Latest News In Our Community

Railway House would like to invite you to a very special fundraiser on June 8th. 

Join us to hear renowned local Indigenous author Tony Birch talk about his prize-winning books, his inspiration for fiction, and about the writing life. Moderated by Bec Kavanagh. 

Tony Birch is the author of three novels: the bestselling The White Girl; winner of the 2020 NSW Premier's Award for Indigenous​ Writing and shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Prize; Ghost River, winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2012. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and three short story collections, Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. In 2021 Tony released two new books, a poetry collection, Whisper Songs, and a new short story collection, Dark as Last Night. 

Tony Birch is also an activist, historian, and essayist. His website is: https://www.tony-birch.com/ 

 Bec Kavanagh is a writer, literary critic and academic. She has had fiction and non-fiction published in a variety of publications including Meanjin, Overland, The Big Issue and The Guardian. Bec is the Youth Programming Manager at the Wheeler Centre, and a sessional tutor at LaTrobe University. 

At our cluster meeting on 10th August, members of the Rotary Clubs of Carlton, Collingwood, Fitzroy & Richmond packed 100 bags of ingredients to make Orange Carrot Soup.  These meal bags were taken to the Afghan Community premises in Noble Park to be distributed to those in need among the Afghan and Ukrainian Communities. And how much fun was it last night doing this………!!! 

Princes Hill Hello Neighbour Makers Market

Sunday 11 September, 9am - 1pm, 20 Solly Ave, Princes Hill

Handmade goods, plants, books, sausage sizzle, entertainment and free children's  activities 

ROMAC is a Rotary initiative providing surgical treatment for children in Australia and New Zealand from developing countries from our Pacific region in the form of life giving and/or dignity restoring surgery not accessible to them in their home country.

Since we moved into our warehouse at 32-34 Lincoln Street, East Brunswick we’ve been operating under difficult conditions with no lift, lockdown after lockdown and learning as we go, but in spite of the challenges, thanks to all our member Clubs’ support and the mentorship of EERN & WERN, we’re now ready to start rostering volunteers, for the Authorised Work (with Permits issued) required to get our stock sorted, the warehouse functioning and orders flowing out the door to our welfare agency clients.

Our milestones include:

• We have fully Deductible Gift Recipient status and all donations are fully tax deductible!
  
  
• We have an almost fully stocked warehouse, with furniture, appliances, linen and homewares!
  
  
• We have 8 welfare agencies signed up as members and we’ve already supplied 8 client orders (with an average second hand value of $1,200 each!)
  
  
• Our lift is now working so all our space is usable.
  
  
• We have relationships with several commercial donors of furniture and homewares that are supplying significant quantities of high quality goods
• Our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/495145215239091 has over 300 followers (please ‘like’ it yourself & invite all your friends & family to do likewise as we are getting offers of donations & volunteers via this page!)
  
  
• Canard Solutions is proving to be the best ever sub-tenant as they’re helping with shelving, labour and even pick up of donations (when they’re not busy with paid jobs) as well as the obvious help with rent and overheads
  
  
• We are now 13 member Clubs, with more considering membership every month!

Prahran, Albert Park, North Melbourne, Carlton, Canterbury, Camberwell, Balwyn, North Balwyn, Chadstone/East Malvern, Central Melbourne, Flemington/Kensington, Pascoe Vale & Melbourne are current members, and all reps are actively supporting the project. 

NOW WE NEED A REGULAR VOLUNTEER TEAM, can you help?
NB, to be covid safe, all volunteers must be fully vaccinated, wear a mask while on duty, check in on arrival with our QR code, enter their details on the time sheet on arrival and departure and only volunteer on one designated day per fortnight. Our space will allow for social distancing in each work area, we have hand sanitiser available on site and all volunteers will be issued with Authorised Work Permits as our category of “End of lease furniture removal/Domestic & Commercial Waste/resource recovery service” is permissible and the Care of people exiting homelessness et al cannot happen without the collection of goods.

Days: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays 

Morning Shift: 9.30 – 12.30

Afternoon Shift: 12.30 – 3.30

Warehouse Volunteers Required (X 2 people per job per shift):

Warehouse :
Tasks sorting donated furniture, moving stock (with trolleys, dolleys & pallet jack)

Assembling client orders, steam cleaning sofas, wiping down appliances, sorting waste metal, other tasks as required.

