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About Rotary

The Rotary Club of Williamstown has been in existence since March, 1949. Throughout its history the Club has been active in all avenues of Rotary service. Some memorable early projects included raising money for the maternity wing at the local Williamstown hospital, running a Home Show in the Williamstown Town Hall for five days, supporting the formation of the Elderly Citizens' Club and providing scholarships for local secondary school students.

More recent projects include the planning and financing of 'Urimbirra', a residential centre for mentally disadvantaged people, the biggest project ever undertaken by the Club, the planning, financing and building of an extension to the Hazeldean Nursing Home for the Aged, the building of gazebos for Winteringham hostel and MS House, and refurbishing the clock in Ferguson Street.

In 2010, our latest building project has been as a member of the community alliance that redeveloped the Ronald McDonald Backyard Project for the use of families staying at Ronald McDonald House in Carlton

The Club has been especially active in raising funds for medical research including projects such as ROQUAD (surgical procedures for paraplegics), ROCAN (ovarian cancer research), Have A Heart-Give A Part (organ donation awareness programme), and Heartstart (provision of portable defibrillators for children suffering Long QT syndrome).

About Rotary International

Rotary is a worldwide organisation of business and professional leaders that:

  • provides humanitarian service
  • encourages high ethical standards in all vocations and
  • helps build goodwill and peace in the world

Membership of Rotary is by invitation and local clubs choose both male and female representatives of different occupations to ensure the club reflects a wide cross-section of the local community. Rotarians meet weekly to develop bonds of friendship and to listen to speakers dealing with topics of global and local importance.

Rotarians believe in 'Service Before Self ' and potential members must be prepared to work for the benefit of others. Members carry out a remarkable variety of humanitarian, educational and cultural exchange programs that touch people's lives in their locality and worldwide and the Rotary Foundation, which is Rotary's charitable fund, is one of the largest in the world and supports Rotary's many programmes. Rotary International comprises 1.2 million service minded men and women working through 32,000 Rotary Clubs, 529 Districts and 168 countries.

Rotary Club of Williamstown is one of 1400 clubs in Australia - with a total membership of 52,000 - and was inaugurated in March, 1949. The club is part of District 9800 which covers one third of metropolitan Melbourne and all the towns along the Calder Highway to Bendigo and on to Echuca-Moama. There are 70 clubs in District 9800 with approximately 2800 members.

About the Rotary Foundation

The Rotary Foundation exists to promote 'world peace through understanding'. 

Since its formation in 1947 the Foundation has spent 1.6 billion US dollars.

Each year the Foundation provides US$60 million for international scholarships, cultural exchanges and humanitarian projects, large and small, that improve the quality of life for millions of people.

More than half a billion children in the developing nations have been immunized against polio through Polio Plus grants funded by the Foundation.

Individuals, clubs, major donors and bequests assists in donating US$110 million to the fund annually.