Hand knitted rugs have found their home in the Ali Curung community.
I am delighted to now close the loop on the rug creation project we started in 2024 across D9780, and which was led by Linda Neale and Gail Birchall at Torquay Rotary.
After five months of planning for this year’s motor show on Sunday, we were rewarded with a near perfect conditions.
Of special note was the Saturday cruise in the afternoon a group of 40 cars enjoyed the drive from Birregurra down through the hills into Lorne culminating in a display at Elephant Walk that attracted a good number of spectators.
Late Saturday night Bruce and JJ used bollards to secure The Esplanade roadside location for the special sports car rides. Then on Sunday as the first of our volunteers began to arrive, work commenced on the final setup of the gates, stage, administration area BBQ and the host of other things that make our show so special.
As Vendors and Sponsors arrived, they were directed into the locations marked out on Saturday and by 8 o’clock we were open for business.
By 9 o’clock the queue of entrant’s vehicles had extended down to Fisherman’s Beach car park, and the entry team were under the pump. Finally, the tail end competitors were checked in and once the Judges briefing was completed the assessments and scoring commenced.
Our new P A announcers Erica Turner and Sam Currie made a professional addition to the running commentary giving spectators and entrants information and selling the Peoples Choice award and rides in the special sports cars.
In the mean while the BBQ had a steady trade, Gail Birchall had negotiated the donation from Coles of sausages, onions and bread for the day’s trade.
Mike Reed was our controller outside at the Special sports car rides that were enthusiastically received by both passengers and onlookers, his ears must still be ringing.
With results in presentations commenced at 2.00pm with Kelly making the awards to the vehicle winners supported by Alan Howlett for the bike categories.
The special categories were presented by Helen Plumridge, Deputy Mayor Tony Phelps & Alan Howlett.
Our District Governor Chritine Dufty made the presentation to the Best Car in Show supported by David Dew from the RACV.
Katrina and JJ then took part in the presentation for the People’s Choice vehicle and eventually a lucky spectator.
Overall, an extremely successful weekend.
The Winners
Best Car in show - Ron Debeen 1956 Ford F100
Best Bike Keith Bakker 1998 Harley Davidson Heritage
Best Club Display HSV Enthusiasts Club
16–18 January | Surf Coast Secondary College, Hillside Parade, Torquay | 9.00am–4.00pm
Book lovers, bargain hunters and families are warmly invited to one of the Surf Coast’s most loved community events — the Rotary Club of Torquay Book Fair 2026.
Held over three big days on Friday 16, Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 January, the Book Fair will once again take over Surf Coast Secondary College on Hillside Parade, Torquay, offering thousands of quality pre-loved books at an unbeatable price — just $2 per book.
Whether you’re searching for a great holiday read, children’s favourites, cookbooks, novels, history, biographies or hidden gems, there’s something for everyone. With new stock added daily, many visitors return more than once to see what treasures they might discover next.
Rotary Says No to Domestic and Family Violence
Tuesday 25th November – what a morning! The sun was shining and the ocean was all in its glory Then a few clouds appeared – some black even, and the wind joined us, but not detrimentally.
We commenced our Say No 2 Domestic and Family Violence Walk with the 33 walkers, which was fantastic. This included Rotarians from Geelong; Victorian Police; Representatives from Zonta and Orange Door, and Torquay Community House; local community members, and our own awesome Rotarians. I am pleased to say that the male Rotarians out-numbered the female Rotarians. Well done guys – you are setting an amazing example to the local community – that this is something that we all need to advocate for.
We walked from the Surf Life Saving Club – wearing our purple, and made our way along the Esplanade to the Zeally Bay Car Park. There was lots of chatting as well as thinking about what a world of Peace would look like and the joy that life would be if we all Respected one another.
We were then privileged to hear from some amazing speakers. Firstly – Rotarian PDG Lesley Shedden; followed by Cathie Hastie from the Victorian Police; Beryl McMillan from Zonta; Rhonda Achen from Torquay Community House and Alexander Tretheway from Orange Door.
There needs to be some big Thank Yous – Michael – poster distribution; Michael, Phil, and Ray for hanging up of the Say No and Say Yes signs; Surf Coast Shire for providing us with the signs and posters; GORCAPA for allowing us the opportunity to have this event and MCG for giving us extra posters.
Thank you all – amazing. Linda
Have you ever thought about how great music is – to make you feel happy, to bring people together, to celebrate, to remember, to build relationships?
Imagine a community based club with the sole purpose of making people happy through music.
Torquay Rotary plans to create such a club - the Torquay Rotary Satellite Club of Music
Interested?
If you’d like to know a bit more, you’re invited to our first information session to be held on:
Wednesday 17 September 2025
7:00pm
Oak Tree Place, 25 Anderson St, Torquay
Refreshments will be provided.
