News

On Wednesday 13^th August, we were privileged to hear Dr Heather Waterfall speak on the challenges facing regional birthing units — an issue both urgent and deeply human. Reflecting on the discussion, the pressures at play seem tied not only to insurance, workforce shortages, and the difficulty of sustaining services in low-volume environments, but perhaps also to a deeper cultural shift within medicine itself. Where once rural GPs were trained and expected to be true generalists — delivering babies, managing trauma, setting bones, providing anaesthetics, and even running hospital wards — today’s pathway more often leads doctors toward narrow specialisation.
While this brings enormous technical expertise, it can leave communities without the broad skills once found in “the town doctor”. The bottleneck, then, is not only numbers, but the very philosophy of medical training and career progression. Food for thought.

We were also honoured by the presence of Ms Penny Pratt MP, Shadow Minister for Regional Health, and warmly welcomed Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Adelaide’s Burnside Social Group. Their visit reminded us that Rotary thrives on fellowship, and that our meetings provide a space where community voices, professional expertise, and public leadership can come together for meaningful dialogue.
Engineers build bridges with steel and stone; Rotarians build bridges with service and spirit.

Submitted by Dr. Andrew Bradley MIEAust CPEng NER APEC Engineer IntPE(Aus

President Andrew presented a Paul Harris Fellowship (PHF) to Mr. Jason Wilkinson of the Fullarton Market. Paul Harris Fellow is an award for Community Service, named after the Founder of Rotary.

Come rain or shine, Summer heat or Winter chill, Jason—and the Fullarton Market community—have remained a steadfast presence and generous supporter of the Rotary Club of Burnside for two decades. Through Jason’s consistent leadership, commitment to community spirit, and genuine care for fairness and inclusion, the Fullarton Market community continues to make an enduring contribution. Congratulations, Jason—this recognition is truly well deserved!
Post submitted by President Andrew Bradley.

On Saturday 12th July the Rotary Club of Burnside were at the Burnside Council Disability and Inclusion Expo. It was held at Glenunga International High School.
The event focused on promoting support services and fostering greater community understanding of the challenges faced by individuals living with disability, as well as their families and carers.

Compared to last year’s event at the Civic Centre, the change of venue was an interesting choice. The school layout and the placement of our BBQ and the coffee van offered limited visibility and foot traffic. Nevertheless, our team showed up in force. A special thank you to Kevin Williams — proudly donning his bright blue Rotary BBQ apron — who took it upon himself to connect with vendors and attendees to promote our presence. Thank you, Kevin!
President Andrew Bradley.

Eminent meteorologist Beth Walton brought many sobering slides to the club meeting on 9th July and none of them pointed to a brighter future. Climate change has developed a momentum of itself. With global political will and intervention, (the easy part?) the alarming upward trend could be arrested but can not likely pulled back because the carbon genie is out of the bottle so to speak, according to Beth.

On Sunday 29th at the Unley Town Hall Susan and I attended a Charity lunch hosted by the Rotary club of Norwood, supported by the City of Unley. The event had been organised to raise funds to support girls’ education in Afghanistan and Afghan communities in South Australia.
A 3-course Afghan feast was created by Farida Ayubi of the Parwana Afghan Kitchen.
Guest Speaker was Erfan Abidi. e spoke about his charity and sharing his remarkable journey from fleeing Afghanistan to empowering girls through the life-changing gift of education.

The food provided by the Parwana Afghan Kitchen was delicious and enjoyed by all. We then had the results of the raffles and pleased to say both Susan and I were lucky to receive a prize.
It was an enjoyable lunch and especially as it was for such a great cause.
Thank you to the Rotary club of Norwood and the City of Unley for hosting the event.

Community Wellness Hub 19/6/2025
The Topic for today’s session was Dementia.
We were very fortunate to have Courtney from Dementia Australia.
Courtney spoke about the role of Dementia Australia. Courtney also spoke about the Dementia Advocates Program. A program that provides opportunities for people impacted by Dementia to share their story and experiences to help improve the lives of others. Dementia advocates work together with Dementia Australia to raise awareness, tackle stigma and discrimination, and to influence decision makers.

Dementia Australia is the National peak body supporting people living with Dementia, their families, and carers. They advocate to government and in the community for positive change and vital services. They seek to amplify the voices of people impacted by Dementia and involve them in everything we do at Dementia Australia. An estimated 433,300 Australians live with Dementia and 1.7 million people are involved in their care. Dementia is the second leading cause of death in Australia, yet it remains a challenging and often misunderstood condition.
After Courtney’s presentation we heard from Janet who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Janet is an academic and teacher whose passion is writing. Janet was very articulate describing her experience with Alzheimer’s. It is still early days, but Janet has found support from Dementia Australia as they provide information and counselling. Her partner has also had counselling to prepare for the road ahead. Her presentation was truly inspiring as she is so positive
There were many questions after the two guest speakers indicating a need for such information. Courtney had pamphlets to hand out to the group on many aspects of Dementia support.

DEMENTIA AUSTRALIA: Dementia Australia has a South Australian office located at 27 Conyngham St, Glenside, SA 5065. They can be reached by phone at 08 8372 2100 for the office or 1800 100 500 for the National Helpline. Their email address is sa.admin@dementia.org.au. 
It was a truly inspiring day with a great deal of information.
Many thanks to our regular volunteers, Susan, Trish, Heather, Pam, Des, JC, and Ken.

Tour of Desalination Plant Lonsdale.

Wednesday 19th of June, 12 members met at the Cremorne Hotel and boarded a minibus that had been hired. Ian Metcalfe drove us to the desalination plant where we met up with three further members.
We enjoyed an excellent presentation showing how the desalination process worked, and an opportunity to see many display cabinets containing items flushed down toilets. The mind boggles, cameras, tennis balls, phones and toys etc.

Following treatment, the water is pumped to Happy Valley reservoir at a quantity and speed that circumstances dictate, and should the reservoir not be able to supply the population requirements, the desal plant can provide 100% of needs in winter and 50% in summer.
The plant has two units and even when no demand is called for the plant always operates at 5%. It is interesting that it takes 17,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of chocolate!!
We were given a tour of the impressive complex on their minibus and were able to enter one of the units which was under maintenance. What an asset this is to South Australia.
At the conclusion of the tour, we returned to the Cremorne hotel for lunch.
Thanks to Murray Rawinski for arranging this, and to Ian Metcalfe for driving the minibus.