• Addresses 2022

Speakers during 2022

Every month, Probus Perth invites a speaker to address members on his or her particular field of expertise or endeavour. Below are summaries of talks given recently.

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MEMORIES OF THE FIFTIES IN PERTH

Ron Banks April 2022

He was born after the war. His father had returned from serving in Syria where he had received wounds and carried the shrapnel for the rest of his life.  Their home was in Mosman Park which was  quite a different suburb from what it is today.  Then it had The Rope Works, Sugar Mills, Fertiliser factory and General Motors Assembly plant which made it quite a working class suburb. Ron and his sister attended Cottesloe State School where they joined in the playtime activities of marbles, hop scotch, skipping, climbing bars and the Yo Yo craze which was promoted by Coca Cola. Bikes were ridden to school and after hours were spent unsupervised, riding bikes, swimming, surfing, footie, hockey or basketball for the girls.  Inside was no TV but board games of Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly or checkers.

Ron took the audience down memory lane.

Other entertainment was the Saturday afternoon pictures – the Saturday Matinee, inside in the winter and outside in the summer. The Camelot outdoor cinema is still operating.

Ron recalled going to a fund-raising concert for Wendy Nash in the Cottesloe Civic Centre.  She was 15 and had been selected for a scholarship to London and went on to become a concert pianist.  He also remembered his first encounter with celebrity when Sabrina came to town and was living in a house in Mosman Park.  She was performing at His Majesty’s in “Pleasures of Paris” which Ron did not attend!  However he and his mates lined up outside the house and were rewarded with the sight of Sabrina and her mother in the back of a black limousine.

Ron says it was a time of peace and harmony and lots of freedom for children.

Most households kept chickens in their back yards and roast chicken was a delicacy – often had for Christmas dinner.  Other fare generally followed the English diet of chops, stews, sausages and mince with overcooked vegies.  Ron remember the tripe in white sauce that his mother made as a treat for his father, and the crumbed brains for him when he had tonsillitis. Other offal such as liver and kidneys and pigs trotters were often part of the diet for families.

Women were generally kept busy in the home and few went out for paid employment.  Girls were not expected to achieve academic greatness and boys were expected to get apprenticeships.

He reminded us that when TV came in 1960, many lined up outside shop windows to watch programs such as Gunsmoke, 77 Sunset Strip and Cookie.  Televisions were too expensive for the worker but they did give the first contact with American culture.

Ron had won a teachers’ bursary, but was not enthusiastic about being a teacher.  He always wanted to be a journalist. At 16 he applied for a cadetship with the West Australian but was not successful. He then applied to Dunlop as a trainee executive but one week in the job convinced him it was not for him.  Having passed the Leaving he decided to take up the Teaching Scholarship and following his degree he taught for 7 years, but being a journalist was still calling him.  So as a mature age student he went to WAIT and qualified.  He was then fortunate to have a job on the West for many years reporting on the Art Scene.

He then called on the audience to give any memories of theirs and this brought up Drive in Theatres, registering bikes and the bike number plate, cutting off chooks heads with an axe and seeing the headless body run for a bit, going to Sunday School,   There were many more memories that could have been discussed but the time had run out!

Thank you Ron for the Nostalgia

Wendy McCallum

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Bugs and Habitat in the Garden

Faye Acaro May 2022

Faye’s enthusiasm for Nature and her dedication to the habitat in all gardens was inspiring and very entertaining.

She won the 2007 Gardener of the Year presented by Josh Byne of the ABC Gardening Australia and has kept up her love by not only working in her own garden, but also giving advice and encouragement to all by talks and her broadcast on Curtin Radio each Saturday morning.

She lives on 4 acres in Jandacot in banskia bushland where she says she is forever fighting the soil. She has produced ‘rooms’ of different types of gardens and is now very keen on fungi and slime moulds. So far she has identified 682 species on her property.  She is an avid photographer and has many many photos as well as videos of the amazing creatures that can be found by carefully watching.  Her advice is to look and then look more closely.  The more you look the more you see.

