GENERAL MEETINGS
We meet for two hours from 10.00am on the second Tuesday of each month at theWhitehorse Civic Centre, in the Willis Room.
This comprises a brief general meeting, outlining important club matters and a summary of the most recent Management Committee meeting.
Morning tea and socialising is followed by a guest speaker.
All are invited to a post meeting lunch at The Coach in Ringwood.
2025 Guest Speakers/ Entertainment.
SEPTEMBER SPEAKER - Shane Varcoe. Marijuana as a Medicine @font-face
UPCOMING SPEAKERS
October – Dr Alex Maisey – Lyrebirds
November – Paul Perrottet.
A look into Australia’s largest annual sporting event and the amazing facility of Melbourne Park.
August - Janet Werkmeister - Author - The Roaring Twenties
Chris Summers
Janet’s talk was extremely well received, was clear and very informative.
In 1925, photos displayed showed Flinders Street railway station which was as large as London, Paris or New York at that time. It showed horse drawn carts loaded with beer kegs, cable trams in Flinders Street but electric trams in Swanston Street. A photo of Bourke Street outside Myers showed horse drawn cabs and cable trams.
In 1925 the MacRobertson chocolate factory opened in Fitzroy and had 2650 employees. They made columbine caramels, milk kisses and cherry ripes.
Power was made by the State Electricity Commission in the Latrobe Valley and was very cheap power. Sir John Monash was the CEO at the time.
Radio broadcasts began with 3AR, 3LO and later 3UZ. Car registrations peaked with 82,500 registrations. Ford opened in Geelong in 1925, Chevrolet in Melbourne in 1926. Hosiery was 5/11d per pair and there were mills in Brunswick and Coburg. A lady on average bought 12 pairs a year.
Hairdressing was booming.
Buildings – Temple Court at 422 Collins Street and the then tallest building the T & G building. Cinemas in 1921- eight were built in Melbourne. Cinemas, the Westgarth in Northcote, the Victory in St Kilda seated 3000, the Capitol in Swanston Street could seat 2000. This cinema was designed by Walter and Marion Buirley Griffin and is now owned and was restored by RMIT students. The Palais in St Kilda burned down in 1926 and rebuilt in 1927, seating 3000. The State Theatre now the Forum, built in 1929 seating 3370. The Regent in 1929 with 3250 seats and cost 500,000 pounds each. The Athenaeum in 1924 with 880 seats and had the first sound movie - The Jazz Singer staring Al Johnson.
Dance halls were also big in the 20’s, a real boom. Leggots in Prahran and Palais de Danse in St Kilda, designed by Burley Griffin. St Moritz skating rink began as a dance hall and could ‘handle’ 5000 people. The Trocadero was very popular with returning servicemen who ‘wanted to have some fun’, dancing the night away doing the fox trot and charlston.
Photo: Chris Summers - Capitol Theatre today
SEPTEMBER 9 Shane Varcoe - Marijuana as a Medicine
OCTOBER 14 Alex Maisey - The Lyrebird as an ECO Engineer
NOVEMBER 11 Paul Perrottet - Australian Tennis Open History and Highlights.
DECEMBER – no speaker.
July Meeting Speaker - Tammy Shepherd Mercy Ships - Chris Summers
Wow!! What a wonderful speaker and everyone in attendance was rivetted with the information shared with us all. A pity the audience was so small compared to other meetings.
Tammy is a physiotherapist by profession and her husband is a doctor. Tammy uses her skills on the Mercy Ships and has done so for three ‘adventures’ and is going to the Democratic Republic of the Congo again very soon. She does three month stints, all at her own expense and this also often means no salary while away. She has been to Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Madagascar.
There are two ships, Global Mercy and gfrica Mercy and was started by a husband and wife, Deyon and Don Stephens about 40 years ago. The ships are crewed by volunteers – including all ‘housekeeping’ crew, (cooks, cleaners) nurses, surgeons, dentists, physios, radiologists, dieticians and teachers to train locals to continue the work of the ships on land.
There are 50 nationalities represented – Bringing hope and healing to the world’s forgotten poor for more than 40 years.
Some frightening stats – 2.7m beneficiaries; 100,000 free surgical procedures in Guinea in 2019; visit 56 developing countries; 18m people die each year due to no surgery being available; 2 out of 3 lack access to surgical care; 93% of Africa has no medical access; 6 operating theatres; malignant surgeries are not operated on although a tumor maybe removed and these patients would then have palliative care; ships are serviced in the Canary Islands. Senegal has 7 doctors per 100k people and one dentist for 100k people. Service on the ships is free, but interviewing the patients so staff can give the best results. The ships have hospital water and power, but supplies of water are replenished from local sources as required. 50% of world population lives within 160kms of the port. Each orthopeadic surgery requires a career for up to 3 months as the patient cannot return to the home village while ongoing physio etc is carried out. There are no births on the ship – if that did happen the baby would be Maltese as the ship is registered in Malta. A crew of 5-600 volunteers. Thank you Volunteers.
Mercy Ships Head Office is in Texas USA but they do have large offices in Switzerland and Nederlands, and Australia’s office is in Caloundra NSW.
If you would like to support this wonderful program you can see more information or donate at:
www.mercyships.org.au
Photos: Chris Summers and Glenn Ewing
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