GUEST SPEAKERS

2025

February Guest Speaker

Max Hitchins: The Hospitality Doctor and exceptional 'ideas' man

Topic: The five most important words in the history of the world

 Max is an author, poet, pilot, pianist, publican, memory wizard and raconteur.  He offers a range of engaging topics and assures us that we will be captivated by what he has to say on this topic.  Click here for more information.

April Guest Speaker

 Peter Thorpe

 Topic: Artifical Intelligence for Seniors

 Peter's talk unravels the mysteries of AI and tells us how we can enjoy the benefits and fun of it, regardless of age.

May Guest Speaker

 Jennifer Philps: Community Relations Manager, Children's Medical Research Institute

 Topic: Genetics- the future is now. 

 Jennifer will explain what is in our genes and how the latest research is helping cure many medical conditions.

June Guest Speaker

 Emily Doris: Exercise Physiologist, Movement Essentials

 Topic: Exercise for Seniors

 Emily's talk will focus on strategies to help us improve our quality of life through exercise.

July Guest Speaker

Steve Yerbury: Community Fundraising Senior Coordinator, Royal Flying Doctor

Topic: History and Services of the Royal Flying Doctor Service

Steve will talk about the history of the Royal Flying Doctor Service and outline some of the services it provides. Read more about the Royal Flying Doctor Service here

August Guest Speaker

Gary Raymond: Retired Chief Inspector, NSW Police

Topic: A life of service

Gary has served with the NSW Ambulance Service and Police for many years. During his career he has worked on many high profile cases. He is currently Chaplain to the Police Post Trauma Support Groups and a member of the Salvation Army's Suicide Prevention and Bereavement Board for the Australian Eastern Territory. 

September Guest Speaker

 Charles Fellner: Retired IT Professional

 Topic: Scam Awareness

Charles will focus on common scams, explaining what goes on behind these scams, the steps to take to avoid being scammed and what to do if we have been scammed. 

More information can be found at the Australian Governments Be connected website. The website includes resources, such as Can you Spot-a-scam-summary-sheet_2.pdf pdf, as well as dates for Spotting a Scam webinar (plus many other topics).   

Watch Scammed, an Insight episode on scams screened on 14 July 2025 on SBS on Demand.

October Guest Speaker

 Nicholas Gleeson: Adventurer, author and speaker

 Topic: Living a full life with blindness

Nick’s life changed forever at age seven when an electronic swinging supermarket door hit him on the side of his head, causing a retinal detachment. With the support of his family and friends, Nick continually challenged himself to first attend university, and then go on to live a life of sport and adventure. Nick will have copies of his book 'The Many Ways of Seeing' available for purchase at $30.00 a copy at the meeting on 2nd October. He will accept cash or credit card. 

Read more about Nick here 

November Guest Speaker

 Paul Kearney: Rock Historian

 Topic: History of Rock and Roll

Paul will present one of his History of Rock and Roll shows which tells how rock and roll started in the 1950s. He will tell the stories of the artists and play original video clips of artists singing the popular songs. The show will bring back lots of memories!

Click here to learn more about the show! 

 2026

February Guest Speaker

Jennifer Philps: Community Relations Manager, Children's Medical Research Institute

Topic: Cancer: Is there a cure?

Jennifer will build on her 2025 presentation to address this important question.

April Guest Speaker

John Brodie, State President, NSW Justice Association

May Guest Speaker

Rodney Wellington, Bonnyrigg Heights Community Education Unit

Topic: Keeping our homes safe from fire

Rodney will show a video “Better Safe than Sorry”, talk about resources and answer questions.

June Guest Speaker

Peter Plowman, Maritime Researcher and Author

Topic: Building Giants

Peter will provide an interesting overview of the history of some of the superliners that have sailed our oceans.

July Guest Speaker

Carole Edmeades, Co-Founder, Exercise Education Third Age Fitness

Topic: Improving our health through exercise

Carole's  presentation including strategies that we can use to take charge of our health by including strength and balance exercises into our daily routines will be conducted via ZOOM from Melbourne. The presentation will include a number of easy chair exercises.

August Guest Speaker

Noel Phelan, Volunteer, Naval Historical Society

Topic: The Sinking and Salvage of the Costa Concordia

The COSTA CONCORDIA sank on the 13^th January 2012, one hundred years after the TITANIC sank and in similar circumstances. Come along and hear what really happened and the chain of events that led to this disaster and the brilliant engineering to salvage the ship that took years and 2 billion dollars. The ship cost $900 million to build. 

September Guest Speaker

October Guest Speaker

November Guest Speaker

Rosamund Butler, Freelance journalist and author

Topic: Tracing the Overland Telegraph