Newsletter of the Australasian Order of Old Bastards

WHAT IS THE OLD BASTARDS?

Day by day enquiries pour in from all States and from overseas, what is the OB’s and what do we stand for.

In brief, this Order is dedicated to joviality and good fellowship, and raising money for charity.

Our Watchword might very well be:-

“WHILST EVER HOPS GROW ON THIS EARTH. LET NOT PLAIN WATER MAR OUR MIRTH.”

 

 

Membership qualifications are quite simple and demand only adherence to five elementary rules.

 

Rule 1. Marital status of parents (not-withstanding our glorious name), is irrelevant.

 

Rule 2. It is sufficient to have been acclaimed at least once by friends as an

Old Bastard (and what man worth his salt hasn’t, despite his actual age).

 

Rule 3. Members must be jovial and hearty at all times (Which includes shouting in

your turn, otherwise you will earn the reputation of being a stingy old bastard).

 

Rule 4. On encountering other OB’s one must administer a hearty slap on the back,

accompanied by the cheerful salutation, "Hello, you old bastard". (Some intrepid

OB’s feel that a gentle hearty slap would suffice).

 

Rule 5. Membership card or Badge must be carried on the person at all times. Failure to

produce same when challenged by another OB incurs a penalty of one round of

drinks for the table - not the bar. (Be especially careful when getting out of the

bath to answer the doorbell. Unwary OB’s have been trapped like that before).

 

If you sincerely feel you can live up to these conditions and henceforth be known as a Good Old Bastard only one thing more is required.

 

 

$15.00  NOMINATION FEE

(Includes - G.S.T., Membership Card & Key Ring Badge)

On payment of which you will become a lifelong member of a unique fraternity.

 

 

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL NEW MEMBERS

You are now a member of an organization based on fun, fellowship and joviality coupled with fund raising for children’s charities.  The way

you can best help with this fund raising from the outset is to join up a mate or two.  For this purpose we are sending you a supply of “new membership‘ forms.  Please complete the forms and return with $15.00 per new member to A.O.O.B. at P.O. Box 2686, Southport. Qld. 4215.

As you are, so they too will become a card carrying Old Bastard ‘for life’, free from the payment of any further annual subs.

 

However, having said this, as you know, when you joined Old Bastards, you paid a once only fee for Life Membership and in some cases someone else joined you up and paid the fee. There is no ongoing annual fee to defray costs as in many other clubs. Printing and distributing this newsletter alone is becoming more expensive every year without considering outgoings such as printing, phone calls, postage etc. Because OB's runs on a "shoestring" budget, we are asking branches and members to give favourable consideration to making a donation towards the "day to day" administration costs of the organisation. Your assistance in this way means more money for the kids, which, after all, is our main concern.

 

 

 

WHERE THE MONEY GOES

Another frequently asked question from prospective Old Bastards is “what happens to the money?” A list of our donations to worthy

charitable causes can been seen on our web site.

 

Donations from inception to June 2007 - $5,112,840.76

 

 

The number of charities benefiting has become too numerous to list in detail for the above period.

Our 2006-2007 donation to the Childrens’s Hospital at Westmead  totals  $28,141.61 to bring the donations from

inception todate:

 

                              Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children

                              (Westmead formerly Camperdown)                          $1,306,048

                              Total donations for 2006/2007                                  $ 177,714 

 

BRANCH NEWS

In an effort to foster inter-branch communication we are publishing news articles and items of interest received from various branches during the year.  Please keep up the flow of news from your branch to Head Office over the next twelve months, particularly information on branch social happenings and fund/raising/donations for children.  All articles to: AOOB, P.O. Box 2686, Southport. Qld. 4215 or email to info@aoob.com.au.  A list of branches and where they meet is printed elsewhere in this newsletter.

KALBARRI, Western Australia

We are a crayfishing and tourism town situated on the mouth of the Murchison River with coastal and river gorges and a population of about 1,500 with lots to see and do.  In the 18 months since our branch’s inception we have signed up 60 members and donated over $12,000 to much needed facilities and equipment for our community, including $4,100 for an electric bed for our Palliative Care Ward at our Health Centre and $5,176 to construct a gazebo at the cemetery.  Our generous hosts, Finlay’s Fish Barbecue,  run nightly raffles for us in their tin shed outback type restaurant, with ‘Muzza’ doing a fantastic job.  If you are passing through, please make yourself know to him and Gary Finlay and Lynette (the owners) and they will give you a discount on your meal of fish, seafoods, steaks etc. when you show your membership card.  They’re all OB’s themselves and will make you very welcome.  OB’s have been turning up recently to Finlays from all over Australia saying “We didn’t know the OB’s still existed!” including one of the originals who joined up with Leo Bradshaw back in the 1960’s and another who, back in 1987 tells the story of how he lost his wallet with his OB’s card in it down the bush loo and had to put his hand down the hole up to his armpit to retrieve it!  He still has the card today, looking a bit worse for wear as you can imagine!  Our branch now has its own song about the OB’s of Kalbarri, which of course we sign at every opportunity!  Contact Jan Kramer (08) 9937 2468.

