LIONS CLUB OF TERRIGAL-WAMBERAL
Club History
(Our club’s history since 1960 is an important part of this website and will be summarised from club records as a continuing project.
Lions Clubs always try to help their communities and this will never change. We do not seek personal publicity as club members but we do seek to promote Lions International, the largest service organisation in the world. -Ed WR)
The current Lions Club of Terrigal-Wamberal, established in 1960, is very proud of it’s long and successful history.
We are now approaching our 50th anniversary, and this will be a big celebration for us in September 2010.
The club is currently searching through all the old records in preparation for the event. Long serving Lion Barry Shepherd is handling this task as he has for many years stored many of the records of the Terrigal Lions and from 1997 records and equipment of the Terrigal-Wamberal Club. Barry is also in the process of retiring from Lions so we thank him for all he has done. He will remain in our memories and our history.
Originally it all started with Terrigal Lions Club which was chartered by the Woy Woy Lions Club in 1960. Marsh Stedman was that club’s first president.
In 1980 the Lions Club of Wamberal was formed and chartered by the Lions Club of Killarney-Bateau. The first president was Phil Christie. Two of the original Charter members of Wamberal Lions Club remained as active members of Terrigal-Wamberal Lions Club until they retired early in 2009.
In 1997 the Terrigal Lions Club and the Wamberal Lions Club agreed to merge to create the current Lions Club of Terrigal-Wamberal.
Both clubs have provided considerable financial and manual assistance to deserving causes over the years and have always tried to help local communities as a priority.
As with all Lions clubs throughout the world we are associated with both national and international projects as well as local ones. One of Lions International greatest projects is the Save-Sight Campaign which continues to save the sight of millions of people in third world countries.
A large number of important projects have been completed over the years.
Terrigal Lions Club
Terrigal Lions Club’s biggest project, back in the 1970s, was the buying of a block of land in Wamberal and then building a quality brick and tile house on it. The Club later sold the house to raise funds.
At that time several of the club members were in the building trade which greatly assisted the project. Many other members of the club also helped during the construction. The house was well built and still stands today. It has had a few owners over the years. *
There were many other projects.
Much more of Terrigal Lions’s Club’s long history will be recorded here as soon as we can but there is a lot to write about and we want it to be interesting, accurate and informative. You won’t have to wait too much longer but it does cover the period from 1960 and it is being researched carefully. Our editor is a charter member of Wamberal Lions Club and only has first hand knowledge of that club.
Terrigal Lions commenced on 21st September 1960 with 28 members. It was was chartered by the Woy Woy Lions Club. Marsh Stedman was the club’s first president. It was club number 166 in Australia and the fourth on the Central Coast.
The Charter night was held at The Florida Hotel Terrigal. On that beachfront site now stands the 5 star Crowne Plaza Hotel.
The “Terrigal Senior Citizens” of today started out from what was originally the the Terrigal Lions “Library and Recreational Club” that was based the old RSL Clubroom next to Terrigal Bowling Club. The club was the first Lions Club to conduct Art Shows, firstly at the Florida Hotel, and later at Erina Public Hall and Terrigal Scout Hall.
For years the club organised an annual “Orange Blossom Festival” which did a lot to promote the area as a tourist destination. Many people today would suprised to hear that Terrigal was not all that long ago a producer of oranges. North Eastern hillsides are the perfect locations for orange orchards.
In the early days and as a continuing project the club also did a lot of work building picnic sheds and BBQ facilities improving the Lions Park at Terrigal Drive and Willoughby Road. Currently it is a pleasant lagoon side park with facilities all supplied by the Club. This park is the site where the current Terrigal-Wamberal Lions started their monthly “Lions Car Boot Sale” in 2003. Check out the Car Boot Sale link at the top left hand side above.
*details of the house building project above thanks to information confirmed in 2008 by Ron Henry, a life member who joined our club in 1971. Lion Ron passed away on September 10 2009, aged 92, and always will be remembered by Lions and many more outside the Lions organisation. ( Ed.)
Wamberal Lions Club
Wamberal Lions Club’s biggest project was in the early 1980s when they also got involved in a building project in the club’s very early years. They actually built the first school for Autistic children outside of Sydney. It is the Terrigal Autistic Childrens School at Duffys Road Terrigal and it was opened in 1983. A huge number of hours were spent by Wamberal Lions, both during the week and on weekends, to complete the project. Some generous local contractors also donated much of their time. We received excellent assistance as well as building advice from the Avoca Lions Club and wish to again thank them for that valuable contribution.
