Welcome to the Rotary Club of Keilor East

Are you someone who wants to make positive changes in our northern suburbs and join projects to benefit our overseas neighbours? Our dedicated club members like to help the community.
And becoming a Rotarian connects you with friendly people offering Fellowship and happy times.

Our Club supports the next generation

Rotary believes in developing the next generation of leaders. Our programs help young leaders build leadership skills, expand education, and learn the value of service, locally and overseas.

Our local programs provide innovative and practical opportunities to help and motivate ~~children and~~ young people in our communities to acquire learning and life skills.

Our international goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy. We support education and literacy for all children. Our International projects also improve sanitation and access to clean water to improve the health outcomes of communities.

Moonee Valley Art Show success

From Keilor East RC President Deb –
Our joint Moonee Valley Art Show with Essendon RC was a great community event from Oct 10-12 (One of the prize-winners, left). There were 130 at our Gala Opening Night and plenty of visitors appreciating the art on Saturday and Sunday. This vibrant event was both a celebration of art and a great fundraiser. The funds will support Rotary initiatives locally and overseas. We can continue our work in building stronger, more resilient communities.
A heartfelt thank you to all who contributed to the success. The time, effort, and dedication of so many culminated in a truly
terrific weekend. Visitors were treated to a stunning display of beautiful and impressive artwork, the warm presence of Rotarians volunteering their time, and the
spirit of community that filled the space.
Fundraising is never easy, but it enables us to continue supporting projects that bring joy, dignity, and hope to
many. Your contributions made a real difference.#

Jack's Magazine tour - our gritty history

Enthralling visit to Jack’s Magazine
RCKE members had a Sunday’s introduction to Melbourne’s long-disused 12ha bluestone explosives depot on the banks of the Maribyrnong River. Our party was John and Barbara Rafter, Joe Albioli and his son Ryan, Tony Thomas and Robert Chessell.
The name "Jack's Magazine" honours "Wally" Jack, foreman from around 1917 to 1943—overseeing operations through Victoria’s gritty history.
Our guide Andy Calvert was a veteran of the former army factory next door. He told us endless stories of its explosives history starting with the gold mining industry in 1878. All Victoria’s explosives were imported for many decades, barged along waterways and canals to the complex, stored there and sold retail and in bulk. “In those days anyone could buy explosives, no-one asked why,” Andy says, leading us through trolley tramlines, underground tunnels, admin huts and massive earth blast mounds.
Surrounding it all is a formidable 6m bluestone wall, making the site seem a fortified secret. By the early 20th century, it was part of the "Arsenal of Australia," providing powder for the Footscray Ammunition Factory (now Edgewater housing). It languished unused from the 1990s, attacked by vandals until restored for tour groups.
Andy explained that the loaded trolleys were pushed by workers – horses were banned because of sparks from hoofs and the risk of a horse bolting and towing a trolley-full of gunpowder. "It was all muscle and caution; one wrong move, and you'd blow things sky-high,” Andy said. “All the bullets for the ANZACs, including at Gallipoli, came from the two complexes, with the magazine’s workers on 12 hour shifts under lanterns.” #

Fun times for Youth Exchange student

Our hosted Rotary Youth Exchange student Malene Hansen from Denmark has been having a wonderful time getting the most out of her Australian sojourn. Here she is at the peak of the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb, and at Circular Quay with fellow-exchange-student Chiara Caligiuri from Italy's south.

Our Rotary Youth Exchange student Malene

We are very excited to welcome our Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Malene Hansen from Denmark, to Keilor East Rotary and West Footscray Rotary Clubs. She arrived at Melbourne airport at 10.30 pm after her long flight, and was quickly outfitted with her school uniform for Taylor Lakes Secondary College. We welcome Malene warmly and wish her well for a memorable year “Down Under”.

