Local Legend Amanda Hough gives without thanks

Amanda Hough is a Rotary Club of Torquay member, a Winchelsea Medical Clinic nurse, and serves on the board of Geelong Hospice. She speaks with Jena Carr about her many roles and what being Surf Coast Shire’s latest Local Legend means.

Amanda Hough was nominated to be a Surf Coast Shire Local Legend by her friend John MacDonald who died in November due to serious health issues.

“I was so embarrassed about it, because I nominated a dear friend who seriously deserved it,” she said.

“John MacDonald was a local legend in 2021, and I supported him a little while he was sick. He has since died and received the Order of Australia as he should have.

“I think he did this as revenge to me and my joke is that I would throttle him, but I can’t because he’s gone.”

Amanda has been involved with the Rotary Club of Torquay for close to 20 years and said she loved getting to know people she wouldn’t usually meet.

“When I joined Rotary, it was an explosion of new people that I could pick the brains of because there’s so much talent in all these sorts of organisations,” she said.

“I have to say part of the reason I do it is because I enjoy the company of my fellow people in the club and their families.

“I like their intent, I like their intelligence, and I like the experiences they’ve brought to Rotary from all different fields of endeavour.

“I didn’t know that many people with that many skills before I joined Rotary. I knew my own circle, which was a good circle, but now it’s much bigger.”

Through her participation with the Rotary Club, Amanda said a highlight included helping grow Torquay Rotary’s annual Motor Show and witnessing the club’s contributions in Indonesia.

“Rotary contributes funds for doctors and surgeons to go to Indonesia to treat burns, cleft palates and other injuries, mainly on children,” she said.

“While our doctors were there, they taught the local doctors and the young plastic surgeons new techniques.

“My job was to check out the processes, see what happens, write a report and see the outcomes.

“What amazed me is that families came out of the jungle and knew to be at this old hotel on a specific date. I don’t know how they found out because they certainly didn’t have mobile phones.

“These people just came out of the jungle into this big old hotel and stood quietly in the car park with their child with the medical problem and just waited.

“They were very grateful, you could see it in their eyes, but they didn’t have to give us anything in return, which is what real generosity is about.”

Amanda said her favourite part about being with the Rotary Club of Torquay was that participation was on her terms and that she didn’t have to show up if she didn’t want to.

“I like that you can be an individual. In Rotary, each club is its own boss,” she said.

“Yes, we have an international organisation, but they can’t tell us what to do. There are legal obligations, insurance and things like that, but we can do it our way, and we certainly do.

“We’ve extended supports to Winchelsea, which is where I work, and that’s clearly an area of need. So, we’ve been supporting scholarships and reading and maths aids for the kids.”

On top of her Rotary achievements, the Local Legend award recognises Amanada’s role in helping design and establish the $1.8 million Winchelsea Medical Clinic.

“As a group, we put our heads together and decided that the staff would build the clinic,” she said.

“We needed more space, and there was no way we could add to the building we had, which we were tenanting.

“We realised that we only had close to three consulting rooms, and yet the town was growing, the need was growing, and general practice was getting more complex.

“The seven of us decided to put our own funds in and we bought a block of land up and we built this fabulous clinic.”

She said the clinic’s development took close to five years to complete, and the business had been working well despite the unusual arrangement.

“There was not one cross word, it was so respectful the way we worked as a team, I suppose, because we already worked as a team at the clinic,” she said.

“Now the crazy thing is we’re employees, but we’re the landlord of our boss,” she said.

“It works well, because it’s respectful and we’re not going to put rents up and send our boss broke because we’d lose our jobs.”

Amanda said everyone working in community services deserved “recognition for their efforts”, and she didn’t want individual credit for the Rotary or clinic projects.

“I know people through Rotary and other organisations who are real game changers,” she said.

“I just do it because I enjoy it. Why should you be specially acknowledged for something you’re having a good time doing?

“We feel so powerless about the big wide world, but what we can do is work locally.”

Amanda also serves on the board of Geelong Hospice, which funds people and their families suffering from a terminal illness and helps healthcare workers upgrade their qualifications and research.

She said that through her career as a nurse, she had seen a lot of heartache from loneliness, and being active in the community was a way to meet new people.

“If you don’t stick your neck out and join the garden club, the book club, or whatever, that heartache and isolation will only compound,” she said.

“If you’ve got a problem and you can chat to someone about it, who you can trust, the problem’s shared, and it doesn’t sit so heavily on your heart.

“If you can even just go to the coffee group or something like that, it’s so much better for people’s mental health.”