April 2020
“ Just
checking, are you OK ?” Page 1
Helping our Hospital Heroes Australia Full story page 12
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Contents 4
Rosanna Rotary responds to Upper Murray bushfire crisis with a load of feed
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RYLA RAPP
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District 9790 Bush Fire Recovery Committee.
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DG Brian
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Helping our Hospital Heroes Australia
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D9790 Four Rivers Ride, Ride To Conference. March 14th – 19th
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The Life of Brian
On the Cover : the real Murray
Murray Connects the District 9790 is the official monthly publication of Rotary International District 9790 Inc. Publisher : Editor: Greg Adams, Art Director: Greg Adams. Advertising: Greg Adams Chief Cook and bottle washer : Greg as well Contributions are always welcome: Please contact the Editor to discuss your ideas. ferrarigreg@gmail.com All photos/images submitted for publication must include detailed captions : IE names of people, event locations etc. It is presumed that the supplier of all photography/images owns or has approval from the owner of said copywrite to reproduce the photograph/image Closing date is by the 26th of each month. (give or take a bit) Note: The views and opinions expressed in this publication represent those of the contributor/s and are not necessarily those of or shared by the District, the Committee any Club, the members or the Magazine.
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a "When a fire hits, you're not thinking straight"
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of feed he load of cattle feed left Upper Sandy Creek bound for Cudegwa in the Upper Murray Region to assist a fire ravaged area and has received an emotional welcome from a farmer in desperate need to save his staving cattle.
A truck loaded with 10 rolls of donated Silage, driven by volunteer Rotarian Geoff Dinning from Appin Park took the trip from Upper Sandy Creek to Cudegwa on Wednesday March 18 to a very grateful Karen and Dave Land.
For Cudgewa farmers Dave and Karen, who spent a lot of time defending theirs and other farms, the load of silage was a sight for sore eyes to say the least. "When a fire hits, you're not thinking straight," Mr Land said. "You're racing around to try to put it out. "My property's been burned and some farmers around here were hit really bad and have lost all of their grass.� Mr Land fought his emotions as help arrived in the form of a truck of feed driven by volunteer Rotarian Geoff Dinning. ''The generosity of people like Geoff and Rosanna Rotary, to come up with the feed, is something else ," Mr Land said. "It's just fantastic.� Through Rosanna's PP Ian Bushby, PP Stan Gorr and a contact, with the load of silage was acquired from a farm at Upper Sandy Creek in Northern Victoria owned by Ian's brother-in -law, Rick Henderson. Rick had grown the feed and it was surplus to his needs. Ian saw it as an opportunity for Rosanna Rotary to some good in the community by purchasing the feed and donating it to a fire ravaged farmer within our Rotary District. Geoff arranged for the truck and a neighbour of Rick's provided the loader. A short trip from Upper Sandy Creek to Cudgewa of about 85kms and the feed was delivered.
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"Everybody is emotional," he said.
"I think these farmers would do this for us- it's the way we work. We all have to help each other out.
Ian and Dave have never met, but said they hope to have a get together soon when Rosanna Rotary looks to help their little community even more.
'Doesn't get much worse' "Fire on top of drought," he said . "It doesn't get much worse."
‘It'll keep some livestock going.’ Rotary Clubs are providing a huge amount of much needed support and assistance to the fire ravaged communities in the Upper Murray Region with donations, workers, fence building, feed and many other tasks to assist with the recovery.
Karen and Dave Land’s property after the fire and his cattle eating the much needed feed. Page 5
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Thank you once again!!!
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hank you Rotarians and clubs! Once again you gave a gift of RYLA to 29 young people…here are a few quotes from the final reflection on the conference:
“People from many different places come to RYLA to challenge themselves and to work on leadership skills…there are Supporters which are there to see how you are going through the conference.” Within one week the RYLA Conference can give you the confidence, skills, awareness and willingness to improve your leadership skills in more ways than one.” “Amazing, with lots of wonderful opportunities and a great learning experience” “It is a fun eye opening experience. Where you meet lots of amazing friends and have your life changed in 7 days, 100% worth it!” “A week of personal development, where you’ll understand your purpose, strengths and weaknesses.
