Seventy years of service
The Rotary Club of South Brisbane was first inducted on November 18th in 1939.
Festivities to celebrate 70 years were held recently at the Old South Brisbane Town Hall that is now the Development Office for Somerville House School.
The beautiful stained glass windows and ornate cornices of the room took participants back to an era when the induction of a Rotary Club warranted the attendance of the Governor of Queensland.
The club has endured through the duration of World War II and seen Brisbane grow from a large country town to the home of the current Prime Minister. It has spawned the existence of 4 clubs directly and through them 24 other clubs in their district and many more in neighbouring districts.
This “grandmother” club of Brisbane has supported innumerable local needs from cricket pitches for orphans and garden seats for senior citizens to the establishment of Braille House at Annerley and Kurilpa House at West End.
They have recently participated in the opening of the Kurilpa Bridge and World Refugee Day Festival.
For 61 years they have held a Picnic in October for the children of the Special Schools of Brisbane, organising police and fire services to be present, lunch and water activities.
They have participated in many of the international programs of Rotary International and currently support both the Polio Plus program to eliminate polio from the world and the Rotarians Against Malaria (RAM) program to reduce the spread of malaria in the world.
