INITIALLY sponsored by the Rotary Club of Rutherford-Telarah, the inaugural meeting to form the Hawks Nest-Tea Gardens Probus Club was held 35 years ago this month.

The club was founded on 15 February 1988.

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The meeting was held at the Hawks Nest Golf Club, known back then as the ‘Tea Gardens – Hawks Nest Golf Club’.
The meeting was attended by sixteen men with Frank Fowler duly elected as President.

The foundation committee of five consisted of Keith Messenger (VP) Ron Singleton (Secretary), Bruce Oswald (Treasurer), Les Petersen (Social Director) and Mort Maiden (General Committee).

It was later discovered that some anomalies had existed in the election of officers and so a further meeting was convened on 28 March that year.

Fresh elections were held, resulting in the election of Randle Pritchard as the new President.

The original committee was retained with the addition of Alan White elected as Programme Director.

Rotary President Mr Neville Davies represented the Rotary Club of Rutherford Telarah on both these occasions.

“Up until 2019, the club operated as a single gender club, however whilst the club’s constitution was silent on gender and its membership only open to men, wives and partners were always included in all its social functions and outings and they were also invited and made welcome to the monthly meetings despite having no voting rights,” said Ron Green, Hawks Nest – Tea Gardens Probus Club.

“Following the formation of a new mixed Probus Club in Hawks Nest in 2011, our club’s membership numbers slowly declined from approximately 100 members to less than 60 over the next several years.

In late 2018 with the intention to address the declining numbers and after much discussion and deliberation, the HN-TG Probus Club began the transition to become a combined Probus Club in 2019.

Following a strong membership drive conducted in conjunction with the transition, membership grew rapidly to 113 members by the end of 2019.

However, when the COVID pandemic struck in early 2020, the club was forced into recession
until early 2021.

“Further disruptions and restrictions including social outings continued and as a result, the fallout that followed was that many of our newer members resigned without having experienced the real benefits of being part of Probus.

“Despite the club currently having just 50 active members, it still has a good base on which to build its membership in 2023 and most importantly the Probus philosophy of friendship, fellowship, and fun – still lives on in this immensely proud club,” Ron said.

The 35-year celebrations featured the return of many former members who have since left the district, and they were feted at a celebratory luncheon to mark the occasion.