Commodores Notes

COMMODORES NOTES MARCH 2024
 

Recovery and Training boat

 

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT
GORCAPA SURVEY ON POINT GREY REDEVELOPMENT

Important Message to all Aquatic Club Members and Visitors

As you will be aware, planning has restarted for the Point Grey Precinct redevelopment, and the newly established Community Reference Group (CRG) has commenced meetings with the lead consultants appointed by Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority (GORCAPA). The purpose of the meetings is to review and revise the Masterplan previously developed for the site, which was overwhelmingly supported by the community before the 2022 VCAT decision.

As part of the initial phase of the redevelopment project, GORCAPA is undertaking community engagement through a Point Grey Community Values Survey. It is described as a “short, simple survey designed to reaffirm what local community members and visitors have expressed about the Point Grey precinct over many years, and to understand any changes in community sentiment”. The survey is available HERE until April 5. You should note that the CRG was not involved in the design of the survey and was not asked for input!

While your initial reaction may be “Not another survey!” your Club committee strongly urges you to complete the survey, as your responses will shape the future of the Point Grey Precinct and the Aquatic Club.

The survey should take no more than 10 minutes and consists of 22 statements to which you are asked to provide a response ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” by using a slide bar, and in relation to some statements you are requested to provide reasons for your responses. While it may appear there are only 3 possible responses, there are in fact 5 if you move the slide bar half way in either direction.

There are some key statements which specifically affect the Aquatic Club:

Statement 11 “The current look and feel of the precinct's buildings, as well as their maritime location, gives Point Grey a strong and unique character that must be preserved.” 

Your committee supports the “current look and feel” of the Aquatic Club, and its maritime location. We recommend you respond “Strongly Agree”.

Statement 15 “Two separate buildings for the LAAC clubhouse and the new food & drinks premises is preferred”.

Your committee’s position is that this is a non-negotiable. This battle was fought and won many years ago, and is imprinted in the Geelong City Deal funding commitment document which requires “A new Lorne Aquatic & Angling Club Building”. We recommend you respond “Strongly Agree”. Please provide reasons for your response at Statement 16.

Statement 17 “The Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club clubhouse would be better sited adjacent the boat ramp”.

It is important to understand that the boat ramp referred to is not the one in front of the current Aquatic Club building but the access ramp to the beach launching channel behind the Co-op building (see the aerial view). Your committee strongly believes the Aquatic Club should remain in its current location. We recommend you respond “Strongly Disagree”. Please provide reasons for your response at Statement 18.

Please respond to all statements in the survey by April 5. Your co-operation is appreciated and vital to the Club’s future.

If you have any trouble completing the survey, please speak to a committee member when you are next at the club or email info@lorneaqauticclub.com.au and we will contact you.


CLUB NEWS

Another summer has passed us by and it was a ripper. They just keep getting bigger and better every year. We've had great weather, magnificent staff, sensational patronage, heaps of events, hugely successful fund raising for our local community and the main reason our club exists... FUN FUN FUN for all our members! 

It’s not all over yet, we are still running heaps more events over the coming months including several live music afternoons and evenings with the usual free entry. 

I’m not aware of any other club that has world class bands with free entry, free sausage sizzles, in the world's best location and the world's best, coldest and cheapest beer. 

We are still open 7 days a week until Easter with our traditional Friday night free sausage sizzle and seafood raffles.

Don’t forget our facilities are available to members for weddings, parties, anything but you need to book well ahead. 

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Our local cray fishermen, father and son Steve and Kaide Love. This is where we get our fresh crays from for our Friday night raffles.   

UPCOMING EVENTS
SATURDAY ARVO BLUES


SATURDAY BLUES - 16th March 2024
NEW BAND ALERT

The Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club are excited to introduce Geoff Achison & The Algo-Rhythms, performing their Aussie Blues-Roots music on Sat 16th March.
Free entry and free sausage sizzle, you won't want to miss this band from 4pm to 7pm. 

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MAJOR FISHING COMPETITION NUMBER 3
SPONSORED BY ESSENTIAL FINANCIAL PLANNING

Easter Sunday 31st March 2024. The comp runs from 6am until the deadline of 12.30pm. Weigh-in starts at midday. It’s free to enter for members and all competitors get a free roast lunch. Prizes are awarded for first, second and third in both the junior and senior categories. Juniors must be under the age of 18. You can only weigh in one fish each, so anyone can win on the day, and it’s environmentally friendly. Come and have a crack. It’s great fun.

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This is local fishing legend Paul Spizzica with a couple of nice trout he caught recently.  

 

FREE LIVE MUSIC

Featuring the famous Ronny Holmer and his sensational band of talented musicians on Easter Sunday, 31st March from 5pm. Free entry, Members Only.  
Get there early, numbers are limited.