The club had offered to help build a school for autistic children on the Central Coast and was trying to work out a plan as to how they could achieve it. The project was looking to be more difficult every week. A Wamberal Lion, Clive Staniland, surprised club members when, at a club meeting, he generously offered his own house to the club. He had been thinking about building a new house on his Central Coast Highway property at Wamberal and decided he could help Lions in a major way to build the school for autistic children by donating his current house. Being a solidly constructed 3 bedroom timber house Wamberal Lions contracted a house moving company to cut the house into parts. Each part was then moved very slowly on huge trucks from Wamberal to it’s new site at Terrigal. Club members then commenced the long and arduous work on making it into a property suitable to be a school.
Wamberal Lions (with a membership of 29 then) were able to raise $18,000 which included many donations, the club’s Big Jumble Sale and numerous raffle tickets. Over 6,000 man hours were spent on the project.
Wamberal Lions received the annual Community Service Award from the Sydney Morning Herald for this project and were presented with the award at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney.
During 2008 a large building extension was opened at the Terrigal Childrens Autistic School. This time it was beyond Terrigal-Wamberal Lions Club’s ability to fund such a large project. However we are very proud to see the magnificent progress the school has made since the early ’80s when we built the first school.
We acknowledge and remain thankful for the generous assistance of the Lions Club of Avoca Beach, the Lions Club of Budgewoi, Gosford City Council, Electrical Contractors Association of the Central Coast, Probation and Parole Service of the Central Coast, Contract Bricklayers and Nurserymens’ Association of the Central Coast. Other organisations and individuals also assisted us in making this project a success.
The club received excellent publicity for this project from Radio 2GO, The Gosford Star, Central Coast Express and The Entrance Guardian.
Wamberal Lions Club formed two more Lions clubs
Wamberal Lions Club formed and set up two new Lions Clubs within their area. The first was the Wamberal Lioness Club and later the Erina Lions Club.
The Wamberal Lioness Club was chartered while Wamberal’s President was Lion Dr Doug Malley. Wamberal Lion Phil Christie (first President of Wamberal Lions) organised the starting of this club with then Deputy District Governor Keith Morris. Phil had located 12 ladies to join the new club within one week.
Wamberal Lioness Club’s first President was Roma Dobson (wife of Wamberal Lion Reg Dobson, Wamberal Postmaster). Joan Innes was first Secretary. The first Treasurer was Helen Christie, wife of Wamberal Lions first President.
The club operated extremely well from November 1983 until June 1996 and made a real contribution to the community. Unfortunately it finally closed down due to declining membership. Three of the original members of the Wamberal Lioness Club were still active members when the club closed. They were Helen Christie, Pat Stokes and Pratti Patel.
The second club chartered by the Wamberal Lions Club was the Erina Lions Club, the first Lions club chartered in Australia with all female members, on 15th April 1989 at Central Coast Leagues Club, Gosford. It was the intention of the Wamberal Lions Club to create a successful Lions Club with only female Lions. Wamberal Lions met regularly with the Erina Lions Club and fully supported their activities.
Erina Lions operated extremely well for some years. Wamberal Lions Club was most disappointed to see the Erina Lions Club also close due to declining membership. Much time and effort was spent by Wamberal Lions Club to prevent the closure of this club.
Terrigal-Wamberal Lions Club
(This is our current operating Lions Club)
As detailed above our current club, the Terrigal-Wamberal Lions Club commenced in 1997 when the Terrigal Lions Club and the Wamberal Lions Club agreed to merge.
Our first big project was the hosting of the annual Lions District 201N3 Convention. That required all hands on deck and much help from our wives as well. The Convention planning was organised and managed by Lion Eric Sykes, who was previously in the Wamberal Lions Club. The event was held at the Terrigal Memorial Club, Dover Road, Wamberal.
Our first Lions Car Boot Sale was held in September 2003. It continues on the first Sunday every month at Lions Park Terrigal, on the corner of Terrigal Drive and Willoughby Road. This Lions project was first suggested by our long term club member Lion Dr Doug Malley at a board meeting held at then President Walt Roset’s house in early 2002 and it was approved for Doug to investigate further. He did investigated and developed the project and the Board appointed him to establish and manage it. It was managed by him until his retirement from Lions in 2009. It remains a well known local event, and the major project of our club. See Car Boot Sale link at top of this page for more information.
Our Giant Christmas Trailer Raffle operates every year and raises funds so we can further help deserving local causes. We thank all those who support our club by buying tickets because without their generosity much of what we do would not be possible.
Since then we have continued to help many people and feel very confident that we will continue to do so on a permanent basis for our community. All that we achieve is thanks to the generosity of the local people and visitors to our area who assist us in raising funds for worthy causes.
……….club hisory is a continuing project and will be added to as time permits.
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