Linda Gidlund RYLA District Chair
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District 9790 Bush Fire Recovery Committee.
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he Committee has received a number of funding requests from various organisations and Clubs.
Mount Beauty - Air Purifier Project
During the height of the bushfire emergency Alpine Health evacuated patients from Mount Beauty & Bright to either Myrtleford or other hospitals in the North East. Patients are now returning to the hospitals and aged care facilities Medical staff are concerned about the extremely poor air quality and ongoing health of aged patients With the ongoing extreme poor air quality in the North East and especially the Ovens & Kiewa Valleys Alpine Health have an urgent requirement for portable air purifiers. It been identified a total of 45 Dyson TP04 (or similar) units (being 15 per hospital) is required @ $700 each total $31,500. Main issue with smoke is 2.5 micron particles which is hazardous to humans especially the frail and those with lung conditions Dr Mark Zagorski (Mt Beauty) recently conducted a test with the above units at Kiewa Valley House 2.5 micron level was 271 – extremely hazardous. After running 4 units for 5 hours the 2.5 micron level was at 33 – Very good. Rotary Club of Mount Beauty has taken the lead on this project and is collaboratively working with RC Clubs of Page 9 Bright and Myrtleford
H
ow are you all? Challenging times for all but there are certainly people out in our communities who are having a very tough time of it. New phrases – social distancing, social isolation (I much prefer physical distancing by the way).
Zoom is a way to video conference. It isn’t difficult to use and the trick is to set up a small meeting with a couple of members and learn the ropes of the technology and then look to expand it out to other members.
Youth Exchange has been suspended for 12 months. The District Governors made the decision last week in consultation with the District Governors Elect. It was a sensible decision. Bruce McIntyre, the Youth Exchange Program Chair, has been in constant contact with the Inbound and Outbound Youth Exchange students’ natural parents and everything we are doing has the blessings of the students and their parents. Basically, all current Inbound students are remaining where they are. The safari will need to be cancelled. We have a joint safari with the two SA and one Tasmanian District. Nobody is leaving Tasmania and no-one can cross the South Australian border (without 14 days isolation). One cannot cross the Northern Territory border nor the Queensland border and nobody would like to travel to Sydney at the moment – so it’s highly likely it’s not going to happen! Hopefully things will settle down and we’ll be able to organise flights home for them in the coming months.
The other night I joined Belvoir Wodonga for their Rotary meeting – the President said a few words, the President Elect said a few words, we talked about the Youth Exchange program. We had a really interesting presentation about renewable energy, we discussed some other matters and finished the meeting with ‘heads and tails’. It was a hoot. One of the members even ate his dinner and drank a glass of red! It’s not rocket science and it is ‘doable’ so let’s step through it.
The Outbounds are in lock down mode in the various countries they are in and are quite stoic as to how things are unfolding. Apart from a couple of them, for various reasons, they have all elected to remain overseas.
It was a shame about the District Conference but it was the correct decision to make. The day we cancelled it, we found out that we would have had to have cancelled it that evening because of the various restrictions on group meetings.
Life goes on. Challenges arise and we simply need to adapt and move on.
Which brings me to what I have already referenced in an email I sent to all Rotarians across the District – a new way to meet; an opportunity to learn new methods…..Zoom meetings.
During the current Rotary year all 21 District Governors across Australia have met regularly by using ‘Zoom’. (We’re now having weekly meetings to discuss the current issues that Rotary is facing. Each week I will provide members with an update from these meetings and also information from what is happening in our District.). Page 10
There are several clubs that have embraced Zoom and their meetings are bringing fellowship in these challenging times. I know there will be some members who are reluctant to embrace this. Please use your more I.T savvy members to mentor and assist those not so early to embrace.
Communication right now is critical, so if you can’t get some members over the line, please be sure that they get regular telephone contact to keep them up to date. My own club is using this approach and it was great to get a call the other day asking if I was okay.
