Apex Clubs of Australia

The Association of Apex Clubs of Australia is an Australia-wide association of autonomous clubs dedicated to fellowship, self-improvement, and community service, similar to other service clubs such as Lions International but with a younger membership (18–40).^[1] Apex organises a range of activities such as public speaking and debating competitions, ute musters, and B&S balls. Members call themselves "Apexians".

Apex Clubs of Australia brand

Apex Australia logo

History

Sculpture located in Johnstone Park, Geelong marking the formation of the association

Apex had its beginnings in Geelong, Victoria in December 1930 with the formation of the "Geelong Young Business Men's Club"^[2][3] by architects Ewen Laird, Langham Proud and John Buchan with the support of the local chapter of Rotary International, the mayor of Geelong, and the Geelong Advertiser.^[4] Although Rotary has no formal connection with Apex, it figures in the club's formation, as Buchan's father was a Rotarian, and the three friends might have joined but for that organisation's rule of no two members in the same profession.^[5]

This was the time of the Great Depression in Australia,^[6] when there was a great need for service-oriented men to work together, and the club soon boasted of 60 members. On 10 March 1931 they adopted the name "Apex" with the triangular badge symbolizing the club's three ideals: Service, Citizenship, and Fellowship. That day has since been recognised as the birth of the organisation. Within a few months a club was formed in Ballarat, with assistance from Rotary. Bendigo followed, then Camperdown, Albury, Warrnambool, Wagga, Launceston and Orange. By the start of the Second World War there were 41 clubs scattered across Australia, from Perth to Brisbane.^[5]

Each year conventions were held, both at region level and Association-wide, where apart from socializing and attendance at workshops and speeches, decisions affecting all clubs were voted on. In 1958 a move was made to found Apex clubs overseas, and to that end the word "National" was dropped from the association's and "National President" became "President of the Association", and "National Council" became "Executive Council".^[1]

Projects and causes adopted by the Association include:^{[lower-alpha 1]}

• Seat belts in passenger vehicles
• "Learn to Swim" campaign
• "Operation Apex Sea Lift" encouraging each club to sponsor a British family as migrants
• Full citizenship to Aboriginal people
• Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation
• Aid to the mentally retarded
• Miss Apex Australia quest
• Guide Dogs for the Blind
• Improved pensions for civilian widows
• Improved pensions for families of jail inmates
• Recruiting blood donors
• Daylight saving
• Guthrie test for phenylketonuria (1969)
• Aid to the Disabled (1970)
• Autistic children
• Well-sinking in India
• Banning cigarette advertising (1972)
• "Foundation 41" neonatal research (1974)
• Multiple Sclerosis research
• Children's Leukemia and Cancer Foundation
• Drug awareness 1978
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome^{[lower-alpha 2]}
• Ban on TV liquor advertising
• Apex Australia Fine Arts Scholarship

Proposals that were lost to the vote include fluoridation of water and decimalization of currency.^[1]

Club achievements

The Apex Wishing Well at Franklin Square (Hobart)

The range of works undertaken at a local level was great. Some clubs took on projects that were more ambitious:^[1]

• 1950: Claremont club helped establish a Guide Dog training centre at Belmont,^[7] transferred to Kew, Victoria in 1957.
• 1956: Launceston club built a bowling green for a Home for the Aged.
• 1959: Coolangatta-Tweed Heads club built a 50 by 24 feet (15.2 m × 7.3 m) brick-veneer holiday home for children with cerebral palsy in one day of ten working hours; fully lined and finished, with well-equipped kitchen, fully wired, plumbed and connected. Around 100 local tradesmen volunteered their services.
• 1965: Mount Barker, South Australia, club restored a century-old derelict windmill to working order
• 1967: Broken Hill club raised $250,000 to build a 16,000 square feet (1,500 m²) geriatric wing for the town's Home of Compassion.
• 1968: Yass club, with assistance from Rotary and Legacy, built the "Yass Apex Homes", ten flats for aged citizens on land bequeathed to the cause.
• 1976: Tennant Creek club produced the Tennant Times, the town's only newspaper.

