The Kew Story
By Henry Drury
Push on through the gentrifying eastern end of Victoria Street, Richmond, until by crossing the Yarra River you are immediately in the leafy surrounds of the long-time gentrified suburb of Kew. Fashionable Kew in London is in the Royal Borough of Richmond and so, when in 1851 early settler Nicholas Fenwick purchased his Crown allotment across the river from Richmond, what else would you name your new estate but Kew?
Since the mid-1850s Kew has seen steady and in the main elegant residential development, including such mansions as Wren House (now part of Xavier College Junior School) and the even grander Italianate Raheen (‘little fort’ in Irish Gaelic) sited on Studley Park Road. Beginning life as a brewer’s residence, it was for many years the home of the Catholic archbishop before acquisition by the Pratt family as their stately Melbourne dwelling.
That period also saw the construction of a magnificent structure in the French Second Empire style known as the Willsmere Lunatic Asylum. This was a cutting-edge institution for the treatment of ‘lunatics, inebriates and idiots’ and while that description may be regarded today as totally un-woke, it was seen to demonstrate that the colony of Melbourne was a ‘civilised and benevolent city’. Willsmere today is still a gated community, but those grim wards and halls are now unique apartments in a grand setting with attitude.
So, Kew while being a well-established residential locality was regrettably not seen to have enough citizens with local businesses to support a Rotary Club with the ideal of diversity of vocation. However, the passage of time and persistence eventually saw the Rotary Club of Kew receive its charter on 16 June 1967 with 30 new members, who quickly cemented the club as an integral and valued part of the community.
Kew, being the virtual epicentre of both public and private schools particularly in Melbourne, has always had youth and youth activities high on the club agenda, such as debating competitions, mock-job interviews, scholarships, the usual list of programs with Rotary acronyms and Youth Exchange.
The Kew Rotary Art Show from the early days was an immediate and successful fundraiser.
Police mentoring, producing spinal health videos, tree planting and Clean Up Australia Day are just random samples of broad community service. A particular source of pride is the establishment of a Sustainability Enterprise by way of a Fair Trade Shop at 650 High Street, Kew East. It supports the DIK store and Camcare in recycling equipment and goods to assist disadvantaged communities both here and overseas including East Timor, Nepal and Laos, with the slogan ‘every purchase will help someone less fortunate than ourselves’.
The blockbuster biennial club fundraiser is the Garden Designfest. Beginning in 2004 under the stewardship of club member and landscape architect John Patrick as a largely local open gardens program, it has evolved to be a Melbourne-wide spectacular, including the Mornington Peninsula and regional Victoria over two weekends in November. This hugely successful event is now jointly managed by the Kew, Brighton North and Central Melbourne clubs, with Youth Suicide Awareness to be the main beneficiary this year.
Its website modestly and succinctly sums the club up in the words: ‘Kew Rotary is a lively organisation where we mix good work with firm friendship’.
https://rotarydistrict9800.org.au/stories/the-kew-story/