Camp Getaway Working Bee

Each year Rotarians and friends of our Club head to Camp Getaway at Axedale to maintain the premises and grounds such as trimming, leaf blowing, planting, wood

splitting, painting, cleaning etc. For the September 12-14 weekend we work harder, fed well and got to know each other better as we stayed for two nights. This year the weather was glorious, and we were fortunate to have three Rotary Youth Exchange Students and other great helpers. The students were pleased to see and photograph the kangaroos in the adjoining paddocks and the many native birds. We thank Benji, the Camp Caretaker who coordinated the tasks, and everyone who participated for making the weekend such a success.

Our club sponsors Interact for students

Rotary Keilor East is proud to sponsor and support the Interact team at St Albans Secondary College. Interact is Rotary’s service club for students aged 12-18. Interact clubs are self-governing and self-supporting. Pic: St Albans Interact held a dessert stall fundraiser on Valentine's Day. President-elect Steph is on left.
The St Albans team do local and international projects. The 2025 President Stephanie with her team attended the Assembly late last year to get together and work with Interacts from many districts. She highlighted St Albans’ raising of $400 cash and school and dental supplies for students in Timor-Leste. It also contributed $600 worth of in-kind donations to the Western Emergency Relief Network (WERN), in the form of new household goods bought from Kmart.
The team was inspired by similar projects at other clubs. Members joined role-specific groups at breakfast, involving leadership and responsibility coaching, plus SWOT analysis and SMART goal-setting.
Steph says, “This structured approach to critical thinking and communication aligned our vision as a team, ensuring our club’s growth and success this year.”
Interact is hosting nearly half a million students, becoming a worldwide phenomenon. Their format can be single-sex or mixed, single-school or across schools. Interact now has 20,000 clubs in 139 countries. Our District 9800 has sponsored a dozen around Melbourne schools.
The junior body is Earlyact encouraging care and civic mindedness among primary students, sponsored by their local Rotary Club.

Working Bee at WERN

Members have put in good work recently at a Working Bee for WERN (Western Emergency Relief Network) in Ravenhall. We were taken on a guided tour of the outstanding facility by our Club member and WERN Board member Daryl Cornish. Our tasks included unpacking donated goods, washing glassware, moving furniture, packing kitchen packs for four or six people and sorting cutlery. Our thanks go to everyone who donates goods volunteers at the facility and organises our work contribution. Rotary International - "Uniting for Good" since 1905.

For lists of donations that are accepted or not wanted, see here

https://wern.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/WERN-Donations-Brochure-E-version-Nov-2021.p2-1.jpg

Help for displaced Karen girls

Our club helps Karen students

Rotary Keilor East is proud to be part of a successful international team for Karen girls’ health and dignity in Myanmar.

We have worked with Melbourne Passport Rotary, Balwyn RC and Melbourne RC, and a group of international helpers. They include the Karen Women’s Organisation, Days for Girls Intl, SolarBuddy solar lights, the Cambodia Rural Students Trust (CRST) and Rotaract of Siem Reap.

The big project was kickstarted by Passport RC’s Aviv Palti, who connected with key groups in Yangon two years ago. “The needs are immense, but the logistics and security concerns were a formidable challenge,” he explains. “But I was introduced to Naw K'nyaw Paw, the dynamic General Secretary of the Karen Women's Organization (KWO). This led to an emotional and effective week with the passionate Karen team of educators, local teachers and hundreds of community members.”

The team effort built on the Cambodian students trust experience running the Days for Girls studies. This was “Project G – Empowering Girls”. There was also “Project L – Light for Education”, involving SolarBuddy lights so Karen students could study at night.

Aviv says, “Our team translated the reproductive and women’s health lessons to the Karen language, while the core team of educators at Karen Womens undertook the certification online. With Days for Girls International, we donated 3,700 menstruation kits. We also got 2200 SolarBuddy lights to northern Thailand, our staging area.

By last May the Victorian team of Rotarians and 10 student-educators from Siem Reap Rotaract headed to North Thailand to train the 20 Karen educators at schools for displaced Karen students. These trainees successfully led workshops for more than 800 students and community members.

