Our speaker for October 20 is new member Jim Dixon. He’ll talk about an amazing trip he made to Kar Kar Island north of Lae, Papua New Guinea, in the Bismarck Sea. Jim was then a young volunteer worker  surveying native land ownership there – a very touchy business. Jim has retained copious photos from that trip and his stories are like a Boys’ Own Annual, they’re too good to disclose in advance. 
 
Moreover, we’ve got some spectacular speakers coming up. On Nov 3 we’ve got a distinguished meteorologist Dr Dick Whittaker who’ll give us a talk on how the weather forecasting for D-Day on Normandy in 1944 won the battle. The weather forecasters picked a slight calming in the weather for June 6-8 whereas the Germans thought the seas would be too rough to permit any landing. It was touch and go and D-Day might have become a complete disaster for the allies if the forecast was wrong.
 

 

Four Bearbrass members and four partners/friends are heading for the Antarctic on New Year’s Eve. They’re taking the 14-hour sight-seeing flight from Tullamarine. Members are Mike S., Tony T., secretary Sue H., and Heather A. Seats are still available as at October 7.

The flight is OK lockdown-wise and you don’t even need a passport. Our team will be on a B787 Dreamliner which has the big windows. You’re shifted around seats to share the views (220 passenger-capacity). You can also wander around and peer through unused windows.

The plane flies much lower than normal to get the views (but not too low…) and keeps its flight plan flexible to stay in clear weather on the continent, which is a lot bigger than Australia.

Member Alison Besselaar and her husband Walter (below, at Queenstown NZ in pre-Covid bliss) know South-East Asia like we know Southbank and Docklands. Of their careers in teaching they’ve spent 11 out of 37 years working the arc from Japan to Indonesia. 

Alison grew up on an 800ha sheep and cattle stud farm at Bessiebelle in western Victoria. It specialised in Herefords and Romney Marsh sheep (today better known as “Kent” sheep). Her schooling there was at the one to two teacher primary school – and as a teacher herself she taught later in similar country schools. 
She went on to nearby Heywood High but by third year she got an opportunity that changed her entire life-- she was awarded a Rotary Student Exchange slot to Japan. She took some Japanese lessons at Port Fairy and set off for Tokyo in 1970 able to count to ten and say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ [is that ‘sayonara’?]. It was not all family sweetness and light at home – her loved war-veteran grandfather nursed anger at all things Japanese and didn’t communicate once with her during her Japan stay. 

 

Our speaker on October 6 was Pete Williams, self-described as a one-time Flemington Hooligan kid. His talk was on Victoria’s bushfires and especially the terrible 2009 fires. Pete helped lead the community recovery at Flowerdale, where 13 lives and 234 homes were lost that Black Saturday. He continues to work for fire-stricken communities. We had 35 members and friends log in.

If you missed the talk, the recording is here:

 

Passcode: VEN39%vH 

 

 

Jim Dixon’s an expert on accounting standards but his life hasn’t been all dull. For example, when our new member was a student in 1967, he did a training program for PNG volunteer aid workers. This took him first to Port Moresby and a chance to try out his Pidgin English skills on the locals before helping with land surveys in Kar Kar Island in the Bismarck Sea, topped by an active volcano. 

 

 

Above, Back row:  Son Grant Dixon,  daughter Melissa Stone.

Front row: Callum Stone, Karin, Jim, twins Madeleine and  Lily Stone.

 

Our membership continued to grow last month with two new members. Please welcome Marie Grabar and Michael Porter. 

We would be delighted to have many, many more members so if you know someone who would enjoy what the club has to offer, do please invite them to a meeting or activity.

President Mel

The Bearbrass Book Group is going strong and after three meetings we have set a good standard of discussion, with friendly, insightful and informative exchange of interpretations and opinions of the books read and often, how they reflect our own lives. 

Last month we welcomed our newest member, Clive, to our group. The novel we discussed was “Bruny” by Heather Rose. It was part thriller, part political satire and even touched on Chinese political influence and ownership of key property assets in Australia. Once again, we had a robust discussion and left with more ideas and opinions than we had brought to the meeting. 

This month’s meeting is on the 19^th October at 1.30pm. The book is “Burial Rites” by Hannah Kent. It is a true story of the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829, who is sent to an isolated farm to await execution. It raises some fundamental questions about truth, hypocrisy, inequality laying the foundations for a very good discussion.

Next month’s book is on the 15^th November at 1.30. The book is “A Town Like Alice” by Neville Shute. 

We are considering running a December meeting on the 13^th December, but are yet to select a book.

The club will continue into 2021 and hopefully we will be able to meet face to face for our discussions. There are still a few vacancies so if you are interested please email Cate - cthompson28@bigpond.com

 

 

 

 

Members have been having fortnightly fun with Trivia Nights on Zoom -- and getting to meet members of both our Rotary Sponsor (Rotary Central Melbourne or RCM) and drop-ins from our sister Probus club, Melbourne Sunrise. Sometimes we outnumber the RCM people who organise the nights and sometimes not. Sometimes they set the questions, sometimes our people do, and sometimes it's friends of our people teasing our brains. It's all a happy combination and a great example of our clubs inter-socialising. In fact we wonder what other Probus/Rotary matchups occur around Australia, let alone matchups involving two Probus clubs.