A Short History of the Rotary Club of Mundingburra

The Rotary Club of Melbourne was chartered on 21 April 1921 as the first Rotary Club in Australia.  The Club now has over 250 members and is proud to have many women as very active members in the club. As the first Club, it chartered many new clubs.  In 1924 the Rotary Clubs of Adelaide in South Australia and of Hobart and Launceston in Tasmania were chartered. 

In 1926, it chartered the Rotary Club of Townsville, the first club in Townsville, which, in turn, chartered the second club in Townsville, the Rotary Club of Mundingburra (1958). 

Over the next twenty years, Mundingburra extended Rotary throughout Townsville and other parts of Queensland, chartering clubs in Cloncurry (1959), Mount Isa (1958), Port of Townsville (1966), Ross River (1971), Townsville Central (1984), Townsville Southwest (1962) and Townsville Sunrise (1990). 

In turn, Townsville Sunrise chartered Townsville Daybreak (1993) and Magnetic Island (2002), Ross River chartered Thuringowa Central (1983) and Thuringowa Central chartered Thuringowa Northern Beaches (2001) while Mount Isa chartered Mount Isa South (1968) and Mount Isa South chartered Mount Isa West (1971).  Thus the children and grandchildren of the Rotary Club of Mundingburra are the great grandchildren, great great grandchildren and great great great grandchildren of the Rotary Club of Melbourne.

James Charles Butler was the Charter President and the club had twenty Charter Members.  One of the Charter Members, Hollis Parker, passed away in 2002 after nearly forty-five years of 100% attendance.  Our Centennial President is Vince Nielsen and we now have 37 members.  Peter Kaye, a member since 1965, is incoming District Governor.

Club Achievements

The first Community Service project was the establishment of a Rotary Park at Bluewater.  This was followed by the establishment of hydraulic lifts for wheelchairs in various houses around Townsville, a Fun and Fitness Trail at the park on Love Lane, a number of basketball half courts in various parks in Townsville and several shelters on Magnetic Island.  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Club established a facility for providing temporary accommodation to Townsville Street Kids, boys who were in trouble at home or with the authorities. 

The basic accommodation was made up of old railway carriages so the facility became known as The Station.  In the early years of the 21st Century, we established a worm farm at the Townsville Community Learning Centre, a Special School that caters for intellectually challenged children

The Rotary Club of Mundingburra combined with other clubs in North Queensland to establish the Gluyas Rotary Cancer Lodge, a facility that provides accommodation for people and their families from out of town who require cancer treatment at the hospital.  A bus transports them between the lodge and the hospital. 

Combined clubs also established a residence known as Rotary International House at the James Cooke University, mainly for visiting scholars, many of whom are attracted to Towsnville because of the world-renowned Marine Biology programme.  Mundingburra has recently hosted Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars from the UK, Germany and Canada.  The combined clubs joined forces to assist in raising funds for a new rescue vessel for the Volunteer Coastguard and for the Red Cross to purchase and fit out a Bloodmobile to visit central locations for blood donors

The Mundingburra Rotary Club has always been active in the Vocational Service area of service, recognizing the top apprentice at the TAFE Technical School and awarding a Pride of Workmanship Plaque to the leading apprentice at TORGAS, an organization that caters for apprentices who have not completed high school yet.  The recipient of this award is also sponsored to the Rotary Youth Leadership Award camp for training in leadership.  An Encouragement Award with a cash prize is donated annually to a pupil selected by the staff at the Townsville Community Learning Centre.

The club is heavily involved in the Youth Exchange Programme and normally sponsor at least one and sometimes two outgoing scholars while hosting at least one and sometimes two incoming scholars.  Recently, YEP scholars have come from Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Belgium, France, Finland, South Africa, Thailand, Japan, the USA and Canada while outgoing scholars have gone to Brazil, South Africa, Thailand, France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Finland and Canada.  Members of the club are encouraged to entertain the incoming scholars at least once during their stay in Australia.  All the incoming exchange scholars in District 9550 go on a three-week safari through the southeast and central parts of Australia.

The club has supported several projects in other countries.  We helped fund the purchase of same Braille typewriters for blind pupils in a school and the expansion of a recycling facility in Piracicaba, Brazil and contributed to the purchase of a bus for a school in Arusha, Tanzania. Our plans include the support of a centre in South Africa to help combat the epidemic of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

We include this brief history of our club in the Rotary International Time capsule in the hope that members of the Rotary Club of Mundingburra will be present for the opening of the capsule at the Rotary Bi-centennial in 2105.

We wish Rotarians the world over every success as they enter their second century.

Additional Information

• Community Projects (Worm Farm / House Project)
• Exchange Students
• Newspaper Clippings / Spinifex