The team got results despite harsh conditions and long trips by pick-up trucks, long-tail boats, and remote trekking. “Students – many living without electricity or internet – were engaged, curious, and deeply grateful,” Aviv says. “The displaced Karen girls can now improve their school attendance to become future leaders in their community.”

Siem Reap’s Rotaractor Doeb Chhay says, “When you meet the Karen people, living with so little yet giving so much, you realize how much we take for granted. Gratitude grows where humility lives.”

Aviv says, “This mission was about building bridges with the strength and resilience of the Karen people. We were so moved by the gratitude shown during the distribution of hygiene kits and solar lights, and the students’ determination to learn in the face of hardship.” #

Pics Below: Huge take-up of education lessons and materials

Logistics of river crossing by boat

Ballet Centre tour, Altona

An RCKE party got huge enjoyment from a trip to the Australian Ballet Production Centre. This is as capacious as an aircraft hangar and stores tens of thousands of costumes from productions dating back several decades, along with props and maintenance bays. Best of all, our centre guides Nick and Mary gave us the inside gen on all the factors going into a ballet performance, especially the logistics of getting stuff from Altona to Southbank and even as distant as Tokyo. Nick explained the ABCs of locating whatever's needed and loading trucks efficiently. He even has templates on the floor where packing orders for 44ft containers can be laid out. It was pricey at $80 but worth every cent!

Urgent: help needed for the homeless

Data shows a steep rise in homelessness in Melbourne, particularly involving older women. Our Rotary Keilor East members are helping the Western Emergency Relief Network (WERN) at Ravenhall by donating un-needed household supplies and equipment. If we move house, spring clean or trade-up, there are often useful goods that are welcomed by people less fortunate – and it’s much better than goods going to landfill.

WERN finds distressed people a roof over their heads and we at Rotary help get a place furnished. Pick-ups or drop-offs of bulky items like washing machines and fridges are easy to arrange.

When women are trying to re-build their lives after violence and poverty, it’s great when our members can contribute to the house-warming or find ways to volunteer at WERN. Keep in mind that the median rent across Melbourne is just under $600 a week and vacancy rates are very low. It’s no wonder many distressed people are in housing crisis.

Meanwhile, we ask all members of Rotary Keilor East to get busy organizing this recycling of household items to those who really need them.

Some detail:

Pick Ups:
Pick ups can be arranged by phoning our WERN Warehouse manager on 0476 104 736 or emailing donations@wern.org. Photos of proposed donations provide us an opportunity to advise the suitability of goods and also an indication to us of the size of the load being offered for transportation purposes.

https://wern.org/donations/

Support for girls in South-East Asia.

Improving girls education in our neighboring developing countries is a focus of our club and Rotary overall. This is a proven way to help the disadvantaged and lift women out of poverty. To get an education girls need to attend school.

Lack of adequate toilets is a major barrier, and providing quality toilets is a practical way to solve this problem. Often girls stop attending school when they begin to menstruate, and the provision of toilets is essential. We also work with Days for Girls to provide female hygiene products.

Many young women are now able to attend school every day and have a much brighter future as a result of our past projects.

Cambodian students grateful for our help

Our February club meeting hosting three students from Rotaract Siem Reap, Cambodia involving inspiring talks from each of them about overcoming difficulties to push towards their goals. Their determination amid a setting of less-developed infrastructure was an object lessons to us all.

The students were President-elect Veasna, Sreynuth and Saveat. They updated us on sustainable projects, especially clean water for their school through Project W, "WASH for Education", and thanked us for our contribution.

Pic: From left, Veasna, Saveat, our President Deb and Sreynuth.

How our fund-raising helped this project

We are very proud that our fundraising efforts, Bunnings BBQs, Moonee Valley Art Show etc. have helped achieve these results!

Project W - WASH for Education

Congratulation

We are pleased to announce that the installation of the new biosand water filtration system and incinerator at Varin high school, Snual, Tek Chum and Prasathnar secondary School have been completed and are a huge success!!

