By Tony Thomas, Rotary Central Melbourne
Geoff Tighe, 76, of Rotary Echuca-Moama, is a trained accountant and businessman, but can’t solve a million-dollar mystery in the club. How did the club get its 4 hectares of river-valley land, used for the annual Steam Rally since 1964?
Whilst it’s known that the club acquired the land in 1976 from a farmer, who was a one-time Rotarian and didn’t need the land, it isn’t known if it was gifted or sold, and if sold, for what price. The documents have disappeared, but luckily not the title deed.
“It must be worth at least a million today,” Geoff says. In fact, the D9800 Insurance Officer was advised the freehold land had recently been valued at $1.6 million. This must make the 25-30-member club one of the wealthier Rotary clubs, on paper anyway.
“The adjoining Crown land (another 4.6 hectares) to our Rotary Park goes right to the Campaspe riverfront,” added Geoff.
Geoff’s working life included a 15-year stint with a chemical company and a year in the 1970s as under-study to the City of Sunshine’s Town Clerk.
“I loved the work but my dad, Jack Tighe, happened to be Mayor, so there was a bit of family attitude to deal with.”
Geoff’s highest profile job was CEO of V-Line (regional trains and buses) for three years to 1999.
Geoff has quite a portfolio of interests since he retired in 2010. A former committee member with the Echuca-Moama Men’s Shed and the Steam Rally, and current President of Echuca Moama Centennial Probus, with 120 members, Geoff is also on the Board of ‘We Are Vivid’, a group that supports the intellectually disabled.
Geoff and his partner Julie have been an item for 23 years. Julie has been a dedicated volunteer at Echuca Regional Hospital for eight years, and is currently Chair of ERH’s Senior Advisory Group.