Sunday 3 May 2026
Old Tailem Town - Tailem Bend S.A.
What a Wonderful Day
Rotary Pioneer Adventure Day for farming families on Sunday 3rd May exceeded our expectations in every way, providing a free day of fun, entertainment, food and lifestyle services for some 450 adults and 150 children.
From the moment we opened the gates at 9am, families flowed in. Many thought they’d stay an hour or maybe two, but there was so much to see and do that most stayed for four or five.
Old Tailem Town Pioneer Village was an awesome event venue offering a myriad of historic buildings representing colonial life through to that of the mid-20th Century. The kids explored every nook and cranny, mainly at high speed, calling out excitedly to each other and their parents as they found curios that to them, were weird and never-seen-before items from the ‘ancient times’.
The following are some highlights.
The Health Hub was flat-chat the entire day with men and women accessing the general health, heart health and skin check services. Quite a few discovered that they have health issues in need of attention. The most serious were five previously undiagnosed cases of diabetes, two advanced melanomas and one person with blood pressure so high the nurses gasped.
Our thanks to the dedicated health professionals from
• Fat Farmers
• Adelaide University’s Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre (Skin Checks)
• BreastScreen SA
• Flinders University International Centre for Point-of-Care Testing (Heart Health)
Thanks also to Rotarian Cathy Chong AM, a retired Director of Nursing, who joined the blood pressure testing team for the day.
A BIG shout out to Preventative Health SA and the SA Govt Dept of Human Services for significant grants to make much of the Health Hub a reality!
It was a good thing that the Rotary Club of Mobilong’s Food Van was located adjacent to the Health Hub, providing sustenance in the form of toasties, hot donuts and coffee for both the health professionals and people waiting their turn. Guitarist Billy Watkins kept the tunes flowing and toes tapping.
Over in the old Church, Psychologist Mario Donaghy of SALUSALL- Wellbeing for All, introduced stressed out farmers to coping techniques and provided information on how to access ongoing Mental Health support.
Vying with the Health Hub for the title of ‘Most Significant Component of the Day’, was the Pantry and Care zone set up on the rear verandah of the main entrance (the Railway Building).
At the start of the day, the Pantry was stocked with more than $52,000 worth of donated pantry essentials, pet food, lunch box stuffers, laundry products, personal care items, fruit and vegetables. Sponsored families were offered bags and the opportunity to select what would most help them through the next weeks or so. Some actually had to be persuaded to take more than two or three items, saying “others are worse off than us”, but our volunteers were having none of that.
At the other end of the verandah were lovingly sewn and filled Care or Dignity packs for women, men, girls and boys. These contain personal care items including shampoo, bodywash, toothpaste and combs, plus goodies such as hair scrunchies and knitted toys.
By day’s end there was just enough stock left over to prepare a dozen or so pantry and care hampers for families that hadn’t made it to the Rotary Pioneer Adventure Day, some due to concerns over fuel and others because they were seeding or illness got in the way.
Many South Australian Rotary Clubs and individual members made significant contributions to the Pantry having run grocery collections in their local areas or investing club and personal funds for the purchase of additional stock. Inner Wheel Australia, the local District A-70 and individual Inner Wheel Clubs backed this element of the day to the hilt as did a number of generous businesses such as Mitolo Family Farms, Rivapak, Tailem Bend Foodland and Drakes Supermarket Murray Bridge.
Liquorice Larrikin’s colourful cart was set up close to the pantry and proved magnetic for children. The equally colourful flavoured liquorice straps were given to the farm kids, because this day was all about spoiling them and letting them feel special.
Having set up her massage chair in a room of the old Hospital, Fiona Partridge of Wellness in Motion spent her day bringing relief by easing taught shoulder and neck muscles.
Face-painting is always a winner with children and our team of Maran and Cian were kept busy decorating excited faces with everything from river scenes to redback spiders and gorgeous butterflies.
At the southern end of the Village is the Oval, where the Food Court, stage and more were located.
So much great food was on offer ...
Rotary Murray Bridge’s BBQ cooked up egg and bacon rolls, hamburgers and classic Rotary sausages with onions.
Mount Barker Rotary members brought their Donut Van while
Tailem Bend Primary School served chicken burgers, nuggets and hot chips with gravy from their Food Van.
Riverside Woodfired Pizza’s diverse menu proved extremely popular and
Beep Beep Barista were run off their feet all day providing coffee, slushies, ice cream and cold drinks.
The Rotary Club of Unley set up a mini-Thrift Shop under a marquee with farmers free to help themselves to anything they needed.
Entertainment on and in front of the stage included sets by bands Me ‘n Me Mates, the Rockin’ Dally Roos and Mudlake, plus line dancing demos (all were welcome to join in) by a group from U3A and Tailem Bend Community Centre’s Steppin’ It Out.
