From notes provided by: David Wells, Kerry Thomas and Clive Reid
Updated: 3 November 2025
From a speech prepared for the Lions Club of Dardanup’s 50th Anniversary Lunch
Sunday 12 November, 2023 at Evedon Park
The Lions Club of Dardanup was Chartered on 29 December 1971, sponsored by the Lions Club of Brunswick Junction. The Charter Presentation Night was held on Saturday 11 March 1972 at the Dardanup Hall.
Members of the Lions Club of Dardanup were inducted by District Governor Terry Price who presented the Club’s Charter to President, Lion John Giumelli. Terry Price then installed the Charter Board of Directors.
The Charter Board of Directors were ;
| ROLE | NAME |
| President | John Giumelli |
| First Vice President | Dan Clarke |
| Second Vice President | Jim Ward |
| Third Vice President | Allen Mountford |
| Secretary | Colin Harris |
| Treasurer | Fred Reynolds |
| Tail Twister | Albert Damiani |
| Lion Tamer | Michael Hurst |
| 2 Year Director | Peter Giumelli |
| 2 Year Director | Geoff Harris |
| 1 Year Director | Murray Harris |
| 1 Year Director | Fred Clark |
The first major project of the Lions Club of Dardanup was the canoe races at Alby Gibson’s on the Ferguson River at Picton which were held for a number of years. There were canoe and raft races for young and old, a great family day out. Charter President John Giumelli was very much instrumental in the establishment of this project.
In the first year or two of the Club’s existence, the main fundraisers were chook raffles. Tickets were sold around the bar at the Dardanup Hotel prior the commencement of the meeting. The bar was always full at that time in an era when workmen from J L Gardiner and Son (Des Gardiner’s) abattoir came in for a drink at the end of the working day as well as local dairymen when they finished milking the cows.
In those early years the Club also provided pony rides for children at the Brunswick Show. Members would lead ponies around in a circle with young children riding on them. The horses were suppied by members like Graeme Edwards and others.
The Dardanup Lions’ Merry-Go-Round followed was another early Club project at the instigation of Geoff Harris. Geoff had a worker who helped him construct the Merry-Go-Round. The boxes to carry the kids were built by prisoners at the Bunbury Regional Prison with the support of two Lions Club members who were prison officers, Gary Godbold and Superintendent Ted Derkins. It was very well built and weighed a tonne.
When dismantled, it was carted around on the back of Geoff’s tip truck. The Merry-Go-Round was taken to many functions over the years. It was a regular attraction at the Brunswick Agricultural Shows in October. It went to other Agricultural Shows and functions in the Greater Bunbury area and was a good fundraiser for the Club during that period.
When it was operating, people would buy tickets for a ride but in the end Lions didn’t know who had purchased tickets. It became confusing so the Club ended up getting tickets printed in rolls similar to those used to get into Cinemas then. About forty rolls were purchased, each containing about one hundred in them, which were numbered making the monitoring of tickets sold to monies received easier. When a ticket was purchased it was torn off and given to the purchaser who could use it then for a ride or come back and redeem it later for a ride if there was a queue. The Merry-Go-Round was eventually sold to another Lions Club.
Leasing of the Bunbury Race Course interior paddock was another big early project, quite a few acres of land for a number of years. About two thirds of members of the Lions Club in the seventies and eighties were whole milk dairy farmers. The paddock was seeded and fertilized to produce a quality hay crop because as dairy farmers, they knew what they were doing. Many members had hay making equipment. Lions Dan Clarke and Geoff Harris would mow the hay and others like Fred Clarke and Jimm Drennan would rake it. Then small square bales were made by Geoff Harris. He would have used an International Harvester A few thousand little square bales were made and sold. With a number of members having trucks, the hay was carted and distributed for profit.
The Club moved away from the hay baling project in the late seventies and early eighties. Members Bob Tyrrell and Denis Shine had received a Scott River Conditional Purchase for a virgin block of land of between 2000 – 3000 acres in 1968 and had developed and grassed it as part of their purchase agreement. In the late seventies and early eighties the Lions Club of Dardanup ran the “Country Bush Races” on the property known as Woodaburrup. The Races were known as the “Woodaburrup Cup”. They were held for maybe a decade or so on the first weekend in May because the second weekend in May was always Mothers Day. The blokes would have been divorced if it were held then!
Patrons and horse owners would descend on the property for a weekend away to camp and participate in the races. A number of 18 gallon kegs of beer were transported on the back of a truck to the Scott River property to keep the blokes thirst down. This was a profitable event and project for the Club.
In the 1970s a little girl named Monica McGee was born in Bunbury without arms and legs due to Thalidomide being taken during pregnancy. The Club made a substantial donation to her cause and support for her future life.
All club meetings in the seventies and eighties were held in the Dardanup Hotel, then run by Fred Reynolds, in the room which was situated on the south-western corner of Charlotte and Hayward Streets. The current dining area on the northern side didn’t exist then. Attire worn to those early Club meetings was usually a Jacket and tie or at least a jacket.
