Gratitude for donation
Warragul RSL
The monthly meeting of the Warragul sub-branch of the RSL was held on Monday, February 5 at 1.30pm.
The March meeting will be the annual general meeting with nominations now being called for executive positions.
If you are interested in becoming part of the team, nominations must be in before March 5 when the annual meeting will be held.
Subscriptions are now being filled and the club is maintaining its healthy membership. If you still have not paid your subscriptions they are due and payable before March.
With the holiday season over most activities will be back into full swing within the next few weeks. Among other activities, carpet bowls and light exercises will resume.
If you wish to attend the light exercises on Friday morning from 9.45am, you will be able to enjoy a cuppa and make use of the library. It is quite an extensive library with a variety of subjects to peruse.
Plans are underway for the next trip which will take place on Monday, March 19 with a trip to Sale to visit the military museum and woodcarving. Lunch will be held at Maffra. Ensure that you book early and the coach will leave the clubrooms at 8.30am.
The next meeting will be held on Monday March 5 at 1.30pm. If you wish to become a member you are most welcome to attend. Put it in your diary now so that you will remember.
Warragul and District Garden Club
The club will play a bigger role at the Warragul Show this year.
Last year’s small exhibit in the art, craft and produce area was well received and resulted in several new members joining the club and participating in bus trips. This year Garden Club members will have a bigger presence in the competition and assisting with various garden aspects of the Show.
The first meeting of the year, late in January, was very well attended despite some members still away on holiday.
Steve Rowe from Rowe’s nursery, a major sponsor of the club, together with member Howard Sharman, chaired a session of tips, questions and answers which went on right into morning tea time.
Steve fielded a large number of question and Howard plus several other members came up with lots of ideas and answers to problems. The list is too big to mention but problems affecting Lemon trees were common with the main answer being to fertilise them well and not be afraid to give them a good prune on occasions.
Other tips included the use of Troforte fertilisers which give good results, summer pruning of roses 50-60 days before Easter to have maximum blooms at that time, how to freeze excess vegetables to obtain free-flow bags of peas, beans etc.
When planting in summer, fill the hole with water and allow it to drain away before filling the soil back around the plant. This makes sure that the plant has water underneath the roots.
The meeting was so enjoyable that members have asked to have a similar one in the future. After all, the main reason for joining a garden club is to obtain more information.
Two bus trips are currently under preparation, one to the International Garden Show on March 22 and one to the Geelong Botanical Gardens and Country Farm Dahlias at Whittlesea in April at a time yet to be decided.
The next meeting on February 26 will include a talk entitled “Natives in Your Garden” given by Colin Jackson of the Gippsland Native Plant Group.
New members and visitors are always welcome. Full details can be obtained by visiting the website www.warragulgardenclub.com or calling the secretary on 5623 6180.
Women on Farms
Location, location, location! We hear it frequently from real estate agents. It also applies to agri-tourism.
Trevor and Melissa Vanin are taking advantage of this important principle with their growing farm gate business.
‘Fielderberry Farm’ at Cockatoo is a newly established berry enterprise – pick your own berries being the focus. The property, with family connections going back a century, is in the Dandenong Ranges, adjacent to the Puffing Billy railway line, thus easily accessible from Cockatoo or Gembrook. With the streams of weekend and midweek tourists to the area, the location is promising indeed.
Melissa and Trevor have ‘re-purposed’ 78 bush and grazing acres into a tourism/farming business. Raspberries, blackberries and blueberries have been planted on former grazing land adjacent to the forest.
The berries are grown mainly in trellised rows, with varieties chosen for their picking-friendly plants. That is, the blackberries are all imported hybrids which bear no vicious thorns and which tempt with huge berries. As for how their flavour compares with the wild blackberry which plagues many land holders the WOF members had different opinions.
Melissa explained that there is considerable effort being put by plant specialists into cultivars of berry varieties, raspberries and blueberries also undergoing refinement with an aim to achieve longer growing seasons and heavier crops.
The plants they selected have been carefully identified to maximize cropping over as long a season as possible. Nevertheless, at this stage the berry season in southern Australia tends to be between November and March. Some product is also sold to local restaurants, jams are made and sold off the farm. Trevor has built a ‘gypsy van’ as a mobile stall to take their crop to markets
The couple has big ideas to include an eatery and accommodation on site. With these proposals come many inevitable delays, permits, health regulations and insurance requirements. Already there are the farming challenges to meet – soil alkalinity, bird plagues, pruning, weeding and pest animals. Seeing the energy and commitment displayed by Melissa, they should both succeed.
Women of all ages are welcome to join Women on Farms. The key criterion is an interest in farming and farming women. There is no need to be actively farming to participate.
For more details contact secretary Jean Irvine, phone 0429 488 156, or go to the website at www.womenonfarms.org for the monthly program.
West Gippsland Genealogical Society
The Genealogical Society will hold its first monthly meeting for 2018 on February 22 at the RSL clubrooms, Albert St, Warragul.
Guest speaker Neil Smith will present researching WW1 personnel.
WGGS monthly meetings will commence at 7.30pm from this month.
Faye Vandyk gave an interesting powerpoint presentation on ‘hints and stuff for family history research’ at the November 2017 meeting. Faye covered topics such as how to use the snipping tool, NSW BDMs, searching the PROV website – land records and soldier settlement scheme, Trove – using lists in Trove for WGGS research and the Legacy Family History program.
The Society is still seeking information on WW1 soldiers buried or remembered in the local cemeteries. See contact details below.
The Warragul Family History Writers Circle meet on the second and fourth Friday’s at the Warragul library, Victoria St from 10am to noon. All welcome.
WGGS library opening hours are Wednesday to Friday 10am to 2pm, on the second Saturday of the month from 10am to 3pm and fourth Sunday of the month from 2pm to 4pm. Visitors welcome.
The Society meet on the upper floor of the Old Shire Hall, Queen St Warragul at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Further details about the society can be obtained from president Barbara, phone 5611 3871 or visit the website westgippslandgenealogy.com.
There was gratitude in both directions at West Gippsland Hospital when the district nursing palliative care team welcomed Drouin Rotary Club members to view new medical equipment purchased from the club’s generous $25,000 donation.
Seven new portable syringe drivers to assist in administering medications, new bed tables, shower stools, sensation memory foam cushions, self-help poles, bed extension kits and mattress extension bolsters are some of the items purchased thanks to fundraising from Drouin Rotary.
District nurse unit manager Sue McDermott said the support had boosted the team’s capacity to provide comfort and deliver safe, quality palliative nursing care to people who wish to be cared for in their home.
“This equipment has made a big difference to our team’s resources. It has given us additional, new equipment when people need it.”
Drouin Rotary’s Don Kelly said many of the club’s members had experienced palliative care services delivered to their loved ones or people they know.
“We know how dedicated the nursing team is and the support the service provides to assist people with terminal illness.”
Mr Kelly said the club came up with an idea to raise money through an auction of new and second hand goods conducted by specialist auctioneer Peter Williams.
“We set out to raise $5000 and finished up raising $25,000 because of the wide community support we gained.”
Mr Kelly said it was fantastic to now see the new equipment being used by the District Nursing team and hear how it is making such a difference to people who need it.
“We are very proud to have been able to boost the resources available to people to support their end of life care,” Mr Kelly said.
Ms McDermott said WGHG was thrilled that the Drouin Rotary Club had chosen to support the district nursing palliative care team.