Apex was formed in Geelong in 1931, it was three young men who wanted to make a contribution to their community in the face of the Great Depression. Apex grew quickly throughout Australia, particularly in rural areas, you’d be hard pressed to travel through the small towns in our country without finding an Apex park. Once established, the clubs set about working to improve their local communities in ways that only they as locals could.

When I first joined Apex I was informed by an older member, bearing in mind that in those days members were retired at age 40, that we were there to fill in the gaps. . What we did was see the problems that bureaucracies could not and find solutions that they would not. This philosophy was repeated by thousands of local clubs across the nation, and collectively it was organisations like ours who changed the country. Apex bought the first guide dog trainers to Australia in 1957, started Australian research into Autism in 1968, helped to create the Foundation 41 Research Unit in 1972, funded SIDS research in the early 1980s, along with dozens of other achievements. Other service organisations have similar stories to tell.

But just as important as our collective national efforts were the things these clubs gave to their local communities. Not just the parks and monuments, but the help that they gave to people who didn’t have somewhere else to turn. Over the years our club has chopped firewood for widows, provided holidays for institutionalised orphans, thrown Christmas parties for new migrants, helped maintain accommodation for the homeless and provided equipment for everyone from the local rescue squad to a school for the disabled. While we are lucky today that our social services are so much better resourced than in the past, I worry that it has an impact on our commitment to our local communities when so many people look firstly to different levels of government to solve problems that are within our own abilities to deal with.

There is a well understood psychological effect that people regard things more highly when they have had to make some effort to obtain them, when we work hard to achieve something we appreciate it and care for it much more than if it is simply given to us. This isn’t just the case for individuals but for communities as well, many of the things we value the most are those that were achieved despite a lack of outside assistance. How do we engage people in building their communities’ civic resources when the process is owned by local councils or government departments? How can we make a disengaged community value the programs and infrastructure that is then provided for them?

Thanks to a combination of drought and maintenance problems our fountain hasn’t run very often over the past few years, but it’s the redevelopment of the open space in the CBD that has consigned it to demolition, it no longer fits the Council’s plans for how this space should be presented and used. So the gift that these service clubs made to our town will shortly be removed, and no doubt with it part of the memory of their contribution.

This is being repeated throughout small towns in Australia, community assets which were built by local volunteers are being dismantled by councils that no longer want to maintain them, and sadly in many cases the organisations that contributed these things to their community are no longer around to have a say. In many small towns the service clubs were a big part of the social fabric of the community, they created bonds between the families involved, provided services and support for others and helped to build a culture of civic participation. I remember when I travelled throughout the countryside as a child there would be signs at the entrance to every town proudly displaying the list of local clubs and where and when they met, for the benefit of travelling members and for new residents looking to connect with people.

Sadly those signs are few and far between these days, as are the clubs they represented. The decline in participation hasn’t just affected our organisation, similar stories are told by Rotary, Lions, the Country Women’s Association and other service clubs. As the clubs fade, the halls, parks, monuments and memories of their contribution also tend to be neglected. I think that we are losing a lot more than fountains and swing sets though, we are losing some of our sense of self reliance and of community ownership.

Our evaporative air conditioner is still broken and late this afternoon the archaic Weather Wall, which had been providing some relief in the lounge  room, decided to pack it in too. This left us with no alternative but to stand in the back yard under the garden hose or take turns having a cool shower.

The troll princess has been suffering the most as she’s been running a temperature for the last 36 hours. Mrsdave has had a few brief bouts of madness bought on by heat stress, I simply poured an extra long Harvey Wallbanger and hoped for the best.

The big question on my mind is “What if this is a permanent change?”. The sustained heat of the past two weeks has played havoc with the electrical and transport systems in South Australia and Victoria, with this weekend likely to put a lot of stress on New South Wales’ infrastructure. If we continue to see this type of sustained heat year after year how will we respond to the chaos that it brings? 

It almost seems that we need to let the whole country shut down for a few weeks, to catch its breath and lay low, but that’s about as likely as being able to walk barefoot on the road today. There will no doubt be calls for State Governments to spend more money improving these essential services, most likely to be led by the private corporations who now make a profit from these once public assets. The most immediate solution is for all of us to modify our behaviour somewhat, but between self interest and responsibilities beyond our control this seems unlikely. 

First job tomorrow is a trip to bunnings to buy some more fans, but tonight we’ll be swapping bedsheets for damp towels.

My favourite quote from the article;

“When they did come on, Scooby Doo ended up wrecked and Batman caught on fire.”

So sad that I missed it.

Thankfully the event ended without anyone being hurt, but it adds to the growing tally of issues that the Police have had to deal with in our little corner of the world. It’s amazing how our front fences can enclose us in such a bubble that we lose touch with what’s happening around us until something dramatic occurs.

My basic reasons for dismissing this development are unchanged, I think that the Regent Cinema in Albury already services this area well, the site for the proposed cinema will further fragment the already disorganised Wodonga CBD and the cinema business, nationally, is still in fairly rocky shape (have a look at my original post to see these points fleshed out further).

Since February, however, what was being referred to at the time as a credit crunch has turned into The Global Economic Crisis™ and our economy has soured along with it. The current financial situation turns what was, in my opinion, a marginal project at best into an absolute dud.

In addition to this, Quest Apartments finally get around to opening their 104 room Albury property in a few weeks, meaning the serviced apartments slated for the Wodonga Cinema Centre will be entering an even more crowded market at a time when it is fair to assume that both business and personal travel will be on the decline.

I certainly hope, for the sake of the rate-payers in Wodonga, that the soon to be elected Wodonga Council look very carefully at this project before they waste any money on what can only be described as a vanity project.

Via Fail Blog

I received these photos this morning via email, the event seems to have occurred last week. At least it’s reassuring that the coffins are very sturdy.

Have you all been “Street Viewed”? Was the lawn mowed?

I think that either way the sign writer gets a bonus stupid for putting their name to it, and also one for their super random capitalisation efforts.

The blogger, as all three regular readers of this blog will know, is Greg Naylor who writes the King Valley Watchdog. Congratulations to Greg for having his story spread more widely. His honest, reflective posts about his feelings in this difficult time have been compelling reading.

I met Greg a few years ago when he offered me some old Macs, which I had requested on Freecycle. Greg wasn’t content just to share stuff that he had in his shed, he also insisted that we have a cuppa, and he was generously ambivalent to the usual manic behaviour of Buster Boy and the Troll Princess as they tore around in his home. I have no doubt that he’s an excellent grandfather, having seen the patience that he had with the children of a stranger, and it’s sad that his grandkids will be losing him so soon.

It was some time later that I discovered his blog and I’ve always been interested to see Greg’s ideas poured out with honesty and careful thought, the antithesis of my blog really. Greg’s decision to share his journey has given me, and I’m sure many other readers, an opportunity to reflect on some pretty big issues.

I’m not sure what all of Greg’s goals in life were, but from reading his blog I know that he is finishing without regret, however I do know that he has positively touched many people’s lives and I believe that for that he should be commended.