Minutes of Rotary – 4^th April 2016

Chairman – Joan Barker

Grace – Phil Seager

 

Introducing of guests – Anthony Mills, (brother of Stephen Mills) and Michelle Davis (Squish), guest of Julie Andrew.

President – Chris Sutton reported that since our last Rotary meeting we have had great success with the Art show, followed by the show case night and the Bowling night when we defeated Nathalia to reclaim the award which is currently at the engravers. Chris reported on our foreign exchange student, Zoe who arrived from Germany & has been travelling around the country. Kate Hodge will later report on her trip to Mt Buller with Zoe. Frank Malcolm turned 60 last Thursday. Jeff Buzza became a grandfather for the first time, John Watson became a great grandfather today, Alan Canobie elected President of mixed Probus. President Chris detailed that she was able to fit in another bike ride supporting Alexander Rotary Club ride from Alexander to Yea – 75 km ride 60 riders great success & won third prize in the competition.  Zoe (exchange student) will take home a banner from Numurkah Rotary Club as a reminder of her visit. This weekend is the 4 wheel drive weekend which requires Rotarians to assist with catering of slices & cakes for the weekend. There is also a barbeque this Saturday for the first anniversary of the opening of the Hardware Store. District Assembly is in Benalla this Sunday. The movie, Eddie the Eagle is being featured as a pre-release screening on Saturday 13^th April @ $20 for polio in Shepparton. Lions club market will require volunteers on Saturday 16^th April plus Nathalia Show n Shine on 17^th April requires more volunteers.

 

John & Joan Barker celebrate their 41^st wedding anniversary today, they are heading towards the end of their beef career and looking towards retirement. They wish to do more travelling.  Joan introduced David Woodhouse & his partner Stellar who are involved with the new community centre being built in Katandra after 8 or 9 years it is coming to fruition. They were international travellers who both hold PHD’s before they commenced farming of 2400 walnut trees 1800 seeds on their 50 acre property called Katandra Walnuts.

 

David had a career in universities around the world throughout his career and became involved with quality assurance agencies in 1990 which lead him to work in Hong Kong, New Zealand & subsequent moved to Australia. David became disillusioned when Julia Gillard changed the structure of education. In 2011 David & Stellar bought the land in Katandra & moved there full time in 2014.

Stellar became involved in quality assurance after a career in education specialising in mathematics and statistics.

David and Stellar were both working for the Ministry of United Education in United Emirates for 2 years when they developed an interest in farming & agriculture. Stellar’s grandparents had a farming background whereas her parents were teachers.

Walnuts were chosen after extensive  discussions with DPI and their own research revealed that the irrigation country around Shepparton could be a similar environment to that in California where 70% of the global supply of walnuts are sourced.

 with limited knowledge of extensive agriculture, walnuts are like Gentleman’s culture, there is machines that will shake the nuts, pickup the nuts but they are now being called “David”. They established the farm whilst working in Abu Dhabi they decided to live at the farm full time in 2014.

The farm is 60 hectares cnr Lane Road & Rifle Butts Rd near the old school. Soil test sandy loam with the exception of part of the land that was part of the Katandra swamp.  Eastern boundary channel is part of their land, an easement that is 15 hectares run by GMW.

10 hectares dedicated to walnuts were required to make the investment viable. 20 walnut growers in the Shepparton area were willing to share their experiences to help them establish a plan. Such as tree spacing, 3 metre by 6 spacing between the rows but Californian growers would deem those figures too tight for growth. Planting trees 5 metres apart with rows 7 metres apart was made for the planting, with planting the trees 1 metre high in a mound to help the trees grow but to allow for drainage in the event of flood. Some have vigorous root system which can make them susceptible to root cancers. After an endless number of decisions they were required to make to decide what type of risks they were prepared to take here. They found there were no right answers. They went for microjets to water the trees including the installation of sensors to provide readings of moisture in the soil at various levels in the soil which they review the results daily over the morning coffee. Walnut trees are only threatened by 3 major diseases including blight. Walnuts are very resilient overall.

Weeds were a surprise as to how big a part they have become in their lives. Weeds need to die to allow for walnut trees to live, which herbiside to use was quite challenging. They now use a fine droplet for spraying the weeds whilst not hurting the trees delivered on the back of the quadbike followed by a hand machine.

Farm life has helped them develop an appreciation for the future whilst being challenging. Next year they hope to get enough walnuts to bake a cake, in 3 years time they may be able to collect a sack full of walnuts. David & Stellar understand that they may need to wait up to 5 years for the trees to develop walnuts, but they hope to get their sooner & they enjoy what they are doing. They generally stock 2 types of walnut trees, the black walnut trees are what are used for their wood. Currently the trees are up to 1.5 metres in height.

 

June Hewson thanking Rotary on the kind wishes for her 80^th birthday. Thank you from RSL for donation for $250 for sound system for Anzac Day Service. The RSL are wanting volunteers for gun fire breakfast on Anzac Day for the barbeque. Invitation for lunch with RI President Nominee on 19^th June starting at 12.30 $45/head. Reminder Rotary Leadership Institute part 1. Invitation to attend Charter presentation of E club of La Trobe in district 9790 light lunch in May $40 per head.

 

Directors reports – Kate Hodge – International Director Zoe spent first 5 days with Sharyn Griffiths learning about dairy farming, she unfortunately had tonsillitis, Chris took her for a trip to view koalas & then to join the Hodge family. Zoe stayed at Sawmill Settlement with the Hodge family and Zoe was very excited to get to the summit. Stuart took Zoe to Mt Buller again as first day was quite smoky. They then did 16 km walk to top of Mt Stirling. Zoe’s passion in life is nature. She got on famously well with Kate’s three girls. Kate described Zoe as a delightful young  lady. Zoe had never seen a waterfall before, & she was thrilled with Kate making a video of her drinking out of a mountain stream. Lorraine picked up Zoe in Yea where she went to the Healesville Sanctuary and then to an AFL game, currently she is in Central Australia. When Zoe returns she will be spending the last part of her visit with Jennifer.

 

Phil Seager – reported on 8 Rotarians attending this weekend for the 4 wheel drive trip.

 

Jeff Buzza – Barbeque on Saturday with proceeds to go to Pip Cowan to help fund his trip to America. Need a 3^rd volunteer for the barbeque.

 

Terry Brennan – update on Historical Society has lost a Secretary but Gayle Buzza has now taken on the role. Things seem to be settling down but still having trouble with the Moira Shire with them not responding to correspondence.

Terry represented Numurkah in the Shepparton Show n Shine with the Oldsmobile being listed in the top 10.

 

Ivan Routley – has found some items missing from the Rotary barbeque, appears to be missing trays, knives & one pair of small thongs & lifters remain. Please all check at home if anyone has taken home items to clean.

 

Attendance report – Sharyn Griffiths – 26 in attendance 78.79% apologies from Jason Andrew, Bob Fyfe, Gary Fisher & Jacqui Phillips.

 

Fellowship report – Linda Boyd – Lorraine Greenwood’s birthday, Peter Carter’s wedding anniversary, Joan Barker’s wedding anniversary, and also Jacqui & Gary Phillips.

 

Heads & Tails won by Linda Boyd.

 

Phil Seager issued various fines.

 

Meeting closed at 8.00pm to be followed by Board Meeting.