If possible the warehouse volunteers might also double as truck driver & jockey for donation collection.

Linen Lads or Lassies

Tasks: sorting, sizing, folding, packing & labelling the mountains of doonas, blankets, mattress protectors and other bedding into size lots,

Sorting the linen room into some sort of workable order, collate client orders.

Kitchen Kit Kids

Unpacking, washing, sorting, stacking then repacking all the donations of kitchen goods, we set up packs for 4 & 6 so that orders can be supplied with prepacks.

Also sorting donations of electrical appliances ready for test & tag (ably coordinated by Rob Head & Steve Clarke).

Volunteers working from home

Donated Goods Coordinator(s)

We need one or two people to coordinate goods donations, not an onerous task but vital.

It entails:

• Understanding what we do & don’t accept (& why)
• Speaking with the potential donors & finding out what they want to donate (size, age, condition etc), where it’s located & when it must be collected by.
  Request they send photos if not sure about the acceptability.
• Adding the goods to the collection list/spreadsheet OR arrange for donor to deliver (NB someone must greet donor & they may not bring other goods without approval. Our warehouse staff reserves the right to reject goods that are unsuitable as it costs us $$ to dispose of junk).
  
  
• Organising pick up with the collections driver(s) & jockeys, advising the warehouse managers when the goods will be delivered so that space is available & stock can be put away not dumped. We plan to have a regular mid-week collection day & 2 Saturdays a month.

Other jobs will emerge as time goes on, but if you can help with the tasks above, please send your details, including full name, DOB & home address (for permit info) and task/day/shift preference to Rohan Williams rdwrcm@gmail.com asap?

Any questions re tasks, please contact susie.cole@rotaryprahran.org.au or 0414 907 263. 

Soon we hope to be able to organise Club working bees, to get small teams from member clubs involved, there’s lots to do, it’s fun to work together and our clients are so grateful for the goods we provide, thanks everyone!

It is a fitting tribute to our club member, the late Rev Max Griffiths on his passing on 13th September 2021, that we quote from his own book on death, divorce, disease and other life challenges, "How to Say Goodbye"; first published in 2003. 

"Life has led Max Griffiths into a wide range of experiences, from labouring in an engineering factory, to confronting the devastation of Darwin caused by Cyclone Tracy, to tackling the problems of people living in isolation of outback Australia.  A graduate of Melbourne University in Commerce, Arts and Divinity, he was a minister in the Presbyterian and Uniting Churches for almost 40 years, for eleven of them as superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission. In 1978 he was awarded the MBE for services to the outback...”

“At many times in our lives we have to say goodbye to people, to places, to phases we pass through.  Often this is a painful experience, sometimes seemingly impossible.  At other times we say goodbye with relief.

“Both in his personal and professional life Max Griffiths has been confronted with death, divorce, job loss, parting with children, and similar crises.  In How to Say Goodbye Griffiths tells how he and people he knows have managed to say goodbye and yet retain the legacy of a gentle remembrance."

Ever gracious, Max had omitted from his book that even throughout his many challenges he had continued serving the community in many humanitarian capacities. He was councillor of Ormond College, Morongo College, Geelong College and Rossbourne House, and on the board of the Austin Hospital as well as being chairman of the Austin Hospital Human Ethics and Medical Research Committee. He also sat on the boards of the Royal Melbourne, Royal Children’s and Freemasons Hospitals Ethics Committees. Max was also advisor to the Commonwealth Gene Technology Regulator, and Chairman of Norwon Association.  

In Papua New Guinea, Max and his wife Merrilyn, pioneered a mobile health and educational unit for 20 villages. They supported five girls financially to attend universities, put four girls through secondary education and sixty children from a village located on a rubbish tip through primary school.

Rotarian Max has left a lasting gentle remembrance of all he was and has done in living a life devoted to his calling and purpose.  

He was truly a Rotarian who exemplified our Rotary mottos of Service Above Self and in Doing Good in the World wherever his faith led him.

Goodbye Max. We will ever gently remember.