Ron Holmer band

 

RECENT EVENTS
CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA - LORNE

Sunday 25th February 2024
Sponsored by the Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club and Live Wire Park, the Clean Up Day was another very satisfying exercise for the community and both our sponsors.

We had 39 volunteers from Lorne who again collected a tonne of litter - all the usual suspects: plastic bags, cigarette butts, take-away food and coffee containers, even nappies and sick bags, seriously. Lots of thongs, old runners and an old scooter. The reduction in the cans and bottles can only be attributed to the deposit system operating from the Foodworks supermarket. All those out there cashing in are doing a great job for Lorne, keep it going. 

This year one lucky volunteer found a $20 note plus a wallet was found with some odd white powder in a small plastic bag...hmmm.

We had volunteers from the mid 70's to the three young Galbraith grandchildren who brought the average age down significantly.

Special thanks to Janet and Steve Agg who covered the GOR from Sheoak to Cumberland River, a mammoth section of the road and then delivered all our collected efforts to the transfer station. Tony from the Aquatic Club who arrived first at 7:20am and was out there well after 10:00am, a fantastic effort. Twenty new tongs from the Community Bank saved a number of backs, thank you again Kelly and team.

It's worth noting that there were 10,000 clean up sites around Australia and the volunteer numbers exceeded 750,000, staggering numbers and a lot of rubbish.

Everyone who attended provided a great service for Lorne, thank you! 

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HOMEGROWN TOMATO COMPETITION
SPONSORED BY LORNE PHARMACY

This was another successful fun event with a huge crowd turning up to watch the proceedings.  

Our regular master judge Leon Armistead is unwell at the moment so Paul Spizzica filled in for him. He was a natural. Tomatoes and Italians go together like a pie goes with sauce. 

Ray Sutton is now a very welcome addition to our judging panel so they teamed up nicely and came up with the following winners:

The Biggest, Harry Mammos. 

The Smallest, Ric Addison. 

The Funniest Shape, Sue Harris. 

The Best Tasting which is the Champion Tomato was also Sue Harris. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of Sue but she now has her name on the trophy.

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Winner of the Biggest Tomato, Harry Mammos being presented with his prize by our local Pharmacist and event sponsor, JP

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Judges Spizz and Ray hard at it

 

AQUATIC CLUB vs COUNTRY CLUB GOLF COMPETITION

This competition has been running since 1960 and for the first time ever we won it back to back. It was a perfect day with a huge turn out and a fun time was had by all. 
It’s not taken too seriously but a bit of the old competitive spirit always comes through on the day. They lovingly call us the "Seaweed Sniffers" and we refer to them as the "Banjo Playing Hill People".
It’s a wonderful thing to see sporting clubs in the same community like this come together for a fun event. It’s something you don’t see happening as much these days.  
After the game we all met back at our clubhouse where there was a big crowd waiting to help us celebrate and watch the presentations.
Everyone then enjoyed a few drinks and a BBQ which was free for all involved.

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Some of the highly skilled golfing contingent enjoying the  Lorne Country Clubs Beautiful Golf Course

 

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The Organisers of the day enjoying a cool refreshment. Clive, Ali, Me, Stewy and Matt
 

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The winner of the raffle, Anne Marie Kennedy presented with her prize. Each year Heath Wilson and his family generously donates a round of golf for 4 people at the Peninsula Kingswood Golf Club. It’s valued at $1800. The Wilson Family have been sponsors at our club for many years.
 

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The winning team of 3. Gary, Sue and Peter. 

 

SNAPPERS

The Snappers made the most of our magnificent February weather and sat outside in the Lazarus Lounge. They had a big turn out and had a lovely night catching up. Being outside also helped with the acoustics. 

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This is what a table full of Snappers looks like. They meet at the club on the first Friday evening of each month. All Welcome.  

 

MAJOR FISHING COMP NUMBER TWO
SPONSORED BY AVISO (Formally Western Insurance Brokers)

The conditions weren’t ideal being in the middle of our first heat wave in 5 years with high 30s temperatures and a strong wind but our fishing stalwarts all had a crack with a total of 20 Anglers competing and a surprisingly good number of quality fish weighed in. 

The Winners on the day were:

JUNIORS

Winner: Alby Dawson with a Salmon, 2729 points
Second: Brody Bush with a Snapper, 2302 points

SENIORS

Winner: Lou Pansino with his huge 2kg Trevally, 3740 points
Second: Luke Norton also with a nice Trevally, 3376 points
Third: Brett Stewart with a King George Whiting, 2756 points

Note: The points for all the anglers are displayed on our website.

