Rostrum News

80th anniversary dinner and awards

ACT Rostrum clubs got together to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Rostrum on Saturday 24 July 2010 with a dinner,  the Speaker of the Year competition, and awards.

The patron of ACT Rostrum, ACT Legislative Assembly Speaker Shane Rattenbury, gave the awards. Ron Hibberson and Neil Spalding were conferred with the title Freeman, for conspicuous service to Rostrum, free speech and effective speaking. The dinner was hosted by the Phillip Club, and the events were organised by the Boulevard Club. Eric Martin was MC.

Awards for 2010:

Arthur Phillips trophy for speaker of the year

Christopher Bourke, CCERC (in photo)

Alan Crook award for best club

Canberra City Evening Rostrum Club

Raja Ratnam award for club leadership

Christopher Bourke, CCERC 

ACT Legislative Assembly Speaker's trophy

Nick Ewbank, Woden Club

Pamela Willoughby-Thomas memorial trophy

Linda Thane, Yass Club

Debater of the year 2009
Doug Gillespie and Jim Fulton

Winner of Warwick Everson debating competition 2009

Yass Club

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Annual Speaker Competition 2010 - update

The Speaker of the Year and New Speaker of the Year Competitions are Rostrum ACT’s platform events.

Theme: This year’s theme was “New Arrivals”. All clubs were encouraged to nominate entrants.

Format: An eight minute prepared speech on the theme, plus a three minute impromptu.

No heats were required. conducted as necessary and the final will be held on the night of the annual Rostrum ACT Dinner in July.

There were no entrants for New Speaker of the Year. Chris Bourke of Canberra City Evening Rostrum Club won the Speaker of the Year for 2010.

ACT debating draw for 2010

Heat 1

Heat 2

The final will be between the two winning clubs from the second heat, and will be held at the Spring Fling, usually in mid to late September. See the Debating page for details of the competion for 2010.

Annual Dinner of ACT Rostrum 2009

The Rostrum ACT 2009 Zone Annual Dinner was held on Saturday 18 July at the Canberra Club.

Members who attended were treated to some great speeches from contestants in the 2009 Speaker of the year contest. ACT Legislative Assembly Speaker Shane Rattenbury attended for the first time in his role of Patron of the ACT Dais.

Awards for 2009:

Arthur Phillips trophy for speaker of the year

Alan McCulloch of Boulevard

Colin Johns trophy for new speaker of the year

Brett Herbert of DAFF

Alan Crook award for best club

Phillip Club

Raja Ratnam award for club leadership

Marion McCarthy of Yass Club

ACT Legislative Assembly Speaker's trophy

Peter Cudmore of Club 3

Pamela Willoughby-Thomas memorial trophy

Helen Storer

Debating 2009: Warwick Everson debating competition

Yass team won the Warwick Everson debating competition 2009

Yass club won their grand final debate Thursday 5th November at the annual Spring Fling. They defeated Woden Club who were in the Grand Final for the first time.

The topic was: "That our government knows what is good for us".  Woden took the affirmative, and Yass the negative.

Yass's team was:

Alf McCarthey
Ian McGrath
Linda Thane

Woden's team was:

Randall Faulkiner
Phil Davis
Roger Lines

The adjudicators were:
Mike Bowern
Peter Cudmore
Mikalia from the debating union

ACT Schools public speaking competitions for 2009

ACT Rostrum organises two public speaking competitions every year for ACT and nearby NSW schools.

The primary Schools public speaking competition for children up to year 6 and the Voice of Youth for secondary students.

Primary schools competition

The primary schools competition is in its 38^th year.

Each school selects a pupil to represent the school at a Quarter Final, together with a Reserve in case the selected representative is unavailable. Schools are expected to run their own competition to select their representative, with Rostrum' assistance if requested.

Rostrum selects the topics to be used at the Quarter and Semi Finals.

Rostrum provides a new set of topics for the Grand Final.

The Grand Final is usually held on the last Monday in August.

Rostrum provides the Adjudicators for the Quarter, Semi and Grand Finals. Rostrum will also provide an Adjudicator for school finals if requested. Certificates are provided for all finalists at School, Quarter, Semi and Grand Finals. The recommended number of finalists is 6. The winner at the Grand Final receives a personal trophy and the Ken Fry Trophy to be held by their school for one year. The Runner-up also receives a personal trophy.

The Commonwealth bank has been a sponsor of the competition for many years. The Canberra Southern Cross Club also became a sponsor in 2008.

Prospective contestants can obtain tips on speechmaking from Rostrum's "Cooking up a speech" read Click here It is a PDF document.

For further information on the Primary Schools competition please contact Peter Cudmore on 6288 4817 or Email

Winners of the Warwick Everson trophy

2009 - Yass

2008 - Phillip

2007 - Yass

2006 - Yass

Debater of the year

2009 - Joint winners - Doug Gillespie and Jim Fulton

2008 - Bernie Katz

2007 - Hugh Anderson