John Clarke ClubMulwala Life Member

The man popularly known as ‘Jinx’ became ClubMulwala’s fourth living Life Member, as announced at the club’s Annual General Meeting last Sunday.

ClubMulwala Chairman Des O’Meara ESM OAM nominated Mr Clarke for life membership which was seconded by board director Shane McBurnie.

“John Clarke has been a director for 21 years – from 1998 to 2008, 2011 to 2014 and from 2016 to 2021,” Mr O’Meara said.

“He has served with passion and dedication, and always had the best interests of ClubMulwala

at heart in all his talks and discussions about the club.

“His nomination was unanimously approved by the board.”

Mr Clarke said he was “humbled” to become a Life Member, acknowledging that over the long journey, he has enjoyed serving on the Board of Directors.

“When I first started I saw highs and lows – the Cypress Gardens development went under then we got Essenza, and we got this bloke from Alice Springs (CEO Alan Rowe) and everything improved with record financials every year,” the 71-year-old said.

“Now we have the new look club with so many plusses for members to enjoy.”

Mr Rowe commenced duty as CEO at ClubMulwala in December 2014, was faced with a club debt; the club is debt-free and officially opened its most impressive Stage one redevelopment in December 2019.

John Clarke has seen the highs and lows of the organisation he has served as board director for 21 years but only sees the highs now, at ClubMulwala.