Bally Barker Blog

Tonight, the Rotary Club of Balgowlah celebrated our 50-year anniversary and changeover evening to launch our 51 st year . An audience of over 80 people attended and had a great night hearing the history and many achievements of the club and its members. A number of awards were made and President Roger Gray passed over the presidential chain to Dr Diana Hart - our incoming president for 2024-25.   The global President of Rotary,  Gordon R. McInally sent a letter to the club congratulating it on the 50 years of Rotary service. President Roger Gray opened the evening and then warmly welcomed our Charter member and past president John Havilah who recounted the early years and how 24 members were present at the Dual Charter Night at Chatswood Civic Centre on Wednesday June 19, 1974. John Havilah - Charter member "Meetings were held in the Wakehurst Golf Club and the club was busy creating banners, road signs, letterheads and the club Bulletin was produced with

The diversity in careers and skills of or members can be gleaned from short talks covering the years until joining Rotary; together with their motivations for choosing Rotary as a means to support or serve the community,   or to make a difference and help to promote responsible and lasting change in other endeavours and vocations in the key avenues of service. Michael Brent Michael Brent gave a fascinating talk outline his family history and his education then interesting career in PNG and locally then the family passion with travelling and camping. He explained his paternal roots came from Normandy and the name ‘de Brente”. From there his ancestors went to UK, then generations later went to Tasmania as settlers. Michael’s father joined the Navy at age 13 and later met his mother in Sydney and they were married in 1954. A few years later, Michael was born in Perth, where his father was captain of a mine sweeper HMAS Karangi which spent t

At our meeting held on Tuesday May 21st, we were very impressed by the interesting new member talk given by Denise HORAN. Denise has been attending a number of events and functions over the past few months, and was delighted to join the club and tell us a short account of her life. Denise was born in a small town in the Hunter Valley and spent her childhood years there. She loved riding horses, camping and excursions around the beautiful open countryside and the lifestyle. Several generations had lived in these parts, and she recounted that her a family member was granted 90 acres on the Broke Road and was one of the first European winemakers and had planted grapes; but unfortunately, he died young and didn’t make the wine. 30 acres of the land was later acquired by Tyrells wines.   After finishing school, Denise when to business college giving her a variety of office-based jobs.   She also played several sports including netball & tennis and was a member of