Shed Program Held During 2017 - 2023
Shed Program Held During 2020 to 2023 with (2019, 2018 & 2017 are below)
The following is a list of the past program in 2022 and first part of 2023
Date 2020/2023 | Description | Attended | Pictures/ Presentation |
---|---|---|---|
30th Jun 2023 | There was a talk by John Feehan (The Dung Beetle man). Shed member John Feehan is known to everyone as the “Dung Beetle Man” for his lifetime work dedicated to increasing awareness of the importance of dung beetles. John was born in Braidwood and initially worked for CSIRO on dung beetles. He has five insects named after him, has an OAM for his services to the agricultural industry and in 2011 reached the final 14 in the highly prestigious Australian of the Year Award. The morning finished with a BBQ. | 36 | |
23rd Jun 2023 | Margaret Walrod and Alan Clark from the US Embassy gave a talk about what they do in the embassy and their past history and posts | 38 | |
16th Jun 2023 | Martin van der Hoek gave a talk about The Judean Uprising of 68-72 AD against the Romans. They eventually put down the insurrection by taking the mountain fortress of Masada. | 32 | |
9th Jun 2023 | Stuart Allen gave a talk on Foiling Sailboats. Stuart gave a brief summary of his sailing career which started in Iron Cove where he used to sail VJ’s. He later sailed 16 foot Skiffs in Drumoyne. Then came to Canberra sailing Lasers. He made the point that to sail a Laser and win, you probably have to be a very fit 21 year old. He was wondering when you get beaten in a race by a 15 year old, is it time to give up? He then went on to highlight the dynamics of the hydrofoil. | 38 | |
2nd Jun 2023 | Senior Parliamentary Photographer David Foote talked about his career as a photographer initially in Adelaide, then later in Canberra working for the Canberra Times before joining Parliament House. He mentioned that he has in fact visited the Oval Office on 8 separate occasions. One other visit to the US was with PM John Howard during the 911 aircraft bombings of the World Trade Centre. | 34 | |
26th May 2023 | Boyd Blackwell gave a talk on his trip expedition cruise to Antarctica in December 2022, from the tip of South America to Antarctica and there were 19 Scientists on board to take care of the guests. They sailed from Punta Arenas to The Falklands then to South Georgia (South Sandwich Islands) then Antarctica returning to Punta Arenas. Details see Newsletter #674 | 33 | |
19th May 2023 | BBQ & Frank O’Rourke talked on Bill Taylor who Frank reminded us of the feat of Bill Taylor standing on the strut to drain the oil from the engine with the broken propeller of the Southern Cross. Bill Taylor’s early career had started flying a Sopwith scout during WWI for which he received the Military Cross. After WWII Taylor held many speed records around the world flying Frigate Bird II a Catalina flying boat it is on display at the Powerhouse Museum | 32 | |
12th May 2023 | Dr David Swanton talked about voluntary assisted dying. David is a prominent author and speaker in support of Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD). He is the head of the Canberra Chapter of an international organisation known as Exit. Following the recent repeal of federal legislation that blocked VAD laws in the territories, the ACT is currently developing a framework for legislation on VAD. A consultative process is underway, with public submissions received up until 6 April. Here’s what the ACT Government says on its website: The ACT Government believes all Canberrans should have end of life choices that align with their rights, preferences and values. Canberrans should have access to quality health care, including end of life care, when they need it. However, we know that even with the best end of life care, some Canberrans with an advanced condition, illness or disease experience suffering near the end of their lives. A paper advocating the Human Rights Model for VAD was developed in response to the ACT consultation process. | 31 | Voluntary Assisted Dying in the ACT 2023 |
You can see it through the link on the right | Welcome to Ethical Rights | ||
5th May 2023 | Kim Rubenstein gave a talk on the Voice referendum supported by James Blackwell a proud Wiradyuri man & Research Fellow at the ANU’s Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs. | ? | Uluru Statement from The Heart |
Detailed background article from Kim: Power, Control and Citizenship: The Uluru Statement from the Heart as Active Citizenship | |||
28th Apr 2023 | BBQ at Lake George (Anderson VC picnic area) Gearys Gap. At the lake we met Dr Douglas Finlayson, a geophysicist who had a long career with Geoscience Australia and its predecessors. Since retiring some years ago, he has been a regular lecturer with U3A. | 27 | For details refer to Newsletter # 700 |
21st Apr 2023 | Frank O’Rourke gave an Anzac Day related talk especially the George Cross memorial. Australians are today eligible for the Cross of Valour, instituted under the Australian Honours System on 14 February 1975. | 35 | For details of the talk refer to Newsletter # 699 |
14th Apr 2023 | Tony Rogers gave a talk entitled ‘From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe on a crocodile’. Tony covered the explosion in human populations and the subsequent competition for land. He also explained how land mines helped the insurgeny in Rhodesia. He also expalined how the Europeans eventually settled South Africa. Tony had arrived in Rhodesia in 1943. He worked in the public service for 20 years as an engineer, but along with many others, he was conscripted during the Liberation War. Part of a large exodus of white Rhodesians, Tony left Zimbabwe two years after Robert Mugabe’s ascension to power. | 30 | |
7th Apr 2023 | No Shed Meeting – Good Friday | ||
31st Mar 2023 | Peter Norton-Baker talked on End of Life Planning. Peter’s presentation related to his experiences in the loss of his wife Janis. Janis had endured a long period of illness for a medical condition which had no the loss of his wife Janis. Janis had endured a long period of illness for a medical condition which had no known cure and no proven reliable treatment. They were fortunate to be able to arrange in-home care and professional health assessments which provided assistance, guidance and structure through a difficult time. Peter agreed that his full presentation could be made available and it can be accessed by clicking on the right column. | 41 | Click here to view his presentation |
24th Mar 2023 | Harry Angel :Trip down the Hijaz Railway from Damascus to Madinah. Harry moved to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia just six weeks before the Gulf War 1 started. Because Saddam was bombing the eastern cities of Saudi Arabia, particularly Riyadh, the families of company Advisors were moved from Riyadh to Jeddah tripling the population of the company compound. Saudi Arabia is not just a big oil well supplying 12% of the world’s requirements (& making a profit of US$ 161 billion last year). That happens in the east of the country. The west of the country contains the two holy mosques which are the centre of Islam for some two billion Muslims. The Kaaba (House of Abraham) in the Grand Mosque at Makkah has been the focus of Islam since 610 AD when Muhammed established Islam. The Hajj is one of the biggest shows on Earth & the logistics behind it are amazing. It was because of this movement of pilgrims that the Hijaz Railway was proposed. Prior to the Hijaz railway in 1900, Pilgrims travelling from Turkey and beyond could catch a train to Damascus but then had to walk or ride camels some 1,700 km to Makkah. This journey taking some 2 months through some inhospitable country. The building of the Hijaz Railway started in 1900 at Damascus & as sections were completed, pilgrims were able to go by train to closer destinations. The railway finally reached Madinah in 1908 & for the next few years carried some 300,000 pilgrims per year to the holy cities. The railway was bombed by Lawrence of Arabia during World War I. But it was repaired & operated until 1924. Now all that is left (in Saudi Arabia) is an embankment 800km long including bridges, tunnels, 40 stations & many rusty railway engines & carriages. It has become a great four-wheel drive adventure for some expats of the area. Harry & his wife Jo were in Jeddah for 9 years spending many weekends camping in the desert, scuba diving in the Red Sea or generally partaking of the excellent shopping and eating available. They both agreed that Saudi Arabia is one of the best kept secrets in the world. The sky is always blue, it hardly ever rains. Just 50 metres off the edge of the Red Sea are coral reefs that rival the Great Barrier Reef. There are mountains over 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) high & ancient rock carvings which add to the mystique of this enchanting country. | 45 | |
17th Mar 2023 | Short talks and a BBQ. Various members talked on various subjects. Luke proceeded to get us to do a simple test to see whether we might benefit from the exercise classes run by the EmPower Exercise Physiology Group. For most of us, the answer was a clear yes! | 35 | |
10th Mar 2023 | Excursion to Mount Stromlo, hosted by Dr Brad Tucker. What a great follow-up to the talk Brad gave at the Shed on the 30th of September last year. A record number of members enjoyed the excursion, with perfect weather being a bonus. Once again, Brad was at his highly informative and entertaining best. He is a gifted speaker with an amazing ability to share his enthusiasm and knowledge of incredibly complex scientific research and development. And he has a great sense of humour. | 42 | |
3rd Mar 2023 | Bob Wagg gave a talk on the History of Tasmania and Phil Laird talked on Artificial Intelligence and the power of ‘ChatGPT. | 43 | The write up from the Newsletter is also on the website Page “Activities 2022-2027” |
24th Feb 2023 | Excursion to Tarago Bioreactor. Previously a copper, lead and zinc open-cut mine, since 2005 the site has been used as an in-situ bioreactor. Sydney’s household waste, after being containerised at the Veolia Environmental Services in Clyde, Sydney, is transported by rail from Sydney to the Intermodal transfer terminal site in Tarago. The containers are off-loaded and trucked to the mine site, a distance of less than 10 kms. After a warm welcome and an explanation about what’s happening at the site, we were safely shepherded around by a very hospitable team, including Rowena, Maria, Pearl and Scott.The scale of what’s going on at the ‘Woodlawn Eco Precinct’ is staggering. It receives about 1,000,000 tonnes per year of ‘rubbish’, mostly from Sydney, with some also coming from the local region. It uses the methane created by the resultant waste to generate electricity. The set-up also includes a solar and fish farm using energy harnessed from the operation. Wells sunk by people like our multiskilled bus driver, Scott (a gas field operator), link to a series of pipes and the methane is pumped to a power station on site, where it is burned to produce electricity. Approximately 95% of the methane is captured. The electricity generated is enough for 9,500 homes – is fed into the NSW grid. In addition to the Bioreactor, the Veolia team at Woodlawn operate a Mechanical and Biological Treatment Facility (MBT). The MBT started operation in 2017. It takes a small proportion of the waste stream coming to the site, sorts and recycles it before composting the organics. The resulting compost is being used for rehabilitation of the old mine tailings dam. The sprawling Woodlawn Eco Precinct is also home to 23 wind turbines, 2,500 solar panels, and a fish farm. | 31 | |
