About Our Club

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The Rotary Club of Surfers Paradise was Chartered on September 22, 1955 and was the second club founded in the Gold Coast region, which had a population of about 30,000 at that time.

Our Rotary Club has contributed much to the city's transformation over the years and the work of the members can still be seen in the mature vegetation in the streets.  Greening campaigns included the planting of 1000 palm trees during 1971-72 and 1000 Hibiscus bushes during 1978-79.  Rotary Park, which now fronts the Cascade Gardens, was established by the club members during 1956-57 and completed over the next three years.

The Club has had many distinguished members over the years, including a State Premier, City Mayors and the former CEO's of Ford Australia and Nissan Australia.

Our Club has a very proud history of service to the community with some outstanding programs.  

None gave more satisfaction than the establishment of the Wounded Servicemen Scheme in 1966.  Over the next 8 years, for the duration of Australia's involvement in the war in Vietnam, a total of 1,496 wounded servicemen and their families were given a convalescent holiday in Surfers Paradise as soon as they were sufficiently recovered.  The generosity of local businesses, tourist attractions and national airlines was heart warming.  Rotarians and their families provided the organisation and problem solving, of which there were many, as the scheme was of such a scale that it had to be planned like a military exercise.

Another long term project was the building of an 84 bed hostel for the Youth Hostels Association.  The YHA were about to be evicted from their rented premises due to the march of development, and in 1979, our club offered to help.  It was not an ideal time as a massive boom had sent land and building prices sky-rocketing. Eventually the club produced a design, called tenders, supervised the building works and prepared feasibility studies to demonstrate to the YHA how they could afford repayments on the biggest loan that they had ever contemplated.  The Rotary Club contributed $80,000.00 towards the project and finally saw it opened to 100% capacity use in June 1985.

In 1988 the Club commenced our ongoing long-term community building project - a retirement village for needy pensioners of very limited means; Golden Wheel Villas at Arundel. Golden Wheel Villas stage one was opened in in 1991 with five one-bedroom villas. Another ten villas were added in 1995, and in 2015 we were pleased to add another 8 single-person villas, bringing the total within the village to 22 villas. 

The Club is also very proud of our long-term Sister Club relationship with the Takasaki Rotary Club in Japan.  This relationship was forged during the heat of the 1991 Gulf War and has been reinforced with regular visits in both directions. In 2004 fifteen of our members were honoured guests at the 50th Anniversary of the Takasaki Rotary Club.  Later, in 2005, our Club hosted 32 members and friends of Takasaki Rotary Club at our own 50th Anniversary celebrations.

Our Club also has Sister Club relationships with Bangkok South Rotary Club in Thailand and the Rotary Club of Drury in New Zealand.  We participate with Bangkok South Club in ongoing Matching Grant programs providing much needed water filtration plants for schools and villages throughout Thailand.

To be continued.............