Choice of main meal ($36.00) or soup and salad ($26.00), RSVP by Friday prior, with payment to club bank account.

John Fitzgerald is non-resident Fellow in The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) in Canberra, and Emeritus Professor in the School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

He served five years as China Representative of The Ford Foundation in Beijing from 2008-2013 and before that as Director of the International Centre of Excellence in Asia-Pacific Studies at the Australian National University and Head of the School of Social Sciences at La Trobe University. 

In professional service, he was elected President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities from 2015-2017 and President of the Chinese Studies Association of Australia from 2005-2007.

He is often invited to appear on Australian television and radio, and writes opinion pieces for the Australian Financial Review and the Australian.

His public service awards include the Centenary of Federation Medal, and Member of the Order of Australia.

His research focuses on the history of nationalism, public administration, and philanthropy in China, and on the histories of the Chinese diaspora, and his public commentaries focus on China-Australia relations. His recent books include Cadre Country:  How China became the Chinese Communist Party (2022) and (ed) Taking the Low Road: China’s Influence in Australian States and Territories (2022). Earlier books include Big White Lie: Chinese Australians in White Australia (2007), awarded the Ernest Scott Prize of the Australian Historical Association, and  Awakening China: Politics Culture and Class in the Nationalist Revolution (1997) awarded the Joseph Levenson Prize of the U.S. Association for Asian Studies. 

He has a Ph.D. from ANU and held a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a graduate of the University of Sydney.

President’s Report for the 2025–26 year

It is with pleasure that I present the Annual Report for the Rotary Club of Carlton for 2025-26.

First, I thank the Club for the honor of serving as President this year. I have been strongly supported by our Rotary members and by a kind, caring Board. I sincerely appreciate the many contributions members have made throughout the year. The Rotary Club of Carlton was chartered in 1985 and has now completed 41 years of service in District 9800, supporting communities locally and around the world.

We welcomed and inducted two new members this year, Inez Indraswart and Gordon Chen, both of whom have brought new ideas to the Club.

Our Club has continued to serve the Carlton community while also contributing to overseas needs, in keeping with this year’s Rotary International theme: “Unite for Good: You can get more done when you work with others.”

This year, our total income was $43,203, enabling us to support a range of local and global groups. We contributed $4,000 to the Rotary Club of Castlemaine following bushfires in its communities, and $4,000 to drought relief in Western Victoria. Other donations supported Ronald McDonald House, RIMERN and Simonds Catholic College. Internationally, we gave $3,520 to the Afghanistan Project, $500 for Donations in Kind annual membership, and $1,000 to Rotarians Against Malaria. We also supported students in the Carlton area through scholarships and other assistance.

We provided Christmas presents for children at Ronald McDonald House, where our Club also runs a regular monthly barbecue for families and children staying there.

We have also participated in other Rotary groups focused on environmental sustainability. One group, led by Robert McGuirk, John McCaskill and Peter Berg, is developing the Rotary Environmental Garden working group’s vision for a pollinator-friendly garden in the Royal Botanic Gardens. Located near Government House, this area includes long-grass habitat tracks, nest boxes, insect hotels, dead wood stacks, a beehive and leaf piles. The garden blends indigenous and exotic flora to attract bees and other pollinators, and it also features two large, significant oak trees.

The environmental garden will focus on habitat and education, while incorporating environmental and cultural elements of this important tract of Indigenous land. The project will seek endorsement from the local Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples. I have also committed myself and the club to supporting the Wildwood Project, which will involve a small financial contribution over the coming years.

I would like to thank Professor Mile Terziovski for his outstanding work on the speakers program throughout the year. The program was interesting and informative, and I learned a great deal. I was particularly moved by the Mercy Ships speaker, and I know many members will remember the important things we all learned from many interesting speakers throughout the year.

I also want to acknowledge the wonderful work of Keith Ryall and others in our Club who give so much time and energy to RIMERN, the Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network. I have visited there and am amazed at the great work that is done there to assist people in need.

