To ‘Spring’ to action is satisfying for Rotarian

Long-time SpringFest co-director Robert Glass has been congratulated for his service to Ballarat in one of the most official ways possible, receiving a Medal of the Order of Australia this King’s Birthday.

The Rotary Club of Ballarat stalwart coordinated the market day fundraiser – which backs community partners and Rotary projects – from 2013 to 2025, but has been on its committee since 2001.

“I was instrumental in the club taking over Springfest from Ballarat Clarendon College,” Glass said.

“At the time the club took over, I was also chair of the school council there.

“It got a bit difficult politically for a private school to be running an event like that at Lake Wendouree on public land… so on behalf of the school, I met with Ballarat council and asked what their attitude would be to some of the charges if it was a service club running SpringFest.

“We then approached the Rotary club to see if it was willing to take it on, because it was looking for a project, and it turned out it was.”

In 2025 – the 30th anniversary of SpringFest – the relationship between the event and Ballarat Clarendon College was rekindled as students took part in a milk drive for The SoupBus.

“It was nice to re-establish that contact, because one of the arrangements when we took it from the school was that the school could come back again and be part of it at any time,” Glass said.

“We were able to get students up to year 10s involved… It was nice to have them there.”

Glass has been the Rotary Club of Ballarat treasurer since 2018, is a past president, former club auditor and has been part of various committees including for the Ballarat Swap Meet, which he was chair of from 2013 to 2017.

At Ballarat Clarendon College, Glass served on the College Council for 20 years, and was its chair from 2000 to 2004.

Also in the line of supporting young people, he got involved in Scouts through his three sons, and was part of the 1st Brown Hill Scouts group from 1986 to 1991. At latter end of this period, he had the opportunity to be a leader at the Ballarat Jamboree.

Glass was also a Ballarat Children’s Home committee member and treasurer in the late-1970s.

“I’ve enjoyed being able to put resources in place…that enabled kids to reach their full potential, or gave them more chance to do that anyway,” Glass said.

“It’s nice to be dealing with people’s futures, not looking at stuff in the past, which is what my accounting practice tended to do.”

Glass is a retired chartered accountant who began his career in the mid-1970s and was director of HMG Pacific Richmond from 1991 to 2020, a Crowe Horwath consultant in Ballarat from 2008 to 2017, the principal of WHK Ballarat from 2006 to 2008, and a partner of Huntley McArdle and Glass/HMG Accounting Ballarat and Ararat from 1980 to 2006.

He was on the Fiona Elsey Cancer Research Institute board for over 15 years, and is still on the finance committee.

Other groups Glass has been involved with include the Invermay Landcare Group where he was president for eight years, the Ballarat Community Telco/VicWest Community Telco group where he was finance subcommittee chair, and the Uniting Church of Australia, where he continues to serve as Brown Hill Uniting Church Congregation chair and a member of the local church’s council. Glass has been attending Brown Hill Uniting Church since 1981.

“I get a lot of satisfaction out of feeling I’m doing something that’s beneficial for people in the community,” he said.

Glass’ King’s Birthday honour is not his first award, having been named a Rotary International Centurion, and a Paul Harris Fellow, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and more.

But the OAM has had him “flabbergasted”.

“It’s nice to be recognised in some fashion, but that’s not what I’m looking for,” he said.

“It’s the satisfaction of feeling that I’ve contributed that’s really what drives me more than anything else.

“My philosophy is that I’m happy to give, and not be there taking.”

Having stood down from his long-time role as co-director of SpringFest, Glass is still involved in its planning and is now looking to the 2026 event as its treasurer.

He said food vendors are 75 per cent booked and stallholders are at 60 per cent.

“It’s looking strong, and the good thing is that most of those people have been stallholders before, so they must have done well enough with sales on the day to come back and pay the registration fee again.”