Rotary Club of Pascoe Vale- Our last stop on the GSE Adventure!

After a day in Melbourne at vocational visits, we were bid a fond farewell during Pascoe Vale’s Rotary Club meeting. We presented to a full room of approximately 70 people. District dignitaries were in attendance.   PDG and Foundation Chair Manni wished us safe travels and farewell. 

We are leaving Australia having gained rich cultural knowledge and wonderful relationships.  Thank you to the Rotary Club of Pascoe Vale and to all of the clubs in District 9790 for your generosity and hospitality.

We will miss you!

The Rotary Club of Milawa-Oxley

Like the Rotary Club of Greater Des Moines, the Milawa-Oxley club was chartered last year.  It is the 61st club in District 9790, and has 24 members.  It was a great place to be for two days.  What a fun Rotary group!

The team moves onto our last stop today and will be hosted by the Rotary Club of Pascoe Vale, a suburb of Melbourne. 

District 6000 GSE presentation during the District 9790 Conference.  March 19, 2010.

The feedback from conference attendees has been very positive, indeed.  It was a great conference experience for the entire team.  Thank you to DG David Cooke and wife, Judy, and to Chairman Gary West, for being gracious hosts to our team during the conference. 

More photos from the District 9790 Conference…..

What an amazing District Conference! We are seeing great speakers and reconnecting with our new friends from the clubs we have visited.  

Our team conference presentation was enthusiastically received by approximately 400 Rotarians and guests. The presentation focused on the highlights of our trip and our service project in the bushfire affected area of Marysville.   Many conference attendees have asked about the Rotary Club of Greater Des Moines and want more information about its transformational model.  

We leave Albury today for our next stop in Milawa-Oxley.  We are winding down to enjoy the last leg of our journey together.

Rotary Club of Holbrook and a day in Canberra, the Australian Capitol.

Rita Perea, Team Leader:  What an outstanding visit we have had in Holbrook.  We experienced a real Australian BBQ with the Holbrook Rotary Club on Tuesday night.  President Kevin Farrelly and his team have been very gracious hosts during our stay.

Yesterday we took a bus trip to Canberra with the GSE team from the UK who are in this District now as well.  We visited the Parliment House and the National Museum of Australian History.  It was a great day of experiencing the culture and gaining a deeper understanding of the Australian people.

Today we travel to Albury-North and get ready to attend the District 9790 Conference this weekend.  

Good bye, Corowa!

Rita Perea- Team Leader writes:  What fun we have had in Corowa today.  We visited Snavernake, a sustainable farmstead.  Then lunch at a Bistro followed by a blissful two hour team meeting at the local Mackers (Aussie-speak for McDonald’s).  We ended the day with another successful club presentation and thanking the gracious hosts of the Rotary Club of Corowa.  We will miss them all as we pack our bags (again) and move onto Holbrook in the morning.

Rita Perea, Team Leader: The Rotary Club of Corowa

RC Corowa cheerfully met us yesterday morning to take us to our next stop.  Steve, a club member and past GSE team member who traveled to Finland and Astonia, arranged for our hosts to take us to a local heritage festival.  We traveled to the Rutherglenn Festival via a comfy bus.  We met with other Rotarians and even ran into some District 9790 leaders.

We stopped at four different places to sample the local industries.  The food was spectacular. We had so much fun together.

Thursday March 11 - A day of firsts!!

Kyla Kiester - Team Member: Today we had the opportunity to broaden our horizons a bit, and we experienced a few things for the very first time.  The fun loving people of RC Kyabram took us to the Port of Echuca where we went on our first paddlestreamer ride. 

At lunch we were given our first taste of Lemon Squash - a nonalcoholic, carbonated lemonade beverage that was outstanding!  Cara accurately described it as a “flavor blast of refreshment!”

After lunch we went on a “Farm to Factory” tour of the Mulcahy Brothers Dairy, which is Victoria’s largest dairy farmers and one of the largest employers in the Kyabram district.  They are the only family owned dairy business in Victoria that controls the chain from grass to the consumer’s fridge and also the only locally owned milk processor in the region.  Here Cara & I had the opportunity to milk our first cow!!!  (Is it odd that we had to come to Australia from Iowa for this?!?)  The three dairies milk up to 2600 cows 2-3 times a day, and the process is fascinating….at least to this city girl.  The cows walk into individual stalls on an automated “merry go round” and are then manually hooked up to the milkers.  (I apologize for the lack of technical terminology.)  The merry go round can hold up to 100 passengers at once, and after an 8 minute spin around the barn, the cows are unhooked and sent back into the pasture.  Total bovine bliss. 