Growth and decline

There were 100 chartered Apex clubs in 1954, 162 in 1956, 200 in 1958. In 1964 there were 410 clubs and 11,000 Apexians, with 70% of membership in the country;^[5] in 1970 615 clubs and almost 16,000 members.^[8] In 1976 membership had reached 17,400 in 796 clubs.

By 1970 there was a small number of Apex clubs in Papua and New Guinea, Singapore, Malaysia, Ceylon, India, East and West Pakistan, Nauru, Fiji and The Philippines.^[8]

Initially Apex membership was restricted to males 18 to 35 years of age, with mandatory retirement at age 40. Beginning in the early 1990s individual clubs could declare themselves "all male", "all female", or "mixed", with the upper age for women set at 45.^[9] but since the 2006 National Convention there has been no gender requirement for membership.

Geelong's last Apex club (Barwon) folded in 2015, but there were still 150 active clubs elsewhere in Australia.^[4]

Notable members

• Miles Bourke (1925–1982), farmer and founding president (1979) of the Victorian Farmers and Graziers Association (became Victorian Farmers' Federation), was a member of the Warracknabeal Apex Club.^[10]
• Sir John Buchan, businessman and Apex co-founder, president of the Australia-America Association and councillor of the City of Melbourne.
• Herb Elliott sen., father of athlete Herb Elliott, was president of Perth club and appointed Life Governor in 1953.^[1]
• Sir Harold Roy Fidge (1904–1981), solicitor and mayor of Geelong, a founder of the Geelong Apex Club in 1932 and was secretary-treasurer of the Apex national council 1935–40, 1946–1947, and in 1940 elected a life governor.^[11]

• Donald Bruce Mackay (1933–1977), furniture store proprietor and murdered anti-drugs campaigner, was at various times secretary and president of the Griffith Apex Club and district governor.^[12]

• Ivor Gray Morris (1911–1995), woollens manufacturer, was a founder in 1938 of the Ipswich Apex Club and president in 1941, district governor in 1945.^[13]

• William Phelan (1915–1973), businessman and politician, founding member (1939) of Maryborough, Victoria, Apex club and president 1944–46.^[14]

• William Langham Proud CBE (28 January 1909 – December 1984), architect, born at Korumburra, Victoria, was co-founder of Geelong Apex Club.^[15]

• John Basil Regan (1903–1987), flour-miller, was foundation member (1935) of the Tamworth Apex Club.^[16]

• Bevan Rutt OBE was president of the Adelaide Apex club in 1948, became charter president of Adelaide Lions Club in 1961 and later a District Governor. In 1964 he gave up his practice as architect to work full-time for Guide Dogs for the Blind. He became president of the National Guide Dogs Association in 1966.

• William R. Tresise MBE (1907–1975) was a member 1936–1947 and president 1945–1947.^[17] He then founded Australia's first Lions Club in Lismore on 29 September 1947,^[18] was first (Australian Lions) District Governor.^[19]

• William John Wallwork (1903–1971), magistrate, was founding president (1936/37) of the Bunbury Apex club.^[20]