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GOLD COAST BRANCH (QLD) -  Brad Carbis (07) 0416 206947

We have had another successful year financially and we congratulate our new branch ‘Gill’s Old Bastards’ for winning the award for the most number of new members. Our annual ‘Big Lunch’ held at the Gold Coast International Hotel in July was again a sell out with approximately 500 attendees and we made over $70,000.  The compere was Johnny Garfield and our guest entertainer was Darren Carr. The annual Race Day which is held every February was also a great success with lots of fun had by all.  We have a lunch meeting on the first Thursday of every month to which all Old Bastards are invited.

 

BURLEIGH HEADS (QLD) - Bob Cameron 0404 372624

We meet on the 3rd Sunday of each month at Treetops Tavern, Burleigh Waters and extend a welcome to visiting Old Bastards.  We are proud to announce that Christine Smith, the local member for Burleigh Heads has now become our Patron and we were pleased to provide her with Honorary membership.  We continue to provided much needed funds to the Mater Children’s Hospital, the Gold Coast Hospital Foundation and Sids and Kids together with a new programme of assisting kids in need of specialised wheelchairs.  Welcome to the 55 new member of our branch, we are pleased with the level of interest and support from old and new members alike.   

 

BRISBANE Ian Rennie gillsoldbastards@gmail.com

Our group meets at the Tank Hotel, Brisbane on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. We are looking forward to a great year!

TWIN TOWNS – Ron Burgess (07) 5524 5147

The AOOB’s Twin Towns Branch meet on the first Friday of each month in the Anzac Room, Twin Towns Services Club at 2pm (DST when applicable).  Our main money raiser is wrapping Christmas parcels at Tweed City Shopping Centre.  We commence our wrap on Monday Decmber 3 until Christmas Eve, so if you would like to help we would love to have you come along.  We recently raffled a framed signed football jumper, donated by Mr. and Mrs. P. Rigney and from this raffle we donated $2,000 to the Early Childhood Intervention Society.

 

 

ANNUAL  GENERAL  MEETING:

The AGM was held at Southport on the 26th August 2007 and the elected Management Committee for 2007/2008 is :

 

President:	lan Hollindale
Vice Presidents:	Chris Oxenford and lan Short (Minutes Secretary)
Secretary/Treasurer:	Brad Carbis
Auditor:	John Franich
Committee:	Damian Woods, Bob Cozens, Frank Gould
	Spencer Maslen   - Gold Coast branch Ron Burgess, Rhonda Burgess, Barry Rigney, Jessie Rigney—TwinTowns branch

 

                                   

                                                 

 

GENERAL PRESIDENT'S REPORT:

We have welcomed 833 new members for the 2006-2007 year and presented Charters to two new Clubs, Brisbane ‘Gill’s Old Bastards’ and Mackay and raised over $200,00.    I believe we have achieved all this consistently with our founder Leo Bradshaw’s challenge for this Order to be dedicated to ‘Joviality and good fellowship and raising money for Charity’.  Our annual cheque to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead this

year will be $28,141.61 plus another $3,980.30 has been forwarded direct to the Hospital from various branches and interested groups.
The organisation is indebted to our newsletter publisher and to the Committee that has met regularly and is representative of a number of branches in both Queensland and New South Wales.  Our Office Administrator, Jenny Read continues to enjoy ‘meeting’ so many old and new OB’s from both within Australia and internationally and she has

contributed a great deal to the success of the organisation this year.

 

It is my pleasure to again present our three awards recording Most Money Raised; Most New Members and Most Money Donated to Westmead Children’s Hospital.

 

I would just like to say how much I have enjoyed representing the Australasian Order of Old Bastards during the year in my capacity as Arch Bastard.

 

lan Hollindale

General President

 

LIST OF BRANCHES AND WHERE THEY MEET

 

 

NSW                                                                                                                       WA

Emmaville – Club Hotel, Emmaville                                                                       Innaloo - Innaloo Sportmens Club

Hornsby – Hornsby RSL Clus                                                                               Kulin - Kulin Hotel

Junee – Junee Bowling Club                                                                                   Kalbarri – Finlay’s Fish Bar-b-que

Springwood – Royal Hotel

Twin Towns – Twin Towns Services Club                                                            QLD

                                                                                                                                Gold Coast - (Contact: 07 5532 8100)

VIC                                                                                                                        crab@winshop.com.au

Wangaratta – North Eastern Hotel                                                                           Burleigh Heads – Tree Tops Tavern   

Dromana – Dromana/Red Hill RSL Sub Branch                                                    Northgate Mail Centre – Toombul Bowls Club
                                                                                                                                Giru—Giru International Hotel
Interested Groups                                                                                                 Mackay – Magpies Sporting Club
Carnarvon, WA                                                                                                       Brisbane – Tank Hotel, Creek Street