Most members who won’t embrace the technology, wrongly fear it is too complicated or difficult for them. Seriously, it is not. That’s why I ask that mentoring assistance is put in place for these members. Just remember, despite the world as we know it changing rapidly, we are current, we are cool, we’re right there so as Rotarians we can continue the great work we do, even when in isolation. And let’s not forget that ‘Rotary truly does Connect the World’.
To assist Clubs and Members here are some ideas I’ve ‘borrowed’ from another club and the Australian District Governors
Zoom Meetings There is a 20% discount for Zoom Pro subscription, if you enter the promotion coupon ‘ZoomRotary’ the discount will be applied when you sign up for a Pro account. Establish a zoom meeting protocol. Establish an Agenda with a time frame and email out with the meeting invite. Use the zoom controls to help run the meeting. The organiser will be the controller of the meeting. Have an initial social chat with all members for 5-10 minutes. Start the meeting with all audio off (the organiser of the meeting can mute all audio)
Have a time keeper. Use the ‘hands up’ control to manage people wishing to speak. Do a trial run. Keep meetings regular. Supplement general meetings with a closed Facebook group for more involved discussions. Members can use a pretend name. Work one on one with members who are less familiar with the zoom process. Create a public Zoom address for the open club meetings so others can attend online. Arrange to buy the correct amount of Zoom time (there is a free licence that allows 40 min for up to 100 people and Premium for greater than an hour for 500 people). Invite me, Assistant Governors and District Officers to attend your Zoom meetings. Contact past members and either talk via telephone and/or invite them to your Club Zoom meetings Enable / Invite other club members from across Australia to join your meeting, including District Governors. Invite a Guest Speaker to address your meeting (Remember they are also at home and may enjoy some interaction). Don’t know where to get a speaker? Share information between Clubs and the District. Use a TED talk if you want an interesting speaker on pretty well ANY topic.
District 9790 is not in shutdown mode. We must keep as much as we can in motion so that at the other end of this devastating situation, we can be in a strong working condition. Please continue to keep any ideas flowing to me so that we can share.
Stay Safe and look after yourself and your fellow man or is that woman or person?
DG Brian. Page 11
Helping our Hospital Heroes Australia
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n March 24, two short weeks ago, Sunbury Rotarian and a Nursing Unit Manager at Royal Melbourne Hospital, Janelle Walters sent President Janine Reinking and Past President Kerry Kirk from the Rotary Club of Sunbury an email asking if we knew someone who sewed. She wanted to get some scrub hats for her nurses at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in preparation for the peak of COVID-19. You see she noticed that nurses, like all of us, couldn’t help but touch their hair during the day; caps are no longer part of their uniform and there was no research confirming how long or if COVID-19 lived on hair.
President Janine is a seamstress and dress designer by trade and jumped into action and Kerry Kirk used her IT and networking skills to enlist one of our Rotary Community Corps members, Deb Elliot and they were off. The task was 1000 caps for RMH as quick as possible.
A Facebook group was created and now has over 700 members, including Rotarians from Numurkah, Western Endeavour in Perth and Kenmore in Queensland. A RAWCS Project has been set up, 105-2019-20 and put on the Rotary crowd funding platform.
Within two weeks, we have delivered the 1000 to Royal Melbourne Hospital and the team has received more requests for thousands more from the Box Hill Hospital, Royal Perth Hospital, Royal Children’s Hospital and many more.
The Caps are not official Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and are optional for nurses to wear. Some are wearing under their PPE as extra protection, others that aren’t in the COVID19 wards, like Emergency wards are just using them as extra protection to help keep their families safe. Sewers are using their own or donated materials, and cottons. Infection control procedures are in place before distribution.
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To donate to this worthy cause to fund more materials for sewers go to https:// directory.rawcs.com.au/105-2019-20 or for more information or to get involved please contact Janine Reinking, Rotary Club of Sunbury President, 0433581973.