This is an important step towards improving the health and well-being of students, teachers and the communities around the school. It's a great achievement to support the education. Sincere gratitude to our sponsors Keilor East Rotary Club Inc. and Melbone Rotary.

Raising Timor kids' schooling

Imagine a primary school with 122 kids trying to study in open shacks, tumbledown buildings, no toilets and not even a tap for washing hands. The desks and seats are in poor shape and there's not nearly enough for the kids. That's the situation at Sulilaren Primary two hours drive west of Dili in Timor Leste.

And Rotary Keilor East is doing something about it, combining with other Rotary and aid groups. The $90,000 project in Bobonaro District involves getting a replacement school built, with four classrooms, a teachers' room, five toilets, tap-water and new desks, chairs, exercise books and pens. Half the funding has been raised already, mainly by the Build It Well charity.

Timor Leste is the poorest country in our region. It knows that better education - especially for girls - is the key to development. It wants more kids to get schooling and stay at school longer, but the budget for education isn't big enough to make that a reality.

The Australian-based groups lending a hand with Sulilaren Primary includes volunteers from Spend It Well, which gets schools built efficiently and cheaply; Donations in Kind (West Footscray) which recycles donated furniture and equipment; Rotary Foundation which helps fund the container shipments; and Keilor East and other Rotary clubs.

"When we work together great things happen," says Keilor East Rotary's president David Dippie.

Pictures: Top - the original school shack. Middle: First renovations

Bottom: Renovations well under way

Rotary Keilor East gets its own Mustang display

Rotary Keilor East’s tour of the RAAF Museum at Point Cook on November 16 had an unexpected bonus -- Wing Commander Jason Easthope gave us an 800kph flying display of an RAAF Mustang fighter. He was leaving Pt Cook to fly via Temora to take part in the Williamtown Newcastle air display next day. He told us the Temora stop after two hours flying was because the WW11 Mustang lacks a working toilet. Jason, a kiwi, is an RAF veteran of the Falklands war and then an F18 pilot, with 4500 hours flying all-up.
Mechanics wheeled out a battery starter to his beautiful Mustang with its shark-tooth nose. The 12-cylinder Packard Merlin engine burst into life with its 1200HP roaring and a puff of blue smoke. Jason sat for a while with canopy open, ensuring engine pressures and temperature were OK. Then he swung the iconic fighter around onto the strip – blowing away a few hats from the prop-wash. The engine blared and the prop howled as the tips neared the sound barrier, then his Mustang was into the air and climbing for its first pass across our small party’s sightline.
He followed with a loop putting 4G stress on his body – as if it weighed more than 300kg. Several more passes and rolls, then a waggle of wings as he waved us ‘goodbye’.

That was the highlight but our tour of the museum itself was also terrific. Behind every plane and exhibit there was a story and our guide Norm was keen to tell it. For example, the roundel in planes used in the Pacific have no red dot in the middle –because four planes including a Catalina were shot up by friendly fire from US gunners mistaking the red dot for Japan’s emblem.
The oldest plane there was a replica 1913 Bristol Boxkite aircraft that was actually flown 100 years later at Point Cook with former Air Force Test Pilot Air Vice Marshal Mark Skidmore (retired) at the controls. “Considering it’s mainly wood wire and cloth, Mark was a brave airman,” said Norm. We attach a video of the flight below, in case you don’t believe Norm.

Our tour numbers were increased with a group of guests from Tony's Melbourne Bearbrass Probus.

Thanks to our Sponsors

Keilor East Community Bank continues to be an outstanding sponsor of our Club Projects. We are very appreciative of their generosity and support and urge Members, family and friends to use the bank which supports its local community.

We are also very grateful to have the sponsorship of Smart Storage World in Keilor East for the storage of our Club trailer. We appreciate their support for us and urge Club Members and friends to make use of their new local business.
For all your Home or Business Storage, including Boats, Caravans and Cars, call 0408 KEILOR 0408 534 567. http://smartstorageworld.com.au/