Ranges Probus
Warragul Evening Branch of CWA had an enjoyable annual meeting in October with group president Wendy Earwcker in attendance, who reported on forthcoming events.
The country of study for 2020 will be Botswana.
CWA’s product of the year is to be indigenous food. The high teas being held at head office in Toorak have been a great success and booked out well in advance. CWA cookbooks are being reprinted due to high demand.
November is going to be a busy time for the branch.
On Monday November 18 members will have the official opening of the clubrooms after renovations with Latrobe Valley Authority support.
The morning will begin at 9.30am for a 10am start. Any past members or anyone interested is welcome to attend. Contact Gwen Mason 0408377603 so numbers can be organised for catering.
The November meeting will be held on the evening of the 19th which is the final for this 2019. A shared dinner and fun times will be held in the rooms at 95 Victoria Street from 6pm.
Once again, if anyone wants to attend contact Gwen on the above number. Bring a small homemade or homegrown gift to share as a Kris Kringle. As usual members will be collecting non perishable good/s for a hamper to go the Warragul Gazette’s Christmas Collection for the needy.
The last meeting of Warragul Ranges Probus was held on Thursday, October 24.
Guest speaker was Ian Thomas the third generation owner of local newspapers, particularly the “Pakenham Gazette”.
Ian is now retired and his son Paul has taken over the management of the company being the fourth generation to carry on the tradition. The Gazette celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017.
The company started 110 years ago in Berwick in 1909, and moved to Pakenham in 1917.
The Thomas clan originated in Cornwall in England and arrived here in the mid. 1850s.
They set up several local papers after arrival and in 1909 the business moved to Berwick where they produced the “Berwick Shire News”, “Pakenham News” and “Pakenham Gazette”.
The family remained in Berwick for another eight years and Ian’s grandfather was very involved in the community.
After the business moved to Pakenham in 1917 it published many country papers in towns around Victoria.
They saw the changes from a large broadsheet of four pages to tabloid size. In 1945 Ian’s grandfather had a heart attack and died in 1948 at the age of 83.
After Ian started in the business in 1951 linotype was introduced to produce the papers. In the early 1970s they decided to go to offset printing.
After Ian’s father died in 1979 he had to take over the running of the business, after having been the back-room boy ,and he had much to learn.
His wife joined him in the business and became the editor. She was a great help to him as well as one of their journalist-photographers - Karl Shoemaker.
The company changed its name to Star News Group in 2005 to reflect the growth of the company and the diversity of regions that the company covers.
As to the future of the newspaper, Ian admits that local papers were hit hard when classified advertising from real estate, car sales etc was decimated with the dot-com era coming into being.
He does feel, however, that local papers will always been needed as they carry the local subjects that the public like to read about – sport, farming, events, etc and their papers have always been strong in these subjects as readers like to see their names printed in the news.
In mid October a full bus of members took a four night trip to Griffith in NSW. It was an exceptional trip with the Orange Festival in full swing as well as beautiful gardens to visit, wineries, and wonderful food outlets, not to forget the trivia night. An extremely enjoyable trip.
The garden group first visited a beautiful garden in Drouin belonging to a couple who are members of our club. Their garden is a picture of colour with many rare and unusual plants and they also have an extensive collection of different varieties of orchids.
The second garden, also in Drouin, and also club members, was where the Group had their lunches. This is also a very colourful garden and the owners were very happy to share cuttings and plants with Members.
The September evening dine out was held at In2Food Restaurant in Warragul and the Lunchtime Dining Group held its luncheon at The Club Hotel in Warragul.
All other groups had good attendances for the month.
The next meeting will be
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Warragul Country Club at 10am. held at on the