April 2024
Sean Riley: Aquaculture and Tasmania’s Blue Economy.
October 2023
Dr Scott Meyerink of IMAS spoke to his current research project ‘Sampling and Analysis of Trace Metals in Aerosols and Rainwater collected from the Australian Continent and the Southern Ocean’, and also about the facilities at IMAS, CSIRO and the marine national facility.
September 2023
Michael Tate recounted his amazing life as presenter at our September meeting. The story mapped a journey from St Virgil’s College to Oxford University, the national Senate, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Holy See, priesthood, and back to academia in Tasmania.
August 2023
Our August Presenter was Robbie Brammall, the Director of Marketing and Communications at Mona.
Robbie explained the Mona business model and how Mona had broken normal conventions to become one of the most outstanding leaders in the arts, both nationally and internationally.
July 2023
The July presentation was by Dr Kelsie Raspin, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Cancer Genetics at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research. Kelsie provided us great insight into prostate cancer and its links to the human genome.
June 2023
BRIAN STAFFORD presented the outstanding story of the sailing ships from the golden age of sail, during the one hundred years following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815.
May 2023
Hayley is the Southern Community Coordinator who primarily delivers the RACT’s range of road safety education programs to pre-school, primary and high schools and the wider community. As part of the Advocacy team, they are passionate about educating Tasmanians on road safety and striving to make our roads safer for everyone. One of these programs is Years Ahead: Misunderstood Road Rules, which explores road rules that are commonly misunderstood by Tasmanian drivers, such as roundabouts, intersections, to name a few. It’s designed as a refresher course for drivers who are unsure of the road rules, would like clarification or are not as confident on the road as they used to be.
April 2023
Understanding Australia’s Electricity System
Our April presenter was our own lad Neil Blaikie who applied his extensive experience in the power industry to unravel the complexities of the Australian electrical system, in simple terms.
Neil explained the key drivers of significant change in the electrical system as we move to renewables. These include the ageing coalfired generators reaching end of life, advances in cheap renewables, and the legislated limits on greenhouse gas emissions.
Neil stuck to the facts and any political questions were sent straight through to the keeper!
March 2023
Life as it Was- A synopsis of a life lived to the fullest
February’s talk is another fascinating presentation from our club’s bard, historian and author, Tony Hope, this time recounting stories of his amazing life. Tony will mention of humorous, serious, and dangerous events experienced during his lifetime with reference to the many amazing people he has met on his life’s journey.
May 2022
Dr Tas van Ommen – Australian Antarctic Division
ANTARCTICA’S ICE, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
In this talk, Dr van Ommen provided an illustrated account of what we know about the Antarctic ice sheet and what it tells us about our planet. This focused on his research using ice cores to study climate, outlining how ice cores work, showing some of the key results from this research and looking at Australia’s major project to drill an ice core reaching back over a million years. Tas also drew on his expeditions undertaking airborne surveys of a large region of the Antarctic continent, charting the ice thickness and underlying bedrock to better understand the response of the ice in a warming world.
April 2022
Guest Speaker – Professor Mike Coffin
Geological Insights from the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 Search
The tragic disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 on 8 March 2014 led to a deep-ocean search effort of unprecedented scale and detail. Between June 2014 and June 2016, geophysical survey teams aboard ships used echo sounding techniques to create state-of-the-art maps of the seafloor topography and profiles of the sediments below the ocean floor in a zone spanning about 279,000 km2 of the south-eastern Indian Ocean.
November 2021
Graham Sargison
Our intrepid adventurer and serial tramper,
Sarge, provided more enthralling tales as he
wears out the footpaths of France. This stroll was
over the Central Massif Camino network.
August 2021
Louise Andersson and Kate Pendlebury from The
District Nurses were our presenters at the August
meeting.
Louise is the Home Care Packages team leader and
specialises in critical care, psychiatry and immunisation.
Kate is the Home Care Packages case manager.
Kate and Louise provided valuable information to
members on the services provided by the district nurses
that will help maintain our quality of life as we age.
