Merrin and I would like to wish all of the members, honorary members, Friends of Rotary, families and friends of the Rotary Club of Bendigo Sandhurst, a safe and happy festive season and New Year.

 

It was reminiscent last Wednesday morning of a Year 9 class on the last period a Friday afternoon. It was noisy, people were talking nine to the dozen, members were still in the bar, chatting and waiting for their late ordered coffees and Chairman Rob was attempting to put some order into the proceedings.

 

Finally Rob welcomed everyone, in particular our guest speaker John Hazeldene and visiting Rotarian Roger McAllister and as predicted Rob commenced with a rather good standup comedy routine, which as you would expect included both chooks and pigs. His final item was to request ALL of us to buy more pork and chicken (in that order).

 

Graeme provided an overview of the conversations held in Timor Leste, re, the Knitting Project and the School and University Scholarship Programs.

As the number of new born in Maubisse is decreasing, there is less of a requirement for new born ( birth to one) knitted goods, but an increase for 1-2, 2-4 and 4-6 year old knitted goods. This will mean that the current patterns will need to be revised and the future sorting of knitted articles undertaken into the appropriate age/size groups. Merrin spent time with Sister Henrietta and Sister Jacinta with a group of children to measure each child according to their age.

The appropriate age related signage will then need to be stenciled on to the wool bales prior to dispatch. All of the container based goods will be unloaded at the “Rotarians Helping Timor Office in Timor Leste”, in Dili and supervised by Judite and Mario. At the depot there are 3 X 40 foot containers in which the goods can be stored before being picked up and distributed as required by Chefe Senior Wilson from Maubisse. This will save costs as well as the “mad panic” in Maubisse which occurs when fully loaded containers arrive; often late in the afternoon, when it is raining and the truck has to get back to Dili that day or a penalty cost is incurred on top of the normal freight price.

 

The scholarship program is supervised by the Alola Foundation. They distribute half of the annual scholarship money every six months to the 100 secondary students in Maubisse and the 14 University students in Dili.

This is an exceptionally well run program, with each student being interviewed on their academic and social/cultural progress. As described by Senior Luis, Senior Administrator, Education and Health are the two most areas of need at present. Members and friends of the Rotary Club of Bendigo Sandhurst can be proud of the support they provide to the community of Maubisse.

 

The “smarties jar” as provided by DG Bronwyn. The idea is to replace the smarties with gold coins to aid the “End Polio Now” campaign.

St George Bank

Acct Name: The Australia Rotary Foundation Trust

Acct No: 551038195    BSB No: 332 084

Include your member ID followed by PP (Contribution to PolioPlus)

 

St George Bank

Acct Name: The Rotary Foundation

Acct No: 100345225   BSB No: 332 084

Include Club No (25446) followed by PP (Contribution to PolioPlus)

 

NB: I have 3 jars left.

 

Copies of the bank receipts are to be sent to:

risppo@rotary.org  and  to  secretary@rotarydistrict9800.org.au

 

 

With a big welcome back to all present, PP George gave a snapshot of his 10 week OS sojourn and presented Chairman Rob with two lovely club banners as a consequence of “stumbling in to a couple of Rotary meetings”. Thanks George, we are looking forward to a more comprehensive report next year.

 

 

John Hazeldene spoke of the past, present and future of their family business, chicken farming, processing and distribution.

 

John’s father Dick was asked to look after his big brothers 30-40 chooks, whilst he was away during WW11. As he did not return Dick then set about growing more chickens. They cut down trees during the day, built chook sheds with the timber, cut open kerosene tins and flattened them and covered them in tar and then nailed them to the timbers structures built.

In 1972 they had 15,000 laying hens, couldn’t sell the eggs, so they were slaughtered and sold to supermarkets. They then expanded to 25,000 layers and quotas were introduced at the cost of $3.00 per bird. All of the processing was done by hand and John described himself as the “number 1 gutter”.

By 1985 they had 30,000 layers and 20,000 meat birds. This is when the Avian Influenza struck and decisions had to be made, eggs or meat. The layer quota was sold for $18.00 per bird. After some incredible risks and some huge losses, Hazeldene’s now process 720,000 birds per week in an RSPCA accredited model of production, which is fully integrated from the farm gate to the dinner plate. With Bio security a major factor in all of their sites, John is acutely aware of the potential for sabotage and the ensuing negative media publicity which may arise. The company has now the state of the art production and processing facilities (one of only a handful in the world), which is becoming fully automated.

For a new business to start up with the facilities Hazeldene’s have, it would cost in excess of $400 million, this does not include the cost of the land, staff etc. Most of the production of poultry in Australia is from entrepreneurial families, who have been in the business for a long time.

The major costs for the business at present are feed (doubled due to drought), labour (they employ 870 with 300 contractors) and energy.

As expected there were a large number of questions, which were cut short by John, having to dash off rather urgently. Thank you John, for an incredible honest and straight talking insight into the family business.

 

Graeme