32nd Reunion 2026 Geelong
32nd Reunion Geelong 22/3/2026 - 27/3/2026
Barwon River Holiday Park
A meet and greet was programmed for our first day at 1600 in the Camp Kitchen. Those present were, Shayne and Rosemary Mclennan, Don and Shirley McGrath, Lindsay and Kathleen Hensby, Dennis Abbey, Warren Meers, Joe Bales, Bob Krog and Lorraine, Col and Christine Russel, Craig and Liz McGregor, Paul Bullock, Tank and Brenda Shuurman.
A light sausage sizzle BBQ was provided for by your Committee and a few drinks enjoyed.
Monday saw us drive down to Torquay for lunch at the local pub. The Torquay area was beginning to get a bit busy due to the Bells Beach Classic Surf competition which was happening the week after we left. Some of us drove further down the coast road for an afternoon drive.
Tuesday was a free day for everyone except for dinner that night at the Geelong RSL, with their club bus picking us up and bringing us back home at the end of the night. Warren was lucky enough to win a meat Raffle and donated it back for our BBQ later. Some of us were even luckier with the Pokies.
Wednesday we had our General Meeting and Lunchtime BBQ. Lunch was provided by the Committee again along with prizes for a Raffle draw. Then the rest of the day free. Minutes at the end of this.
Thursday was an easy self explore free day. A last minute decision to go and have dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, recommended by the Caravan Park manager. This proved popular and great food, with final farewells being made with each other.
Minutes of Meeting held 25/3/2026.
Present were the same as above.
A notice of those who have crossed the bar for last time are as follows;
Steve Henderson, Tony Rapps and Chris Luscombe.
I advised the meeting that the future of our Association will be wound up in approximately 4 years' time. This will be the 60th Anniversary of us all enlisting into the RAN. A discussion was made regarding this and highlighting several factors were mainly the older we are all getting and ongoing health issues we seem to be suffering from.
It was decided that after some more discussion that we should now lock in Canberra 2030 for our final reunion.
This was carried unanimously.
Therefore, we will look into this later after our next reunion in 2028.
We will also look into getting a 60th Anniversary shirt made similar to the shirts made for our 50th Anniversary.
The website will be maintained by Lindsay for some time after that, so you can keep in touch and look for phone numbers.
But there is nothing stopping anyone whilst they are travelling around the country and calling to see if anyone is local to that area.
Our next reunion in 2028 and after some discussion will be at the Tweed Heads/Coolangatta area. This was chosen because of the milder weather, amenities and local airport. Don and I along with anyone else who wants to come along will travel to the area for a reccy next year to decide which Park may suit us better. A date will be promulgated on the website 12 months in advance, but I would advise early bookings due to being the Gold Coast area.
Our current bank statement is $607.22. This is after spending $172 on the Geelong Reunion.
Finally, your Committee was re-elected to remain.
President Don McGrath
V/ President Dennis Abbey
Sec/Treasurer Shayne Mclennan.
Thank You all for your support and see you at the Gold Coast 2028.
Shayne Mclennan.
All in all it was good to catch up with all of those who attended our 2026 reunion, most of us travelled long distances from places such as Tasmania, Queensland and NSW.
It was nice to keep our get together casual and to catch up and to see what has been happening with each other, especially with Bob Krog and Colin Russell.
Not a lot of photos this time as we were all having too much fun.
A big thankyou to everyone who gave a surprise birthday
cake for my wife, Kathleen on her birthday and Black Forest
was her favourite too.
Also a big shout out to Dennis who attended with a bad back.
I would also like to thank the wives and partners who attended
and their contributions to our discussions, not to mention them
winnings on the pokies, I think the club was glad to see us leave.
It was great to see familiar faces at the relaxed and casual reunion, with a chance to meet and talk together about what is happening with everyone and have catch ups.
I acknowledge that this year we were faced with a fuel crises that may have stopped many from coming long distances, but I have to say at this point that I am disappointed in the lack of attendance throughout all of our reunions, we have 111 people who have joined this site and out of those only a dozen or so shows up. Both Don and Shayne go to a lot of effort to organise our reunions travelling to different places at their own expense to find accommodation and arrange it so that we can all be in the same place and organise places to eat and explore.
I have helped many of our guys over the years assisting in receiving a Veterans Gold card and where to find help, these reunions give me the opportunity to speak face to face with those who do need help, most didn't even know they could even get help.
I do know that some of our members do not want to have anything to do with their time in the navy and that is for their own reasons, however, as Shane said, time is running out for us all and we are slowly declining in numbers, for all those who do show up I thank you very much. And for those that maybe thinking about coming next time or for our last reunion in 2030, I can't recommend enough that you make the effort because it really is worth it.
Lindsay Hensby
Webmaster
From left to right Dennis Abbey, Lindsay Hensby, Don McGrath, Shayne Maclennan, Paul Bullock, Craig MacGreggor, Joe Bayles, Robert Krog, Warren Meers, Collin Russell.
I don't know what Warren had in his purse, but it must have been very heavy.
and Henry Schuurman (Tank) is invisible.