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D9790 Four Rivers Ride, Ride To Conference. March 14th – 19th
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he D9790 Ride To Conference Team completed this year’s ride after a bit of a uncertain start. With the District Conference being cancelled it was put to riders, “do we continue?” Being at the very early stages of the COVID19 crisis and it still permissible to ride in groups, it was a unanimous decision. We were very lucky, a week later and the opportunity would have been lost. The local knowledge of Albury Rotarians & friends, put together The Four Rivers Ride, a beautiful, challenging ride. Our team of 27, including 4 crew members enjoyed great fellowship over the 6 days of riding, covering 560 kms. Departing Albury , the first two days comprised loop rides returning to Lake Hume Resort, making the most of the beautiful valleys and views in the area. The ride then moved on to Tallangatta, Bright, Beechworth and back to Albury on the final day, where we were welcomed back by DG Brian.
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We were also able to enjoy Rotary fellowship with The Rotary Club of Tallangatta, Rotary Club of Bright and assisted by the Rotary Club of Beechworth with catering. We thank these Clubs for their support. We also thank The Rotary Club of Numurkah for again taking this ride on as a Club Project and for use of their trailer, much appreciated by all. The Ride would normally conclude with the Sportsman’s Dinner prior to Conference, but this event was also cancelled. The team was very fortunate to have been able to gather for a beautiful open-air lunch in the Albury Club gardens at the end of the ride, before riders headed home to a whole new world. Special Guests at the lunch were Margaret & Graham Brown Rotary Club of Corowa, founders of this ride, as well DG Brian Peters and Albury Nth Rotarian Ian Crosley who was an early scratching on the ride & missed by all. The lunch was in fact a lovely way to end the ride, a real plus. Two new RTC perpetual trophies were also presented. The Tony Thomas Captains Trophy was present to Rotary Club of Numurkah Rtn Greg Moralee & Family of Rotary Fred Hodge, for their support, encouragement and mechanical skills along the Ride: and I was very honoured to receive the Margaret and Graham Brown RTC Trophy for my contribution to the ride. We thank all our Sponsors who supported this ride, Clubs & individuals as we raised $11, 770 for Australian Rotary Health, and in particular supporting our Indigenous Medical Student Scholarship. We also thank Carmen’s & Bega for their sponsorship & support. Next year we are off to Wangaratta hopefully post COVID 19…… hopefully Chris SuttonRTC Team
The Tony Thomas Road Captain's Trophy joint winners Greg Moralee and Stuart Hodge. Well done guys on the support and guidance you give your fellow riders. Top job Fred & Greg with Margaret Brown.
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I
n March 2008 I went on a photography trip with a good friend of mine, Ken Duncan. It was a sensational trip but little did we realise that whilst we were at sea. along the Kimberley coast in northern WA and out of internet access, the Global Financial Crisis was underway. Actually it’s one of the best photography trips I’ve ever been on. We went from Broome to Wyndham in the Kimberley on a magnificent ship, the True North. The True North had a helicopter on board and one day we had the doors taken off the helicopter and flew over Montgomery Reef. I got some magnificent images before we had to return to ship due to a massive storm heading our way. It’s truly wonderful being in a helicopter with the doors removed.
As a photography group we were also flown into Mitchell Falls. This is a sequence of falls that the helicopter flew us into and we actually had a picnic in the pools. Absolutely magnificent. The other place we headed into was Kings Cascade. Because we went to the Kimberley in March 2008 it was just after the wet season and all the falls were flowing. There was just so much water flowing. Great photography. Kings Cascade was where the model Ginger was taken in a crocodile attack in 1987. It was a scary place for me.The cabin on True North I was accommodated in was called Kings Cascade - I wasn’t impressed. Some of the best images I got were taking images of King George Falls. A magnificent finale to a fantastic trip. One of the best excursions I had was to a secret location where we saw Bradshaw Rock Art. It’s been dated at being at least 25,000 years old. Absolutely sensational. To end we had some fun on the True North and I appear to have grown some muscles and became a sailor!
King George Falls
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Bradshaw Rock Art
Kings Cascade
Montgomery Reef with True North
Mitchell Falls
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Feelin a bit FLAT Mr Murray?
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