greater wealth than has been generated to date, if these advantages can be seized
Over the next 50 years, the world will need value added minerals, and a diversity of refined metal and fertilizer products produced from renewable energy sources which produce no carbon emissions. In addition, coal and gas are now sunset industries. Australia, especially in its west and north, is one of the few countries which can generate the amount of renewable energy at huge scale and cheap cost to produce these high value resources from green electricity, hydrogen and ammonia. In addition, some energy may be able to be directly exported.
A big thank you goes to all members who assisted execute the event and especially to: Rohan, Therese, Campbell, Kevin, John, Suvam, Roy, Nicholas, Neville John and Elias. Thanks also to District Governor Peter Shepheard and Foundation Director Julie Mason. Julie provided an interesting overview of our District’s Foundation activities and, from the Glenferrie Club, Endo Masayo a visiting scholar was able to attend.
Despite the major issue of our speaker Superpower Institute Director Prof Ross Garnaut having to be replaced by his CEO Baethan Mullen, we received positive feedback, including that Baethan’s presentation was very valuable.
The SAG is reviewing the event and Rohan and Paul will provide further details shortly. Please provide your feedback and suggestions on the event which are very welcome.
Rotary Central Melbourne’s brand was given a positive lift on Thursday 27th November at the RMIT Vocational Education (VE) Awards Night.
The top 2025 awards winners- VE Student of the Year, Indigenous Student of the Year, Apprentice/Trainee of the Year, and Industry Excellence Award- also receive the Rotary Ian Angus OAM Prize, a jointly funded $2,000 award. This is the third year of the award partnership, enabled by a bequest from Ian’s estate. Ian was a distinguished Central Melbourne Club member and RMIT student, teacher and senior manager spanning 35 years. Ian is remembered for character and leadership, and his significant contribution to introducing electronics and broadcast television training in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The event was very uplifting and moving. The winners, who have been invited to speak next year at a Club meeting, all demonstrated academic excellence, community involvement and significant personal and professional leadership.
The RMIT website provides details of the winners. https://www.rmit.edu.au/news [Note: the content will appear here in the next day or so].
Therese Robinson and Rhys Williams represented the Club.
Therese and Rhys with RMIT staff and Jacob Siagbalavu (Student of the Year), Katherine Crook (Apprentice of the Year), and Soheil Afshar (Industry Excellence)