                                                                                                                               

Old Bastards - Branch Awards for 2006/2007

 

Branch raising the most money for charity in Australia—GOLD COAST $62,644

Branch in Australia raising the most money for the Children’s Hospital , Westmead—GOLD COAST  $10,000

Branch recruiting the most new members Australia wide— BRISBANE ‘Gill’s Old Bastards’ with 80 new members

 

ENQUIRIES

All enquiries re functions etc. please contact your nearest Branch (listed above). Any other enquiries ring Head Office on 0755 313362  hours 8.30 am to 2.30 pm Friday only or email info@aoob.com.au. When Office is unattended please leave message on our answering machine which is connected 24 hours a day.  All mail should be sent to PO Box 2686, Southport, Qld, 4215.

 

NEWS SECTION

Our main sources of revenue are from the hard working members of branches and the humble Life Membership fee which includes a badge, so keep those nominations rolling in you O.B’s.  A plea from Head Office, please try to memorise the number on your card (some O.B’s even get their badges engraved (Clever Old Bastards). Duplicates of lost and damaged cards are only $10.00 if you supply the number otherwise the cost is as  for a new member which is $15.00.. All membership fees are to be included with nominations -  some Lousy Old Bastards forget.

Those branches wishing to reward a member for outstanding and meritorious service to OB’s may purchase a gold printed membership card for a donation of $100.00 or more. The card states that it is awarded to the holder for his services to OB’s and charitable organisations.

 

MONEY RAISED BY BRANCHES FOR CHARITIES OTHER                 MONEY RAISED BY BRANCHES FOR

THAN THE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL 2006/2007                                         CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL, WESTMEAD

 

NSW		WA		NSW		WA
Tamworth	$5,000	Innaloo	$7,250	Springwood	$5,600	Innaloo	$250
Twin Towns	$10,099.85	Kulin	$25,750	Junee	$1,000	Kulin	$4,050
Junee	$8,300	Kalbarri	$10,076.87	Emmaville	$850	Kalbarri	$100
Emmaville	$1,700			Hornsby	$300
Hornsby	$3,000			Tamworth	$650
				Twin Towns	$400
QLD		VIC		QLD		VIC
Gold Coast	$62,644	Wangaratta	$4,320	Gold Coast	$10,000	Wangaratta	$480
Burleigh Heads	$8,073.65			Giru	$400
Northgate MC	$400			Northgate MC	$100
Giru	$2,600			Burleigh Heads	$400

 

 

MONIES RAISED BY INTERESTED GROUPS                                           INTERESTED GROUPS

AOOB Carnarvon Group                       $28,500                                                   AOOB Carnarvon WA Group                $500

                                                                                                                                Illawarra Master Builders Group            $2,230.30

 

 

If you would like to form a branch in your area please given Jenny a call on (07) 55313362 to find out what is involved .

 

SHORT HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALASIAN ORDER OF OLD BASTARDS

 

Leo Bradshaw started off as a member of the I.O.O.B. (International Order Of Old Bastards). This organisation was started by Allied Servicemen who had been based here in Australia during the Second World War. They were amazed that the old Aussie saying ‘Hello you Old Bastard’ was considered a term of endearment and not an insult.

 

After receiving legal advice, Leo with a small band of other Old Bastards, started the A.O.O.B. in 1968 at the British Lion Hotel in Glebe with the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children - Camperdown, the major beneficiary. This was only the beginning. Then came years of trying to convince the powers that be that the A.O.O.B. would be an asset to the registered charities. The name, of course, was the main stumbling block - “what would the good people of the community think?

 

By July 1973, the N.S.W Chief Secretary was convinced that because of the wonderful work the Australasian Order of Old Bastards

was doing for charity, it should be recognised and registered - so the organisation which believed in joviality, good fellowship and charity was official.

 

Leo was honoured by the Queen in 1982 for service to the community, particularly Children’s Welfare. Leo Bradshaw M. B. E.,

Archbastard and Founder passed away on August 4th, 1992. His name will remain on membership cards.

 

The Leo Bradshaw Renal Research Laboratory at The Children’s Hospital - Westmead (Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children) has

been named in his memory. His dream will be kept alive by more people joining the organisation.

 

Joan Bradshaw, Leo’s wife worked along side him since the organisation was formed, When Leo passed away, she took over as General Secretary. On Australia Day in 2001, she was named in the Australia Day Honours List and was granted an OAM for services to charity through the Australasian Order of Old Bastards.

 

Sadly Joan passed away in January 2003.

 

In 2003 the National Office was relocated to the Gold Coast and all new membership numbers have been recorded on computer. All records prior to 2003 were kept numerically so you will appreciate it’s an impossible task to try and locate your original number if you don’t know it and you  require a replacement card.   The good news is you can rejoin for only $15 and receive a keyring badge.

 

 

Where does the money goes? - please go to Donations to Charities

 

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