EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The Bundaberg Gem and Mineral Club has been running for 53 years. When the club was formed in October 1965 the inaugural membership was 20, all enthusiastic and hard working. The original club room was a small dirt floor pavilion at the showgrounds and many changes have occurred since the early days.

After many years of raffles and various other fund raising activities by a dedicated band of workers, 1990 saw the club relocated to its own new building at the current location on Kendalls Road.
However as membership continued to grow and soon passed 100, this club room also underwent changes. In 1995 an extension to the building was added. This new area became the meeting room, which houses the club’s library and a kitchen area. The workshop area became twice as big and this enabled the club to purchase more equipment to handle the increased activity at the work sessions.

Further improvements were again undertaken in 2000/2001 with the creation of a new storeroom and an enclosed / covered courtyard. The needs of the club are constantly expanding to provide our members with safer and better work areas and equipment. This has meant even more changes to the club rooms. The enclosed courtyard was converted into a new silver work area to cope with the increased interest in both silversmithing and silver casting.

The club was granted a land extension by the local council, which enabled us to put another shed up to allow for our expanding membership list (2009).

We are fortunate enough to still have a couple of foundation members in the club along with several members from the early years. Many of the newer members are often amazed at the stories of the stark beginnings all those years ago.

The gem club holds an annual Gemfair usually about November, which attracts traders from all around the south east corner of Queensland. This gives our members an ideal opportunity to stock up on all the lapidary supplies they need. Gemfair is also a great opportunity for us to promote lapidary and recruit new members.

The Club is also an integral part of the Bundaberg Regional Show, in which we hold our major competition for members, we also receive entries from other clubs. This gives us an opportunity to not just show what we do, but to also show how good our work is.

If other clubs are fortunate enough to have members who are as filled with enthusiasm as ours, I feel sure that lapidary and its related fields will have a long future.