It may not be a well known group, but the Inner Wheel Club of Bendigo is about to celebrate an impressive milestone.
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Believed to be the oldest Inner Wheel Club outside of England, the Bendigo chapter is hosting a 90th anniversary luncheon in August with more than 130 guests from around Australia and overseas set to attend.
For those associated with the community service group, the word best able to describe the female-focused club is "family".
"It's like-minded friendship where we can come together for social activities," president Gwen Rankins said.
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Over the years, the club has fundraised and supported the endeavours of women and children in the community with organisations such as Riding for the Disabled, the toy library, Foodshare and Kalianna all benefitting.
"We do the barbecue at Carols by Candlelight, we've supported Rochester people during the floods, the Centre and our national project - Cord Blood Research - has raised more than $3 million," secretary Bernadette Storer said.
"We attend every citizenship ceremony and donate a native plant which we've been doing since 1954."
The Bendigo Inner Wheel Club has raised an estimated $6000 a year for local organisations but that figure was higher before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Club member Deb Reade is compiling the history of the Bendigo club for its anniversary and says a lot was done through the war years.
The club is run along similar lines to Rotary but with friendship between women at its core. In fact, the origins of the club began when the wives of the Liverpool Rotarians in England had assisted their menfolk during World War I with various projects and became known as Rotary Ladies. They later called themselves The Service Club.
It was the Manchester club which in 1924 provided the name and model rules upon which the Inner Wheel movement is based. The club's emblem is a small wheel contained within the Rotary Wheel, hence the name Inner Wheel.
In Bendigo, the club started as the Bendigo Rotary Anns in December 1931.
The club wrote to the founder of Inner Wheel in England requesting a name change and the Bendigo Inner Wheel Club came into being on August 19, 1933.
The club has minutes, annual reports and history books dating back to 1931.
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It's collar and jewel, presented by Bendigo Rotary Club in 1953, is unique in Australia as it was sent out from England and has a Rotary Wheel in the centre, not the Inner Wheel badge.
The club's membership swelled to a peak of 90 until the formation of the Inner Wheel Club of Bendigo South in 1980 saw numbers drop back.
Today, the club has 23 members.
Many Bendigo members have been district chairman and executive members of District A60. One member, Margaret Roberts, even became national president in 1992-93.
The 90th anniversary dinner will be held at the Quality Hotel Lakeside on August 19.
A club representative from India representing the international Inner Wheel Club president will be attending as well as past members and club delegates from NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.
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