To give Mums, Dads and Grandparents a bit of a break, the adjacent Milton Shed offered old fashioned games like Hookey boards, skittles, skipping ropes and ‘throw’ noughts and crosses for the kids. Tailem Bend Community Centre’s sweet farmyard scene was also set up in there.
SA-CWA Devonshire Teas are legendary and were on offer in Old Tailem Town’s dining room. A steady stream of farming parents and volunteers kept the team from the Coomandook CWA busy all day.
Free haircuts proved a winner. Tran of Navi Cut Barber and his magic clippers were appropriately located in the old Barber’s Shop.
A section of the Monarto South Railway Building was converted to a Hair Salon for the day. A team of five hairdressers and two assistants, led by Felicity Schmidt, from Tangles Hair Salon snipped and swooshed its way through the morning. Tammy Broadbent and Chantelle of Polished Hair handled the afternoon shift.
The scissors and clippers were flying all day.
One lady stopped at the Admissions Desk to thank us as she and her family left, saying not only what a wonderful time they all had, but that she was feeling a million dollars after having a professional haircut for the first time in she couldn’t remember how long. Some of the men made similar comments. One phoned the next day to make sure we knew how special the day had been and amongst the pearls he dropped was that the haircut he had at Old Tailem Town was the first professional one for 30 years – he left feeling 10 feet tall!
Farmers love machinery, so the Lower Murray Vintage Engine and Machinery Club’s display attracted plenty of attention. A number of the stationary engines were chugging away much to the delight of the crowd.
Not far away was the Rotary Corolla Capers display with two classic cars and a team of Rotarians from the Regency Park and Prospect Clubs on hand to explain how the annual outback runs are heaps of fun as they deliver books and stationery supplies to students in remote communities. Literacy is a major focus for Rotary internationally.
Equally popular were the horse drawn carriage rides offered by Carriage of Occasion. Clydesdales, Angus and Henry, were expertly driven by Shay Clark and clearly loved the attention and affection of the crowd. They didn’t once say “no” to apple and carrot treats after they finished a round of the village. Six-month-old cattle dog Betty, enjoying her first day riding in the carriage, enthusiastically licked everyone who came up to say hello – she did a lot of licking!
Thanks to Tailem Bend Community Library and the Rotary Club of Edwardstown Bookshop, 3,000 were on offer for adults and children to help themselves making this a very popular stop on the Yellow Brick Road.
Watching remote control trucks and earth moving equipment, all built to one fourteenth scale, in the Lillimur Hall fascinated people of all ages. The immaculate RC vehicles have all been made by members of the Adelaide 1/14 RC Truck Club.
Other giveaways along the Yellow Brick Road included:
- a great selection of fresh fruit
(a shout out to Belperio Connell Lawyers for their donation); - bottled water and kids’ bucket hats;
- biscuits made by service club members including
Murray Bridge, Tailem Bend and Mobilong Rotarians
and Murray Bridge Lions; - beanies knitted by members of the Murray Bridge Library Yarn Groups;
- quality second-hand clothes supplied by
the Stirling Community Op Shop; - Pioneer Adventure Day drink coasters made at the
Murraylands Community Men’s Shed; - scrunchies for the hair made by a
Murraylands sewing charity and OTT’s Tina Squires; - stubby holders, pens and car air-fresheners thanks to
Burson Auto Parts and beanies from River City Mechanical; - Lego bricks and craft kits.
Bunnings Murray Bridge provided a marquee, two staff and some fantastic craft kits to give kids somewhere to sit and recharge their batteries while getting creative. They were able to decorate photo frames, make ‘tractors’ and put together seed balls.
Members of social enterprise 1,000 Hearts sewed hundreds of felt hearts that were packed into care packs for farming men, women and children. Hearts are their language of kindness so a couple of their volunteers ran a craft table where were able to have a go at making their own hearts to gift to someone or treasure themselves.
For something completely different, members of Murray Bridge Spinners and Weavers got to work on the verandah of the old Milliners Shop, cheerfully letting all who keen to, have a try at spinning some wool.
Other displays dotted around Old Tailem Town that attracted plenty of attention offered information about the Country Education Foundation; Inner Wheel Australia (core blood research project) and the Rotary Sailing Challenge (a program that takes teens to sea on the One and All).
Finally, a big thank you to the Coorong District Council, which provided a $500 grant and a large amount of in-kind assistance (tables, chairs, rubbish bins and signage etc) and the Rural City of Murray Bridge, which contributed $5,000 towards the preparation of dehydrated meals and for biscuit ingredients.
Over 100 Photos can be viewed here to see the fun in action:-