National Presidents

Year	Name	Club	Notes
1932	Eric Hooper	Geelong
1933	Will Belscher	Bendigo
1934	Stan Jackling	Albury
1935	John Buchan	Geelong	part year only
1935	Colin George	Camperdown
1936	Alan E. Edwards	Wagga
1938	Basil Jones	Hobart
1939	John Sykes	Wollongong
1941	Stan Johnson	Sydney
1943	Tom Bellair	Melbourne
1945	Bill Tresise	Lismore	see bio (above)
1947	Tom Maguire	Wollongong
1949	Langdon Parsons	Glenelg
1951	Alan Rowland	Glen Innes
1953	Ernest White	Orange
1955	Gordon Murray	Geelong
1957	Arthur Holden	Morwell
1959	Ralph Bower	Perth
1961	Graham Grose	Mordialloc
1963	Doug Cameron	Manly
1964	Kevin Tuckey	Parkes
1965	Gilbert F. "Tig" Thomas	Narrandera
1966	Bruce Clarke	Quirindi
1967	David Richards	Terang
1968	George Sprague	Campsie
1969	Peter Mayo	Perth
1970	Carl Bisson	Byron Bay
1971	Brian Horgan	Croydon
1972	Tony Randall	Lane Cove
1973	Brian Matthews	Launceston
1974	Don Ferguson	Killara
1975	John Cleaves	Cessnock
1976	Tom Chapman	Adelaide
1977	Graham Salter	Carringbah
1978	Graham Sampson	Springwood
1979	Ian Main	Launceston
1980	Ian Wolfgang	Denman
1981	Peter Baulch	Doncaster
1982	Peter Walsh	Woy Woy
1983	Bob Gilliver	Toowong/Kenmore
1984	Terry Anderson	Tea Tree Gully	[15]
1985	Stephen Smith	Wendouree
1986	John Phillips	West Beach
1987	Brian Gill	Springwood
1988	Alan Musgrave	Forbes
1989	lain Evans	Stirling
1990	Jim Hughes	Hobart
1990	Loraine Janssen	North Adelaide
1991	Angus Redford	Adelaide
1991	Diane English	Brisbane South West
1992	Christina Boothby	North Darwin
1993	Mark Ballin	Ipswich
1993	Liz Keddie	Adelaide Metro
1994	Wayne Hosier	Maroubra
1994	Barbara Simpson/Chris McGurgan	Forest Area
1995	Shane Kelly	Wallaroo
1996	Gil Thomas	Latrobe
1996	Carolyn Dare	Townsville Womens
1997	Eric Accornero	Herbert River
1997	Kath Venters	Geelong Womens
1998	Mike Neville	Griffith
1999	Mark Fishwick	Emu Bay
2000	Stephen Gribbin	Tamworth
2001	David Parsons	Mansfield
2002	Ollie Dowd	Wee Waa/Narrabri
2003	Bryan Whitehorn	Glenelg
2004	Stuart Hughes	Hoppers Crossing
2005	Bruce Kelman	Esperance
2006	Phil Pregnell	Kingston
2007	Rick Hose	Maryborough
2008	Paul Gallagher	Leeton
2009	Mark Wenzel	Mount Barker
2010	Jeff Hardie	Sarina
2011	Chris Morahan	Brisbane City
2012	Chris Morahan	Brisbane City
2013	Kate Huth	Albany
2014	Nedd Golding	Clare
2015	Jim McNall	Maryborough
2016	Mathew O'Donnell	Hoppers Crossing
2017	Robert Abraham	Chinchilla
2018	Neal Molineaux	Wagga Wagga
2019	Michael Godfrey	Wongan Hills
2020	Bethany Paterson	Kadina
2021	Adam Stewart	Toowoomba
2022	Simon Grant	Beaufort
2023	Ben Curnow	Beaufort

Life Governors

"Life Governor" is the highest award Apex can award its members.

Year	Name	Club	Notes
1936	Eric Hooper	Geelong
1940	Sir Roy Fidge	Geelong	see bio (above)
1942	Sir John Buchan	Geelong
1942	Ewen Laird	Geelong
1942	W. Langham Proud CBE	Geelong
1945	Colin Campbell	Bunbury
1945	Stan Johnson	Sydney
1945	Tom Bellair	Melbourne
1945	Roy Birdsey	Geelong
1947	Bill Tresise	Lismore	see bio (above)
1947	Stan Jackling	Albury
1947	John Sykes	Wollongong
1950	Tom Maguire	Wollongong
1951	John Nortey	Inverell
1952	Langdon Parsons	Glenelg
1953	Herb Elliott (sen.)	Perth
1954	Allan Rowland	Glen Innes
1954	Jack Squires	Perth
1957	Gordon Murray	Geelong
1959	Pete Garnsey	Albury
1960	Arthur Holden	Morwell
1961	Tony Miller	Hamilton, Vic.
1964	Len Bosman	Hurstville
1965	Ralph Bower	Perth
1966	G. F. "Tig" Thomas	Killara
1969	Bruce Clarke	Parramatta
1971	George Sprague	Campsie
1972	David Richards	Terang
1973	Dick Clampett	Blackwood
1974	Brian Horgan	Croydon (Croydon, Victoria ?)
1976	Carl Bisson	Byron Bay
1978	Don Ferguuson	Killara
1979	John Cleaves	Cessnock
1980	Graham Salter	Carringbah
1981	Tom Chapman	Adelaide
1982	Bill Belscher	Bendigo
1983	Ken Slatter[21]	Boort, Victoria
1983	Ross McLeod	Lane Cove
1984	John Russell	Barmera
1988	Peter Walsh	Woy Woy
1989	Terry Anderson	Tea Tree Gully
1990	Stephen Smith	Wendouree
1991	John Stokes	Claremont
1993	Jim Hughes	Jindalee
1994	John Phillips	West Beach
1995	Ray Vincent	Berry (Berri, South Australia ?)
1998	Andrew Philips	Adelaide
2005	Shane Kelly	Wallaroo
2019	Neil Sawley	Kadina
2022	Mark Ballin	Brisbane Valley

