Rotary Melbourne Annual Vocational Service Award Presentation
Weekly Meeting #16, Wednesday 15 October 2025
MC - Rosemary Nixon
Reflection - Past President Peter Dakin. Transcript in a separate article.
Following the opening formalities and meal service break, President Philip opened the meeting welcoming Vocational Service Award Winner Andrew Mahar AM, his wife Kathy, and adult children Alice, Jessica and Jacob. Philip also acknowledged past Awardees in attendance, Simone Carson AM, Robert Pradolin, Dr Margaret Leggatt AM, Maudie Palmer AO, and Bruce Paker OAM, and tabled apologies from alumni unable to attend - Deborah Cheetham, Professor John McNeil, Professor Glyn Davis AC, Stephanie Alexander AO, Dr. Sandro Demaio, Professor Sharon Lewin AO. Several other visitors and guest are listed later in this Bulletin.
President Philip wore a jockey’s hat to remind us of the forthcoming racing carnival and the recently celebrated Hat Day, Australian Rotary Health's longest running mental health research fundraising event, held early October on every World Mental Health Day.
Philip reminded members of the forthcoming Melbourne Cup luncheon on 29 October, at which our speaker will be Henry Dwyer, Thoroughbred Horse Trainer.
Philip called on members to support with pledges for the Rotary Melbourne cycling team competing in the Bicycle Network Victoria Around the Bay Bike ride, from which funds generated will support the Smith Family’s learning for life program.
Philip also commended the efforts of the 41 volunteers involved in the support last weekend for the Melbourne Marathon from which $2,870 was raised on behalf of the Smith Family.
Philip then reminded members that nominations for the Club's Board of Directors for appointment on 1 July 2026 close on Wednesday 12 November at 2:10pm and the AGM is scheduled for Wednesday 19 November 2025.
Youth and Vocational Service Director, Iqbal Reta then took over the meeting to preside over the presentation of the 2025 Vocational Service. Iqbal introduced Andrew Mahar AM, and read the citation to be presented to Andrew. This can be viewed by clicking this link.
Iqbal then invited Past President Bob Glindemann, East Timor champion, to come to the podium to interview Andrew Mahar AM.
In accepting a Rotary Vocational Service award, Andrew reflected on a lifelong journey driven by social justice, enterprise, and respect for human dignity. He attributed his motivation to his school years, when as a young pacifist he refused to join compulsory army cadets and was punished for it. That early experience of unfairness—and the influence of his late father, with whom he later worked for 25 years—sparked a commitment to equality and justice that would define his career.
Andrew’s first venture was entrepreneurial rather than charitable: selling fish from the Footscray market to fund his university fees. His first genuine social-justice project came later with the Housing Bulletin Board Network, an electronic system to help homeless people find crisis accommodation more easily. The innovation laid the groundwork for his use of technology as a force for inclusion.
That project evolved into Infoxchange, founded in 1990 with a $3,000 government grant and built into a pioneering social enterprise that used technology to connect disadvantaged people to essential services. Starting with a crude bulletin-board system and 35 phone lines, Infoxchange became Australia’s first non-profit internet provider and today is a $34 million organisation operating across Australia and New Zealand. He credited its enduring success to professional management and the shared vision he developed with his father: technology as a tool for empowerment, not profit.
After the year 2000, his focus widened to the Asia–Pacific. When the Victorian Government invited him to assess computer systems at the Dili Institute of Technology in newly independent East Timor. Andrew was struck by the country’s hardship and the resilience of its people. His response was practical: Refurbishing thousands of surplus Australian computers, training young Timorese technicians, and wiring up housing estates both in Melbourne and Dili. Through partnerships with Rotary and the East Timor Roofing Company, he helped establish a computer-training centre that provided employment and skills to local youth.
From technology he moved to the environment. Inspired by Tim Flannery’s Trees for Security, he founded WithOneSeed, a reforestation and carbon-offset program in Timor-Lesté based on simple economics: pay subsistence farmers 50 cents per tree per year to keep up to 500 trees alive. The payments doubled typical household incomes while restoring degraded forests. Backed initially by Computershare, the project achieved Gold Standard international carbon certification and now ranks in the top 2 percent of global carbon-drawdown programs. Carbon credits sell for around US $90 each, with contracts extending to 2035 and more than $6 million invested back into local communities for roads, schools, and cyclone relief.
Andrew stressed that the true goal was self-reliance beyond charity—creating village-based economies where people make their own decisions. His model emphasises partnership rather than paternalism: “I go there, we talk, I leave, they do.” With over 150 people now employed in the forestry program, he sees it as a template for sustainable livelihoods that can reduce climate vulnerability and migration pressure.
In closing, Andrew noted related ventures such as his family’s The Corner Store Netwok, Oakleigh, where each kilogram of coffee sold funds the planting of a new tree—an emblem of his philosophy that enterprise, dignity, and environmental stewardship can thrive together. The Corner Store is also grateful for excess fruit, vegetables and herbs, you nmay have, to make their tasty preserves which they sell in the shop as well as having delicious coffee and toasties.
Bob Glindemann congratulated him on a career that began with a golf-ball typewriter and continues to transform communities through creativity and compassion.
In closing the meeting Iqbal reminded members that next weeks Luncheon meeting will feature guest speaker Sonya Vignjevic, General Manager and State Director of Settlement Services International.
The recording of this meeting is well worth viewing if you missed the meeting, watch below or just follow this link.