17th Feb 2023 | The Death of X-ray Film by Professor Rob Davidson. X-rays were first discovered in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. Rob went on to talk about the development of X-Rays and their limitations. Over time, the technology improved, and different types of X-rays were developed. Some of the most common types of X-rays include: • Conventional X-rays: This is the most common type of X-ray, in which a beam of X-rays is passed through the body and the resulting image is captured on a photographic film. • Fluoroscopy: This type of X-ray produces real-time moving images of the body. A continuous beam of X-rays is passed through the body, and the resulting images are captured on a monitor. • Computed Tomography (CT) scans: CT scans use X-rays to produce detailed, cross-sectional images of the body. A rotating X-ray tube and detector create multiple images, which are then reconstructed by a computer into a 3D image. • Mammography: This is a type of X-ray used to image the breasts. It uses low-dose X-rays to create images that can help in the early detection of breast cancer. In traditional radiography, a photographic film is placed behind the body part being examined and the X-rays pass through the body and onto the film, creating an image. The film is then developed using a series of chemical processes to produce the final image. In digital radiography, the X-rays pass through the body and are detected by a digital detector, which converts the X-rays into an electrical signal. The signal is then processed and displayed on a computer screen. Modern methods now enable the digital storage of the image which can be accessed over and over, manipulated and processed without destroying the original, and anybody in the world with formal access can see that image and add to understanding of the image and the tissue. | 40 | |
10th Feb 2023 | Life and Architecture of Alberto Dias Soares (1830-1909). Roger Amos talked about a little-known 19th century designer who spent about 20 years in Queanbeyan from 1857 to the late 1870s. Alberto Soares was a distinguished Anglican cleric who is famous for designing churches and parsonages throughout the Goulburn Diocese. Alberto was born in London in 1830 and was educated at Stoke Newington Mercantile and London University Schools. There are 25 surviving buildings, mostly ecclesiastical, that have been proved to be designed by Alberto Soares. Roger then introduced a presentation by Ken Charlton, a local architectural historian. Ken is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2001 for his work to save architectural heritage. For 17 years he was the Senior Conservation Officer at the Australian Heritage Commission in Canberra. Ken’s health problems prevented him from being at the Shed. Ken’s presentation covered much of the information that Roger had already provided about Alberto Soares. However, it went into much more detail about the structures and showed photographs of some of the models Alberto had constructed of the various churches etc that he was designing. It also listed some of the many churches etc that Alberto designed. | 40 | |
3rd Feb 2023 | Excursion to the Canberra Miniature Railway. On Friday morning 24 shedders gathered at the Shed & piled into various cars for an excursion to the Canberra Miniature Railway in Symonston. Our group was welcomed on arrival by the Secretary of the Canberra Society of Model & Experimental Engineers, Craig McGill. The President of the Society, Darryl Webb, outlined the Society’s 1973 origin, their move from Kingston to their current site, members’ activities & how they catered for those who wanted to mess with trains but also those interested in building things, repairing things or just helping out on their twice monthly open days. Darryl explained how they are always looking for new members and he hoped the idea of playing with small trains might appeal to Shed members. The Society has a wonderful set-up in Symonston with access to 15 acres of land and the opportunity to lay a lot more track. After morning tea we were given a tour of the facilities, the workshops and trains being built as well as the many working models. There were trains powered by steam, all electric, diesel-electric and a couple powered by modified car engines. Quite spectacular. They have tracks of various gauges, including 7¼ inch and 5 inch gauge. | 24 | The write up from the Newsletter is also on the website Page “Activities 2022-2027” with a link to a large Google Photos Album |
27th Jan 2023 | Last part of Luke Wensing’s Trip around Aust by Public Transport | 31 | |
20th Jan 2023 | A talk about the ‘lost’ (& ‘found’) city of Petra in Jordan, and a recent cycling trip to Victoria by Bob Mann | 37 | |
13th Jan 2023 | The Quarantine Station, Sydney by Steve Mawer & Bob Mann told us about his solo cycling trip to Mendoza in Argentina, presented with a combination of photos and music he collected during the trip. | 43 | |
6th Jan 2023 | First meeting after Xmas was an informal coffee & chat at the Kippax Raiders Club at 10am | 20 | |
2023 2022 | Christmas/New Year Closedown – No Shed meeting | ||
16th Dec 2022 | Christmas Spectacular at the Shed & Harry’s poems, Ken’s sing-along & Christmas trivia. Frank O’Rourke spoke for 20min about some historic buildings designed by NSW Colonial Architect, James Barnet (1826 -1904), who was famous for his iconic Victorian sandstone buildings in Sydney – most of which still stand today – such as the Sydney GPO. He & his staff also designed a number of buildings in the Canberra district, including the Courthouses at Yass, Gunning, Tumut, Boorowa, Goulburn, Young, Kiandra & Cowra. | 36 | |
9th Dec 2022 | Alastair McKenzie talked about his African experiences. A longer summary of his talk is on the “Activities 2022-2027 Page” | 33 | |
2nd Dec 2022 | Luke talked about early Canberra and showed a video from 1958. Martin van der Hoek. Martin showed photos & short videos of a motor bike ride around Sri Lanka in 2014. Martin’s also spoke about ‘What’s it like to be a Roman?’ | 36 | |
25th Nov 2022 | Talk by Joel Krewaz on 2CV rally to Cape York & the best of France by Paul McCarthy, & BBQ & sausage sizzle | 41 | |
18th Nov 2022 | Cancer – Reflections on a ‘silent’ disease. In this talk Fyfe Bygrave drew from his experience as both a cancer researcher & patient commencing 1974 when given one year to live following an operation to remove a malignant melanoma. Fyfe gave an overview of all the common cancers including Skin and Prostrate cancers which effect us a lot of us. | 32 + 3 visitors | |
11th Nov 2022 | We commemorated Remembrance Day with Captain Kate Miller, RAN & President Luke Wensing talked about HMAS Sydney being Lost and found. See Activities pages for more details | 32 + 3 visitors | |
4th Nov 2022 | Martin talked about Those with the title of ‘The Great’ including Alexander the Great, Pompey the Great, Constantine the Great, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great. The audience came up with one additional person, Alfred the Great. Paul gave an extensive talk about “Living in France – What it’s really like”. See Activities pages for more details | 35 | |
28th Oct 2022 | We had a series of short talks by Shed members followed by a Sausage Sizzle. Luke & his wife went to Shepparton a couple of weeks ago to the Australian National Piano Award solo recitals. When it came time to leave last Sunday week they found that all the roads out of town were flooded so they were trapped. Des Chapman & his wife visited Bangladesh in 2007 with their daughter, son-in-law & two young grandchildren. son Paul & his family were living in Bangladesh. His job was the Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Bangladesh National Cricket Team. Ray Osmotherly talked about Royal funerals during the 20th & 21st Centuries. John Feehan talked about Millstream, W.A. when he was working for the CSIRO in an area around the Millstream oasis, which covered an area of about 1 square mile & contained about 11 million gallons of water. It is approximately 160kms south-east of Karratha. Hammersley Iron needed large amounts of water for its operations in the Pilbara & built a pipeline from the oasis to its mining area & ultimately to Dampier. It was estimated that 9 million gallons of water would be extracted from the oasis. | 39 | |
21st Oct 2022 | Moira Daw talked about Accounting which has been around for many years. Its ancient beginnings go back about 7,000 years in Mesopotamia. The connection between accounting and the Sistine Chapel is based on the Mathematics of Phi (1.618), which is often described as the “Golden Number” or “Golden Ratio”. It is derived as (1 + √5)/2 and is closely related to the Fibonacci sequence of numbers. | 35 | |
14th Oct 2022 | David Kilby gave a talk titled “Hyperbole in Popular Music.” He was a former teacher, Canberra ABC radio personality & music buff, David Kilby is still busy in his ‘retirement’. As well as running a B&B with his wife near Hall see Last Stop Ambledown Brook B&B Vintage Train Accommodation on the right, David enjoys sharing his love of music and still participates in radio shows. | 38 | Last Stop Ambledown Brook B&B Vintage Train Accommodation |
7th Oct 2022 | Martin van der Hoek spoke about Captain Cook, the Pacific, and the size of the Universe. See Activities 2022-2027 for details | 36 | |
30th Sep 2022 | Dr Brad Tucker talked about ” Past, present and future of Space and Australia’s role in Space”. He was very informative about various future missions to the Moon & Mars and various new satellites being launched and options for recovering launch rockets | 40 | |
23rd Sep 2022 | Martin van der Hoek gave a talk about three large international land deals: 1. swapping Manhattan Island in the USA for Run Island in Indonesia, in 1667; 2. the Louisiana purchase; 3. Deal 3: in 1867 USA bought Alaska from Russia. Also Bob Mann talked about Cycling in Indochina. Bob took us on a virtual cycling tour of 800Km from Bangkok to Saigon, with photos he took during a trip back in 2010. It was a 15 day trip, organised by a Thai company, Indochina Adventures, based in Bangkok. | 35 | |
16th Sep 2022 | Zac Zaharias, one of Australia’s most successful high-altitude mountaineers spoke about his mountaineering experience, including his three Everest expeditions. In 2001, once again for Zac it was not to be. But as they say, ‘third time lucky’, and he finally made it to the summit in 2010. Fast-forward to the 2020’s: Everest, & the challenge of climbing Everest, has been transformed by the commercialisation of the experience. Now, instead of blazing a trail, people are following a well-trodden, well prepared track. It has made Everest accessible to people who are relatively unprepared, & those with limited climbing experience. Money talks, & has worked to the detriment of the experience of climbing Everest, the mountain itself, & the environment. | 46 | |
9th Sep 2022 | Tony Jurd talked about volunteering in East Timor and his experiences there | 45 | |
2nd Sep 2022 | The Shed’s 14th birthday – BBQ and reminiscences – This was celebrated with talks about the Shed’s history with a birthday cake and BBQ | 44 | |
26th Aug 2022 | Ms Ruchika Jain (High Commission of India) gave a talk about India after 75 years of independence. India now has a population of 1.4B and will soon be larger than China. India has some commitments to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 and is committed to net zero by 2070. A longer overview of her talk is on the “Activities 2022-2027 Page” | 46 | |
19th Aug 2022 | Fyfe Bygrave talked about the importance of ‘Calcium’ to the human body with emphasis on its extreme value in keeping the heart beating. A longer overview of his talk is on the “Activities 2022-2027 Page” | 41 | Click here to view his presentation |
12th Aug 2022 | Bernard Wright had a long and distinguished career in Parliament House and for the last four years there he was Clerk of the House of Representatives. Working in close proximity to the law makers and their staff gave him a unique insight into the goings-on in Parliament, the highs, the lows and amusing incidents. He entertained a very attentive audience with anecdotes re Peter Costello, Gough Whitlam, Sir Robert Menzies, Ian Warden, Bob Hawke, John Button, Jim Killen, Joe Lyons and the list went on. The stories just flowed, all of which were both informative and amusing. Quite a life and what memories. It seemed like there was no end to the anecdotes which most people would not normally be privy to. | 40 | |
5th Aug 2022 | 2022 AGM. Key elements of the meeting were the election of the President, accepting the nominations of four prospective committee members, the President’s Report & the Treasurer’s Report. An election was held between Luke Wensing and Ken Kemp for President, with Luke becoming POTS for the next year. Ken accepted a nomination for Vice-President. Bob Salmond nominated for the Secretary post. At the current time, no-one has nominated for the Treasurer’s position. | 36 | |