Notes

1. Contemporary terminology. Some usages are now deprecated.
2. "Sudden Instant Death Syndrome" typo in the reference, p.33

References

1. V. M. Branson (1981). The Golden Years of Apex 1956–1981. Association of Apex Clubs of Australia. ISBN 0909854106.
2. "Geelong and district". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 27, 453. Victoria, Australia. 14 August 1934. p. 3. Retrieved 15 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
3. "Apex - Our History". Apex.org.au. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
4. Daryl McLure (11 May 2015). "Last Apex Club Closes". The Geelong Advertiser. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
5. "Apex Association". The Canberra Times. Vol. 38, no. 10, 806. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 26 March 1964. p. 22. Retrieved 1 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
6. "At Geelong for Apex's 50th". Victor Harbour Times. Vol. 70, no. 3, 064. South Australia. 22 April 1981. p. 2. Retrieved 15 September 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
7. Hasluck, Alexandra (1966). "To Guide and Guard: An early history of Guide Dogs in Australia" (PDF). Association for the Blind of Western Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2019. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
8. "40th Anniversary of Apex". Western Herald. New South Wales, Australia. 27 November 1970. p. 1. Retrieved 1 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
9. "Apex movement is growing daily". The Times (Victor Harbor). Vol. 93, no. 29. South Australia. 2 April 1998. p. 23. Retrieved 1 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia. Number of clubs reported was "Over 500".
10. Campbell Curtis (2007). "Miles Bourke (1925–1982)". Australian Dictionary of Biography: 'Bourke, Miles (1925–1982)'. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
11. John Lack (2007). "Sir Harold Roy Fidge (1904–1981)". Australian Dictionary of Biography: Fidge, Sir Harold Roy (1904–1981). National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
12. C. A. Gregory (2000). "Donald Bruce (Don) Mackay (1933–1977)". Australian Dictionary of Biography: 'Mackay, Donald Bruce (Don) (1933–1977)'. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
13. Les Henning (2019). "Ivor Gray Morris (1911–1995)". Australian Dictionary of Biography: 'Morris, Ivor Gray (1911–1995)'. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
14. B. J. Costar (2000). "William Phelan (1915–1973)". Australian Dictionary of Biography: 'Phelan, William (1915–1973)'. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
15. "Co-founder of Apex clubs dies". The Canberra Times. Vol. 59, no. 17, 971. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 11 December 1984. p. 14. Retrieved 1 March 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
16. Chris Cunneen and Charles Regan (2012). "John Basil Regan (1903–1987)". Australian Dictionary of Biography: 'Regan, John Basil (1903–1987)'. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
17. "Mr Tresise Touring America". The Northern Star. New South Wales, Australia. 23 October 1946. p. 5. Retrieved 25 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
18. Max Tresise (2011). Lion Bill (PDF). Memoirs Foundation. ISBN 978-0-9870600-9-9.
19. "First Lions Convention". The Northern Star. New South Wales, Australia. 11 March 1953. p. 4. Retrieved 25 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
20. Quentin Beresford (2002). "William John Wallwork (1903–1971)". Australian Dictionary of Biography: 'Wallwork, William John (1903–1971)'. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
21. "Supremely Kind Man Who Never Said "No"". Retrieved 19 October 2022 – via PressReader.

Further reading

• R. S. Love and V. M. Branson (1957) Apex: the First 25 Years
• V. M. Branson (1981) The Golden Years of Apex 1956–1981 ISBN 9780909854102

External links

• Apex Australia official website
• The Apex Foundation