Our History

A summary of projects undertaken by Flinders Lions.

• Historically, club members were very ‘hands-on’, sawing firewood for the elderly; conducting sausage sizzles outside the Flinders General Store on ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day; raffling a trailer load of firewood; planting the flowering gums along Cook Street; a BBQ pavilion on the Kenyon Cove foreshore; and many other endeavours to assist the disadvantaged.

• More recently, the Club planted additional Norfolk Island Pines along Norman Street – a memorial originally started by school children to commemorate war service men and women.

• Obtaining funding for new street furniture and seating in Cook Street and the parks. 

• Obtaining a Lions Foundation Grant to assist funding of the WWII Memorial at the Cook Street Reserve.

• Introducing the concept of a Strategic Plan for the future direction of the Club. The Club’s endeavour was to engage with the community to the degree that they would be inclined to state: We would like to join that Club, they do good work, make a difference, and have fun doing it. 

• An outcome of a community consultation process was the idea of the Community Picnic. Lions undertook to run this project to engender greater community engagement.

• Fund-raising dinners with guest speakers for Prostate Cancer Awareness; Diabetes Awareness; Alzheimer’s/Dementia Awareness; Healthy Ageing; Childhood Mental Health; and for the new Flinders CFA Station, were conducted with great success. 

• Special occasion dinners celebrating 100 years of Lions International, and 50 years of Flinders Lions Club were also hugely successful.

• In 2019 the Club received the Lions District Club of the Year Award.

• In 2021, Crib Point Flinders RSL needed assistance to conduct the ANZAC Day March and Commemorative Service. A committee was formed, largely made up of Lions members, to ensure the long tradition in Flinders continued.

All these initiatives assisted greatly in fulfilling the objective of increasing community awareness of Lions International activities and attracting new members to the club; thus, enabling projects to be developed and run with greater efficiency. 

Other initiatives undertaken by the Club include:

• A particularly rewarding initiative was when McMillan Educational Publishing was winding up that part of their business in Australia and offered to donate computers and IT equipment plus 70 pallet loads of children’s books to Lions 123Read2me Project. Through industry contacts, one of Melbourne’s largest industrial estate developers donated the use of a warehouse rent free for as long as it was needed to enable the sorting and distribution of some 45,000 books for the 123Read2me organization.

• The Club conducts the Lions Junior Public Speaking Competition with participation from students from Hastings Primary School.

• It also undertakes fundraising for Christmas hampers and children’s gifts for Western Port Community Services.

• For many years the Club has supported Friends of Flinders Foreshore and Main Creek Landcare with funding towards their important environmental clearing and re-planting projects.

• The relocation of AED’s to external positions in association with Ambulance Victoria and securing funding and approval for an AED at the Flinders Pier. 

• A Christmas Tree in the park during the Covid Pandemic lock down years. 

• The idea of an E-Waste collection point in consultation with Mornington Peninsula Shire. 

• New accounting software for the club. 

• Formalisation of a club structure clearly identifying projects and roles, and introduction of improved email and social media communication and networking systems. 

• Creation of a web site and online social media presence.

Our projects have enabled us to increase funds distributed to worthy causes from $35k in 2015 to more than $140,000 in 2023/4, after much-restricted activity in the Covid Pandemic years. 

Flinders Motoring Heritage Project

The idea of an historic motoring display to raise funds was first proposed in a community consultation process and a small Lions Club committee was formulated to plan the Flinders Motoring Heritage event. The first event was held in 2016 with only some 30 cars on display and funds raised from gold coin donations for visitors to have a look at the old vehicles. The potential for a bigger and better event was realised and by 2021 the event had grown to some 170 veteran, vintage, and modern and historic classic cars on display with sponsorships, grants, donations and entry fees raising substantial funds. Over 1500 visitors attend the event.

Our early event resulted in a donation to Peninsula Health of $28,000 for much needed foetal heart monitors.

In 2021-22 more than $70,000 was raised for Peninsula Health’s Interactive Garden Space for Dementia Patients at the Mornington Centre.

