The monthly General Meeting is held on the third Friday of the month except December.

Where: Balnarring Hall, 3014 Frankston Flinders Rd Balnarring.

Time: 10am - 12 noon

After a brief formal meeting consisting of reports from the President, Secretary & Treasurer and information regarding Membership, Speakers, Welfare & Outings as well as Interest Group activities, we enjoy an extended morning tea  to catch up with each other.

The second part of the meeting is usually a presentation from an interesting speaker.

2022 Speakers

February & March meetings we had extra long mornig teas to allow for a good chat after the isolation of 2021 when most meetings were cancelled.

April: Anna Buchhorn, Life of Lt. General Sir Stanley Savige

Anna who is a Balnarring Combined Probus member and a local historical society member, gave us a very interesting talk on the remarkable life of Lt. General Sir Stanley Savige who was an early resident of the Balnarring/Somers area in the years after WW1.

Stanley Savige was the eldest of eight children born in Gippsland who left school at 12yrs old to work for a blacksmith. He was a very keen boy Scout and at 20yrs old became a Scout leader. He joined the army and went to war in 1916 and eventually attained the rank of Lt. General, a remarkable achievement. 

Post war Stanley Savige bought two blocks of land in what was then called Balnarring East (now Somers) and built a house with a boathouse on the sand bar. Anna showed some great old photos of this time. The beach area is much changed now with the sand bar and vegetation eroded away. Stanley Savige was thought to have used his influence to have the Army Reserve build a swing bridge over the creek in 1931 but this suffered the same fate.

In 1923 Stanley Savige was inspired to set up a ‘Legacy’ Club which has assisted tens of thousands of returned war veterans, war widows and their children over the years. This became an all-consuming interest for him until he died. A hall was built on land gifted by Stanley for a ‘Legacy’ children’s camp using his own funds and other donations. The Legacy Hall was also used as a school for Somers up to the 1950’s. The land with the Hall were sold twice after that and when the current Somers school heard the old place was still standing they asked if they could have it! The Hall was considered to have heritage value and with enthusiastic volunteers, fund raising and donations, the Legacy Hall was relocated and rebuilt during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and is as we see it today in the grounds of Somers Primary School.

As Anna said in conclusion: Lt. General Sir Stanley Savige is still with us.

 

May: Anne Summers: The History of Lace

We were very pleased to welcome Ann, a member of Red Hill Probus, who gave us a fascinating talk on the history of lace making and brought a selection of exquisite pieces of bobbin and needle point handmade lace some dating back to the 16^th century. These pieces were just a few of many that Ann’s mother had collected since the 1950’s. Her interest being excited by a visit to Europe as a child and watching women making lace sitting outside their houses. The lace collection passed to Ann and wasn’t left to a museum as lace cannot be permanently displayed because exposure to light causes deterioration. Ann generously offers to exhibit the lace on occasion, and with it for us an excellent talk about lace-making and its history.

Lace was first seen some time between the 14^th and 15^th centuries in Italy and Belgium but lace-like work can be seen on Egyptian and Roman artefacts.

Lace was first made by nuns for religious vestments but this changed with the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16^th century and spread through Europe and into England when the protestant Huguenots fled persecution.

Ann gave examples of major historical events and characters through the centuries to give a sense of time and place. For instance, in England in the 16^th century when the rising middle-classes wore lace imported from Europe, Queen Elizabeth 1 introduced a law that only nobility was allowed to wear lace! The law imposed a strict dress code reinforcing the class system. Another example from the 17^th century was Oliver Cromwell banning the wearing of lace at all, but was reported to have been buried wrapped in it! Handmade lace, so expensive to produce, was a way of showing off one’s wealth and became increasingly popular.

In the 17^th century ‘lace schools’ appeared with children from the age of 5yrs working long hours lace making and receiving very little education. However, with the advent of the industrial revolution in the 18^th and on into the 19^th century came inventions that mechanised the making of lace. By 1870 general schooling became law and saw the end of ‘lace schools’.

