 It was in 1921 that two
Special Commissioners arrived in Australia with credentials from the
Board of the International Association of Rotary Clubs in Chicago, to
establish Rotary in Australia and New Zealand. They were James W.
Davidson, FRGS, Past President of the Rotary Club of Calgary, and
Lieutenant Colonel J. Layton Ralston, CMG. DSO. KC, President of the
Rotary Club of Halifax. The Canadian contribution, with expertise and
part cost, to the establishment of Rotary in Australasia was very
significant. At that time there were only 800 clubs in the United
States, Canada and the British Isles.
Graphic: "The Rotary Club of Sydney 1921-81" by PDG Alex
Mitchell
When the Rotary Club of Sydney
held its inaugural meeting on 7 May 1921, with 35 members, they elected
Sir Henry Braddon as the President. He was the Managing Director of
Dalgety & Co., a major wool broking company and had gained some
knowledge of Rotary when he was in the office of the Trade Commission of
the Commonwealth of Australia in New York in 1919. Sir Henry had the
special distinction of having been “capped” by both the Australian and
New Zealand Rugby Unions.
The first Vice President elected was Dr. Arthur E. Mills, Dean of the
Faculty of Medicine at Sydney University. The members were a
cross-section of professions and business activities, and the criterion
for eligibility of members was broadly, one member from each vocational
classification.
 In
1935 Paul Harris planted a
Friendship Tree
at Sydney.
 Observing the many projects undertaken by the Club in later years –
such as the foundation of the NSW Crippled Children’s Society (now the
Northcott Society) and the Police Rotary Boys’ Club (now The Police and
Community Youth Clubs) – it was not surprising that the very first
service activity was to organise an outing to the seaside for 120
children and their nurse from the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children
in November 1921. There followed similar activities until in 1924 the
first major project, Boys’ Week, was undertaken. This culminated in
considerable support for the Boys’ Brigade and a new building at Pyrmont.
By 1926 the Rotary Club of Sydney was establishing Rotary Clubs
widely throughout New South Wales and Queensland. There has been
considerable growth in the Club and for most of the last 50 years the
membership has been over 300. It remains the largest Club in Australia.
Its territory, which initially comprised an area within an 80 mile
radius of the city centre, is now concentrated in the central business
district of the city and is shared with three new city clubs – Sydney
Cove and Sydney CBD, both chartered by the Rotary Club of Sydney, and
Darling Harbour, co-chartered with the Rotary Club of Sydney Cove.
The Club hosted the
62nd Rotary International Convention in May 1971.
Some 17,220 delegates attended this first Convention to be held in
Australia.
Major projects initiated over the years by the Rotary Club of Sydney
include the Free Library Movement, which led to a significant expansion
of free lending libraries throughout New South Wales; the Australian
Administrative Staff College at Mount Eliza (now the Mt Eliza Business
School); the Old Peoples’ Welfare Council (now the NSW Council for the
Ageing); and the chartering of the Probus Club of Sydney. In recent
years the Club has contributed large sums to the support of The Sydney
Children’s Hospital ICU for babies, to the Sir David Martin Foundation
Triple Care Farm, for disadvantaged youths who come before the Courts,
and to the StreetSmart Project, an outreach centre for young homeless
people, in conjunction with the Wesley Central Mission. |
Contributions by way of
personal service and financial support have been made in substantial
measure to the Alzheimer’s Association, to the Sydney Eye Hospital, to
the Microsearch Foundation of Australia, a pioneering micro-surgery
research and training facility, to Habitat for Humanity, a church
program to build houses for poor families, to Dr. Barnardo’s Homes and
to the Spinesafe Education Program. Two recent major initiatives of the
Club were Business in the Community (now Business Enterprise Centres)
and the Ranfurly Library Service, which provides reading material for
schools and hospitals throughout the South Pacific.
A major ongoing
project each year is the “Your City Program”, which provides city
experience in all its diversity to senior country students. Other
ongoing projects include
RYLA, RYPEN, GSE and Rotary Youth Exchange. The
“Adrian Golding Gift of Life Program”, established in honour of a
deceased member, sponsors young children from the Pacific Islands who
are facing severe surgical or medical problems untreatable in their own
countries to visit Australia for remedial treatment.
Over the last two years, the Club has organised a
Corporate and Business Leaders’ Dinner at the Art Gallery of NSW to coincide with the
Archibald Exhibition. The purpose of this dinner is to introduce
Sydney’s business leaders to the Rotary Club of Sydney and to focus on
partnerships with the business community to develop worthwhile community
projects. Funds raised from these dinners exceeded $188,000, benefiting
the Spastic Centre of New South Wales’ Conductive Education Program for
children born with cerebral palsy.
There are also ongoing “service awards” made each year to recognise
leaders and achievers in the community, in their vocation, in education
and amongst handicapped people. These awards honour the recipients’
contribution to society, exemplifying Rotary’s motto “Service Above
Self”.
In the year 2000, the City of Sydney was the venue for the Olympic
Games and the Paralympic Games and the Club contributed in various ways
to the great success of the occasion – eg. by initiating and developing
a Home Hosting Program for athletes and their families; by actively
encouraging Rotary Clubs throughout the State to sponsor local children
to attend the Paralympics; and by fund-raising to purchase Paralympics
tickets for donation to various charitable organisations.
Female
members were first inducted into the Club in 1990 and for
the year 2002-03 the Club has elected its first female President.
The President’s Project for 2001-02 was for the provision of funds
towards development of the “Lifestart Program” a family-centred program
and family support facility for young children with an intellectual
disability or developmental delay for which $170,000 was raised.
 The Club’s History has been written by PDG Alex Mitchell, CBE
in two volumes. The first, 1921-1981, is out of print but the second
volume, 1982-1991, is available from the Club’s office. Both volumes are
available in NSW city libraries and the National Library, Canberra.
The
1971 convention saw RI's approval of
RYLA which as born in Australia
Photos from Rotary Global History Fellowship Historian
Calum Thomson 4 January 2006 |
