A Legend in Its Own Lunchtime

Every year the annual Golden Stave Lunch has grown in scale, scope and notoriety to the point where it has become an integral part of the Music and Entertainment Industry's calendar. No one knows more about the art of 'doing lunch' than the music fraternity and with the Golden Stave, that art has reached a pinnacle of Bacchanalian proportions!

The spirit of the Golden Stave Luncheon is unique - a spontaneous Industry "roast" which epitomises the rough diamond quality of the Australian Music and Entertainment Industries and the people who make it work. Apart from its crucial role as a major fundraiser for child-orientated charities, the Golden Stave provides a pressure valve for a group of people whose work is often fraught with long hours and impossible deadlines.

In the company of peers and colleagues, tension soon relaxes into an atmosphere of good humour and laid-back camaraderie. If the friendly ribbing at times comes perilously close to the bone and if the humour swings from wry understatement to bawdy farce, the generosity of the participants is never in question. This is the one time of the year when the Australian Music and Entertainment Industries show a heart of gold with millions of dollars being raised for charity.

The charity auction conducted over lunch, apart from being one of the primary fundraising activities, is always a great source of entertainment. Where, but at the Golden Stave, could you have seen a Rolling Stones autographed guitar go for $10,000 and Slim Dusty's personal hat bought for $1,000!

History of the Golden Stave

The Golden Stave Luncheon has come a long way since, at the instigation of Peter Hebbes, Chris Gilbey, Ross Barlow and the late Jack Argent, 187 members of the Music Industry first sat down to lunch at Sydney's Sebel Townhouse in 1978.
The idea of a regular Music Industry charity luncheon had come from a similar event in the UK called the Silver Clef Music therapy Luncheon. The first Golden Stave raised $3,000 which the Government matched by a factor of 4 times, making a total of $12,000.
Since that first luncheon, some of the projects that the Golden Stave has supported over the years include:

• Desperately needed equipment for Ferguson Lodge, which provides specialised nursing and medical care as well as accommodation for 42 paraplegics and quadriplegics
• Two fully equipped 22-seater buses
• A music room for Ferguson Lodge dedicated to the memory of the late Jack Argent
• The Berala Project which is a uniquely designed housing development incorporating six specially equipped units for wheelchair-bound people
• The Golden Stave/Shepherd Centre providing education for hearing impaired children
• Sending children with terminal cancer to holiday camps via the Charity, CanTeen
• Providing much needed fuel pods for the Child Flight helicopter purchasing PCA syringes for post-operative pain relief and a home ventilator for the Spina Bifida Unit at the Children's Hospital.
• The fully equipping of a hearing booth for the new Children's Hospital
• New wheelchairs and equipment for Sylvanvale School
• The setting up of the Golden Stave Scholarship for the Paraquad Association
• The building of the Adolescent Orthopaedic Ward for the new Children's Hospital
• Ongoing assistance to Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and the list goes on.

Thanks to the Music & Entertainment Industries

The term "Music & Entertainment Industries" covers the Record and Publishing Companies, Radio and Television Stations, Promoters, Agents, Management Companies, artists, writers plus a wide range of associated Service Industries such as Printers and Publicists. As the largest annual charity luncheon in Australia, the Golden Stave is an event of which the Music and Entertainment Industries can be justifiably proud.