THE Swan Hill and District Garden Club celebrated its 40th birthday at the Grain Shed last Friday.
Seventy people attended the high tea event, with a tremendous atmosphere bubbling away in the room filled with delicious-looking cakes.
Club volunteer Glenys Smith told The Guardian that they received some “pretty positive feedback” following the event.
“It’s a big achievement, 40 years, so we were thrilled and excited about it all, and it was nice to do something special for the occasion.”
Raffles and lucky prizes were a part of the festivities, but the night’s highlight was guest speaker Neil Williams who entranced the crowd.
“He didn’t speak in a language that people wouldn’t understand – some of the botanical names for plants are very hard to pronounce, let alone understand, so he held the interest of everyone very well,” Mrs Smith said.
The occasion was helped thanks to a $1000 state grant for events following the pandemic.
“Socialisation patterns were really disrupted during COVID, and people lost the love of wanting to go out, so that is why we applied for the grant,” Mrs Smith said.
The club was formed in 1982 and had over 100 members at one stage.
“We once had very big numbers, but since I joined in 2014, we’ve been pretty stable around 30 to 40 members,” Mrs Knight said.
“We have our meetings at night, so some of the older members could no longer attend, but they were there on Friday, which was nice to see and reminisce with them.”
A PowerPoint presentation detailing the club’s history was another big talking point, Mrs Smith said.
“We showed some major things like when we built the rose garden at the Pioneer Settlement in the 1980s and when we ran the Swan Hill Open Garden Competition, which everybody loved.”
