A snippet of Club history that many members would not be aware of:

 

Possibly the earliest major project of the Rotary Club of Berwick, after its Charter in May 1961, was the establishment of the Senior Citizens Club in Berwick.  This occurred in 1965, when a public meeting was held. 

 

To quote from the Club bulletin at the time: “At the public meeting convened last Sunday by the Community Service Committee, enthusiastic support was given to the proposal to inaugurate an Elderly Citizens’ Club".

 

Community Service Chairman Harry Fox, accompanied Cr P. Ronald, President of the Shire of Berwick, at the table and over seventy senior citizens from Berwick and district attended. 

 

Rotarian Randal White, President of the Victorian Old Peoples’ Welfare Council, outlined the scheme, questions were asked and the resolution ‘That a Berwick and District Senior Citizens’ Club be formed’ was strongly supported and carried unanimously.”

 

This Senior Citizens’ Club is still operating today out of the Senior Citizens’ Centre in High Street, Berwick.

 

The annual Berwick cemetery clean-up is the longest running project of our Club, in which our members actively participate.  This project has been running for 58 years. 

 

The Berwick College's Debutant / Presentation balls were first mooted by the Fund Raising Committee in 1983 and were first conducted in 1987.  This is the 39^th year that they have been held.

 

Jack Kraan

 

At our meeting on Wednesday, we had a very informative and interesting presentation by Rae McKay, who is the Chair of the Mine Land Rehabilitation Authority Board.

 

His presentation covered the problems associated with the land rehabilitation of the three mines in the Latrobe Valley, namely Hazelwood, Yallourn, and Loy Yang.  These cover 135sq kms of land, of which 40sq kms is the total pit area.

 

The four generation stations using brown coal from the mines have supplied 90% of Victoria’s power for decades.  However, 'Renewables', including solar, wind, hydro, biofuels and others, are at the centre of the transition to a less carbon-intensive and more sustainable energy system. Therefore, the mines are being phased out with Hazelwood closing in 2017, and Yallourn planned to close in 2028.

 

Further mining is still an option as the brown coal could be used to produce Hydrogen as a fuel, provided the CO₂ produced in the process could be removed.  The brown coal reserves could last for over 500 years at the current productivity of 60 million tonnes per year.

It was originally planned that Hazelwood would be rehabilitated before Yallourn shut down, but the politics of power generation through 'Renewables' have brought the closures forward significantly.  Work on land rehabilitation has not yet commenced at Hazelwood.

 

To gain a perspective of the magnitude of the task, it has been estimated that to fill the Hazelwood pit with bodies, it would require 3 times the total world population.  Rocks, soil and water were considered for rehabilitation purposes, but supplying enough of each is problematic.

 

Water has been selected as the cheapest option, as it would stabilise the pit walls of the mines creating three lakes.  However, the problem is being able to get enough water to fill the pits.  The La Trobe valley currently uses 500 gigalitres of water per year.  If all this water was diverted to the Hazelwood pit, it would take at least 6 years to fill it.

 

 

Both State and Federal Governments recognise the importance of water as a resource in Australia and are cautious in its proposed use.  This is especially important as the annual rainfall is predicted to fall over the next decades, due to climate change.

 

The land rehabilitation of the three pits poses a monumental problem and the experts are learning as they go along, as nothing of this magnitude has been experienced before.

 

Thanks Rae for a very enlightening presentation.

 

This seat, made of recycled plastic, which fits perfectly with Rotary’s 7^th area of focus (Supporting the Environment), is one of 4 that our club will be ‘planting’ at Grasmere Creek Wetlands, this year. 

 

These will complement the trees that we planted there in 2022.

 

 

Five hours later, after a number of trips to Bunnings, the seat was successfully built and installed for everyone to enjoy.

 

 

There are 3 more seats that we plan to install on Saturday 13^th May…so if you have a few hours to spare and are good with a shovel or a spirit level, the team would love to see you there.