Another important club initiative is the Rotary Charity Bookshop in Wharf Street, Docklands. This second-hand bookshop and book recycling project is run in partnership with the Rotary Clubs of Albert Park, Fitzroy and Carlton. I would like to congratulate Janet Ferguson, Steven Hsia, Dr Aron Perenyi and all members who generously give their time to support the bookshop. It raises significant funds that our club can use in a range of valuable ways.

Our Club has made financial contributions to many community organisations, as well as to the Rotary Foundation and PolioPlus. This includes support for international activities, particularly girls’ education in rural Afghanistan. Dr Noorshah Kamawal will speak more about this tonight. I also want to thank Dr John McLean for his work on the Board as International Committee Convenor, and for working with Noorshah to secure funding for girls’ education and to prepare research articles for publication. If anyone is interested, I can provide a copy of an article about this work that was published in a UNESCO publication in late 2025. Also Dr Noorshah Kamawal will be telling us about his project entitled “Internet Based Education for Girls and Women in Provincial Afghanistan.”

I am pleased to say that we have Viraj Patel as a member of our Board and he will be telling  us more about the Rotaract Club with that we are associated with.

I have recently made contact with Cath Healy, who is the Partnership Manager at ‘Our Place’ in Carlton, which is on the site of the Carlton Learning Precinct. Our Club has contributed funds to support the excellent activities held there. It is a learning precinct which includes maternal health services, playgroups, parent support groups, three- and four-year-old kindergarten, long day care, Carlton Primary School and after-school care. It supports a wide range of cultural and language groups. On my recent visit, the children were launching a book they had created together.

I also acknowledge the ongoing work of Casey Tan, Keith Ryall, Maureen O’Dwyer, Tim Lennie, David Percival and Ian Ada and for their generous support and guidance. I also want to acknowledge my mentor, Anne Mitchell who helped me a lot when I first joined this club and also to thank Gedeon Herschberg who played the piano for us this evening.  All these people have helped me learn more about how Rotary clubs can contribute to local and global communities. They have done so much to make this club and active and inspiring Club, and I have learned a great deal from them.

Finally, I thank all Board members and Club members for their wonderful work throughout the year.

Yours in Rotary

Dr Maxine Cooper President

Our Bi-monthly volunteer commitment to Ronald McDonald House

Rostered members will be cooking a BBQ dinner for families staying at Ronald McDonald House.

Bellringing Presentation

Sarah Stancombe is a tower bell ringer here in Melbourne. Bellringers are, for the most part, volunteers, so I thought our tradition of English change ringing may be of interest to you.

The Rotary Club of Carlton is pleased to host a special online speaker meeting welcoming a delegation from the Rotary Club of Kuching. This virtual exchange offers an opportunity to strengthen international Rotary connections while sharing perspectives on service, leadership, and community engagement across different contexts. Our Kuching colleagues will speak about their club’s key initiatives, local challenges, and experiences of Rotary service in Malaysia, followed by an interactive discussion. The session will promote fellowship, cultural understanding, and the exploration of future collaboration, demonstrating how meaningful Rotary connections can be built and sustained through online engagement.

Mr Justin Bersales (RC Kuching President) & Mrs Colleen Jee (RC Kuching President Elect) will join us via zoom along with other members of the club.

Choice of Soup & Salad or Main meal for lunch, RSVP to Maureen by Friday prior.

Diya Asthana

National Youth Science Forum Experience

Diya Asthana received support from our club to attend the NYSF (National Youth Science Forum) Year 12 Program Session B at The University of Queensland. She is now currently undertaking Year 12 at St. Catherine’s School in Toorak and has been invited to be on the staff for next year’s event.

Diya used a Powerpoint Presentation to share her experiences with us. She was housed in King’s College at the University of Queensland and commented about what a lovely environment to stay in that facilitated getting to know the other participants. They had 7 clear days to undertake tours. They participated in a tour of Universal Field Robots (UFR) as well as a live cross to the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) facility on the French-Swiss border near Geneva. They also had the opportunity to tour The University of Queensland Veterinary School. These opportunities gave their participants a broader idea of what their future may hold. Evening social interactions provided opportunities to get to know the amazing people that Rotary had brought together. This also included an evening concert that was a special event for them all.

