About Us
The Scottish Clans and Associations Council Inc. is a Victorian based organization but, since a number of clans do not have separate branches in each state, or in some cases, any separation of their structure across the world, the interests of the Council extend beyond the Victorian boundaries.
There is a wide range of Scottish institutions in Victoria, including Highland Pipe Bands, Highland Dancing, Scottish Country Dancing, Heavy Games, Caledonian Societies, Highland Gatherings committees, Robert Burns
Societies and the Victorian Scottish Union.
In the late 1980's, a need was seen for an organization to take up the particular interests of clan societies.
* To assist Clanspeople to find their Clan Societies and associations.
* To assist in the formation of Clan Societies and associations in Australia, where they do not already exist.
* To publicly celebrate Scottish culture, promoting the comradeship of the Scottish fraternity in Australia.
* To aid in educating the Australia communities in their Scottish heritage.
The Council was established in 1994, under the leadership of its first President, the late Ronald Robb, who guided it for many years.
Each affiliated Clan Society or association is represented at the Annual General Meeting by two of its members. A guiding committee is chosen at each AGM. It is composed of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer and at least four Ordinary Members.
The Council is affiliated with the Scots of Victoria Coordinating Group.
Our Committee
Doug McLaughlin - President of the Scottish Clans and Associations Council Inc.
Doug was a teacher in public and private secondary schools in Victoria for 38 years. For a number of years, he was President of the Victorian Branch of the World Education Fellowship.
Whilst touring in Scotland in 1989, Doug became a member of the Clan MacLachlan Society at the AGM in Strathlachlan. In 1995, a decision was made to form a second Branch of the Society in Australia and Doug became the Secretary of the new Victorian Branch. In recent years he has been its President.
The generation of that Branch was aided by the Scottish Clans and Associations Council Inc. and it was shortly after that that Doug became a committee member of the Council, keen to give other Clan Societies the kind of help the Clan MacLachlan Society had received. On the illness of the President, Robert Johnston, Doug became Acting-President in 2000.
It was in that capacity that Doug chaired the second of the Scottish Organizations’ seminars that led to the formation of the Scots of Victoria Coordinating Group in that year and he chaired its inaugural meeting. He has served as Committee Member and President of the Scots of Victoria, 2003-4, is currently the Scots of Victoria contact person on the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria and has also been a Scots of Victoria representative on the Council of the Life Planning Foundation of Australia (Life Activities Clubs) since 2003.
In 2004, Doug was honoured for his work in Multicultural Affairs with a Meritorious Service award from the Victorian Multicultural Commission.
In 2004-6, Doug held the Chair of the Clan MacLachlan Society, world-wide.
Doug has long held the conviction that knowing who you are is essential to appreciating your fellows. In our proudly multicultural Victoria, he believes that is an important concept to nurture and sees the promotion of the various Clan Societies as a way of doing that.
Richard McFarlane - Vice President of the Scottish Clans and Associations Council Inc.
Clan MacFarlane International Vic.
50 Carroll Lane
Greenvale Victoria 3059
(03) 9333 1288 or 0412047407
mcfarlaner@bigpond.com
Robert Angus Stewart - Honorary Secretary of the Scottish Clans and Associations Council Inc.
After completing a 5 year apprenticeship at Fitting and Turning, Robert joined the Victoria Police where he spent the next 20 years operating in both uniform and Detective areas and was Senior Detective in the Company Fraud Squad. He was also an Instructor at the Sub-Officers College South Yarra, where he lectured in advanced criminal law and Court prosecuting.
In 1983, he was approached to be Players’ Advocate at the then VFL and later AFL Tribunal, and after 400 plus Tribunal appearances, Robert, together with a colleague, became an Honorary Investigator for the AFL. Together, they introduced video scrutiny of each game and were given the authority to directly bring players before the Tribunal. This was quickly named by the media as ‘Trial by Video.’
In the year 2000, Robert was appointed by the executive of The Stewart Society in Edinburgh, as its Commissioner for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. There is also a Commissioner in Sydney for New South Wales and a Commissioner in Brisbane for Queensland and the Northern Territory. He is a first generation Australian in his Stewart line, with parents and five older brothers emigrating from Dundee, aboard the P&O ship SS Barrabool, in 1927.
Robert became Honorary Secretary of the Scottish Clans and Associations Council Inc. in 2002.