Please let us know if you are available to come down and our roles will be outlined. They will be similar to last year. 

We will also be applying wrist bands for those who will be seated. 

We are still waiting to find out our roles, but let us know if you will be available anyway. 

Thank you to Richard Hawker for phoning everyone who has already offered. Hopefully you are now aware of your role.

Last week I was at the Gellibrand BlazeAid Camp. Sadly, due to the number of camps (6) within Victoria, after our dreadful fires, there are insufficient Volunteers in the Camps. My first two days there were only three of us. There were five of us on Saturday. Overall we managed to complete three fences for the two farmers. We did dodge a fair bit of rain, but the air was fresh and clean and overall quite invigorating. 

NOTE: Cowrie Market Trading Hours. 9-00am - 2-00pm 

Volunteer Roster Times: AM Shift 8-30am - 11-30am. PM Shift 11-30am - 2-30pm. 

 Bunnings Hours – 8.30 am – 4pm; Shift Times 8.30 – 1230; 1215 - 1615 

Cowrie Market -19^th April 2026                    Final for the Season 

AM       1 Garth Symington                                 

0830    2 Gerard Hogan                                  Gail Birchall -  Supplies 

3 Neil Henderson (trailer) 

4 Gail Birchall 

PM        5 Linda Neale 

1130    6 Martin Duke 

7 Richard Hawker (trailer) 

8 Judy Rutter 

Emergency:-  John W 

Monday evening saw our regular meeting transferred to the Henderson residence. We held an old fashioned “fireside chat” with 13 members and Leo. A number of different topics were discussed. During winter there may be other meetings with low attendance so the concept of meeting at Kithbrooke and self catering was examined – and thought to be a workable idea but hopefully will not required.

District Assembly is an opportunity for all members to support President Elect Linda in preparing for 2026-2027 and to learn more about rotary and the year ahead. It is open to all Rotarians, with a focus on incoming leadership teams.  It is a great opportunity for new members and leaders to learn more about rotary, the coming Rotary year with DGE Tonie Thiel - her plans and her expectations for 2026-2027

Time is running out to register.

Here is the link to register - https://www.trybooking.com/DKHZY Registrations close Wednesday 22 April 2026 5:00pm

Many members will recall the collections we made of toiletries to put together toiletry bags in support of the End Trachoma 2020 campaign.

The great news, which we all received recently, is that our efforts have contributed to Australia reducing the rate of trachoma nationally to 1.5% with both the NT and WA seeing decreases on 2023 results. 

The other good news is that Australia is eligible to apply for validation of elimination as a public health problem as from 2025 - ie 3 years of overall trachoma prevalence below 5% (acknowledging that this report is for 2024).

It is worth reflecting that what was a relatively simple service project could have such a positive impact on the local communities in NT and WA.

Member birthdays for April:

Plenty of celebrations this month:

Margaret McPherson                        1st April

Chris Moxey and Ben Featherston  5th April

John Evans                                           9th  April

Gerard Hogan                                     11th April

Ray Ayres                                             13th April

Neil Henderson                                   15th April

Also a popular month for joining Rotary - a bit of experience here:

John Oswald                                                     1987   39 years in Rotary

Mal Slater, Chris Sims and Geoff Dawson  1988   38 years  (Charter members of Torquay)

Vernon D'Souza                                               1991   35 years

Ben Smith                                                         2013   13 years

Ben Featherston                                              2018    8 years

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