For Diya, the National Youth Science Forum made us all even more enthusiastic and we came away excited by the enlightening experiences we had all shared.

Samantha Clarke

Mercy Ships: Restoring Hope and Healing Through Surgery

Our guest speaker for our lunch meeting is Samantha Clarke, an Ambassador with Mercy Ships Australia and based in Bayside Melbourne. Samantha began her career in hairdressing before a strong desire to make the world a better place led her into federal politics, advocacy, and community focused work. Since then, her work has spanned philanthropy, impact investing, stakeholder engagement, and bringing people together around causes that matter. Samantha is especially passionate about sharing stories that make complex global challenges feel personal, hopeful, and deeply human.

The presentation will share the story of Mercy Ships and the extraordinary impact of bringing free surgery, volunteer expertise, and training for local healthcare professionals to communities with little or no access to safe surgical care. I will speak about the scale of the global need, the human side of the work through powerful patient stories, and the way Australians are helping make this possible through generosity, advocacy, volunteering, and long term investment in local capacity.

Overseeing the Delivery of Volunteer-led Tutoring Programs in Partnerships with Secondary Schools

Kevin Phan (President, Embrace Education)

Our regular lunch meeting, choice of Soup & Salad or Main Meal

Playground Circularity: How reuse and waste education are re-shaping our places of gathering.

Join Gretel Tobin & Joshua Davies from B-Alternative -  a Melbourne Based Social Enterprise working with businesses, events, and communities to reduce waste and regenerate our planet. Gretel and Josh share their story, from first volunteering with B-Alternative 4 years ago to now leading a small team delivering impactful environmental services across Victoria & NSW.Our guest speaker for this week’s lunch meeting is Gretel Tobin from B Alternative.

Choice of main meal or soup and salad.

Graduate House Development Strategy

Daniel Clark - CEO Graduate House

Our Bi-monthly volunteer commitment to Ronald McDonald House

Rostered members will be cooking a BBQ dinner for families staying at Ronald McDonald House.

At our regular lunch meeting our guest speaker is Prof Michael Asten with the topic of Natural climate cycles – what they tell us of global temperature changes, human advancement and human misery.

Michael Asten was Professor of geophysics, now retired from School of Earth-Atmosphere-Environment, Monash University.  Prior to that he was a Senior Principal in BHP with 18 years experience in world-wide programs for the search for new mineral resources.  He is a past-President of the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysics, has published 224 scientific papers and has various research awards from the Australian SEG, BHP and CSIRO for innovations. 

Prof. Asten has been researching for several years the role of natural cycles in centennial and millennial global climate change. His research found evidence for multi-centennial climate cycles within the ages described as the Medieval Warming Period and the Little Ice Age.

 These cycles also highlighted events in history which have played major roles in the rise and fall of human advancement or reduction of civilisation in the past 1000-2000 years.  Quantitative study of climate cycles also showed that much of the warming of the past century appears to be independent of changes in atmospheric CO2. Natural cycles indicate that future warming will not be solely a function of CO2.

 A projection to the year 2100 predicts global temperature changes different from those provided by current climate models. The year 2100 will be colder.

Our first meeting back for 2026.

Choice of main meal or soup and salad.

Our last meeting for the year to celebrate Christmas.

As per our tradition, members are requested to bring (unwrapped) gifts to be given to children at Ronald McDonald House.

All guests are welcome.

Please arrive at 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start

Our Bi-monthly volunteer commitment to Ronald McDonald House

Rostered members will be cooking a BBQ dinner for families staying at Ronald McDonald House.

AusWISE empowers international students and graduates to succeed in their careers through advocacy, collaboration, and support. Manorani Guy, President of AusWise will be speaking about AusWISE at our regular lunch meeting.

Choice of soup and salad ($26) or main meal ($36)

RSVP to Maureen by midday Friday prior.

Bill Gasiamis is a stroke survivor, author, and host of the Recovery After Stroke podcast. Over the past decade, Bill has been dedicated to helping others rebuild their lives after trauma, and has recently developed a keynote presentation focused on Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG)—a powerful concept that helps people find meaning, resilience, and purpose after adversity.

