TUESDAY, MARCH 31, 2020:  General Meeting, followed by Annual General Meeting.

TUESDAY APRIL 28, 2020:  ANZAC Commemorative Meeting; guest speaker Lieutenant-Colonel Ret'd. Peter Sweeney.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020:  Lawyer GAIUS WHIFFIN's subject was Compensation Law, and what it can mean for you.

On October 29, the 25th Anniversary of Blacktown City Probus was celebrated with a buffet morning tea and sumptuous cake, and entertaining guest speaker ROLAND STORM.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019:  guest speaker CONSTANCE (CONNIE) SCURR, spoke on supporting the work of orphan schools in Ethiopia and Malawi.

RETROSPECTIVE OF A FEW OF OUR PREVIOUS SPEAKERS...

Tuesday, August 27, 2019:  guest speaker PAULINE KEYVAR, her subject Huntington's Disease.

TUESDAY JUNE 25:  Retired Lieutenant Colonel Peter Sweeney RFD spoke on the WW2 Japanese miniature submarine attack on Sydney, revealing a catalogue of failure through complacency and the good old Australian "she'll be right" syndrome in full flight.

TUESDAY MAY 28  saw Deborah Martin and Sue Thom giving us a wonderful and comprehensive insight into their lives as WIRES volunteers.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30 2018: the Guest Speaker timeslot was occupied by enjoying birthday cake and browsing the arts, crafts, handiworks of members on display.

WIRES (NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service Inc.) has been rescuing and caring for native animals since 1985, officially launching as an organisation in March 1986. Our mission is to actively rehabilitate and preserve Australian wildlife and inspire others to do the same.

WIRES has over 2500 volunteers in 27 branches involved in the rescue and care of wildlife and we have a dedicated Rescue Office that operates 365 days a year assisting the community to help native animals in distress. WIRES assist tens of thousands of animals every year, receiving over 77,000 requests for rescue assistance in the last financial year.                           (https://www.wires.org.au/)

In September we were thoroughly informed and entertained by the extremely interesting talk and demonstration of trombones old and new by GREGORY van der STRUIK, trombonist in the orchestra of Sydney Opera. 

 

Richard Parker from Easy Go Connect gave us information on community transport that, for many of us, was a major revelation!

Leonie Jennings from Fair Trading NSW spoke most interestingly and informatively about shopping rights and scams. 

AMBRE HAMMOND, "the people's pianist":  pianist, speaker, ambassador, promoter, adventure seeker and humanitarian.

Even more retrospective...

TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015:  Our ANZAC Commemoration saw the welcome visit by RON KING, one of our foundation members and a Past President.
Guest speaker that day was SUSAN LEWIS from Pressed Flower Designs; she gave a demonstration of a microwave oven assisted method of pressing flowers and also talked about “the secret language of flowers”. 

JOHN PARSONAGE, who lived in China for several years, spoke on “China, it is not what you think”, and our Guest speaker for July 28 was the extremely interesting Mr Brent Gordon from Shirley Road Chiropractic.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2015:  we celebrated our 21st Birthday!

BARBARA BONFIELD, one of the volunteer speakers from GUIDE DOGS NSW/ACT, accompanied by her seeing eye dog was a wonderful guest speaker. 

FEBRUARY 24, 2015's Guest Speaker was KELLIE MAR - whose work was in the 2014 Archibald Prize, and whose very interesting talk on The Alice to the Archibald Prize included her adventures with Brolga (Kangaroo Dundee) at his kangaroo sanctuary  and insights into her approach to painting.  Justifiably proud grandparents Charles and Claire Smith joined her for photos at the lectern.  Prints of Kellie's portrait sell to raise funds for Brolga's Kangaroo Sanctuary, Alice Springs (https://www.kangaroosanctuary.com/), where ABC Television is currently shooting a second feature - see it in process in Kangaroo Dundee's Facebook page.

MORE RETROSPECT...

The Simply Voices Choir more than ably filled the guest speaker spot with a great variety of a capella items, to the enjoyment of all. 

Speaker at an April meeting was all-round canary expert, breeder and show judge, Probus Blacktown member BOB MOORE, accompanied by some of his champion birds in a - to many of us surprising - range of colours.  As anticipated, Bob had a great deal of interesting knowledge to share, and we went away with a much enhanced understanding and appreciation of the world of the canary breeder and show-judge - and the pleasure brought by seeing the birds.

 

 

One of our 2012 guest speakers was Leah Dawson from Ronald McDonald House at Westmead.  She shared with  us the inside story of this marvellous home away from home for families of seriously ill children being treated at Westmead Children’s Hospital.  As anticipated, the information and insights Leah brought us were extremely interesting and inspiring, and whilst Probus is not a fund-raising organization, we were delighted to be able to present her with a full car-load of non-perishable foodstuffs and household supplies – members’ gifts towards the work of the House... there should also have been a photo of the overflowing piles of contributions before they were packed with amazing efficiency and precision into a transportable series of boxes and bags! 

 

YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!  One of our Guest Speaker Spots was filled with a showing of movies by award winning video producers Max and Josie Milgate, including highlights of some Probus Blacktown events.  Visitors are very welcome at all our meetings!