We welcomed our guest Speaker and fellow Rotarian Suzanne Ballard who was accompanied by Glenys Grant, Barbara Searle and Bob Williams -all from the Rotary Club of Forest Hill.
The topic for this evening was
Indigenous Bush Tucker
Suzanne's presentation engaged us all, as she framed this subject within the story of her family and a multigenerational association with 'bush tucker'.
Around 1880, her great grandfather - a settler from Wales- had procured land in Waterholes, Vic ( see map ) with the intention of farming it. This proved to be a thankless task for a family who were only familiar with western farming practises.
She attributes her families' survival at the time to the local indigenous community who taught them how to forage for bush tucker and medicines, and to fish in the indigenous way.
Consequently, she grew up eating a wide range of meats, fruit veg and nuts which today are looked upon as delicacies. She spoke of warrigal spinach, saltbush, pepperberry. lemon myrtle, finger limes, witchetty grubs and so much more.
She told of a cordial relationship that developed between her family and the local indigenous community, despite their lack of verbal communication skills. She also described what was effectively a bartering system that developed between them.
Today, of course, bush tucker has become quite trendy, and it is possible to acquire bushtucker without neccessarily having to hunt, fish or forage for it.
The Nominating Committee have met and the following outcomes are advised:
President Nominee for the 2024/2025 Rotary year : Rob Jackson
1st year directors are:
Harvey Lane, Len Brear & Neil Ibbott.
2nd Year Directors are:
Ian Armstrong. Shia Smart &Mike Finke
Secretary : Janette Etherington.
Treasurer to be advised
$500 has been donated to District Governor Ken’s project of choice - which is The Rotary Foundation.
Bob and Coral’s Open Garden is on 15 and 16 October 2022 – drop in for a sausage!
She had also info on the Whitehorse Business awards dinner, The Nunawading Spring festival,, a fellowship lunch at the Coach in Ringwood and a fundraiser arranged by RC Suva for our Medical Imaging project at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva.38.
On Monday 10 October 2022, Judith and Gabby attended the launch of the Wallet Card Project with Eastern Health and Bendigo Bank.
Also in attendance were representatives from most clubs, Eastern Health, and Bendigo Bank Blackburn South.
The project was part of the R100 projects rolled out by the Whitehorse Clusters.
Work started on the card in early 2020 and is now being launched in Hospital Emergency Departments under the Eastern Health umbrella – these include Box Hill, Maroondah and Angliss.
Rotary, Eastern Health and the City of Whitehorse are working together to formulate a product for general distribution.
Award winners are announced at the Whitehorse Excellence in Business Awards Gala Dinner, held in October. The black tie evening is one of our biggest and most stylish functions of the year.
Face - to - face meetings at Bucatini.