29 Jul 2022 | Brad Tucker was unfortunately unable to attend so we were served by the usual jokes from Roger plus a poem from Harry. We were also entertained by John Feehan, the dung beetle man who told us about his tagging a tree in the Simpson Desert to find out how far it would grow in so many years using a tube from a burnt out trailer and a KB beer can to enscribe his activity onto the pole. He also told us about finding ants living underground on the edge of a dry Lake Eyre. Fyfe Bygrave told us about his early years as a surveyor in Fiji and how he regretted not finding out from his mother why she named him Fyfe. We were also told by Luke Wensing about his visit to Longreach and the Qantas Musuem located there. | 39 | |
22 Jul 2022 | Martin van der Hoek gave a talk about ‘Pirates, present & past’. Harry Redfern introduced the talk dressed in pirate garb & recited the following poem “I was a pirate once”. Martin emphasisied pirates have been around since there were boats. In Roman times Pompey had to work hard to remove them from the Med. Through the Middle Ages the Barbary pirates of Nth Africa were prominent. The Golden Age of Piracy was(1650-1726) around the Caribbean. More recently the Somali and West African pirates still menace the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Martin talked about the reasons for resorting to piracy and the measures taken to combat piracy. | 33 | |
15 Jul 2022 | Mark Butz gave a talk about “Where has all the Limestone gone?” Mark is a Canberra historian & author with a particular interest in the natural world & human history. He subtitled his talk “Plumbing the depths of Canberra”. He said that his topic is something he is particularly interested in & that this talk is the world premiere for this topic for him. Canberra is well known for being situated on the Limestone Plains. Mark summarised limestone as being a rock with its own special identity, it can be used as a resource for certain purposes. He showed examples of famous buildings around the world constructed using limestone. | 29 | |
8 Jul 2022 | Stuart Noyce & Tori Montgomery-Martin attended to provide everyone a chance to discover more about the Group Exercise Physiology program on offer. Martin Van Der Hoek talked about the fate of Julius Caesar’s family after his murder in 44 BC. Owen Cook talked about Pozières, WW1 in 1916. It was a series of battles in which a great many Australians died little outcome. Ray Osmotherly talked about Advertising throughout the ages using numerous slide examples. There was also a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 30 | |
1 Jul 2022 | Wally Bezeruk, who has a Ukrainian background, introduced our guest, Mr Volodymyr Shalkivskyi, the Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Ukraine. Volodymyr was born and spent his young years in Kyiv. He has more than 20 years of diplomatic experience, including postings to Sweden and the USA before joining the Embassy of Ukraine in Canberra in 2019 as the trade officer. From December 2021 to March 2022 he was Head of the Mission of Ukraine to Australia and has been the Deputy Head since April this year. In 1994, Ukraine agreed to transfer all its nuclear weapons to Russia under an accord known as the “Budapest Agreement”. As part of this agreement, Russia agreed that it would recognise the existing borders between Russia and Ukraine. It has taken less than 30 years for Russia to renege on this agreement. The Shed and its members donated $620 to support Ukrainian refugees. Volodymyr recommended an appropriate Ukrainian charity. | 42 | |
24 Jun 2022 | Boyd Blackwell : Fusion Power – clean energy of the future | 43 | |
17 Jun 2022 | Excursion to the Cooma vintage car museum and Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre. Some members stayed at the Shed and were entertained by Ray Osmotherly showing his model HMS Supply from the first fleet & Luke Wensing talking about Jervis Bay with emphasis on Huskisson and Vincentia | 15 + 12 Stayed at Shed | |
10 Jun 2022 | Tony Weir gave a thoughtful presentation on the dangers climate change poses to the future of the planet and our grandchildrens futures. He emphasised we need to stop mining coal and move to an emission free solutions for power the world. i.e. clean energy and minimal CO2 emissions | 41 | |
3 Jun 2022 | Fyfe Bygrave gave a talk titled Hillary & Everest. He talked about his interest in Hillary stirred by discovering a biography of Hillary in a Dunedin bookshop in 2019 – Edmund Hillary, A Biography – by Michael Gill. Mike Gill was a coadventurer with Hillary for many years from 1960. He was a mountaineer, photographer, Chair of the NZ Himalayan Trust and, importantly, a medical doctor with a keen interest in high altitude physiology. He famously claimed that “The story of Everest is also the story of oxygen”. He went on to outlines the early explorers of Everest & all their early attempts. | 37 | |
27 May 2022 | Short Talks, BBQ & Sausage Sizzle. Talks were: Steve Mawer talking about chemo and his prostate treatment; John Edge talking about Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) & how they can support the electricity by providing power for a short period of time; and Martin Van der Hoek talked on What do General Lew Wallace, William Bonney, Bill Richardson and the novel Ben Hur have in common?? John Feehan also talked about being in Arnhem Land with the CSIRO and they had issues with have to describe tunnels that they thought might be be able to store yellow cake for centuries. Also Luke Wensing talked on Exercise classes that were run before being cancelled by Covid restrictions. He has been going to classes run by EmPower (see https://www.empowerep.com.au/). Luke asked whether anyone would be interested in restarting classes, with one of the EmPower trainers leading them. Several seemed interested. Contact Luke on 0416 249 002, Classes would be 1hr for $10 on Wed mornings | 37 | |
20 May 2022 | Presentation on the Vendée Globe Ocean Race by Stuart Allan. They now race using small 18.28 m long (60 feet) yachts with wings doing incredible speeds. It is an around the world, solo race now including men & women non-stop, and without assistance. | 34 | |
13 May 2022 | Martin’s presentation on ‘Spies and Traitors’, focusing on the Cold War era | 27 | |
06 May 2022 | Visit to the National Film and Sound Archive | 15 + 12 stayed at Shed | |
29 April 2022 | Part 2 of Frank O’Rourke’s presentation re a WW2 attack on Broome by Japanese Zeros. | 36 | |
22 April 2022 | Part 1 of Frank O’Rourke’s presentation re a WW2 attack on Broome by Japanese Zeros. As usual FoR gave an interesting detailed talk getting into details of Zero pilots as well as details on some of the pilots of Allied planes lost | 32 | |
15 Apr 2022 | No Shed Meeting as it was Easter Friday | ||
8 Apr 2022 | Shed President Ken returned after a short stint in hospital. Ray Osmotherly was also back with us complete with a pacemaker. Peter White who leads courses in U3A gave us a talk on ‘The Vikings’. He distiguished between those Vikings who came from Denmark & Norway against those from Sweden. The latter under took raids down rivers of eastern Europe right to Constantinople. The Danish & Norwegian Vikings raided all over western Europe. Some established the French province of Normandy & later invaded England in 1066 lead by William the Conqueror. They also sailed their long boats across the Atlantic & established settlements in Iceland, Greenland & North America | 42 | |
1 Apr 2022 | Emma Awizen, Manager Advance Care Planning team in Canberra Health Information talked about Advanced Care Planning Services. at Canberra Health aim to educate, inform and assist the local community with their Advance Care Planning (ACP). It relates to health care you would or would not like to receive if you were to become seriously ill or injured and unable to communicate your preferences or make decisions. Emma emphasised the importance of putting in place an enduring power of attorney. In the ACT, a person cannot make decisions for someone unless there is an enduring power of attorney in place. Together with an Advance Care Plan, these documents can be very helpful to medical staff and to families, at a time that can be very difficult and emotional for all concerned. | 34 | Info about Advance Care Planning & assistance available from Emma’s team |
25 Mar 2022 | Luke Wensing continued the story of his journey around Australia on public transport. We also heard a short presentation from Martin van der Hoek, about a particularly nasty Roman individual, Marcus Licinius Crassus. | 40 | |
18 Mar 2022 | We had 14 enthusiastic ‘bowlers’ roll up at the Belconnen Bowling Club for the novices’ tournament. There weren’t too many real bowlers! But it was all good fun. Non-bowling members got together for a chat, some at the Bowling Club and some at the Shed. New member Fife, a retired biochemist gave a short talk on calcium at cellular levels at the Shed | 14 Bowled + 8 At Shed | |
11 Mar 2022 | Ravi Sood gave an excellent talk ‘GPS – It is all in the timing’ about GPS. He explained how it works, and was able to take us through the incredibly complex science that enables GPS to exist. Harry, Our Bard told some jokes, and gave us a briefing on the upcoming excursion to the Belconnen Bowls Club. | 46 | |
4 Mar 2022 | Excursion to ANBG with a guided tour and a coffee & chat session at the Shed hosted by Bob Greeney | 10 ANBG + 10 at Shed | |
25 Feb 2022 | 10 min talks & Sausage Sizzle & BBQ. Meanwhile Ken & Bob (President & VP) had a good time at the opening of the Batlow Shed. Short talks were given by Steve Mawer, Martin van der Hoek, Ramón Montero, Des Chapman, and Paul McCarthy. | 31 | |
18 Feb 2022 | Nova video about Cooling the Planet | 32 | |
11 Feb 2022 | Luke Wensing gave a talk about Touring Muck, Eigg and Rum. Known as the Small Isles, they are accessible only by boat. Luke should work for the Scottish Tourism Board – all his photos showed this ruggedly beautiful part of the world basked in sunshine! Despite some suspicions, there was no Photoshop manipulation, and to emphasise the point, Luke informed us that prior to the lucky timing of his visit, the ferry from the mainland was unable to operate for 10 days due to bad weather. Rum is by far the largest of the three, with its’ impressive Kinloch Castle. Muck is relatively tiny, run as a private farm (which also welcomes tourists). But for Luke, Eigg was the Goldilocks island, where he and Marie stayed at the Kildonnan Guest House. | 27 | |
4 Feb 2022 | Neil Wareham talked about the Diggings at Vindolanda an old Roman Fort near Hadrians Wall. Neil & his wife volunteered to go there several times & learnt to undertake archaeological digs in a team excavating parts of Vindolanda. He also described how a Roman legion could be based there for decades or even centuries & be supported by ancilliary troops from various other parts of their empire. | 30 | https://www.vindolanda.com/ |
28 Jan 2022 | Australia Day trivia quiz. Ian Ruthven was the outstanding shedder. Several members gave short talk on various trivia from Mike Dwyer; Luke Wensing; John Feehan; Bob Greeney; Des Chapman & Paul McCarthy. Rick Causebrook put on a short video that showed the highlights of visiting Prague. Finally there was a Sausage Sizzle & BBQ | 29 | |
21 Jan 2022 | This was out first use of the Shed meeting rooms for over a year. After the usual reports from Cycling & Walks we had various 10Min talks.Ray Osmothery gave us several jokes; Des Chapman epxlained that India had 26 official languages. Tamils with 160million people had their own movie industry; Luke Wensing talked about early pharmaceutical testing in Canberra; Ken Kemp talked about leaving Sydney for Canberra & having the longest pub crawl in history; Ramon talked about taking his car to Civic to get a care wash & the lady in the office was so surpised to find out it was 51 years ago that he had worked there cleaning cars that she gave him his money back. When he worked there he walked from Curtin to Civic & home again for 6 months; John Feehan talked about how he visited many aboriginal sites while he worked for the CSIRO. One cave system in the Nullabor, Koonalda had a large system of lakes & water. The local farmer put a pump down there & caused many aborginal paintings to be covered with diesel dust from the pump. John suggested that many of the paintings were quite amorous. | 26 | |
14 Jan 2022 | A small crew turned up and we talked about various issues. Kobus de Mayer played a short video advising us that he is moving to Dubbo to be near his kids & grand kids. We also a long video about how us humans have pushed the boundaries of speed in all aspects of our lives from running, cycling, driving and use of optical fibre comms | 17 | |