If you have any questions prior to the event please email either bruce.turner@torquayrotary.org.au or Lesley.shedden@torquayrotary.org.au
We would like to commence a collection of Non-Perishable Grocery Items to make a pre-Christmas donation to Torquay Food Aide.Our aim is to deliver this at the beginning of December, so it can be distributed as needed.Please bring your donations to Rotary Meetings at Kithbrooke, where Community Service Director Linda will collect them.
DISTRICT CONFERENCE REPORT
Hello Fellow Rotarians, Partners and Friends
Use this link to find lots of pics from the weekend
WOW! What a fantastic conference and weekend we have just experienced.
I want to Thank you all for your support, for your time, input, and commitment for Conference 2025 on the Surf Coast.
Our Terrific Conference Team have worked long and hard to ensure we could put on a very memorable weekend for all who attended.
With the speakers we engaged, we took all who attended from tears to joy to laughter .... and every emotion in between .... (across the weekend) we 'touched them all'.
So many memories from our speakers and their presentations from the Saturday evening dinner, music and dancing to all the good times people had catching up with fellow Rotarians from across the district.
If you haven't already .... please have a look at all the Facebook posts, comments and feedback.
Very Many Thanks to Pauline Stewart for all the conference postings!
Pauline spent many hours developing and updating the website, the graphics and promotion for The 2025 District 9780 Conference.
This was excellent! It certainly helped to promote the conference and 'show off' our wonderful area - the Surf Coast and surrounds.
Book Fair sales are from 9 am to 4 pm each day during 17th - 19th January 2025.
A pop up BOOK FAIR is a major fund raising activity for the Torquay Rotary Club.
- Environmental impact - recycling of reading material
- Collaboration of Community - Secondary College and Rotary
- Community Impact - provides Rotary with funds to support a variety of activities within our local community as well as the broader national and international projects
Grab something to read and then pass it on to someone else to read - from just $2.
Components of the Lese Oalai School Program in PNG are finally in the implementation stage.
In particular, the construction of 22 composting toilets has now been completed.
An opening ceremony held on 2 November was attended by Lucy Loko, representatives from the Rotary Club of Boroko, the Catholic Education Department and the local government, as well as teachers, students and villagers of Lese Oalai. The waterless toilets include 10 for boys, 10 for girls, and 2 for teachers and special needs children.
This is the culmination of three years of effort by the Rotary Clubs of Torquay (D9780), Manly (D9685) and Boroko (D9620), assisted by the PNG NGO the Peter Nathan Loko Foundation.
Polio is the world’s forgotten disease and something that should have been made history a long time ago. It is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines. The strategy to eradicate polio is therefore based on preventing infection by immunizing every child until transmission stops and the world is polio-free.
This October we are asking you to Walk With Us for those who can’t. We are challenging you to walk, run or roll 10, 20 or 50km throughout the month and raise vital funds that will help eradicate and prepare us for a Polio free world.
All Torquay Rotary members and friends are invited to join the Kieser Torquay walking group which occurs every Thursday 10:00 – 11:30 am. We leave from the clinic and walk for approx. 50mins to 1hour.
We are partnered with the Heart Foundation and you can register for it online on this link. Everyone is welcome, not just Kieser members!
After the walk we grab a coffee all together which is a nice touch.
Rotary District Conference March 21 - 23 2025
Rotary District Conference will be held from March 21-23 beginning at the 13th Beach Golf Club and culminating at The Sands Resort in Torquay. The conference program will include a social golf event at 13th Beach course, nationally regarded Keynote speakers, and explore a range of topics of concern to Rotarians including the environment and sustainability, disease prevention, especially polio and malaria, health and wellbeing, especially mental health and saying no to family violence.
Torquay Rotary Business Awards
The Torquay Rotary Business Awards began as a Torquay Rotary Vocational Service project in 2022, and this year have grown into a larger and more ambitious event with awards celebrating excellence across seven categories and a gala awards night to be held at the Sands Resort on 18 November 2024.
Being a Rotarian can be busy and a bit hectic at times, giving a chance to contribute in some way to global or national impact projects or to focus energy on projects to benefit local Surf Coast people.
Next month (May) is Domestic/Family Violence Prevention Month. In an attempt to raise awareness of this we are undertaking weekly walks in different areas of Torquay and Jan Juc.
 | If you wish to order a T-shirt could you please order through the link below? To purchase: please visit https://events.humanitix.com/say-no-to-family-violence-t-shirts The t-shirts are available for purchase until 30 November at this stage. |
Club Meeting Details
350 Grossmans Road
Torquay, VIC 3228
Australia