Visiting other Lions Clubs was common practice during that period. Visits were regularly made to the Lions Clubs at Brunswick Junction and Collie among others. On one occasion, a visit by the Lions Club of Collie to the Club at Dardanup resulted in Lion Don Pike stealing the Dardanup Club’s gavel. The only way of retrieving it was for the Dardanup Lions to return the visit to the Collie Club, but when they did so, the gavel could not be found. Years later it was found in Don Pike’s garage.
100% attendance was a very important part of the Lions Club culture then. If a member could not attend a meeting at Dardanup, he would attend a Lions Club of Dardanup’s Board of Directors Meeting or go to another Lions Club meeting in Bunbury or surrounding area within the two weeks of the one missed, for what was called a “Make Up.”
There were a number of joint projects and social interactions between Clubs. One of these was the combined Lions Clubs’ Family Day outing at the Mumballup Hotel. This annual family outing was participated in by the Clubs from Dardanup, Boyanup, Donnybrook, Boyup Brook and Collie. That event ceased with the change of the Lions Clubs International Constitution at the Taipei International Convention in 1987, which allowed women to become Lions Club Members.
The Lions Club of Dardanup’s contribution to the expansion and growth of Lions saw the Club sponsor the Lions Club of Capel to Charter on the 7th February 1990. The two clubs have since had a close association.
On Saturday 6 July 1991, the Dardanup Club held a Joint changeover dinner with the Capel Lions at the Rose Hotel in Bunbury, where it had held all its changeover dinners since Charter between 1973 and 1991 during late June or early July.
This was the Lions Club of Capel’s First changeover dinner. The Board of Directors of both Clubs were installed by immediate past District Governor John Roberts. John had been District Governor for the previous year and had stepped down a fortnight earlier as Governor after the Brisbane International Convention on 22 June 1991.
An article in 1992 celebrating 20 years of the Lions Club of Dardanup detailed the funds raised over the years and some of the projects:
In its 20 years of active service Dardanup Lions Club has raised $596,400 for worthy causes. It works out to nearly $30,000 a year. One astounding aspect is that only 85 past and present members raised the money….For about eight years the club undertook sheep shearing in Dardanup and surrounding districts, shearing about 500 sheep….The club once raffled a new car and raised $12,000…..Dardanup Lions helped raise more than $100,000 for the Civilian Maimed and Limbless Association in 1973.
The Leschenault Reporter, Wednesday 11 March, 1992
Women played a major role in the early success of the Lions Club. They could not become Lions Club Members and if they wanted to become heavily involved in Lions, they could join a Lioness Club which don’t exist today. There were only two Lioness Clubs locally in the seventies and eighties, Bunbury Leschenault and Collie. The wives and partners would always be there to organise catering and work in the background to support the Club.
In the very early days a social cricket match was held between the Lions Clubs of Dardanup and Brunswick Junction, which had orignally sponsored Dardanup. The match was held at Lion John Fry’s place in Brunswick, one of many social cricket matches held at that time. The Dardanup Club fielded a side in competitions against other organisations and groups. One such match was played in the Ferguson Valley at Geoff Harris’ where the old Ferguson Cricket Club concrete pitch still existed. The Club played in many matches against other groups on the Dardanup Recreation Ground.
Lion Eustace Fowler was a keen environmentalist and suggested planting trees on behalf of the Club on Ferguson Road heading out of Dardanup. These beautiful claret ash trees are still in place, Eustace and Dorothy Fowler would also hold a spring Garden Party at their home with an entrance fee charged as a fundraiser for the Club.
Bob Clemance lost both his legs and was supported by the Club. The Lions Club of Dardanup modified his bathroom and installed ramps at his house to improve access.
Dardanup Lions also set up scholarship funds for students at local primary schools.
The Club has provided three-year bursaries for the Sate and convent schools in Dardanup and for the Picton and Burekup primary schools. The bursaries were aimed at helping the 80 beneficiaries into high schools.
The Leschenault Reporter, Wednesday 11 March, 1992
The bursaries project was coordinated and organized by Lion Frank Craig.
In the seventies and eighties the Club chopped wood for an elderly couple in Waterloo and also supported Olga Green with Riding for the Disabled.
In fifty years there has been major changes in society and Lions in particular. We started at the pen and paper era with landline telephones with no answering machines. Postage and postal services were still telegrams and Telexes.
Fifty years on, we have entered the digital age with smart phones and email, paper becoming a thing of the past. We have seen fax machines come and go in that time. What will we see at the end of the next fifty years in the Club’s Centenary?
Programs
The Program for the charter night of the Lions Club of Dardanup was held on 11 March 1972. You can view and download the program below.
Click here to view the full list of available programs. You can also download them.
References:
- From a speech prepared for the Lions Club of Dardanup’s 50th Anniversary Lunch
Sunday 12 November, 2023 at Evedon Park
Newspapers:
- The Leschenault Reporter, Wednesday 11 March, 1992
Image:
- Aerial view of Dardanup c. 1986 supplied by David Wells
Dardanup Heritage Collective 