Pics from the Past | Apex Club: Roasting peanuts and raising funds

Apex was started in Geelong in 1931 by three architects, one of whom was Ewan Laird. He was the father of Bunbartha’s Heather Lloyd, who was the wife of former Member for Murray Bruce Lloyd.

It was not long before the Shepparton Apex Club was formed, as the Shepparton people saw its potential for community building.

In 1934, Shepparton Apex was chartered, with Arthur Dickman as its inaugural president, making it the 12th Apex club to be formed in Australia. It was so popular that other local Apex clubs were formed: Mooroopna, Kialla and the Sherbourne.

The Mooroopna Apex Club was a great help to me when I was managing the KidsTown project in the mid-1990s, and I needed help to raise funds to build our first play area, called the Fruit Bin Climbing Pyramid.

The club was fantastic, and it helped to inspire other clubs and groups to take on other KidsTown play areas as projects.

Through the years, the Shepparton Apex Club has involved itself in countless charity drives and community projects, which brought names such as Bert Lightfoot, Les Young, Frank Harder, Peter Mountjoy, Richie Trevaskis, Peter and David Vibert and Geoff Alexander to the forefront.

They focused on helping civilian widows after World War II and autistic children, and building centres for the disabled. They took train loads of farm kids who had never seen the sea or been on holiday to the annual Melbourne Lord Mayor’s Camp at Portsea. Shepparton Apex members concreted areas for all-season ball games at schools, planted trees at GV Health, ran lifesaving courses at the Raymond West Swimming Pool, put up Christmas decorations, sent rice to help ease famine in India — and painted and painted. They painted Guide halls, Scout halls, sports clubs and much more. The big fundraiser of the 1960s and ’70s was roasting peanuts. Geoff said the idea grew from a few bags roasted and sold at Higgins Bakery in Fryers St to buying a tonne of nuts straight from the harvest at Kingaroy in Queensland.

There was also the great annual “knees-ups”, such as Apex Antics at the Star Theatre — two nights of slapstick comedy and music performed by locals, which raised about $2000 for community projects. Then there were the Apex dances on the island at Victoria Park Lake, where one year, they got the Australian Army to build a pontoon bridge, but it ended up sinking. (Excerpts from The News, 2010)

In 1972 the Shepparton Apex Club published its first newspaper, called The Views. In it was an explanation of the publication’s purpose.

“Why (you may well ask) did we spend so much time and trouble producing this newspaper? In the first place, we attempted it because we are members of a club with certain ideals of community service. Other reasons include the fact that it is a bit different from the ordinary run of charity appeals, and we thought it worthwhile as a venture in fundraising and a good way to interest and involve club members. We hope they derive some benefit and enjoyment in seeing the rather novel and cavalier manner in which their goods and services are presented here. In our editorial columns, we have tried to make humour the standard by which contributions are judged. You, the readers, will be the final arbiters of how well we have succeeded…”

Next week, you can look forward to some great photos of the Apex Antics and Apexians in various stages of behaving ‘badly’ (tongue in cheek with a wry smile).

Geoff Allemand is an amateur photographer and Lost Shepparton Facebook page admin. Please share your Pics from the Past at pastpics@mmg.com.au