Thank you Ann for your entertaining ‘Look at History through Lace’.

 

June: Greg Mason: A Life In Coalmining

 

July: Gary Disher: Author

We were very pleased to welcome Gary Disher, an author living locally, best known as a crime writer.

Gary was born and brought up in South Australia on a farm north of Adelaide. A great reader as a child, he knew early on that he wanted to be a writer. Gary tells of his father having an unhappy time at school and leaving by the age of twelve. However, though not a reader, his father told wonderful bed-time stories leaving cliff-hanging endings each night.

Gary moved to Melbourne and studied History at University and began to be paid for writing short stories. Further study in creative writing followed at Stanford University (near San Francisco) in the USA. Gary returned to Melbourne to teach creative writing at Adult Education and at TAFE. whilst continuing to pursue his writing career. In the late 1980’s Gary left teaching to write full-time. He pointed out that it can be a long road to deriving an income from writing – the average income for a writer is just $13,000 a year. A very small percentage of book sales go to the authors. Readers might imagine that writers together discuss lofty ideas, but no, they talk about money or lack thereof!

Gary has lived on the Mornington Peninsula since 1992 and sets many of his books in the area. He finds ideas for his stories from a number of sources such as crime reporting in newspapers or perhaps an overheard conversation in a café. There was one where one teenager said to another ‘Everything went wrong when Grandma came to stay’. Gary might imagine how many scenarios gave rise to this comment.

For Gary, two to three months of research and planning happen before any writing and that good writing involves appealing to the senses (drawing pictures in your head) and setting the scene. It’s not all about the characters. He bears in mind Charles Dickens advice – “Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry, make ‘em wait!”

Crime fiction has the appeal of the bad guys being punished unlike real-life, there’s a hero and there’s the ‘puzzle’ element. However not everyone regards crime fiction as ‘literature’, but it is worth noting that Peter Temple, a crime writer, won the ‘Miles Franklin’ award. 

Gary won an award in the USA for a short story ‘The Bamboo Flute’ and was nominated for the UK Booker Prize for ‘Sunken Road’.

After a very entertaining and informative talk Gary kindly answered a couple of questions.

Q: Local peninsula names? A: These are used but changed if settings might confuse or upset those who identify.

Q: Do his books sell overseas? A: Depends on the country. Books sell well in Germany and have been on best-seller lists, but not so well in the USA. Audio and e-books are now a significant market.

Q: Any chance of a film being made? – Not yet! But Gary said he’d love to be in one and make a fleeting appearance!

                                     

August: SES Emergency Services

We were very pleased to welcome Dutchy Holland speaking to us about the role of the SES.

Dutchy moved to the Mornington Peninsula 7 yrs ago after many years with the Air Force and volunteered for the local SES to contribute to and become part of the community.

Dutchy is with the Hastings SES unit, another unit is in Sorrento – these two cover the Mornington Peninsula. Both units are operated entirely by volunteers – Hastings has 35 members ranging in age from 15 – 73yrs old. There is a Duty Officer on call every day of the year who contacts all volunteers and co-ordinates the emergency response. Last year there were 880 call-outs (9,000 volunteer hours) not counting administration, training and fundraising.

The State government pays $23,000 per year towards the running costs with the balance made up by fund-raising.

When asked how volunteers are found, Dutchy said by word of mouth but in recent times Face-Book has spread the message widely. Interviews can be conducted on-line by the State Agency in the city and police checks undertaken before recruitment.

The SES cover a number of areas including :

• Trees off roads to clear lanes but cannot fell whole trees.
• Getting people off beaches and within 200 metres of the waters edge. If further out the volunteer Marine Rescue or the Coastguard are called. The SES don’t have boats.
• Attend mountain-bike accidents.
• Are the control agency for landslides
• Tsunami response.
• Can be called to assist the Bomb squad.
• Rescue of small animals.