Our regular lunchtime meeting, choice of main meal ($36) or soup and salad ($26). Please RSVP to Maureen here no later than Friday prior to meeting and make payment to the club bank account.

Rotary Club of Central Melbourne invites all to the 33rd annual Paul Harris Breakfast featuring Guest Speaker PROF. ROSS GARNAUT, AC

EXPLORING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES IN A POST-CARBON WORLD

This is a rare chance to hear one of Australia’s leading thinkers on a critical issue. Professor Garnaut, AC, head of Melbourne’s new Superpower Institute, is working to position Australia as a global leader in the post-carbon economy.

Much of our wealth has come from coal and gas exports, but this cannot continue. The Superpower Institute believes that combining Australia’s abundant natural resources and minerals is the best way to transform its economic prosperity through the development and export of green, energy-intensive commodities. Our future economic prosperity, wealth and full employment is very much tied to meeting this challenge.  In addition, of course, it will assist reducing Australia’s direct and third-party carbon emissions.

Professor Garnautwill explain the challenge for us with examples demonstrating both the opportunities and consequences of meeting it or neglecting it. Ross has consistently been of the thinkers who has added light rather just heat to the net zero debate over many years.

Professor Garnautis a globally recognised Australian National University economist and incredibly diverse background, including:

•Australian Ambassador to China (1985-88) as it opened to the world

•The landmark GarnautClimate Change Reviews over nearly 20 years for all Australian Governments as a key trusted advisor

•Chairmanship of Ok TediMines, PNG, and other enterprises

Tickets $75 per head or $700 for table of 10 with profit supporting the Rotary Foundation.

Tickets can be purchased online here until 10th November

Speaking at our regular lunch meeting is Des Tobin on his latest book “It’s all in the Genes - Australian Football Families”

Melbourne-based author Des Tobin, has crammed more lives into his 86 years than your average cat. He has variously been a failed student, a discontented apprentice panel beater, a youth worker, a springboard diver, a junior pole-vaulter, a VFL, QANFL and Olympic Australian Rules footballer, a 10-pin bowling instructor, a successful business executive, a golfing tragic, a university lecturer and a prolific writer. 

Choice of Main Meal ($36) or Soup and Salad ($26). RSVP to Maureen Friday prior.

Our Bi-monthly volunteer commitment to Ronald McDonald House

Rostered members will be cooking a BBQ dinner for families staying at Ronald McDonald House.

At our regular lunch meeting, Robert Anastasio, Principal of Simonds Catholic College will be speaking on their Breakfast Club for deserving students.

Choice of main meal or soup and salad.

DG Peter Shepheard makes his official club visit.

'Peter has been a Rotarian for over 20 years being inducted in Rotary Club of Altona in May 2003.

 He has demonstrated knowledge of volunteering, governance, financial, project management and sustainable development. Peter has a long career in retail management and is currently the Precinct Manager for Queen Victoria Markets. 

 He has strong interests in sporting and community not-for-profits, events and festivals, and currently holds leadership positions at Altona Sports Centre Limited and Altona Beach Film Festival and is a past President of Altona Bay Basketball Association. 

 In Rotary, Peter can be found both onstage, behind the scenes and everywhere in between, utilising his considerable professional and Rotary expertise. He has held the roles of club President and Assistant Governor several times including as AG Chirnside this year, supported no less than 12 District Conferences, has served on various Group Study Exchange and Group Vocational Exchange committees and is currently on 2022 on the District Foundation and Youth Exchange Committees'.

Our regular lunchtime meeting, choice of main meal ($36) or soup and salad ($26). Please RSVP to Maureen here no later than Friday prior to meeting and make payment to the club bank account.

Our first regular lunch meeting for the 25/26 Rotary year led by new President Maxine Cooper

After his induction, returning member Noor Shah will give a member behind the badge presentation.

Choice of Main meal or soup and salad.

Our changeover/40th Anniversary dinner is on Friday 18th July, tickets can be purchased online, stay tuned for the ticket link.