Events

Ginny Giorgio is a retired family lawyer and former drama teacher dedicated to early intervention in domestic and family violence.

As Youth Director of Kingscliff Rotary, she founded Towards Respectful Relationships, a filmmaking program providing supportive, trauma-informed assistance to young people directly and indirectly impacted by violence.

This program is helping young people to recognise respectful relationships early — aiming for one less victim and one less perpetrator.

M.C. Dorothy Gilmour

Photo: Supplied by speaker.

Speakers are Emily Wilkinson is the founder and program manager & Voleak Pham is the Communications Co-ordinator of  ‘REACH Siem Reap.

A 'variety of programs which work to lift children and their families out of poverty are offered.

No single program alone can achieve this.

We have identified the following programs which operate simultaneously to make breaking the poverty cycle a reality:

We are passionate about keeping families together’.

M.C. Katrina Flinn

Photo Credit: Peter Borter, via Unsplash

Behind the Badge talks are not to be missed!

Come and hear Min share her insights, experiences and stories. 

M.C. Dorothy Gilmour

Photo: Jon Tyson via Unsplash

'Sue Williams bases her fourth historical novel, on her own family's legend that they are descended from Mary Ann and the Duke. In a beguiling mix of fact and fiction, she tells the rollicking story of the womanising Duke, whose appetite for women knew no bounds, the maid who was powerless to resist his charms, and her own quest to prove whether this was merely myth or a blood tie with history.

Her other historical novels, Elizabeth & Elizabeth, about Elizabeth Macquarie and Elizabeth Macarthur; That Bligh Girl, featuring Mary Bligh and her father, the notorious mutiny survivor and governor William Bligh; and The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress, about Philip Gidley King and his tangled love affairs, have all proved bestsellers.

Sue is also an award-winning journalist, travel writer and bestselling author of non-fiction. She lives in Sydney with her partner Jimmy Thomson, aka crime writer James Dunbar, and their two cats'.

(Source: Words and Photo:  Allen and Unwin)

M.C. Dorothy Gilmour

More to come.

M.C. Doug McLean

Prison Network is a not-for-profit organisation that has been supporting women in and beyond prison for nearly 80 years. Its vision is to create dignity, hope and purpose for women as they navigate pathways beyond the justice system.

The organisation works both inside prison and in the community, providing programs that build connection, strengthen family relationships, and support women as they transition back into everyday life. This includes in-prison programs, post-release support, and assistance with housing, employment, and community reintegration.

Prison Network takes a relational, trauma-informed approach, recognising the complex challenges many women face, and works alongside them to support long-term positive change for themselves and their families

Pattie Phillips is part of Prison Network, working in community and stakeholder engagement.

She works across partnerships, events, and initiatives that help connect the broader community to the organisation’s work. She also supports conversations that raise awareness of the challenges women face in and beyond prison, and the importance of strong, connected support systems.

Pattie will be speaking about the work of Prison Network, the impact of that work, and why supporting women through and beyond the justice system is critical to building stronger communities.

M.C.: Min Bell

Graphic and Words: Prison Network

M.C. Dorothy Gilmour

Photo: COTA Victoria 

George Hulse and Jimmy Thomson are the authors of The First ANZACS

'This is the unknown story of the combat engineers who kept World War I running. Although it has been repeatedly denied by the army, they were the first Australians and New Zealanders to land at Anzac Cove: in any combat, even today, sappers are always the first in and last out.

Samantha Clarke is an Ambassador for Mercy Ships Australia and is passionate about connecting people to meaningful impact. With a background spanning business, community engagement and national politics, she now shares the story of Mercy Ships and the life changing work taking place through the world’s largest civilian hospital ships, bringing free surgery, training and hope to people in need.

M.C.: Denbigh Richards

Photo Credit: Supplied

Laraine sets her Reggie da Costa Mysteries in the Melbourne of the early twentieth century, in the aftermath of the Great War and during the heady days of the 1920s, when gangs, sly-grog and gambling dens inhabited the back streets of Melbourne. 

In her talk, Laraine will discuss how she combined her love of crime fiction and history to depict historically accurate and lively settings for her Reggie da Costa Mysteries.

M.C: TBA

Photo: Supplied by speaker

M.C. Pam Crockett

Photo Credit: Jyju Jossey via Pexels

A Rotary-led partnership has brought safe drinking water to 789 people in a remote village in Myanmar's Karen State, reducing the threat of deadly waterborne diseases and creating a sustainable, community-managed solution for future generations. In a region where clean water can mean the difference between health and illness, this project is not simply providing water—it is helping to secure a healthier future for an entire community.

The main fundraising for this project was the fundraising dinner of Karen food and dancing in Nhill. Members that journeyed to Nhill would have fond memories of this evening. 

M.C. Katrina Flinn

Photo: Supplied

Hisham is a third-year PhD student in the Godfrey-Koay Lab within the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on how a specialised group of white blood cells called "MAIT cells" recognise infection and how they can be therapeutically manipulated to treat disease.

Hisham was recently awarded the 2025 Rotary Hawthorn Travel Prize, which funded a 12-week research placement at the Research Centre for Respiratory Diseases in Tours and the Curie Institute in Paris, France. There, he utilised a protein reagent called a nanobody that he developed in Melbourne to study the role of MAIT cells in health and in respiratory infection. Hisham had access to unique preclinical models in France and will present an overview of his research today

M.C. Doug McLean

Photo Credit: Artem Podrez via Pexels

'David is an Associate Professor and Principal research fellow at the Bionics Institute. 

He is the founding head of the Balance Disorders & Ataxia Service (BDAS) at the Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital, the Fragile X-Associated Tremor Ataxia (FXTAS) Clinic. He consults in the Monash Health Friedreich Ataxia clinic and the Machado-Joseph Disease Foundation Ataxia Clinic (Northern Territory), an honorary neurologist at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne and a lecturer at Melbourne University.

David regularly travels to remote regions in Australia to provide clinical care for first nations people with balance disorders, many of whom are much more prone to developing disorders due to genetics'.

M.C. Doug McLean

Photo Credit: Bionics Institute 

‘D-Day was the biggest land and water invasion in history and would go on to be a huge turning point in WWII. And it all depended on a plant.

Specifically a leaf from a tree that grows on the east coast of Australia, that would treat  soldiers and allow them to fight.

This is the, story of how Indigenous Australian knowledge would shape WWII and make sure D-Day actually happened’. 

Dr Chris Kavelin’s expertise is on the ‘hidden indigenous origin of modern medicines’.

M.C.:  Andrew Crockett

Photo Credit: Nataliya Voitkevich via Pexels

Come and hear about the Sophia Mundi Steiner School where President Dorothy worked with the Year 10 students with the Rotary SAFE Families Towards Respectful Relationships program.

There will also be two exchange students Sebastian Flynn, Mattia Gaspardo who will join us, with Doug McLean doing a short 'Q and A' with them.

M.C.: 

Photo: Jon Tyson via Unsplash

M.C. President Dorothy Gilmour