Community
27 August, 2025
U3A celebrates 10 years
CORANGAMITE’S University of the Third Age (U3A) members have spent the last decade proving the best is yet to come.
Last week around 70 local members gathered in Cobden to celebrate the ten-year milestone since the branch formed.
The U3A global movement began in France in the early 1970s as part of a push to provide academic opportunities for the elderly.
In the mid-1980s the movement arrived on Australian shores and has since grown to around 250 branches across the nation.
Corangamite U3A secretary David Mernagh said the Corangamite branch had grown from strength to strength since its inception.
“It’s been 10 years since Corangamite U3A founded on August 23, 2015, so we’ve gathered to celebrate,” he said.
“There was a small committee formed back then which set up a series of smaller events.
“It’s basically grown from there, what we offer now to the types of things we offer.”
When U3A arrived in Australia, it had followed on from the British model which prioritised a community-based approach to teaching and leadership from within its membership base.
Mr Mernagh said the model suited the Corangamite U3A group which had become a social hub, with membership gravitating towards connectedness – drawing on the collective experiences of members to embrace life’s lessons.
“It’s for people over 55 to encourage social interaction and education,” he said.
“Education is about lifelong learning so the goal is to keep people interested in learning.
“We’re community-based and more of a social group with a more limited educational output – maybe because the background of our membership lends itself to social gatherings rather than academia – but a lot of what we do socially has educational value.”
The group has regular meetings from simple games connecting with others to outings travelling across the region.
“We run main events including popular mahjong, scrabble, cribbage and singing as our regular activities,” Mr Mernagh said.
“We also have special activities such as travelling to different places to have lunch and hearing from people who have been travelling on holidays about their experiences.
“We have visits such as next month when we go to the water sewage and treatment plant – we even have a committee member who organises a monthly bike ride or hike.”
Anyone interested in becoming a member can visit https://u3acorangamite.org.au for more information.