If not already qualified volunteers are given training in areas such as chain-saw use, heavy vehicle operation and first-aid. However training is not just about the mechanics but also about communicating with people affected by an emergency, listening and liaising with other agencies. A tree down rendering a house uninhabitable might mean a family needs emergency accommodation, clothes, food and an Insurance Company contacted.

September: Roger Standen- his latest trip

 We were delighted to welcome back Roger speaking about his ‘Interesting Encounters with the Wildlife of West Queensland’ illustrated as always with a beautiful slide show.

His travels took him to Idalia NP, Noonbah Station, Boodjamulla NP and Moondarah Dam (Mt Isa) and beyond.

Roger saw many Emus but sadly a number of these do end as road kill because fencing adjacent to the road restricts their free movement. A similar fate can await Wedge-tailed Eagles as they feed on the road kill. Emu chicks are able to pass under barbed wire fencing but the dad (who does the parenting) may not!

Roger as he said ‘getting the unpleasant bit over with first’ continued to show us wonderful photos of the many bird species in this area (birds being his main interest).

They included:

The Rainbow Bee-eater, the Common Glider, a Brolga family of four feeding together, the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, a male Bower bird decorating his bower, the Red-winged Parrot, Babblers feeding on Antlion larvae at the bottom of sand cones, flocks of Budgerigars whirling and dropping out of sight into grassland, Fairy Martins, a White-crested Wood Swallow and the Olive-backed Oriole a great mimic of other birds.

Good rains this year meant plentiful wildlife in general including feral animals such as wild pigs. Rather more unusual was spotting a Pearl Moth, the only one to be recorded this year on the Naturalist’s web-site. There was a fossilised bird with it’s gizzard full of polished stones. This bird would have been 3.5 metres tall resembling a giant Swamp Hen. Somewhat smaller was a Northern blind snake no bigger than an earth worm which lives underground and eats ants and termites. What looked like a rough tree trunk revealed the Bark-mimicking Grass-Hopper with its amazing camouflage.

                                                                                                            Pam Webby

 November:  Lorraine Smith -author

We welcomed Lorraine Smith who gave an extremely entertaining and intriguing talk on the

“ Journey of a Lost Manuscript”.

Lorraine has a second-hand  bookshop in Warrnambool and a customer found a small document dated 1583 in the pages of ‘Alice in Wonderland!’ This fired Lorraine’s imagination and desire to research the origin of this little piece of vellum parchment (calf skin) and how it came to be in Australia.

It proved to be English, authentic and was an Indenture for an exchange of farm land in West Yorkshire. (A transcription service on the Isle of Man was used to decipher the tiny writing). The manuscript spent several hundred years in the Gildersome and Morley village areas of Yorkshire before finding its way to Warrnambool in the early 1920’s.

Lorraine’s start point was the name Betty Brown written in the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ book and combined with the reference to the Yorkshire villages, the manuscript was traced to a Reuben Brown in Morley. The name Brown was written in the book ‘The Morley Story’ produced by the local historical society which referenced the manuscript with a photograph. Lorraine later found ‘The Morley Story’ in her bookshop with a distinct paper-clip mark where the manuscript had probably been secured!

Reuben Brown’s son Charles Esra Brown migrated to Australia on the ‘Loch Shiel’ in 1883. His sisters did not have children and on the death of Reuben, family effects, presumably including the 1583 manuscript, were passed on to Charles when the sisters visited Australia in 1924.

Lorraine traced Brown family members leading her to Betty Brown’s (Alice in Wonderland!) sister in Adelaide. She had had the manuscript for 30 years before losing track of it.

Lorraine offered to return the ancient document to the family but it was decided that once Lorraine had finished giving talks on it, it would be donated to a museum.

The research took Lorraine 18 months including a trip to the villages Gildersome and Morley, and 12 months to write her book “Journey of a lost Manuscript”.

