Environmental Projects Report

Our Club has a long history of involvement with environmental issues, and this year was no different.

Our native beehives had suffered from bad weather and hive location issues, and we lost a number of hives. Fortunately, Ray Lee has managed to keep his hive thriving.  In October, he attended a very helpful morning at Green Connect Farm, where he was shown how to split the hive. This was achieved successfully and Ray then arranged for the second hive to be installed at Lake Heights Primary School.

The hive at Green Connect Farm has also been split and both are doing well.

We have been involved with Green Connect Farm, a major community group in Wollongong for many years. We had also contributed 10 non- native/ honeybee hives which are happily producing significant quantities of honey. The team headed by Emily Henderson cleverly managed to minimise the loss of bees during the varroa virus outbreak.

One of the volunteers at Green Connect Farm – Kerrie Spicer - regularly assists at our monthly Bunnings BBQ’s.

Finally with respect to bees, the hive we placed at Greenhouse Park is also thriving and will probably need splitting soon.

We continue to maintain Throsby Drive Rotary Park, Gwynneville, affectionately known as Arthur’s Park (named after former long-standing and now honorary member Arthur Booth), with the main organiser being Bob Armessen OAM.  Clean up mornings are very enjoyable, culminating in morning tea which includes Rita Giampieri’s delicious coffee and lemon cake. Sadly, this year the severe rain has caused the cancellation of several of the required working bees.

We have had some members join Corrimal Rotary Club on their Rise and Shine program to clean up our city. Hopefully, next year we will be running our own program to help the Wollongong Council’s longest running environmental program.

So, in closing I would like to thank our Club members for their support during the year for these worthy projects. As a club we believe in environmental change, and this drives the club’s commitment to hands-on projects that support sustainability, biodiversity and community partnerships.

MARILYN PHILLIPS
Director - Environmental Projects 2025-2026