Last but not least, we had our first attempt at Australian driving!  It is strange being on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road with the turn signal (or “indicator” as Aussie’s call it) on the wrong side of the steering wheel….but we all survived! 

Wednesday March 10

Kyla Kiester - Team Member: Today our journey continued to another Australian city and another set of home hosts.  We left Benalla in the morning, meeting the new Kyabram crew in Shepparton for morning tea and a quick stroll through the shops in town.  After lunch at the Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE we all participated in a facilitated vocational forum with local leaders in each of our areas of interest.  There was not a shortage of conversation, and it was quite interesting listening to each participant discuss their particular vocation. 

Tonight we delivered our fourth presentation to the RC of Kyabram, and are all looking forward to the activities they have planned for us for tomorrow!        

Tuesday March 9

Kyla Kiester - Team Member: Today was another day of vocational visits, and I had the opportunity to visit two healthcare organizations in Benalla.  I spent the morning with Heather Duncombe, a health promotion coordinator at Delatite Community Health Center, learning about how government funding allows a team of healthcare professionals (dieticians, diabetes educators, etc) to partner and be colocated with general practitioners in order to better care for patients in the community.

My afternoon was spent with the North East Victorian Division of General Practitioners.  Operations Manager Dellys Sice and I enjoyed discussing how similar the priorities and areas of focus are for primary care in the US and Australia.  E-Health Coordinator Vimal Pasupathy demonstrated an amazing population management tool being implemented and utilized in the region that I know would make some Iowa physicians drool.  

Our entire team reunited in the evening for dinner with the RC of Benalla, who seemed to thoroughly enjoy our presentation on Iowa and D6000. 

Tomorrow we’re off to Kyabram……. 

Julie Pollock — Team Member:  We had a great day in Benalla today and although the weather changed every quarter hour (cloudy and cool to sunny and warm to windy…), we managed to stay dry!  Our day began just before noon with a guided tour of the Benalla Botanical Gardens, located close to the center of town.  In addition to beautiful assortments of roses and indigenous gum trees, the gardens featured a statue of Sir Edward Dunlop.  Sir Edward Dunlop was a surgeon in the Australian Army during World War II who became a national hero for his life-saving care of soldiers who had been taken prisoner by the Japanese. 

Other features of the Benalla Botanical Gardens were the rotunda that was built in 1911 and the newly created Indigenous Community Garden, highlighting trees, plant and stonework reminiscent of a time prior to European settlement in Australia. 

After the garden tour, and a few stops at other area attractions, like the Benalla Art Gallery, we enjoyed a delicious barbeque of sausages, hamburgers and various salads prepared by members of the Benalla Rotary Club. 

Following lunch, we went on to tour Morrisons and Baileys—two wineries in the small town of Glenrowan.  We were even lucky enough to have a turn at stirring the grapes, a days-long process that is part of the fermentation process.  All of the wines we sampled were delicious and it was interesting to compare and contrast the various aromas and flavors. 

On our way out of Glenrowan, we saw the ominous statue of Ned Kelly in his suit of armor (a makeshift suit he crafted to act as a bullet-proof shield).  Ned Kelly, a legendary figure in Australian folklore, carried out his “last stand” in the town of Glenrowan.  His definiance of police authority spurred a two day occupation of most of the Glenrowan’s inhabitants and despite his armor suit, Ned Kelly was shot and captured.  He was later executed, but remains an almost heroic figure in Australian history. 

Today was great and we are gearing up for our third presentation tomorrow night at the Benalla Rotary Club!

Natasha Wilson Boland, team member: We had a lovely last night in Alexandra; Kyla’s host family, Noel and John, had everyone over for a BBQ with lamb, fish, and sausage, plus a large assortment of salads and desserts. We enjoyed everyone’s company and were sad to leave Alex!

We left in the rain this morning to transfer to Benalla. Benalla is a gorgeous little town of about 14,000 people. We met our new hosts over tea at a “pub” (hotel/restaurant) halfway between Alexandra and Benalla. Today is a day of rest for us, and tomorrow we’ll be busy again getting oriented to Benalla and seeing all the sights.

I saw my first redback spider today after settling in with my new host family - their son discovered it while cleaning off the BBQ. I was terrified to get close to it as they’re poisonous and apparently their bites hurt very badly, but it was old hat to my hosts and they handled it with ease. I also saw my first kangaroos in the “wild’, hanging out on the golf course; there were hoards of them sitting under the trees on the course, which is apparently a favorite hang-out for them!

Sunday, March 6th:  It’s onto the Rotary Club of Benalla today!  Goodbye to RC Alexandra.  Thank you for the gracious hospitality, wonderful memories and awesome experiences.