7 Jan 2022 | Coffee and Chat at Raiders Kippax Club. Around a dozen members attended | 12 | |
31 Dec 2021 | Christmas/New Year Closedown – No Shed meeting | ||
24 Dec 2021 | Christmas/New Year Closedown – No Shed meeting | ||
17 Dec 2021 | Ray Osmotherly shared a beautiful video about the origins of the Christmas carol, ‘Silent Night.” Bob Mann came across an amusing old insurance case. It was a claim for damage under a home & contents policy. The case concerned significant damage to a bathroom, resulting from some plumbing work that went badly wrong. After setting out the details, members were asked to assess whether they would grant the claim. While there was some sympathy for the claim, the overall view was that the claim would not have been paid. So it came as a surprise when Bob revealed that the claim had in fact been paid. A Sausage Sizzle ended the meeting and the year. | 40 | |
10 Dec 2021 | Dave Southgate gave a great talk about Energy independence. By the end of 2020, Dave & his family had reduced overall energy use, achieved 95% independence from grid electricity, eliminated gas, & greatly reduced their need for petrol. With one EV & one petrol vehicle, cars still account for 56% of the household energy usage. The greater energy efficiency of the EV is very evident, compared to the petrol car, with the EV doing twice as many kilometres, using less than half the energy. Full details are on Web Page “Activities Held 2021” | 46 | |
3 Dec 2021 | Luke Wensing gave a talk about the remarkable trip undertaken by Marie Wensing and he using public transport to travel clockwise around Oz. This was only part 1 with one or two more parts planned for later | 47 | |
26 Nov 2021 | Cycling across the Nullarbor – Joel Krewaz. The full title of Joel’s talk is “Against The Wind – Self Supported Bicycle Tour, Canberra to Perth”. In answer to a question, Joel said that he chose “Against The Wind” because the conventional wisdom is that rides across the Nullarbor go from west to east to take advantage of the prevailing wind. Joel and his mates rode in the opposite direction because one of his three riding mates has a goal of riding from Canberra to each of the other capital cities in Australia and this was the Perth stage. In practice, the wind was against them on about the same number of days as it was assisting. The wettest day was the last one, riding into Perth. In total, the ride was 3,868kms and took 42 days (including three rest days) between 18 April 2021 and 29 May 2021. The average ride day was a “Don Bradman” (99.6kms). The bike was 12kgs bare but weighed about 50kgs fully loaded. Full details of the trip are on Web Page “Activities Held 2021” Joel said they met some interesting characters during their trip, both amongst others doing something similar, the truck drivers and locals who went out of their way to look after them, with food, drink and even a ride when one of the cyclists broke a wheel. | 36 | |
19 Nov 2021 | We had 10 mins talks by Ray Osmotherly & Tony Rogers. We also held the wake for Rod Jory. Rod was a very talented man with many diverse interests. Before Rod died on 14 October at Merimbula, he gave Barry Howe some money to hold a wake at the Shed. Rod was a member of Ginninderra Rotary, whose members were invited to attend the wake. The range of Rod’s interests was revealed by the eulogies delivered. (Bob Greeney apologised for not being able to present a eulogy, given that he had known Rod since the time they were in the RAAF together several decades ago.) Members spoke about Rod: Barry Howe, Bill Wattam (ex-President, Ginninderra Rotary), Bernie Rees (Ginninderra Rotary) , Roger Amos, Harry Redfern, Luke Wensing finished proceedings with a detailed overview of Rod’s history. We then celebrated Rod’s life with nibblies & drinks. | 36 | |
12 Nov 2021 | The Shed celebrated Remembrance Day with the traditional reading of the Ode of Remembrance, followed by The Last Post, one minute’s silence and the Reveille. Captain Kate Miller, RAN, presented the Ode. After the short ceremony, Kate answered several questions about her life in the Navy and her experiences on HMAS Adelaide while evacuating Mallacoota during the 2019-20 bushfires. Yandoo newsletter (7th field artillery brigade) – Ray Osmotherly Ray has copies of some of the original Yandoo newsletters, which were produced by members of the 7th field artillery brigade during WW1. The wartime newsletters were in three volumes:- Vol 1, on board the troopship in 1916; Vol 2, camp life Salisbury Plain; Vol 3, the trenches on the Western Front. During the 11 week voyage on H.M.A.T. Argyllshire, acting Bombardier S.E. Rohu and Gunner E. Harding came up with the idea of producing a regular Newsletter during the voyage. It was called YANDOO, an aboriginal word. It was not expected to continue once in England but actually was produced for four years, finally finishing in 1920. Lastly Frank O’Rourke presented on relevant local themes:- “The Banjo”, “Bill the Bastard”, “The Padre” | 36 | |
5 Nov 2021 | Members met up at Raiders Kippax for a coffee & chat session as the first meeting since reopening | 34 | |
6 Aug 2021 | AGM Reports and election of new committee, short talks on Paddle steamers by Ray Osmotherly who is a keen modeller and has built many models, and Lost medallions by John Feehan whose father In the 1940s bought an old, run-down house near Braidwood. John was able to track down descendants in recent years & handed over the disks to these people at a ceremony at the War Memorial. Pizza was served at the real shed to finish the day | 39 | |
30 Jul 2021 | Frank O’Rourke – General MacArthur, Aust Major-General George Wootten & 85-year Old Ron Rees (Part 2) | 49 | |
23 Jul 2021 | Frank O’Rourke – General MacArthur, (Part 1). Frank gave an amazing overview of the life and military history of MacArthur | 46 | |
16 Jul 2021 | Talk on the reason for the Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire by Martin van der Hoek | 45 | |
9 Jul 2021 | Visit to the National Capital Exhibition, Regatta Point | 19 | |
2 Jul 2021 | Martin van der Hoek gave a well researched talk about Bushrangers. He focussed on three gangs of local bushrangers, the White Ribbon and the Frank Gardiner/ Ben Hall gangs | 41 | Martins Bushrangers Talk |
25 Jun 2021 | 10 min talks & BBQ & Sausage Sizzle. Talks by Frank O’Rourke on Italian POWs in Australia; Mules in the Roman Army by Martin van der Hoek; The right to repair by Steve Mawer | 40 | |
18 Jun 2021 | ‘Under Full Sail’ – Fascinating tail of The Clippers sailing ships story in colonial Australia by Stuart Allan, Hearing tests with Anna from Hearing Aust. Plus short video | 47 | |
11 Jun 2021 | The Shed visited the National Archives of Australia (NAA) to hear a presentation by the Director-General, Mr David Fricker on the Archives’ work & to explore the extensive collection of documents & articles associated with Australia’s history. With more than 40 million items, the collection includes records about military service, immigration, First Australians & more. David spoke about the digitising of WWI (completed) & WWII (nearly completed) military records which can be obtained free of charge from the NAA website. | 25 | |
4 Jun 2021 | Gavin Smith Professor Sociology ANU & Alex Borg, forensic scientist, both specialising in the capture & tracking of snakes, talked to us about their experiences in the Canberra area as well as their work in the tracking of snakes movements | 46 | |
28 May 2021 | Short Talks & Pizzas | 42 | |
21 May 2021 | Prof Will Steffen, Emeritus Professor, ANU, Councillor, Climate Council of Australia & Senior Fellow, Stockholm Resilience Centre talked on Climate Change | 43 | |
14 May 2021 | Due to a funeral held in the Church Hall the originally planned talk will occur on 4th June. Some members met informally at the Raiders Club | 20 | |
7 May 2021 | Peter McArdle talked about Brazil. Peter & wife Collette were members of a Rotary Friendship Exchange to Brasil in March 2020. Peter is a member of the Shed & the Ginninderra Rotary Club which was instrumental in getting our Shed established & supported since 2008. The story of the trip began some years ago during a “Recreational Vehicles Fellowship of Rotarians” caravan trip to Nelligen. These guys get involved in all sorts of community support & aid projects including Blaze Aid & flood relief assistance so a Rotary Friendship trip to Brazil in 2020 seemed like a good idea. There were four on the trip – Peter & Collette plus a couple from Brisbane. | 45 | |
30 Apr 2021 | Ken Kemp organised an opportunity for members to have three minutes to talk on one of six subjects. Everyone was encouraged to have a say. The six subjects were: Life is much harder for young people especially finding work when we were young; Electric cars, yes or no; Sporting people are paid too much money; Marriage, the good and the bad; Covid injections, the dangers; The future of Canberra. After Geoff Grimmett & Paul Taylor organised a Sausage Sizzle. | 34 | |
23 Apr 2021 | Frank O’Rourke will present on the coastal war of the NSW coast during WW1 & WWII. Harry Redfern Harry will present a poem by Jim Brown: ‘Anzac on the wall’ | 38 | |
16 Apr 2021 | Coffee and Chat Session at Raiders Kippax | 29 | |
9 Apr 2021 | Alex Marriott Mob 0420 204 329 talked to us about maintaining strength & flexibility as we grow older. He works with EmPower Exercise Physiology who provide hands on courses in strength building for us oldies. They are starting a new session the week starting 19th Apr. Each session is 1hr & costs $18.50 at the ESSA clinic at Scullin, 5 Ross Smith Crescent. Janet Werner from the Stroke Foundation gave a good talk on strokes, how to recognise them and respond & how to reduce your chances of having one. Remember FAST – stands for Face Arms, Speech, Time. | 36 | |
2 Apr 2021 | No Meeting – Good Friday | ||
26 Mar 2021 | Visit to the Belconnen Bowling Club to play bowls & have a BBQ lunch | 17 | |
19 Mar 2021 | Peter White gave the Shed a talk about “Contact on the Frontier” where he told stories about the meetings & experiences of Europeans & Aboriginal people as European settlers moved into different parts of Australia in the late eighteenth century & through the nineteenth & early twentieth centuries, particularly the conflicts that arose on these “frontiers”. | 43 | |
12 Mar 2021 | The Shed enjoyed an interesting presentation by Trevor Lee, Architect & Secretary of the Canberra Chapter of the Walter Burley Griffin Society. Trevor’s talk was titled ‘Mystical Marion Mahony Griffin’, the wife of Walter Burley Griffin, the designer of the plan for Canberra | 38 | |
5 Mar 2021 | A PowerPoint presentation by Roger Amos on the Shed’s visit to the National Gallery’s Outdoor Sculpture Garden on 19 February. Videos shown by Ray Osmotherly on Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head, & another “Telling the Time” by Dave Allen & background of Douglas Jardine the English cricket captain during the notorious bodyline series in 1932-1933. | 34 | |
26 Feb 2021 | Bruce McAslan (Chief Training Officer for the Bermagui Surf Life Saving Club & the Senior Examiner for the Royal Life Saving Society ACT) gave a demonstration on how to administer CPR & use a defibrillator followed by BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 46 | |
19 Feb 2021 | Luke Wensing organised a guided tour of the ANG’s outdoors sculpture gardens. The Shed members split into two groups, led by our very knowledgeable guides Carol & Keith. The grounds between the National Gallery of Australia & Lake Burley Griffin display the Gallery’s extensive collection of sculpture. | 23 | |
12 Feb 2021 | Short Talks. Mike Dwyer referred to the honours handed out on Australia Day. He noted that many had been awarded to people who were simply doing their paid job. Peter Herbert spoke about his recent heart problems. He said that he had always been fit, never smoked, is a non-drinker. His symptoms were not severe, just a feeling of not being spot on and very high blood pressure. Harry Redfern gave an impromptu rendition of Banjo Patterson’s 1896 poem “Mulga Bill’s Bicycle”. Two videos were shown; the first was about the impact of the drought in outback Qld (titled “Running on Empty”) while the second showed some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions & described how some of them still have an impact today. | 36 | |
