 We sent a good contingent of representatives to the ROXY theatre in Leeton for the District 9700 conference in the year of the Governor George. The Master of Ceremonies was Elijah Ingram - what a story. He is in year 12 at Leeton High School, a Military cadet for five years, one of six children, has completed a Rotary youth exchange year in Belgium, expects to study Law and is an aboriginal man. The first session before "smoko" on Saturday morning dealt with youth activities, especially exchange with five students from around the district on stage to report on their experiences. These were inspiring young people, and each gave some insights into the experience so far. All five head home in July. Clare Lawlor reported to conference delegates on the progress of Rotaract at CSU, and its activities.  After morning tea, Sarah Brown was the first speaker. She is the CEO of the Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Polyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation (my spellcheck has underlined all these words in red!!!!) She has a master of Nursing degree, a graduate diploma in Aboriginal Education, and a Graduate diploma in Health Service management. Prior to this career, Sarah was a remote area nurse, a university lecturer and in 2017,was recognised as "Nurse of the Year" It was worth the drive to Leeton just to hear this lady speak - she was inspiring. Renal Dialysis has been the focus of her delivery of health services, and having identified that having a relative from remote Aboriginal families on Dialysis caused severe disruption and family relocation to Alice Springs, and usually to camps on the outskirts of town. The solution was to provide the medical service to remote locations, and in addition to Alice Springs, facilities have been established in Kintore, Yuendumu, Ntaria (Hermannsburg), Lajamanu, Warburton, Kiwirrkurra, Yirrkala, Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) and Wanarn. A mobile unit in a truck, the purple truck gets to many more locations. Sarah had a great collection of stories and jokes to tell. As an example: Why did the mermaid use sea shells (to cover her bosom). Because the B shells were too small. The next speaker was a former member of Wollundry Rotary, but few of us will remember him. Richard Woodburn is the Eastern Region Chair of ROMAC. (Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children) He coordinates ROMAC activities within NSW.  He was in our club for a few years during his tenure as Lieut Colonel at Kapooka around 1980. He was a member and past president of the Rotary club of Parkes, has been a D9700 Assistant Governor, and currently in Randwick Rotary Club. (Does he know Bill Zachario??) ROMAC is effectively a partnership between Rotary and the Royal College of Surgeons, to treat Children from remote South West Pacific nations born or afflicted with medical conditions beyond the scope of local facilities. We saw remarkable photos of Before and After treatment cases and learned about the gratitude of the families involved. An interesting facet of ROMAC work, is that the early cases treated were often from Fiji and New Guinea, but now these countries have caught up, often as a result of training to local doctors. These days, most of the children treated are from Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands. Peter Wilkins launched straight into his presentation, and it was not all sport blood and guts. Last year, he had walked the Kokoda track, with his daughter, seventeen other men, and their daughters. The common thread was that all the girls were students at Frencham school at Bowral. The theme that Peter developed was about teamwork, and the strength that grows from challenges being faced by teams with a common purpose. He gave many examples including media coverage of sport, with large groups of people involved to get one person on air, and looking good. Sports stories flowed, and there were many memories flowing back to consciousness. The next speaker was Abel Guterres, the Timor-Leste ambassador to Australia. He was grateful for the assistance provided by Australia as his country gets established, and acknowledged the recent treaty on sea boundaries between Australia and Timor. There is more to be done, and Timor is very keen for processing facilities to be built in their country. This is a campaign to be argued with the oil companies. Rotary has been involved in many projects in Timor, and Abel was keen to recognise these in his presentation. District Awards followed. Some great acheivments by clubs all around the district were recognised, and two individual Rotarian members of Wollundry were given "gongs". Doug Sutton was recognised for the work on Dr Luc's project in The Congo. Paul Murray was awarded "Rotarian of the Year" for D9700 in 2018. The Saturday evening Dinner was a well attended affair with the theme being "water" and all those attending were asked to wear blue or green to celebrate the impact on clean water locally and throughout the world. Wollundry had 9 members at the evening dinner. Ken Ensmyre from Parkes Rotary Club joined us. He spoke at Wollundry last year and is the district representative for ROMAC. On Sunday morning one of the keynote speakers was Brendan Farrell, the trucker who organized and runs the Burrumbuttock Hay Runs. He was a plain speaking, sincere and dedicated fellow who has paid a price for all the notority he received. One of the best speakers at the conference. |
Wade Garter - guest of David Benn