Clubs unite for the East Coast Youth Leadership Challenge

More than 200 young Australians have taken part in the Windeward Bound nine-day youth development program, thanks to the collective efforts of Rotary clubs and districts from Tasmania to Queensland.

In 2020, a plan for a long-distance voyage was drawn up by Captain Sarah Parry and Chris Ellis, of the Rotary Club of Sunnybank, Qld, to sail from Hobart, Tasmania, to North Queensland in partnership with Rotary International to celebrate the centenary of Rotary in Australia.

While the plan was almost scuttled by the COVID pandemic, the East Coast Youth Leadership Challenge was successfully executed in 2023. A series of 11 voyages took young participants aboard the Windeward Bound Tall Ship from Hobart to Sydney, Brisbane, Bundaberg, Gladstone, the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Eden, Devonport and back to Hobart.

Donations from 93 separate Rotary clubs in Tasmania, New South Wales and Queensland raised funds to enable more than 200 young Australians to participate in the Windeward Bound nine-day youth development program, many of whom came from severely disadvantaged backgrounds.

While a number of trainees were able to fundraise some of their passage fees by encouraging donations from their local communities, others were less successful.

In the spirit of the Windeward Bound Trust’s long-held policy that no potential trainee should miss out because of financial difficulties, members of the 93 participating clubs worked hard to raise and donate the necessary funds.

CAPTURED: First Mate Captain Susie Graney, left, Captain Sarah Parry, Deputy Principal of Bremer State High School, Qld, Kiera Lewis and Chris Ellis, of the Rotary Club of Sunnybank, Qld, aboard the Windeward Bound while docked in Brisbane.

Six of the young trainees applied for, and were granted, Tall Ships Australia and New Zealand Bursaries, and Rotary clubs raised funds to support sail trainees with $1,000, which played a significant part in the funding of them.

All in all, the Windeward Bound sailed 3,455 nautical miles, visited nine capital city and regional ports and carried more than 200 young Australians from all
walks of life and social demographics on 11 separate nine-day voyages.

The young trainees participated in Australian Naval Cadet activities while in Bundaberg and carried Australian Naval Cadets from all Queensland cadet units from Maryborough to Mackay as part of the trainee intake on several of the voyages.

The voyage was not only a great success in itself, but it exposed a wider audience within Rotary to the value of sail training as a youth development tool. It also attracted the patronage of Rotary governors from both Tasmania and Queensland with local government financial support from the Lord Mayors of both Brisbane and Sydney.

WIN Television reported on all voyages and gave generous airtime to the program, often up to 10 minutes of a nightly news broadcast to the ship, her crew and the trainees whenever they were in a regional area. These broadcasts were distributed and shown in every region throughout NSW, Tasmania, Queensland and theACT on a regular basis and were a significant lift to the awareness and understanding of sail training throughout Eastern Australia.

CAPTURED: First Mate Captain Susie Graney, left, with the Windeward Bound sailing Trainees before the Ship departed from Brisbane to Gladstone.

ABC Television in North Queensland also gave the voyages generous exposure, both on TV and social media while the ship was in their area, as did regional radio stations and newspapers.

The ABC’s Compass program also ran a 30-minute documentary about one of the voyages titled ‘Turning the Tide’, made by a Tasmanian film company, which gave national exposure to sail training as a social development and community integration tool. The same film company is developing an Australia-wide projection tour for their 90-minute version. This version has already been premiered at the Australian National Maritime Museum, some regional centres and has been accepted into a Swedish Film Festival, to be held in Stockholm in the near future.

We at Windeward Bound are very proud of our 30-year association with Rotary,” said Captain Sarah.

“Rotary clubs everywhere have a strong focus on youth and youth development, and it’s obvious that these voyages have significantly lifted both the understanding of what sail training is about and recognition of the benefits it brings to the young participants. So much so that many Rotary clubs elected to support other young people on later voyages, having witnessed the change in participants in the first voyage they supported.

“Chris Ellis and I had the privilege of addressing many club meetings and hosting receptions for Rotarians and other supportive folks in every port.”

CAPTURED: Chris Ellis (D9620), PDG Dave Harmon (D9640), PDG Paul Roger (D9620), Cr Kim Marx Runcorn Ward, Brisbane City Council, and PDG Mike Patten (D9830), At the official launch of the People of Action topsail for the Windeward Bound, collectively funded by district governors along Australia’s east coast.