5 Feb 2021 | Cheryl McCarthy talked about the Far south coast bushfires and aftermath. Cheryl is the Director of Lifesaving for Far South Coast of Surf Life Saving NSW which takes in 7 surf clubs between Batemans Bay and the Victorian border | 40 | |
29 Jan 2021 | Shed stalwarts Ken Kemp, Ray Osmotherly and Harry Redfern provided a well received Australian history background presentation, some iconic Aussie music, a quiz & a poem. Following the presentations we enjoyed a Sausage Sizzle courtesy of Geoff Grimmett, Paul Taylor & Ron Thomson | 29 | |
22 Jan 2021 | Drew McDonald provided a DVD about Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu an Indigenous Australian musician | 36 | |
15 Jan 2021 | Peter Davis Air Attack Supervisor with the NSW RFS gave a talk about his role and his experience with the fires from 2019/20 plus other occasions. He lives and is based near Cooma. | 43 | |
8 Jan 2021 | Social coffee & Chat at Raiders Club Kippax | 26 | |
1 Jan 2021 | Christmas/New Year Closedown – No Shed meeting | ||
25 Dec 2020 | Christmas/New Year Closedown – No Shed meeting | ||
18 Dec 2020 | Ken Kemp organised Christmas Celebrations with Ray Osmotherly presenting ‘Our Christmas celebrations and how they developed from pre-Christian beliefs’. Ray told how our celebration of Christmas is based on the combination of pagan celebrations with the Christian celebrations in the early days of Christianity. Ken also ran the Christmas Quiz which focussed on religious questions, which, since we were meeting in a church, was quite appropriate. Ray then screened an amusing Christmas video “Charlie Brown’s Christmas”. Finally a BBQ and Sausage sizzle was held. | 38 | Pictures of the Event |
11 Dec 2020 | Ian Irwin on the history of vintage vehicles. Ian was introduced by Bob Greeney. Ian was the president of the Charnwood /Dunlop Probus Club, but was speaking today on the beginning of motoring in New South Wales. Ian has previously spoken to the Shed about the restoration of a very early Rolls Royce. | 40 | (Read the previous report here) |
4 Dec 2020 | Martin van der Hoek gave a talk on Marcus Agrippa, one of the least known heroes of the 80 tumultuous years between the roman legions becoming a professional, full time army and Octavian becoming the first emperor of Rome | 37 | |
27 Nov 2020 | Graham Waite of TADACT which is Technology for Ageing and Disability (ACT). It is a not for profit organisation which specialises in creating or modifying equipment for people with a disability or for the elderly. TADACT has about 50 volunteers (including Brian Wells from our Shed) who undertake the design and manufacture of aids in their own home workshops | 37 | |
20 Nov 2020 | AGM Reports. The President and Treasurer presented their annual reports. A motion was passed not vote on a new committee until things return closer to normal (i.e. when we can move back into the Shed’s meeting room). Roger went on to say that he thought it would be appropriate to nominate Phil Laird & Paul McCarthy as Joint Shedders of the Year for the work they had done in producing the newsletter each week during the Shed’s shutdown. The meeting agreed to this proposal. Following the AGM, there were some member’s short presentations. Ray Osmotherly gave a presentation on the early years of photography, focussing particularly on Australian photographer H. Walter Barnett (1862-1934). Tony Rogers is a keen amateur pilot & provided some interesting insights into the controls on an aircraft & how they affect flight, including the frightening spins & stalls that can be hard to recover from. | 38 | |
13 Nov 2020 | John Feehan, the dung beetle man, was our guest speaker. He talked to us previously in August 2016, and it was a fascinating topic. John gave us a presentation on dung beetles that he also gave to parliamentarians as well as educating us on the meaning of “sustainable”. He recently succeded in getting the Feds to allocate $23M for dung beetle research through a CSU project to put dung beetles to work | 40 | More Information |
6 Nov 2020 | The church was unavailable so 34 Shedders met in the area outside the Shed’s usual meeting room. Fortunately, it was a lovely day, unlike the wind and rain we experienced the previous day. The first BBQ since the Shed reopened in October after the lengthy Covid-19 shutdown was welcomed by all who were there. It was an ideal opportunity to catch up in person and have a chat. | 34 | |
30 Oct 2020 | Luke Wensing gave a talk about Gothic Church Design and “How to Read a Church”. | 46 | Luke’s presentation |
23 Oct 2020 | The Shed reopened with Rob Greeney leading members talking about their experiences during the pandemic. John Arundel made a request for any members with small or medium plant pots to donate unused items to him so he can grow some more native plants for his voluntary body | 51 | Picture of the Meeting |
Shed Closed Due to COVID-19 Corona Virus | |||
20 Mar 2020 | Paul Fennell gave a talk with pictures and audio sounds about Birds of Canberra | 29 | |
13 Mar 2020 | David Headon gave a talk about Canberra as a Canberra Day Presentation, BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 51 | |
6 Mar 2020 | Bruno Forronato from the Ginninderra Catchment Group gave a Water Watch Presentation | 44 | |
28 Feb 2020 | Jeff Brown talked about the construction of the Pyramids of Egypt and explained why he believed they were made from ancient cement | 56 | |
21 Feb 2020 | Jeff Brown talked about his Ancient Oil Lamps as well as other collectable items, Pam & Stan Bennet displayed their Tesla Electric car & BBQ & Sausage Sizzle was held | 52 | |
14 Feb 2020 | Alison Ware played some of her harps and her Husband talked on Harp Construction | 43 | |
7 Feb 2020 | Geoff Cameron talked about the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon, the world’s greatest road race | 52 | |
31 Jan 2020 | The Shed went on an excursion to the National Archives to view the Spy Espionage in Australia display | 32 | |
24 Jan 2020 | We had an Australia Day Quiz managed by Ken Kemp with poems, singing plus the quizz | 56 | |
17 Jan 2020 | Frank O’Rourke talked about German and Luftwaffe POWs in Australia during WWII | 56 | |
10 Jan 2020 | Farewell to Tim Jensen, video of HMS Queen Elizabeth, (no BBQ & Sausage Sizzle but selection of cheese, cakes and cheesecake) | 52 | |
3 Jan 2020 | Christmas/New Year Closedown – No Shed meeting | ||
Shed Program Held During 2019 (2018 & 2017 are below)
The following is a list of the past program this year
Date 2019 | Description | Attended | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
2019-12-27 | Christmas/New Year Closedown – No Shed meeting | |||
2019-12-20 | Christmas Activities including a visit by Santa, Harry Redfern with Johnny his ventrillogist doll, we also experienced The Old Time Melodrama ’Pay the Mortgage or Out You Go’ written by Shed member Ray Osmotherly, Harry again saying the poem The Man from Ironbark, finishing with Pizzas and cheesecakes. | 51 | ||
2019-12-13 | Ed Peek talked about visiting Iran which he and his wife did in Oct 2019. We also had a visit from Nathan D’Cunha from the Uni Canberra who is seeking older male volunteers to take part in a study of the dietary patterns of over 55 year old Canberrans. | 48 | ||
2019-12-06 | Sophie Bullock, an exercise physiologist from the Arthritis Foundation (ACT), told us about what they can do & about restarting the Friday morning exercises probably on Fri 17th Jan. They will costs $10 per person. Harry Redfern created two photo display to remember the great air race that Ross and Keith Smith won in 1919. Luke gave a photo presentation about this years Sculpture by the Sea in Sydney held last Oct 2019. | 51 | ||
2019-11-29 | Dave Rogers talked about his time with the F-111 in the RAAF | 63 | ||
2019-11-22 | Excursion to remodelled National Portrait Gallery (29) & Coffee & Chat at Raiders club (15) | 44 | ||
2019-11-15 | AGM was held followed by a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 59 | ||
2019-11-08 | Martin van der Hoek stepped up and gave a general talk on “The History of the Roman Empire” | 50 | ||
2019-11-01 | Ray Osmotherly continued with his History of Cinema including showing some old silent films and earlier Australian films | 47 | ||
2019-10-25 | Excursion to Australian War Memorial to view The Courage for Peace’ Exhibition | 31 | ||
2019-10-18 | Talk by Frank O’Rourke on Archduke Franz Ferdinand followed by a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 46 | ||
2019-10-11 | Martin Van der Hoek talked about Hannibal Barca. Ana Luteru from Hearing Australia, conducted hearing checks for twelve members. If you’d like to contact Ana, her number is 6232 3200 | 49 | ||
2019-10-04 | Mal Gibson Returns to follow up on his February presentation – Mental Health Issues | 54 | ||
2019-09-27 | Excursion to Tidbinbilla Space Tracking Station. 10 cars went carrying 25 members. Google Photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/1kQVvWx1bjZWHQcTA | 25 | ||
2019-09-20 | Bob Miller talked again with a powerpoint & video presentation of a newer trips to Jordan & the Australian dig site at Pella, Jordan. He also described the various periods of ancient civilisations that occupied the Jordan valley and its surrounds | approx 50 | ||
2019-09-13 | Richard Almond gave an enlightened talk about his career since graduation from the Uni of Edinburgh, working initially in Nigeria, then migrating to Australia & working for Bureau of Mineral Resources & working in Antarctica in the fields of geomagnetism and seismology, before moving to Rabaul in 1976, where he worked as a volcanologist for 5 years until 1981 | approx 50 | ||
2019-09-06 | We had various short talks including Steve’s display of how a bike wheel reacted to gravity & other laws of physics. Roger showed slides of an autumn vintage car meet in the central west at Carcoar. Tony Rogers suggested that we set up a register of who has access to useful things such as trailer, chainsaw, jackhammer, etc. We also had our successful Pizza Day thanks to Ron Thomson & Dominos | 49 | ||
2019-08-30 | Luke Wensing one of our epic adventurers, talked about some of his travels to Ireland and Scotland, especially Orkney Islands and the bronze age sites he visited | 45 | ||
2019-08-23 | Victor Isaacs talked about Australia’s strange borders and thus border disputes between the States. He had cases covering all Australian States & Territories, Antarctica, Timor Sea | 57 | ||
2019-08-16 | Prof Rod Jory gave a talke about the Early Explorers, entitled “How did they ever find their way home?” | 51 | ||
2019-08-09 | David Pope, Canberra Times Cartoonist, talked about his career as a cartoonist & his philosophy on what was acceptable & showed how he created cartoons | 51 | ||
2019-08-05 | (Mon) – Annual Dinner at the Southern Cross Club at Jamison. 25 members & guests attended | |||
2019-08-02 | Rev Tim Jensen from North Belconnen Uniting Church talked to the Shed about his career and the future of the church, also a Soup & Curry Day | 44 | ||
2019-07-26 | Michael Milton, Australian Paralympian talked to the Shed about his history as a paralympian & high speed skier. He is also is a runner, cyclist, trekker & triathlete. He is world and Australian record holder for speed skiing for both able-bodied and disabled skiers. Michael and his wife have opened a store (Quizzic Alley) containing “everything Harry Potter” in Fyshwick. (https://www.quizzicalley.com/) | 44 | ||
2019-07-19 | Vickie Hingston-Jones talked about End of Life Planning. Vickie specifically spoke about the taboo topic – death and dying. We all need to have and look at everything from the fear of death to planning our own legacy. Vickie is an End of Life Doula; she educates and supports people who will eventually die, kick the bucket, fall off the twig. She also described herself as a ‘spiritual mid walker or ‘death walker.’ She also talked about the need to have a ‘living will’. She recommended we consider Barry from William Cole or other suitable independant Funeral companies. She is getting involved with Tender Funerals (http://tenderfunerals.org/) who plan to setup in ACT soon. She her website (http://www.hingston-jones.com/) | 46 | ||
