Murray River RFPA
Secretary : Beth Docksey
Secretary Email Address: Click here to email Secretary
Regular Meeting Venue: We don’t have a regular meeting venue, we move around all of the time and can usually advise of the location about 1 month ahead of time so keep an eye on the web site and we will advise you each time we have a get together scheduled.
UPCOMING GET-TOGETHERS
SOCIAL FUNCTIONS in date order
● Coffee & Chat – Submarine Cafe
WHEN: Wednesday 1st May 2024 at 10am.
WHERE: LOT 2 Raymond St, Holbrook NSW 2644
RSVP: 26th April, 2024 by SMS, Email, or Facebook event
● Dinner – Springdale Heights Tavern
WHEN: Wednesday 22nd May 2024 at 6pm
WHERE: 330 Kaitlers Road, Springdale Heights.
RSVP: 19th May, 2024 by SMS, Email or Facebook event.
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ALBURY ANZAC DAY 2024
Murray River RFPA members, any former officers (even if not a member) & family have been invited by the City of Albury RSL Sub-Branch to participate and march at the 2024 Albury Anzac Day March and attend Monument Hill for the services to be conducted on the day.
Any person who would like to march in the parade is most welcome and we will march immediately behind the NSW Police Force contingent from Murray River Police District. If anyone wishes to participate and is in need of mobility assistance, please let me know and we will do our best to organise your participation.
5.30AM DAWN SERVICE ON MONUMENT HILL
If anyone wants to go to the Dawn Service on Monument Hill commencing at 5.30am, there is restricted parking to authorised vehicles only so there are buses from 5am leaving the SSA Carpark up to the hill which are supplied by Albury City Council which you MUST book online. The online booking link is below or call the Events Team on 02 602 11 341 to reserve a seat. Bookings close on Friday, 19 April, or when fully booked.
9AM MARCH DOWN DEAN STREET
We need all MR RFPA members, former officers and family to marshall at 8.30am on the corner of Macauley St & Dean Street. We will have our flag/Banner to march behind. We have one member’s granddaughter who has volunteered already; however, we need one more child of any of our members who would be prepared to carry the banner for us. Please send the details of the child back to us. Obviously in this case they will not be from the same family. Parking will be difficult so try the SSA Carpark, Woolworths Carpark, or Commercial Club Carpark and walk to the marshalling area.
10AM SERVICE ON MONUMENT HILL
The march will end in Elizabeth Street and if you wish to go up to Monument Hill for the 10am service there will be a couple of free buses there to transport you up to the hill so move quickly to them.
Full medals to be worn. National ones over your heart and state ones on the right side. You may wear medals of immediate next of kin on the right side after your own, if not enough room, then below your own. If anyone wants an RFPA Tie or Scarf, I have some for $10 each.
https://www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/parks-and-playgrounds/anzac-day-commemorations
BEYOND THE BADGE HELD AT ALBURY ON 9TH & 10TH APRIL 2024.
A very successful Beyond the Badge program in the regional area at Albury on Tuesday & Wednesday this week with 10 former or transitioning participants filling the class. 8 from NSW Police and 2 from VicPol. All participants were very positive about their ability to move forward and transition to a new career with the guidance of Sean Haran & Simon Bradstock. Thank you Sean & Simon for obtaining the grants and coming to Albury. See you again in the future. Thank you for your post below in LinkdIn. Any other branches can organise this free program funded by NSW Club Grants through your local clubs by contacting Sean or Simon on their web page. beyondthebadge.com.au Also there are other locations of programs advertised on the website.
BOWLS GR8 FOR BRAINS
Come along and have a fun time bowling, chatting, or just having a cuppa. All members, family and friends are welcome. Bowls supplied and if you have never bowled before we have a coach available to show you how to bowl a good, curved ball. Covid procedures are in place.
When: Every Thursday at 9.30am to 11.30am
Where: Bowling Green, first floor, Commercial Club, 618 Dean Street Albury.
Enter via Stanley Street Carpark entries
Hope to see you all there.
OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE MURRAY RIVER BRANCH AND ACTIVITIES
Murray River Branch covers an area from the Hume Highway Albury up to Holbrook, half way to Wagga, including locations about 45 minutes north of the NSW/Victorian border all of the way across past Deniliquin stopping short of Mildura. We also cover the whole of Victoria, have had Tasmanian members, and have former members of the NSW Police Force who reside all over that state as our members. Therefore we have very broad membership coverage with currently 111 paid members & another 80 who we contact via email. We are inclusive not exclusive, however membership has increased by 75% with this mantra in the last 5 years. We have an Executive Committee that meets bi-monthly and manages all issues relating to the branch including the social activities, welfare, membership, etc., with input sought from branch members prior to the meetings and if they wish they can attend. We have welfare officers that support our members in the broad ranging area of our branch.
As a result of our spread of members, we don’t have regular meeting venues, dates, days of the week or times as we move all around the branch area so that it gives all members the opportunity to get together. We also have our get togethers on different days of the week so that this enables our former and retired members who work or look after grandchildren on various days of the week or weekends to attend our get togethers. We always invite partners, friends, family members, some have young children and grandchildren that have attended our functions which has created great friendships with all of these people.
We have travelled to our Deniliquin members about once per year, down into Victoria on a number of occasions, to locations such as Bright, Myrtleford, Yackandandah, & Beechworth and our members in those areas host our branch visits in that location. We have had a number of dinner in Melbourne for our members there and generally try to hold one there at least once every 6 months. When we travel around we try to include an activity before such as in Bright we went to look at our member Annie’s art works at her house, in Myrtleford, we went to our member John & Margaret’s Open Garden and Antique Firearm collection, & at Beechworth we went to our member ‘Bruiser’s’ Brew house for some home-made ale. We have also been to the ‘Bald Archie’s Exhibition’ when at Corowa and then the Corowa Chocolate factory after to make huge chocolate freckles & drink lots of various flavoured hot chocolates.
We also have Coffee & Chat get togethers about once a month in locations in Albury and other townships within about 30-50 minutes’ drive from Albury. We schedule them about a week ahead and notify all members by email and SMS them again the day before to obtain numbers. We always have generally about a minimum of about 20 people attend our coffee and chats. These get togethers are quite flexible and we always ask that any of our far flung or other branch members who just happen to be coming through the area to please advise us, even at short notice that they are in the area and we have put on a number of coffee & chats with two to three days’ notice to catch up with them whilst they are here. We have had members and their partners come through for Coffee & Chats from Tasmania, Deniliquin, and Far South Coast, to name a few. So if anyone is in the area or passing through we only need a couple of day’s notice and we will have a Coffee & Chat for you.
For any of these activities or information contact the Secretary Beth Docksey via email or phone.
Kind Regards
Beth Docksey
Secretary
Murray River Retired & Former Police Association
M.0412 661 738