By Stephanie Kemp

Gerringong Rotary is organising a Trivia Night at the Gerroa Fishermen’s Club on 25 October with all proceeds going to Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC).

ROMAC brings medical support to sick children in our region.

When there is no appropriate medical equipment on an island, the sick child and their parents are brought to Australia for treatment. They are hosted by a Rotary family while they are here.

ROMAC started in March 1988 out of the actions of an Australian Rotarian who, with a group of surgeons, visited Lambasa in Fiji.

They found the child mortality rate was as high as 25% in some places and quickly identified that the lack of medical and surgical facilities and skills for children of the island nations in Oceania was a major cause.

Today, ROMAC is providing surgical treatment to around 30-40 children from Oceania every year – we are making a huge difference in their lives.

Our trivia night is supporting this important work.

You’ve got to be Stoic to start a microbrewery

Steve Prosser, co-founder of Stoic Brewing in Gerringong, together with his son Andrew, told us his story of setting up a small business from scratch.

They founded Stoic in 2018 with a vision of creating a space where the community can come together and enjoy locally brewed beer and cider in among the vats, and at the same time creating a sustainable business for their family to operate in years to come.

Steve emphasised the most important thing was a passion for what you want to do.

Working for money or recognition will not carry you through the 100-hour weeks that are in store for the small businessperson.

You also need a goal, but you will never achieve it – when what you thought was the goal gets close, you realise how much more is possible.

The first thing they needed was a location, and fortuitously, Steve already owned an industrial unit with zoning that permitted use as a brewery.

The next thing they needed was money and Steve’s tip was that you always need more than you think and you have to get used to the feeling of being massively in debt, especially when you start a business just before a pandemic.

They also surrounded themselves with good advisers, but were prepared to discard advice that was not right for them.

After finding the location they needed a DA, which required a plethora of licences and approvals for Kiama Council, including electrical, engineering and plumbing reports, fire safety, bushfire and flooding risk, traffic impact, liquor and gaming permits and finally overall sign-off by the certifier and the council.

Each one of these reports cost at least $1000 – it was an expensive and time-consuming exercise.

Now he is a brewer, Steve visits other microbreweries regularly and has discovered most of them started with an enthusiast working in the garage or someone who had worked for a big brewer wanting to do their own thing.

Steve and Andrew were electricians and had run their own electrical business, but had no background in brewing.

They experimented and once Andrew could brew a small batch of good beer, they ordered the equipment to scale up to the brewery they have now.

Their electrical background saves them significant costs – they can do most of the equipment repairs and maintenance.

They are passionate about using the best ingredients and have now employed a professional brewer.

Their Belgian-style Amber Ale uses ingredients from Belgium and even the water in the beer is manipulated to mimic the water used in the style of beer they are making.

All this work has paid off and their New Zealand Pilsner won a gold medal in the 2025 Australian International Beer Awards against international competition.

Where does the name come from? Andrew was adamant that the name should not contain place names, animals or colours.

While they were pondering what to call their fledgling business, they were in church and the talk referred to the Stoics, Greek philosophers who believed that everybody should work together for the greater good and that happiness is found in embracing the moment, no matter how great or gloomy.

It was a perfect philosophy for the journey they were about to embark on.

It is stressful – one microbrewery goes broke every week and the tax and regulatory environment is complex.

Working 80 to 100 hours a week, small business is a lifestyle not a job. As Steve put it, they have made lots of friends but not much money!

But they love what they do.

Wrapping SAHSSI with love

The Gerringong Rotary knitters and friends have donated a colourful pile of hand-knitted blankets to Supported Accommodation and Homelessness Services Shoalhaven Illawarra Ltd (SAHSSI), a specialist service supporting vulnerable women and families in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven regions.

Behind the daily caffeine fix

Twelve Rotarians spent a recent morning at the Daily Grind in Gerringong industrial estate, learning about the coffee business and how Australia’s favourite drink is produced.

Daily Grind has a farm in Colombia dedicated to producing their beans but supplements them from other sources. The roasting is done here in Gerringong and the Rotarians saw the whole process from raw bean to drink.

Pat and Ricky, of Daily Grind, make their own deliveries to their customers and stack the shelves. This enables them to have a chat and check whether they are meeting the customer’s needs.

New members and friends always welcome - see www.gerringongrotary.com.au or contact [email protected].