2019-07-12 | Anthony Hill, Multi-Award-Winning Author talked to us. Tony Hill is a Canberra-based author of 19 books for young readers and adults. He moved to Canberra in 1972 to work in the parliamentary press gallery, initially for the Melbourne Herald then for the Australian Financial Review. After about 5 years, the press gallery had lost some of its attraction so Tony moved to Bowning where he opened an antique shop. Living in a small country town gave Tony the incentive (& time) to write books. He wrote articles about drought, shop keeping & some of the less pleasant aspects of village life. He wrote the book “The Bunburyists”, about running an antique shop in a fictional village but most of the locals recognised themselves. Half the village’s population were outraged about the things Tony wrote but the other half were upset they had been left out of the book. | 37 | ||
2019-07-05 | BBQ & Sausage Sizzle & Susan Antcliff gave as short overview on a UC study she is starting on Assessing falls risk and the impact of interventions. Also short talks with Ray & Harry with a poem about his morning ride & Terry talked about his daughter Andi, who has been involved with Gulargambone’s (100kms north of Dubbo) water tower mural painting project, along with artist Jenny McCracken | 49 | ||
2019-06-28 | 30 Members car pooled to park at Gungahlin Town Centre then took a trip in the light rail the City & back. They stopped in the City for coffee and once back at Gungahlin most went to the Gungahlin Raiders Club for lunch. | 30 | ||
2019-06-21 | Ray Osmotherly gave us an interesting account of the early life of his grandfather, Walter Hubert Hume Lucas during the 1870-80’s. Rick Causebrook showed us a Science DVD “Making Stuff Cleaner” (NOVA Series), which focused on new technologies to increase recycling, reduce pollution & make manufacturing simpler & more efficient. | 33 | ||
2019-06-14 | Bruce McAslan talked & demonstrated First aid & CPR (https://accessrt.edu.au/instructors/bruce-mcaslan/) | 50 | ||
2019-06-07 | Ian Erwin talked about Restoration of an interesting Rolls Royce. Ian first discovered the remains of a very significant Rolls Royce (Chassis number 1404) in south western NSW in 1975. At that time the car was 65 years & had been dismembered with various parts used for a trailer & other purposes. It has been in Ian’s possession & under restoration since 1981 | 57 | ||
2019-05-31 | Matthew Andronicus of Niagara visited to discuss their Cycloid Vibration Therapy (CVT) offering. Niagara Therapy. Their website (https://www.niagara.com.au/) If you are interested, contact Matthew on 0408.778.599 or EMAIL mailto:andron66@tpg.com.au him – We had an unexpected visit from Mark of the National Folk Festival seeking volunteers for the 2020 Festival to be held in Canberra next Easter (9-13 April 2020) See https://www.folkfestival.org.au/apply/volunteers/ – We also had our monthly BBQ & Sausage Sizzle. | 48 | ||
2019-05-24 | The Shed visited Geosciences Australia’s mineral & fossil collection at Symonston – a collection of fossils and some 15,000 minerals and 90 meteorite specimens. Photos of the Visit (https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNYbw86ETmTuTr2iC6DVGCcjhjTAQa9-_9obs3RDK-hxkuYRMgsswn7Pp8dz0ZV0Q?key=dEZHTkJxRGxQWEE5WmkxSzEzUkNqWV92MjNtM1pB) | 34 | ||
2019-05-17 | Kate Molony from Dementia Australia (https://www.dementia.org.au/) provided information about Dementia and what options are there to help people. Also Michael Dwyer displayed, with Harry Redfern’s help, a number of books, CDs, magazines etc on ‘Around the Boree Log’ by John O’Brien (whose real name was P.J. Hartigan). One of the poems by John O’Brien is ‘Said Hanrahan’ which was played to members from a CD. | 47 | ||
2019-05-10 | Tony Weir talked about Climate Change | 51 | ||
2019-05-03 | Fitness Assessment Day morning before the Shed meeting followed by a presentation by Phil Laird & Kaitlyn Axelby about his USA Trip & Kaitlyn’s time at Disney World in Orlando Florida | 48 | ||
2019-04-26 | Excursion to Mulligan’s Flat especially the Old Woolshed with a Picnic Barbeque after in Forde | 35 | ||
2019-04-19 | Good Friday – No meeting | |||
2019-04-12 | The Shed went on a 10AM visit to the Recycling Discovery Hub which is located at the ACT’s Materials Recovery Facility at John Cory Rd, Off Mugga lane, Hume | 29 | ||
2019-04-05 | Frank O’Rourke provided us with a unique insight into the Australian visit of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, who landed on our shores in 1893. Frank’s extensively researched presentation is sure to be of fascinating interest to all Shed members, with many of his included photographs never before seen in Australia | 51 | ||
2018-03-29 | Martin van der Hoek gave an interesting talk on The Roman Empire & all its great achievements. Kobus de Meyer talked about South Africa, its great wildlife & about his family history & their move to Australia. Evan Tully also spoke about his recent medical episode & his recent two-day hospitalisation, where he had a heart pacemaker inserted. There was also a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 49 | ||
2019-03-22 | Amy Nussio, an occupational therapist, involved in the Living with Dementia & Driving Study, spoke to members on various aspects associated with “Driving in Later Life”, including various alternative means of transport and ACT Govt support options for those who can no longer drive. Refer to Newsletter #468 | 59 | ||
2019-03-15 | Toss Gascoigne worked in the Pacific Islands (PIs) for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. He travelled to several of the 22 PI countries, with Tonga & Samoa being the most prominent, assisting to arrange community-based fishing programs.He talked to the Shed about his experiences in The Pacific Islands & in particular about many of the health & management issues facing these communities | 51 | ||
2019-03-08 | A normal meeting was held plus the naming of The Don Gruber Room with Betty Gruber unveiling the plaque & several ex Shed Presidents talking about the Shed’s history. Rotary Club of Ginninderra Officials & North Belconnen Uniting Church Officials also attended. Catering was provided (58 attended including visitors) | 51 | ||
2019-03-01 | Claire Fisher & Amy Allpress from the ACT Branch of Royal Life Saving Australia (RLSA) talked to the Shed about RLSA’s Grey Medallion Program. Anyone who is interested in the Grey Medallion program should contact Amy (phone 6113 1994 or email aallpress@rlssa.org.au) to join the program or for more details. | 55 | ||
2018-02-22 | Ray Osmotherley tracked down several very humorous videos which he showed. Several years ago, David Brand discovered that he had Fuchs Dystrophy, which is an eye disease caused by losing control of the volume of fluid in the cornea. He described the issues & the process he went through. Then we had a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 47 | ||
2019-02-15 | Visit to the CSIRO at Black Mountain (26 members attended & 12 had a chat at the Shed) | 38 | ||
2018-02-08 | Mal Gibson Psychologist talked about mental health issues and the involvement of the brain | 60 | ||
2018-02-01 | John Edge gave a talk entitled The Operation of the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Terry also read out some letters from his father who wrote some 64 letters to his father back in Finland as he jumped ship in Melbourne and worked in Victoria | 56 | ||
2018-01-25 | Aust Day Celebration with a Sausage Sizzle. Screen video preso from Dr Michelle Simmons 2018 Australian of the year on quantum computing. Luke Wensing talked about his family migrating from Holland after WWII. | 45 | ||
2018-01-18 | Warwick Fulton from St Vincent de Paul talked to us about how they try to help people in the ACT and SE NSW region. He also highlighted the massive homeless situation that seems to be getting worse & some strategies to address it | 48 | ||
2018-01-11 | Coffee morning at the Shed with a trial of David Ruthven’s Coffee Machine – Various updates & announcements | 39 | ||
2018-01-04 | Christmas/New Year Closedown – No Shed meeting |
.
Shed Program Held During 2018 (2017 is below)
The following is a list of the past program this year
Date 2018 | Description | Attended | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
2018-12-28 | Christmas/New Year Closedown – No Shed meeting | |||
2018-12-21 | The Shed held its annual Christmas Party including a visit by the Shed Santa, followed by a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 50 | ||
2018-12-14 | Excursion to the Cook & the Pacific Exhibition at National Library. We met at the Shed by 9.15AM and drove in multiple cars to the NLA where we started a viewing of the Cook exhibition at 10AM. The exhibition was a large collection of photos & drawings collected from all over showing the work of Cook & his colleagues over his 3 momentous voyages to the Pacific area. Some of us did not get home until 12.45PM | 32 | ||
2018-12-07 | Stuart Allan talked about the History of the America’s Cup from its early days in 1844 with the NY Yacht Club right through to the next America’s Cup Challenge in Auckland in 2021 | 57 | ||
2018-11-30 | Mick O’Donnell Author of 4 Historical Novels talked to us. He studied creative writing at the University of Canberra, with his writing genre being Historical Fiction and his hobby researching war history and the incredible stories of men and women who become involved in these conflicts? Mick served in the AFP & was also a pastor. His 4th book “Angel Eyes” was available to members after his presentation. (http://www.mickodonnellonline.com/) | 56 | ||
2018-11-23 | Prof John Williams talked on Water Reform | 48 | ||
2018-11-16 | The AGM was held at which a new committee was elected including a new treasurer and one new committee member, and a Pizza lunch was also held | 56 | ||
2018-11-09 | Ray Osmotherly talked about the cause of WWI through some old pictures of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Harry Redfern read out a poem about Flanders Fields & Paul Keatings speech to the Remembrance Day 1993 (it was written by his speech write Don Watson) Andrew Geraghty arrived late but talked on the ‘The Aftermath of World War I’.(Andrew previously spoke to us in June 2017 about ‘15 things we didn’t know about in World War II’ & in February 2017 on ‘Toastmasters & PowerPoint presentations’). | 51 | ||
2018-11-02 | The Shed visited a Garden at “The Farm”. Ray Osmotherly organised a special visit to a private garden along Lady Denman Dr past from Scrivener Dam. 37 members attended & 6 wifes/partners attended and were afforded a fantastic experience in Ann’s 5 Acre display. This garden is not open to the public and is broadly based on the Monet Gardens in Paris. | 37 | ||
2018-10-26 | Rod Jory gave a talk titled “Glaciers, Icebergs & Fresh Water”, BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 50 | ||
2018-10-19 | Heather Hart talked about the Stroke Safe Program. Heather described a stroke as a “brain attack” – the brain’s equivalent of a heart attack. She talked about the reasons for a stroke and how you can ascertain if people are having a stroke. She provided guides to define a persons risk of getting a stroke and measures that can be taken to help those having a stroke | 50 | ||
2018-10-12 | Visit to the Aust War Memorial to see “After The War” Exhibition and view the Poppy Display | 30 | ||
2018-10-05 | Frank O’Rourke presented some of his research findings on the NSW War Service Land Settlement Scheme (1946-1960) – which involved the allocation of 3,057 farming & grazing blocks to suitably qualified ex-servicemen (and at least four ex-servicewomen) after WWII. Details (https://melbashed.com.au.au/activity-groups-sigs/activities-2015-2020/#frank3) | 48 | ||
2018-09-28 | Firstly we had a talk by Sister Kim Hoa from the Congregation of Mary Queen of Peace at Bonner who provide help to communities in Vietnam. See HeartsBeatingTogether (https://heartsbeatingtogether.weebly.com/). Then Ray Osmotherly gave a photo & video talk on his holiday in Moorea, Tahiti; Ian de Plater also showed us another photo & video talk on his recent walk with AusWalk on the Larapinta Trail, one of Australia’s most spectacular bushwalking experiences; & Steve Mawer showed us his new drone plus we had a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 57 | ||
2018-09-21 | Shed member Victor has again given us a tremendous talk – this time on ‘Canberra Newspapers’. His talk was mainly about the Canberra Times but he covered other Canberra newspapers including The Australian (both Canberra & National editions) the Chronicle, Canberra News & Canberra Weekly as well as the Sydney & Melbourne papers which were well read by Canberrans. | 47 | ||