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This is Lou Pansino with his competition winning huge Trevally which he very skilfully caught while whiting fishing on a very light outfit. It smashed our club record and weighed 2kg. 
 

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Junior Winner Alby Dawson who won with a good sized Salmon
 

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Junior Second Brody Bush in his first comp with a nice pan sized Snapper

TWO NICKNAMES: ANGLERS & A TEAM

There’s been a couple of comments made on social media about us using the 'ANGLERS' nickname on our merchandise instead of the 'A TEAM'.  

This is how it came about. About 8 or 9 years ago our committee decided to have a go at selling merchandise. It had been tried a few times in the past with very little success. I had just come onto the committee and we had just been told by GORCC that the Point Grey Redevelopment was going to happen very soon and we were going to have to pay for the rebuilding of our clubhouse ourselves.  
As we now all know this didn’t happen but at the time we were very concerned. We didn’t have much money and needed to find some quickly. We were looking at ways to borrow money and also ideas to raise funds ourselves.  
The merchandise was one of several ideas we came up with to raise money. We spoke to a Merchandising/Marketing expert to get some ideas. We told him about our two most used nicknames and asked his opinion on which one to use.  
They strongly recommended the 'ANGLERS' name because we are basically an ANGLING club and they didn’t think the name A TEAM would work as well. 
We discussed this at a monthly committee meeting and it was unanimously decided to go with the 'ANGLERS' on the merchandise. 
It’s been a huge success with us selling well over 2,000 tshirts and countless caps and stubby holders. 
The battle for our club to remain where we are is about to become Groundhog Day, going back to where it all started about 14 years ago. This will be a huge challenge that needs our full focus and all our resources at the moment.
Lots of clubs have more than one nickname. Just use the one you prefer. 

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This is our occasional staff member Alana Perry who is so thoughtful she decided to park her car this way so others had room to park behind her.  She’s such a kind young lady.

 

FISHING REPORT

BOAT 
The weather has been pretty good with favourable conditions 2 or 3 days each week. The sea temperature at the time of writing this is 21 degrees which is about normal for this time of year and is about as warm as it gets. It will start to drop rapidly over the next few weeks.  

The fishing has been good but not great. There’s still plenty of Flathead being caught but the big Tigers and Yanks are few and far between. Lots of Snapper about but no real big ones coming in.  
Gummy and School Sharks are being landed in reasonable numbers but not real big.  Plenty of salmon about but again no big ones.  
King George Whiting are on the go with some Anglers catching their bag limit. 
There’s still the odd Trevally, Teraki, Nannygai and Flying Gurnards being landed while targeting Snapper. 

PIER
The pier is still fishing extremely well with good numbers of: Salmon, Mullet, Trevally, King George Whiting, Snapper, Calamari, Flathead and the odd Gummy Shark. 

 

FADS

If you are searching for our FAD you won’t find it because the rope let go and it washed ashore at Fairhaven last week. It has a tracker on it so Vic Fisheries quickly retrieved it but unfortunately they won’t have time to re deploy it this season. The other one off the Aireys Lighthouse is still there. 
 

LIFE JACKETS WHILE ROCK FISHING IN VICTORIA

The two year trial of a life jacket mandate is complete. There are now ten zones in Victoria where you must wear a life jacket while fishing from the rocks. Three of them are here. 

  • Artillery Rocks 
  • Jump Rock
  • The Sheoak

We will endeavour to get hold of detailed maps showing these zones and display them in the clubhouse. Victorian Fisheries have a great website that displays the maps so check that out.  

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Paul Allen with a nice snapper he caught the other day

 

COFFEE

Jason is currently operating Thursdays to Mondays until Easter brewing his sensational coffee, hot chocolate, tea and bickies. 

Jason and Gru

 

COURTESY BUS

The bus is currently operating on Friday and Saturday evenings. We still need volunteers to drive it so if you can help please let Ian Hutchinson know.

courtesy bus

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MERCHANDISE

Our new range of merchandise is now available to purchase at the club house, whilst stock lasts. Our new 2024 colour range is available in long and short-sleeved t-shirts, hoodies, caps, stubby holders and an exclusive first time ever cotton sock and new black smart polo.  Stock is selling very fast, so get in quick to avoid disappointment. XL short sleeve t-shirts are being re-ordered and will be back in stock soon, terracotta currently available. Don't forget our merchandise deals, stubby holders $10 each or if purchased with a can of beer or UDL only $15, socks $15 a pair or 3 pairs for $40. Limited stock. 

2023 Merch Tops

 

 

Cheers,

Commodore

Thanks to our sponsors

KEANE CONTRACTING BRICK/BLOCK and SCAFFOLDING – Gary Keane
SURFCOAST GARDENING – Kerry Webster & Rob Dalziel

Sponsors Feb 24