Wauchope RSL Club has a new life member – Wayne Saley, who gave 24 years service and is still a director.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Wayne, who has decades of experience in the club industry, is thrilled with the honour, awarded at the club’s AGM on September 30.
A printer by trade, he began working in clubs as a second job at the age of 18.
“I became a director of Mondo Ski Club in Pitt Street in Sydney in the late 1960s,” he recalled.
“We took over an old club and set up the ski club to let people travel to the snow cheaply. That got me interested.”
Wayne bought and drove trucks, but always had a second job in the club, as a casual waiter. Then, he became permanent, as a cellarman, a supervisor and finally a manager at Lakemba Ex-Services Club.
He loves the industry because it’s different every day, and you meet a lot of people. After ten years he moved to Campsie RSL, a bigger, wealthier club. He and wife, Jan had three daughters and were living in Macquarie Fields.
“It wasn’t a very nice place to bring up girls and we wanted to get out of Sydney,” said Wayne.
The job as Assistant Manager at Wauchope RSL became available. Wayne had been to Timbertown 20 years prior, and took the job.
“In 1994, I moved to Wauchope Club, but lived in Port Macquarie – East Wauchope,” he joked.
“It’s a well-known thing in the club industry: you shouldn’t live in the town that you work in. The club was very old and dark, but the people in it were just unbelievable. It’s still the same today – just magic people. Best thing I’ve ever done.”
His family loved the sea change and Wayne was offered the job of club Secretary Manager in 2003. He retired in January and was delighted to be offered a place on the board of directors.
“I’ve got the best wife a bloke could have. She has always been so supportive. There used to be a lot of night work, and my wife did all the hard yards with the kids and the house, as well as working,” he said.
Retirement is bliss for Wayne, who has all his daughters and grandchildren around him, and is spending more time boating and caravanning.
ALSO MAKING NEWS: Wauchope river rescue and help for PNG navy ship