2018-09-14 | Alex Ritchie presented his Antarctic Film of Discoveries from mid-November 1970 & end-January 1971 as part of the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition, recently screened at the Film & Sound Archives | 53 | ||
2018-09-07 | About 40 participated in the excursion to the ACT Model Railway Society’s Shed in Evatt in the grounds of the North Belconnen Baptist Church on Copeland Drive. Their location has been running for about two years and currently has 36 members. Their Shed is covered from one end to the other in model railway tracks. Construction was well-advanced on a permanent multi-level HO-scale club layout. | 40 | ||
2018-08-31 | Talks by Members, Greg demonstrated some of the SIX NSW maps features & a little of the Shed web site, Alex Ritchie gave a short preso with slides on his Antartica research trip, 10th Anniversary of Melba Shed with pizza & cheesecake luncheon & birthday cake | 54 | ||
2018-08-27 | (Mon) The Shed’s 10th Anniversary Dinner was held on Monday 27 August, at the Southern Cross Club, Jamison, with some 34 members & partners attending. Annie & Michael provided entertainment | |||
2018-08-24 | Billy Williams talked about his official time in Ghana & his recent stint volunteering at the Orthopedic Training Clinic (OTC) in Accra and his experiences in Ghana & the region | 47 | ||
2018-08-17 | Jenny Higgins gave us an interesting talk on how to use TROVE to search for information especially on searching for people and information one needs to do when researching someone’s family history. Jenny gave us both a powerpoint presentation and a live demonstration of TROVE using our Telstra mobile modem | 52 | ||
2018-08-10 | 21 members went on a 1 hour AIS tour. Bob Greeney hosted a coffee & chat session at the Shed where another 12 members attended | 33 | ||
2018-08-03 | Bob Miller talked about his ‘Ride Across Australia’ in 2014. Leaving Perth on 22 March Bob arrived in Canberra (via Bondi) on the 24th May having cycled 5,000 kms | 42 | ||
2018-07-27 | Emma Turner from the Red Cross described the functions performed by the Red Cross in Canberra including Meals on Wheels, Telecross. Emergency Pendants, Keysafes, TeleChat, Welfare Check Calls plus we held a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 40 | ||
2018-07-20 | The Shed (around 20 members) visited the Canberra Museum & Gallery exhibit on the history of Parliament, leaving the Shed at 10AM. Highlights were a special display commemorating the 30th anniversary of the “new” Parliament House, and an exhibition of Nolan paintings and some three-dimensional portraits. Some members (approx 12) including one new member John, stayed behind for a chat at the Shed | 32 | ||
2018-07-13 | Talk by Mike Smith on the United Nations | 43 | ||
2018-07-06 | Roger read out his final letter from his great uncle Stan from WW1 in France. Then Ray Osmotherly provided some details of the excursion on 20 July to the Canberra Museum & Gallery. Ray also mentioned that he is organising the dinner to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Shed. | 45 | ||
2018-06-29 | Mike Dwyer gave a slide talk on life in the 1960s on Glenrock, a sheep & cattle station of 68,000 acres in the Scone region. The property is now owned by the AAAW Group. (http://aaaw.com.au/) Mike was the first teacher at the Glenrock Station School which catered for 9-18 students of the farm workers. Harry helped out by running quizz on what we heard. Afterwards we had a Soup, Curries & Rice luncheon organised by Ron Thomson. Station Manager Dick Clarke writes about the foundation stallion Glenrock Glenrego (http://abri.une.edu.au/online/images/ashs/16428_1.pdf) | 58 | ||
2018-06-22 | Marie Sinstead-Reid from the Australian Electoral Commission talked about the ACT’s Hare-Clark electoral system. Voting & counting votes is a time consuming & involved process as we learned when Marie ran a mock election involving 3 vacancies with 12 candidates. She prepared a special ballot paper which we all used to cast our votes. | 44 | ||
2018-06-15 | Members will be asked to talk about their first job in 10 mins. Frank O’Rourke, Ron Thomson & Paul McCarthy spoke about their early careers. Paul also spoke about how to measure various economies & how exchange rates can play havoc with such comparisons | 45 | ||
2018-06-08 | Brian McKay talked about his “Canadian Adventures” with The Hudson Bay Company in the years immediately after the Second World War. He also told us about his cycling exploits across Canada, parts of Europe, the bottom of South America, North Island NZ and Australia. And he only started these when he was 75 | 51 | ||
2018-06-01 | Erik Boddeus, Executive Manager of Retirement at Goodwin gave a presentation of the attributes of Retirement Villages versus Residential Aged Care facilities. He was also assisted by Liz Ley, Independent Living Unit Sales Officer & Laura Reading, Marketing Coordinator | 47 | ||
2018-05-25 | Four firemen, Graeme, Paul, Daniel & Chris from the ACT Fire & Rescue Ainslie depot talked about their operations & fire safety especially BBQ safety. Plus we had a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 46 | ||
2018-05-18 | Brian Butler-Kemp, Regional Manager for ACT and Southern NSW of Conservation Volunteers Australia gave us a short introductory talk about what CVA does. Typically they undertake projects such as erosion control, improving walking tracks, planting trees, building & locating nesting boxes. They are happy to take volunteers of any age. (http://conservationvolunteers.com.au/) Contact: 6247 7770 Email: canberra@cva.org.au Also Harry Redfern entertained members with some poetry, including one of his own compositions from schooldays – a few years back now called “Learning Australian” | 45 | ||
2018-05-11 | Ian Peters from Diabetes Australia NSW&ACT talked about Diabetes & the massive impact it is having on the health of Australians. Sugar is the new health monster causing diabetes. Ian handed out numerous NDSS Information Fact Sheets. These can all be accessed by clicking on this link (https://diabetesnsw.com.au/useful-tools/information-sheets/) | 51 | ||
2018-05-04 | David Traylen & Penny Taylor, Stakeholder Engagement & Training Officers for Digital Health, gave a talk on “My Health Records” which is an online summary of your health information. It can be accessed at any time by you & your healthcare providers (e.g. GP or the Emergency room at a hospital), which helps to ensure you get the appropriate treatment. Click HERE to view or download the My Health Record PowerPoint presentation (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K2qQNywVqfZH3frdkkt3P_FhLARhWDqG/view ) | 45 | ||
2018-04-27 | ANZAC presentation by Peter Kain volunteer guide at the War Memorial. Peter talked about the myths versus realities of the Gallipoli campaign and about General Sir John Monash | 50 | ||
2018-04-20 | The Shed held an extended Morning Tea, followed by some 10 minute talks and a farewell to Richard Poon over a Pizza Lunch | 53 | ||
2018-04-13 | Sixteen Melba shed members joined the excursion to Towrang, just north of Goulburn, to visit the historic Convict Stockade and the associated Powder Magazine, Soldiers Quarters, Cemetery, and Convict-built Culverts and Bridges. We were very ably led by John Jervis, a local expert on the history of this area and a former Shed Speaker on this subject. The group left Melba at approximately 9.00am, meeting up initially at the French VC Rest Area before heading to the Towrang Parking Area just north of Goulburn. Refer also Towrang Convict Stockade, Associated Sites & Road Formations | More information on the trip (http://melbashed.com/activity-groups-sigs/activities-2015-2020/#towrang) | Ron Thomson opened the Shed as usual for those 14 members that remained | 30 | ||
2018-04-06 | Cris Kennedy, Manager, Engagement & Education spoke about his background & how he came to the National Film and Sound Archive as well as the tasks & functions of the organisation. He also shared some very early films from their collection about the 1896 Melb Cup & the 2nd Aust film about the Ned Kelly gang | 54 | ||
2018-03-30 | Good Friday – No meeting | |||
2018-03-23 | Excursion to Yass Men’s Shed. We met at the Shed by 9AM to organise vehicles for the trip to Yass where we arrived early and some of us checked out the Banjo Patterson statue in the local Memorial park. We then visited the Yass Valley Mens Shed, which is at 1428 Yass Valley Way, North Yass. Quite a few Shed members welcomed us and showed us the facilities they have. Later on the way home President, Bob Nash showed us ‘The Lovat Chapel’, in Mehan St, Yass. This chapel was the original St Augustine Catholic Church built between 1840-44 being replaced by a new building across the Road in 1956. It has being installed a 1200 pipes organ that Trevor Bunning of Canberra had acquired from the Wesley Church in Ashfield. It is planned to finish the organ commissioning in time for a recital in July 2018. Adjacent they are refurbishing part of the old Convent as the Hartigan Centre of Yass and plan to have the the ACT Academy of Music use 11 teaching rooms on their top level. | 25 | ||
2018-03-16 | Ray Osmotherly gave a presentation on the Story of Australian Cinema | 49 | ||
2018-03-09 | Frank O’Rourke again entertained us with the stories of Dick Eve & Boy Charlton, Australia’s Olympic gold medallists in swimming & diving events at the Paris 1924 Games. Details (http://melbashed.com/activity-groups-sigs/activities-2015-2020/#frank2) | 39 | ||
2018-03-02 | Frank O’Rourke entertained us with the story of Nick Winter, Australia’s first gold medallist in an athletic field event at the Olympics. Details (http://melbashed.com/activity-groups-sigs/activities-2015-2020/#frank1) | 54 | ||
2018-02-23 | Greg talked about issues with getting the NBN in Belconnen, & Stuart Allan proved that his talents extend beyond sport (sailing & cycling) by presenting a session on William Shakespeare followed by BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 54 | ||
2017-02-16 | The Shed went on an excursion to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Starstruck Exhibition . Coffee & Chat was at the Shed for those who did not go. 26 members went 15 stayed behind | 41 | ||
2018-02-09 | Dr Brendan Nelson was our Guest Speaker talking about his career and especially his time with the War Memorial. Brendan could only visit from 9.30am until 10.30am, so members arrived from 9.15am to receive Dr Nelson at 9.30am. Morning tea was held later and a short video on Poland was also shown. It was also Arend Bleyerveen’s 90th birthday. A cake was produced & Arend blew out the candle after a harmonious rendition of Happy Birthday. | 63 | ||
2018-02-02 | As a follow-up to last meeting’s video about Tom Kruse, we listened to a humorous recorded talk by Len Beadell who addressed the Annual Conference of Rotary District 982 at Shepparton Civil Centre on 2 March 1991 | 52 | ||
2017-01-26 | Australia Day Public Holiday – No Shed meeting | |||
2018-01-19 | Video of ‘The Back of Beyond’- the story of Tom Kruze a former mail carrier on the Birdsville Track in the border area between South Australia and Queensland during the period 1936-1963 was shown | 50 | ||
2018-01-12 | Coffee morning at Raiders Club in Kippax | 42 | ||
2017-01-05 | New Year / break – no Shed meeting |
Shed Program Held During 2017
The following is a list of the past program this year
Date 2017 | Description | Attended |
---|---|---|
2017-12-29 | Christmas / break – no Shed meeting | |
2017-12-22 | Christmas Closedown Function – Ray ran an Old Time Melodrama, with a visit by Santa Claus (Harry) followed by BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 60 |
2017-12-15 | Shed members visited Brian O’Donnell’s phone museum which has taken over his home in Mawson. Brian has one of the most extensive collections of phones in the country. His interest was sparked after he joined the PMG in the 1960s before moving to Telstra. Together with his Telstra mate, Stuart, Brian showed us through his collection which has phones dating back to 1882 | 24 |
2017-12-08 | The Canberra Men’s Minstrels is a sub-group of the Canberra Men’s Choir. They entertained an enthusiastic lot of Shedders who were in fine voice (well, some of them, anyway) as they sang along to some well-known favourites: in North Belconnen Uniting Church. After back in the Shed, Aoife (pronounced Eefa) Berenger, who is the, Community Development and Education Officer from Care Inc (i.e. Care Financial Counselling Service), told us about the eligibility requirements for ACTEWAGL’s Energy Support Voucher Scheme, which provides households on low to moderate incomes $100 credit towards their electricity or gas bill. Aoife said that everyone whose energy supplier is ACTEWAGL and who applies via Care Inc, can have their ACTEWAGL account credited $100 under this scheme. ACTEWAGL site says (https://www.actewagl.com.au/Help-and-advice/Rebates/Rebate-form.aspx) Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders are not eligible | 43 |
