Club History

The Rotary Club of Cairns was formed in 1930, and it was a very enthusiastic club, carrying out community projects for the benefit of the area. However, after 20 years, in the early 1950’s, it was considered that there was room for another Rotary Club to operate within the Cairns area.

At that time, there was a Rotary Club at Innisfail, Atherton and Mareeba, and the formation of a new club would, it was deemed, be most beneficial to the northern area.

The number of the District was 31, and it extended from approximately Grafton in the south to Cairns and the Tableland in the north, and covering the whole of Queensland.

A Past President of Cairns Rotary Club, Jack Watkins, was appointed by the District Governor as his representative to carry out the survey, and assisted by Cairns Club members, it was recommended that a new club, with the name of Cairns West should be duly formed.

Initial discussions were held in August 1953, in early 1954 an interest meeting was called, and it was decided to proceed with the formation of the new club. Jack MacCallum was to be the new President, and the Secretary Arnold Barnes. In all, the number of new members was 23. Early in June 1954 all the papers had been signed, and forwarded to the District Governor, who completed the application, and posted them onto the Rotary Secretariat.

There was no air mail at that time, and the documents proceeded by surface mail. It took 3 months for the application to be processed, and the presentation of the Charter to the new Club was a gala night at the Masonic Temple on Saturday, 25th September 1954.

In the meantime, the provisional club had been meeting from the early part of June on the Tuesday night of each week with 23 members. The meeting venue was the Pacific Hotel on the Esplanade.

The Charter presentation was carried out by the District Governor, Staf Betteridge, who lived in Innisfail, being the Engineer attached to the Johnstone Shire Council.