On Sunday September 14th 2008, one of the oldest gay community groups here in Perth, Bears Perth Inc, celebrated its 15th birthday. Bears Perth is the oldest Bear Club in Australia – although we only beat Brisbears by one month! With some 70 Bears Perth members, including six new members who joined on the day, coming together to celebrate the birthday, it was a great party. To help celebrate this milestone, all five Presidents of the club were in attendance. This included Ken Beer (also a club founder) who was President from 1993 – ’98; Bill Barr 1998 – ’02; Adrian Gould 2002 – ’03; Bill Barr 2003 – ’04; Michael Middleton 2004 – ’06 and Paul Hayter 2006 – Present Day. Also present were two other founders, Kevin Knighton and Graham Harris.

Bears Perth (formerly known as W.O.M.B.A.T.S.) had its first event on Sept 13th 1993 and became incorporated as a club in 1997. The casual, friendly atmosphere of the Bears, along with its even more social, party feel to it over more recent years, has seen the popularity of the club continue to grow. Despite the challenges due to the recent loss of our ‘old’ Den at 565, the club still remains strong. We are constantly welcoming new faces to our ever-popular Den Nights now at Loton Park on the 4th Friday of each month and the Sunday Socials held at a member’s residence on the 2nd Sunday of each month.

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The Pride theme of Re-Invention this year, couldn’t apply more to the Bears, as we are now dealing with change more than ever before. At this time I would like to thank on behalf of the club the community at large and especially Loton Park Tennis Club, for their continued support and also to wish you all a Happy Pride for 2008.

Hugz, Paul
President, Bears Perth Inc