2017-12-01 | Rod Jory gave a talk about Volcanoes, Tsunamis and Earthquakes | 54 |
2017-11-24 | Greg tried to show how to navigate on the Shed web pages but the font & window size on the display simumlated tablet mode so it didnt happen, Greg then showed a video on Balikpapan in WW2, Luke Wensing talked about & showed slides about “Sculptures by the Sea” and John Canning read a poem “Old Sam’s Christmas Pudding” by Marriott Edgar (1939) about the Peninsular War in Spain at Badajoz (http://www.seiyaku.com/lit/monologues/019.html) | 51 |
2017-11-17 | Jenny Higgins talked about Genealogy and what methods were available to research a family’s past including Ancestry.com & Trove | 58 |
2017-11-10 | The 2017 Annual General Meeting was held with the existing committee being re-elected followed by Pizzas being provided to members | 51 |
2017-11-03 | Presentation on Antarctica & Antarctica drilling by Dr Howard Brady. Good information & photos on Antartica (http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/.) This is Howard latest book which criticises a lot of the work on climate change & gives us some background on the Dr (http://www.mirrorsandmazes.com.au/) | 52 |
2017-10-27 | Presentation by Riverview’s Stephen Harding on Ginninderry; its design, planning, environment trust plans & current status. Don Gruber also gave an overview on Lifeline with emphasis on the bookfairs and the infrastructure supporting it | 45 |
2017-10-20 | The Shed met at the Belconnen Bowling Club in Beetaloo Street Hawker for a morning of bowls organised by Harry Redfern. This was not the first time the Shed has gone bowling with Harry. In May 2011 we had a bowls morning followed in Jun 2011 by a Sat morning coaching session. In Jun 2012 we had another bowls day. In May 2013 we participated once more followed by a Sausage Sizzle at the Club & on 25 Nov 2016 we again graced the green at Beetaloo St. The morning’s play involved 3 Bowls Pairs played to 11 ends (or a time limit of 90 minutes). Four players with 3 bowls each & the leads playing their bowls alternatively, followed by each pair of players in order. Some members stayed at the Shed | 26 |
2017-10-13 | Mike Dwyer provided an Anzac Presentation. He presented the story of Sgt Pat Donnelly 2nd Pioneer Battalion Brigade, Second Aust Div, 1st Anzac Corps. Mike talked about the war on the Western Front & how it affected the soldiers involved | 51 |
2017-10-06 | Excursion to the Tulip Top Gardens with 16 members attending. A further 12 members were at the Shed with Roger Amos | 28 |
2017-09-29 | The Shed had two member talks by Stuart Allan & Roger Amos. Stuart talked about model sailing canoes of the Marshall Islands, a group of some 1,225 islands and inlets to the north east of Australia. The canoe tradition is one of the foundations of Marshallese culture & has been the key to survival of the islanders. Roger talked about his 15 year project building a Farrier designed Trailer-tri 680, a 6.8 metre long, 5 metre wide, 1140Kg trimaran. Also there was a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 58 |
2017-09-22 | Excursion to Cowra Japanese Gardens. Cars departed around 8AM went to Cowra with 16 members in perfect weather. They stopped for coffee at coffee house next to information centre, & then in the Cowra Information centre they watched a holograph of a young woman, moving around the stage, telling the story about the Japanese break out. They then continued to the Japanese gardens, camp & Cemetery. Overall they had an excellent time. The Shed was be open as usual for a coffee & chat session for those who didn’t go with 12 members attending (https://www.cowragarden.com.au/) | 31 |
2017-09-15 | John Jervis gave an interesting talk about Towrang Convict Stockade, its history, the life of convicts & some background the roads from Sydney to Goulburn (http://www.goulburnpost.com.au/story/1243692/stockade-hits-the-list/) | 56 |
2017-09-08 | Victor Isaacs talked about Australian Railways | 51 |
2017-09-01 | Luke Wenzing talked about travelling around Spain & some of the interesting architecture he saw. John Belcher talked about S44 & Dual Citizenship | 48 |
2017-08-28 | (Mon) Shed’s 9th Birthday Dinner with 30 members & guests attending with entertainment by Annie of the Armadillos & Tony Haley | |
2017-08-25 | Shed’s 9th Birthday for 28 August 2017 celebrations with cake & BBQ & sausage sizzle. Don Gruber acquired 2 large cakes & helped provide everyone with a piece | 42 |
2017-08-18 | Dannielle Bate from Canberra City Care (https://www.canberracitycare.org/) talked briefly about her organisation & the people they assist. They have a food pantry, Tech shed that refurbishes PCs, an Op shop, Gardens for growing vegetables. Their space is provided by the Life Unlimited Church at Charnwood who bought the old Charnwood High School. We also had a travel video around Madrid | 40 |
2017-08-11 | Ray Osmotherley talked about Popular Entertainment from Early Times to the Beginning of the Cinema followed by a video “The Story of Cinema in Australia” | 49 |
2017-08-04 | Jenny Higgins was sick so Roger gave more information on his great uncle Stan Willis & read more of his letters from UK & France in 1917. Peter Harvey from Calvary Care visited & sought volunteers to help at the Haydon Retirement Village. Bob showed a short video on how they disposed of some F111’s. A NOVA video was shown titled “Making Stuff Safe” | 46 |
2017-07-28 | Kellie Toohey UC Faculty of Health talked about the work shed has done done in recent years assessing the impact of High Intensity & Continuous Moderate Exercises programs on Cancer survivors. She believes exercise has a positive impact on the health outcomes of cancer suffers & all of us in general. Also Mike Dywer gave a short talk on “Super Sleuthing the Burghers of Blayney” which was about the authors’ names of Letters to the Editor were partly or wholly the same as settlement names. The names which continually appeared were Barry, Neville, Blayney, Cowra & Sutton | 47 |
2017-07-21 | Tracy Harris talked about “Behind the scenes of life as an Australian diplomat”. Luke Wensing then gave a presentation about modern architecture, & screened pictures of many unorthodox buildings. His interest was stimulated by the Frank Gehry designed Guggenheim Museum of modern art in Bilbao Spain | 51 |
2017-07-14 | Bev Lewis talked about Southern Africa & gave a video presentation of his life in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) & Southern Africa before migrating to Australia plus further views about his trips in South Africa & Serengeti NP in Tanzania more recently. Martin van der Hoek talked about The Terracotta Warriors in China using slides | 57 |
2017-07-07 | Lindy Hou, Paralympian cyclist talked about her life and dreams of being an Olympian champion. In 2004 at the Athens Paralympic Games that dream became a reality when she won a gold, two silver & one bronze medal. More about Lindy (http://www.lindyhou.com/) | 41 |
2017-06-30 | Short talks by several members then we enjoyed a curry & soup day with rice and crusty bread | 55 |
2017-06-23 | Dr Howard Thomas Brady, an Australian, who once worked as an Antarctic scientist gave a talk titled “The Climate Debate is a Mess”. He gave numerable examples where the IPCC models are not being borne out by real world data. He also gave a lot of information from his book “Mirrors & Mazes” (www.mirrorsandmazes.com.au/) | 63 |
2017-06-16 | Andrew Geraghty from Toastmasters talked about 15 things you didn’t know about WWII | 49 |
2017-06-09 | Lina Webber, AFP Seniors Liaison Officer talked about Internet & Email Scams | 49 |
2017-06-02 | John Edge talked about Survivability Issues with the National Electricity Grid | 54 |
2017-05-26 | Aoife (pronounced Efa) Berenger from Gambling Counselling & Support Service (AGCSS) talked about Gambling Harm Awareness. AGCSS was established in 2011 & is managed by Relationships Australia, in partnership with Care Inc.Care Financial Services. For advice see http://www.racr.relationships.org.au/services/act-gambling-counselling-and-support-service-1 | 44 |
2017-05-19 | The Shed went on a tour of the National Gallery of A guide took members through the indigenous art section then on to some modern art. Those who didn’t go had coffee & chat at the Shed. In addition Jeff Brown gave an animated talk about his time on the first Australian Survivor and how he survived & some of the good that came from it supporting some disadvantaged villages in India & Thailand | 32 |
2017-05-12 | Abuse Awareness Information Session with Karl Schaffarczyk from the ACT Disability, Aged and Carer Advocacy Service (ADACAS). This mainly concentrated on the impacts & issues associated with an EPoA (Enduring Power of Attorney). Karl also described how ADACAS provides an advocacy service for any disabled or elder persons who have been mistreated in some way | 51 |
2017-05-05 | Ray Osmotherly gave an interesting slide talk about his life running a one Teacher School at Crooble near Moree | 48 |
2017-04-28 | Anzac Day talk by Kevin Kirk (2nd cousin of Roger Amos) about his trip to Gallipoli in 2015 for the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC landing + BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 42 |
2016-04-21 | Uni Canberra Health Students presented members with the results of their 4 week exercises sessions. No formal Shed due to funeral of Lynette Williams at 11AM in the next door church | |
2017-04-14 | Good Friday – no Shed meeting | |
2017-04-07 | The Shed visited the National Arboretum where we were met by Meryl Causebrook (Rick’s wife) who took us for a guided tour & talk on the Arboretum planning & vision. 31 members attended the Aboretum. At 8.30AM members were reassessed by the Uni Canberra Health Students to see how they improved after 4 weeks of exercises | 35 |
2017-05-31 | Presentation from three key members of the National Health Co-op (NHC); Adrian Watts (CEO), Dr Joe Oguns (Medical Director) & Lennon Wicks (Exercise Physiologist) | 49 |
2017-03-23 | Mike Dwyer presented on Polio with input from other members on their experiences, plus a visit by “Dr Parkinson” who gave a short account of himself, plus a BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 48 |
2017-03-17 | Great talk from David Royds, a retired forensic chemist whose roles before retirement was as Team Leader of the Australian Forensic Police & principal reporting officer for the Bali bombings (2002) | 54 |
2016-03-10 | Guest Speaker Margaret Wade author of “Canberra Secrets” talked about her passion for Canberra & wrote two very successful editions of Canberra’s Secrets in 1999 & 2003 – a great guide book that highlights a local’s perspective of Canberra (http://www.canberrasecrets.com.au/our-history/#more-1257). She told us about her walking & cafe tours around some area of the City | 50 |
2017-03-03 | Excursion to Uriarra Crossing for BBQ & Sausage Sizzle. UC Health students did their initial assessment of around 20 member who attended before the Shed meeting. Also 4 members met at the Shed | 30 |
2016-02-24 | Kellie Toohey – UC Faculty of Health introduced 5 students who will be working on assessing the health of members over the next 6 weeks | 43 |
2016-02-17 | Rod Jory gave a talk titled – ‘This Paradise Earth’ | 56 |
2016-02-10 | Andrew Geraghty talked about Toastmasters and Power Point Presentations and how one should design such a presentation for maximum effect and readability | 40 |
2016-02-03 | Phil Laird gave a talk about ‘Disruptive Technologies’ with discussion by Shed members | 48 |
2016-01-27 | Australia Day commemoration with several members showing slides compilations of their favourite photos & spots in Australia followed by BBQ & Sausage Sizzle | 51 |
2016-01-20 | There was an excursion and tour of the National Archives. Also back at the Shed there was Coffee & Chat hosted by Bob Greeney with around 12 members. | 43 |
2016-01-13 | Nova video, courtesy of Rick Causebrook, titled ‘Making Stuff Smaller’ | 49 |
2017-01-06 | New Year break – no Shed meeting |