July 2021
Sound Preservation Society of Tas. (SPAT)
Ray McNab (President, SPAT) and Phil Tyson (Vice President) provided an overview of the history, mission, current position, and aspirations of their organisation. They displayed and demonstrated some of the recordings and equipment from the Association’s collection.
June 2021
Tasmanian Youth Orchestra (TYO) CEO Kyna Hart
informed and entertained the members with current
activities of the TYO.
May 2021
At our May meeting, members were presented with another fascinating presentation from Air Vice Marshal (Rtd) Peter Scully. This time on the rise and demise of the Concord aircraft.
When : April 2021
Who: Tony Hope
Topic Capt James Kelly
When: February 2021
Who: Peter Cripps
Topic: Our heritage of European architecture
November 2020
Andrew Bonsey gave us reasons to think about the level of exercise and general care required for continued healthy living as we age. His high level of knowledge and experience were evident in his discourse and responses to the questions which followed.
October 2020
October’s speaker was Melvin Freestone, who took us on an interesting journey through the life and times of Moriarty and his family who moved from Ireland to Australia. The family faced many high and lows before settling into life in a very different world. Near the end of his talk Melvin revealed that Moriarty was a fictional character and challenged us to do some thinking about a number of issues.
When: September 2020
Who: Harry Quick
Topic: The Headstone Project
When: August 2020
Who: Ian Miller
Topic: Illustrated travelogue: Scandinavia
When: February 2020
Who: RACT Community Manager Will Oakley and Community Coordinator Grace Ring.
Topic: Then, now and into the future
When: November 2019
Who: Bernard Knight
Topic: Experiences of a cricket umpire
When: October 2019
Who: Tony Hope
Topic: Early Hobart
When: September 2019
Who: Lyn Blaikie
Topic: Exploring the Hebrides and Orkney Islands
When: August 2019
Who: Andrew Shelverton
Topic: Marine Pilot, Hobart Port
When: July 2019
Who: Air Vice Marshall (Ret) Peter Scully
Topic: My RAAF Career
When: June 2019
Who: Jonah Gouldthorpe
Topic: Gardening in pots
When: May 2019
Who: Prof James Vickers
Topic: Dementia: causes, prevention and care
When: April 2019
Who: Alex Heroys, Chief Executive, Destination Southern Tasmania
Topic: Tourism – cruise ships
When: Feb 2019
Who: Graham Sargison
Topic: Walking the Camino
When: November 2018
Who: Nick Brodie
Topic: Vandemonian War
When: October 2018
Who: Ted Best
Topic: The Kimberleys
When: September 2018
Who: Ben Daley
Topic: Tassal’s Aquaculture
When: August 2018
Who: Jeff Leis
Topic: Life cycle of tiny inhabitants of the ocean
When: July 2018
Who: Ross Large (Emeritus Professor of Geology)
Topic: Research into Chemistry and evolution
When: June 2018
Who: Tony Hope
Topic: Tasmanian Fujian (China) Relationship
When: May 2018
Who: Phil Mathers
Topic: Lake Margaret Power Schemes
November 2017
Professor Peter Boyce again gave us all much to think about in respect of the situation of various countries in the Middle East and their allegiances and points of fundamental differences.
September 2017
Graham led the group along an illustrated walk along one
of the iconic English “pub crawls” and gave us an insight
into the fortitude shown by those who undertake such
treks in the atmospheric conditions to be experienced in
the northern part of England.
July 2017
John Short gave us an interesting and
informative talk on his unearthing of the
history behind the Bank Arcade and its links
to the earliest days of the settlement of Hobart
and that of Governor Bligh’s impressions of
the settlement. It was fascinating to hear of
the construct he has been able to make of
some of those times and the part played in the
development of the city.
June 2017
Kevin Hendry gave us an
entertaining and comprehensive talk on his early life as
a young man travelling in Europe in the post war period
of the 1950s.
March 2017
Ian Lewis A.O. informed members, in
his own colourful style, about the
history and interesting features of
Muslim medicine. He no doubt
expected his nemesis, Terry Bowes, to
make an appearance and he was not
disappointed!