                                                                        Pam Webby

 

2023 Speakers:

January: Graeme Wilson-  ‘The Ride of the Century’ 

Graeme Wilson from our Probus Club kindly presented a film called ‘The Ride of the Century’. This was a horseback ride of 1000 klms. from Healesville in Victoria to Canberra in the ACT. It was part of the bicentennial celebrations of 1988 and took a message from Melbourne of congratulations to Canberra on the opening of the new Parliament House.

Graeme took inspiration to take part in this ride (also to mark his 50^th birthday) from the feat of Cliff Young running from Sydney to Melbourne at the age of 63!

Graeme had been riding horses since 1986 and joined 350 others from a diverse range of backgrounds to attempt this marathon ride taking 22 days. The youngest was 12 and the oldest 83 yrs old and blind.

This thoroughly enjoyable and interesting film gave an insight into just how tough this ride was and the logistical nightmare it presented.

There was a 2km. long line of horses, trucks and floats leaving Healesville on April 17^th,1988. 160 tonnes of equipment were transported every day.

Setting up and breaking the nightly camp initially took 7 hours with yards for horses (with feed and water) tents for riders and crew, catering (a total of 26,000 meals were prepared) and facilities. With everyone pitching in this was down to 2 hours after just a few days. 

Many problems occurred along the way such as accidents, riders getting lost and horses with colic from drinking cold water. Vets were on call 24 hrs a day! Farriers travelled with the ride and worked continuously to re-shoe horses about every 13 days.

Of the 350 riders that started in Healesville 280 were at the finish in Canberra. Two thirds of them were women. Not all riders and horses proved suited to such a long cross-country trek. Of the 280 riders that made it only 28 did so on the horse that they started with, and Graeme was one those! It should be mentioned that the redoubtable Cliff Young ran the 1000 kms. course!

Riders that arrived in Canberra were warmly greeted by Bob and Hazel Hawke.

Thank you Graeme for showing this film, it was well worth a repeat viewing as many, including myself, had not seen it before.

                                                                                                Pam Webby

 

February: Andrea Zilberman: Community Liason Officer, KOGO. 

We were pleased to welcome Andrea Zilberman and Vicki Davis to talk about the volunteer, not-for-profit and charitable organisation KOGO.

Andrea who is the Community Liaison Officer for KOGO opened with some sobering figures about homeless people in Australia.

On any given night there are 120,000 homeless sleeping on the streets, in cars, and couch surfing (temporary housing often feels less safe). 16,000 are children under 12 years and 20% are indigenous.

Ros Rogers started KOGO in 2004 and was CEO until 2020. She began recruiting knitters and initially 180 scarves were made for the homeless. Today there are 14,000 knitters Australia wide making jumpers, scarves, beanies, squares for blankets and toys. Knitters range in age from children up to an 103 yr. old who donated a gift pack just 5 days before she died!

When too many knitted baby clothes were donated, gift packs were made up for disadvantaged mothers.

By 2022 100,000 items were distributed! There are 360 partner organisations who assist with this and often submit a ‘wish-list’ for items most needed. There are nine volunteer drivers helping with deliveries around Australia.

The Christmas Angel Project started when there where so many amazing knitted toys received packs were made up for children at Christmas time. Not everyone knits, so a coin donation could be made instead at Lincraft (a partner organisation) and this raised $19,000 supporting charities at Christmas. 

Knitted donations can be taken to ‘drop-off’ points and these are listed on KOGO’s website as well as knitting patterns and suggestions for items needed. Squares for blankets should be 20cms x 20cms. These will be joined together by volunteers.

Locally, I-MED Radiology and the Little Woolly Makers wool shop in Hastings are drop-off points.

Thanks to Andrea and Vicki, perhaps inspiring the knitters amongst us to pick up those needles once again.

  Pam Webby

 

March: Jeff Weir: Dolphin Research Institute