General News
21 March, 2024
Probus to mark 40 years
For nearly 40 years, The Maryborough Probus Club (combined) has been a vital social club, providing retired locals fun, fellowship and friendship. The longevity of the club is heavily dependant on members such as Rosalie Fitzmaurice and Carol...
For nearly 40 years, The Maryborough Probus Club (combined) has been a vital social club, providing retired locals fun, fellowship and friendship.
The longevity of the club is heavily dependant on members such as Rosalie Fitzmaurice and Carol Jackson, who have taken multiple roles and organised countless events during their 19 and five years at the club respectively.
However it was never a guarantee, as the club faced the serious reality of closing before Ms Fitzmaurice and Ms Jackson were even considered for membership.
“It was formed as an all men’s group, but their numbers started to drop and they had wives who were saying ‘why can’t we come’,” Ms Fitzmaurice said.
“In 1997, a vote was taken to make it a combined group and I have been told that there was a little bit of uneasiness about omitting the ladies.
“The president at the time said ‘if we don’t allow the ladies to join, we will fold’, so the club became combined.”
While reflecting on the eve of their 40th anniversary on April 2, Ms Fitzmaurice said she has been captivated by the way the social group has evolved during her time as a member.
“You have got to think of the demographics of where we were then and where we are now — we didn’t have internet, not everyone would have a house phone, most corespondent would be by mail so it was really important to have activities,” she said.
“A lot of our members now are people who have come to Maryborough for the quiet lifestyle, when I first joined, most people that were part of it were locals.
“Now there has been this change of the type of people and their backgrounds which is really fascinating to hear, especially when most of us used to be from farming families.”
Ms Jackson said throughout all of its changes in members and activities, the social group has centred around the importance of its 67 members maintaining friendships during retirement.
“Rosalie is absolutely flat stick with her home life and I live out of town, so I only socialise because of Probus,” she said.
“We have trips and tours to all various places, we have a guest speaker every month at our meetings on a range of topics to keep us informed and entertained, we play cards, have coffee and just enjoy each others company.
“Sometimes it is a bit hard to even get things started, because they will all congregate at the door and can just chat there.
“It is just getting people out of the house and catching up with each other, which is so important as you get older.”
The Maryborough Probus Club (combined) will host its 40th anniversary gathering at the Maryborough Highland Society on Tuesday, April 2. Ms Jackson said the event will be a celebration of the past, present and future of the social club.
“There are clubs coming down from Donald, St Arnaud and Charlton for the anniversary,” she said.
“Unfortunately we don’t have any of the original members but one of their wives is coming and the president of Rotary when the club was first founded is also attending as they are the only connections we have now with the original group.
“I’m really looking forward to the event and I’m very proud that we provide this outlet for the Maryborough community.”