Community
1 April, 2026
Social club supports community
THOMMO’S Social Club is giving back to the Cobden community and supporting its members thanks to the success of its Thursday night raffles.
“We sell a few hundred tickets each week in our raffles and we’ve got places like the Roadhouse and the bakery who actually donate vouchers to us which really helps,” secretary treasurer Betty McCormack said.
The club recently donated $500 to Cobden Technical School to support their growing breakfast club, ensuring no students would go to school hungry.
“We started a year or two ago by giving the primary school $500 because we heard there’s children turning up without lunch,” Ms McCormack said.
“I asked them up at the Cobden Tech whether they would be interested and they said they’ve already got a breakfast club going because children are turning up hungry or they don’t have anything decent for lunch so the money goes towards making them sandwiches and giving them brekkie.”
President Russell McCann said the social club has been backing local community groups for the past 25 years.
“Hampden Specialist School has had about $3000 out of us roughly,” he said.
“The Cobden hospital, we usually give them money every year.
“The Cobden Scouts, the SES as well.
“Lots of other groups we support – like we’re trying to support the swimming pool at the moment, to get it reopened.”
Comprised of around 60 members, Ms McCormack said the social club was going strong and would continue to support the community and its members.
“We look after the members and we do try and promote local businesses,” she said.
“If you walked in any other day, it wouldn’t be anything like walking in Thursday night here because it’s packed.
“Our members come and pack it out.
“It’s their social outing for the week.”
Mr McCann said hotel social clubs were not as popular as they once were, but they had the support of Thommo’s Hotel to keep them going strong.
“Lots of hotels used to have social clubs – I think there’s us and the Hampden Hotel in Camperdown are probably the only two around,” he said.
“I think Simpson had one and Timboon probably used to have one but it’s getting so hard for hotels to run things.
“We get good support from the hotel.
“It’s good, they support us on that night, they give us a meal voucher and stuff for our raffle.
“It gets people here and a lot of people come here on a Thursday night just for the social side of it, that’s why it’s called a social club – it brings people together.”
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