Eden VIEW club turns 32, brunch at Hotel Australasia

Formed in the boardroom of the Eden Fishermen's Club on Thursday, October 17, 1991, Eden's VIEW Club (Voice, Interests and Education of Women) was founded with two goals - to promote friendship among women and to provide money for The Smith Family - and more than three decades later, nothing has changed.

In the refurbished hotel, underneath a stunning gold, tin-pressed ceiling, chandeliers, and walls painted in navy blues each filled with artworks of masted sailing ships, two ladies were having a great laugh while flicking through a photo album of newspaper clippings.

Founding members Beryle Kelly, 95, and Pauline Mitchell, 84, smiled as they looked at the articles and photographs from previous VIEW Club birthdays, including a Titanic themed party and a roaring-20s celebration for their 20^th.

"We're the only ones left who are original and we're still alive," Beryle said, smiling as she shared stories from her past with her table of ladies who erupted with laughter.

During the brunch at Hotel Australasia, ladies from Narooma, Eden, Bega and Merimbula reunited and reminisced with stories, only to be surprised by the hotel's general manager, Grant Taylor, who gifted a $1000 cheque from some of the proceeds of Battle of the Bands.

Roger Timms, a descendant of Sabina Pike who was the first owner of Hotel Australasia, was invited as a guest speaker, and said Sabina was his great-great-grandmother's younger sister, before capturing the audience with anecdotes behind the historic building they were seated within.

The president of the Eden VIEW Club, Bev Walker, said the funds would be used to support three Australian students in Years 12, 10 and 6 who are part of The Smith Family.

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"We sponsor their education, they're disadvantaged students so the sponsorship helps them buy their supplies, like their books, their uniforms, [and] enables them to go to school camps, participate in sport," Ms Walker said.

"We write to them twice a year and they write to us about how they're proceeding, and their parents will actually write to us as well, how we're helping them through their difficult times.

"As they proceed through primary school, high school and on to university, the amount we have to fund them increases, according to the level of their education.

"So any fundraising we do goes to our three students."

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