 In 2023, over $65,000 was raised for Southern Peninsula Community Support’s program to support those homeless and sleeping rough on the Southern Mornington Peninsula. The club raised the funds to purchase the mobile shower, toilet and laundry ‘SPLaSh Van’.

 In 2024, the event raised more than $50,000 to purchase a vehicle to tow the SPLaSh Van.

In recognition of its successful marketing and promotion of Flinders Motoring Heritage the Club received Lions Australia National recognition with a Syd Packham Award.

Charity Golf Day Project

The Charity Golf Day and luncheon has been run in March every year since 1988. Sponsorship by the Flinders Golf Club and Bendigo Community Bank Balnarring, together with on course betting holes, silent and live auction items over lunch, has resulted in funds raised exceeding $25,000 annually. Funds raised are distributed by the Club to local registered organizations and worthy causes to support those most vulnerable in the Mornington Peninsula community.

Pink Ribbon Events

The opportunity was recognised for the Club to take a more active role in the conduct of the Pink Ribbon Breakfast, which supports the National Breast Cancer Research Foundation. This project was initiated originally to help lift the club’s exposure and enable more significant fundraising for this wonderful cause. Breakfasts and cocktail events have raised nearly $100,000 for this cause in recent years.

We were most fortunate to have heard from a range of Guest Speakers about Health and Research over the past years of this project. 

They included: Dr Norman Pouliot, Head of Matrix Microenvironment and Metastasis; Dr Antonella Papa, Cancer Biology and Cell Signaling Laboratory at Monash University; Professor Marina Reeves NBCF Funded Researcher; Barbara Porter, former microbiologist and researcher; Dr Lisa Ooms, Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University. Diane Micallef, a NBCF Community Ambassador; Karen Inge, a leading accredited practicing dietitian; Dr. Joanna Morgan, an experienced Specialist Oncoplastic Breast and Thyroid Surgeon; Dr Liz Farrell AM, a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery and Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; Associate Professor Heather Thorne OAM kConFab National Manager, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre; Carole Patullo an actor, theatre-maker, director and teaching artist. Carole has worked with many major arts organizations and shared her personal experience of Breast Cancer.

Community Dinners

The Club conducts community dinner with high profile guest speakers with a view to raising awareness of issues key to Lions International Objectives.

• Dr Susan Alberti AC was Guest Speaker at the Club’s dinner to celebrate 100 years of Lions International. Susan is one of Australia’s pre-eminent philanthropists having donated millions to medical research. She donated to Australian Lions Diabetes Foundation via Flinders Lions Club.

• Associate Professor of Aged Psychiatry, Stephen MacFarlane was the Speaker for the Club to raise awareness in the community and raise money for the Lions Alzheimer’s Foundation.

• Professor Tony Costello OAM pioneered robotic surgery in Australia. The event was held to fundraise for robotic surgery and further research into prostate cancer.

• To celebrate 50 years of the Lions Cub of Flinders District, Charter Member Graham Findlay made a presentation about the Club's History. Gillian Sparkes AM, Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability was the Guest Speaker.

• Paul Gilmore, Head of Urology at Peninsula Health and Phillip Dundee, a urologist specialising in robotic prostate, kidney and bladder surgery spoke at a community dinner to fundraise towards a prostate scanning machine for Peninsula Health.

• Professor Srikanth, Director of the National Centre for Healthy Ageing, Monash University and Peninsula Health, Melbourne, spoke about the Ngarnga Centre and research being conducted on Healthy Ageing. 

• Professor Frank Oberklaid OAM, founding director of the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. He is currently Co-Group Leader of Child Health Policy, Equity and Translation at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and an Honorary Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne.

Membership

Membership growth reached 41 in 2023, bringing in new members who have embraced these ideas and helped deliver them for the greater benefit of the club (and our programs).

We can proudly say membership has grown; people are genuinely impressed with what Lions do in the community; and more importantly, we have established close friendships and gain great satisfaction and enjoyment from what we are doing.