She urged the audience to spend time in Nature and just ‘listen’. She described many wonderful things she had observed by just sitting quietly and listening and watching.

She described how she saw birds flapping their wings only to discover they were disturbing insects to swoop on, ant lions building conical traps in the sand to catch ants, ladybirds eating aphids, wasps pollinating flowers, the magic of spider webs etc.

She stressed how what we may regard as pests, are very important in the integration of the habitat.

She suggested that all gardens need some flowers, some prickly bushes and a bird bath.

She is enthusiastic to spread the word or how important the integration of all species in the environment is to keep a healthy planet.

Thank you Faye for a very enlightening talk.

Wendy McCallum

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Let’s not be Serious

Cyril Ayris June 2022

Cyril’s career was as a reporter on the ‘West Australian’ newspaper. He recounted many anecdotes from his years as a cadet reporter through to being the Police Reporter.

As a cadet he told of the ‘scoop’ the West Australian had with regard to the atomic bomb test that was rumoured to occur in Australia.    But where and when? Only the Prime Minister Bob Menzies knew and he had been sworn to secrecy.  All reporters and newspapers were anxious to be the first to discover and report on the event.  The editor Jim McCartney had a hunch it would be in WA as one of the country contacts reported an influx of strangers in the north west of WA. Jim deduced that the place would be the Montebello Islands. He sent a full scale expedition to the beach opposite the Islands.  No mean feat in those days, with gravel roads north of Carnarvon and a 50 km path that had to be made from the road to the beach.  Doug Burton the photographer flew up with the renowned pilot Jimmy Woods to Mardi Station. All were rewarded on the 3^rd October 1952 when a mushroom cloud appeared. The film was rushed by truck to Mardi Station, Jimmy Woods flew as fast as he could to Perth with Doug Burton and the film.  Once in Perth the security confiscated the film – or so they thought – but the cunning two had a dummy in the case and the real film was in Jimmy Woods pocket.  The film was published before the test was announced in the British Parliament.  A real scoop for the West Australian.

Cyril recounted another amazing episode when the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh in 1954 made their first visit to Perth.  The paper had to be printed before the ship docked, so an elaborate plan was made.  Permission gained for a low fly over the Gothic and the reporter got his photo. Then a low flight over the press boat and the film dropped and recovered from the water.  The boat sped to the Barrack St jetty where Cyril was waiting in his shorts and running shoes.  A sprint up to St George’s Terrace where a string with a bulldog clip was dangling from the Newspaper office – success – the photo made the news.

Cyril kept us very amused with many stories relating to events during his days as a police reporter. But he also had serious moments telling of the time he went to Borneo to find the lost Penan tribe – the last of those living in the old way in the jungle. They grew sago and shot wild boar with blow pipes. However most tribes had lost their livelihood because the Japanese had done clear felling  and it was rumoured there was only one tribe left.  Cyril flew to Kuching, then spent 3 days on a long boat going up river to a primitive village.  As luck would have it he found a schoolteacher who had an idea where the tribe was and was able to speak their language.  Another day up river and Cyril was able to get his story. He was appalled to see logs piled 8-10 deep for 300 km and discover that all this timber was just waste! With the soil being exposed it was very quickly becoming denuded and washed away – the sea was red.  What a tragedy!

He concluded his talk with how he flew through the sound barrier on an RAAF Mirage Fighter based in Pearce.  The pilot was Wing Commander Bracknell and as it was his last flight he took the plane through many manoeuvres  – so exciting and terrifying that once on the ground Cyril lost his breakfast!

Cyril is a wonderful raconteur and very interested in local history and brought along some of the books he has written. These included, Fremantle Prison, The Tunnels at the Prison, CY O’Connor and Chameleon.

What an interesting career Cyril has had and we enjoyed his talk very much.

Wendy McCallum

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Hamish McGlashan July 2022

When the scheduled guest speaker was forced to cancel at the last minute, club member Dr Hamish McGlashan generously stepped in and provided us with a fascinating and entertaining glimpse of his early years as a young doctor in Africa.

As a newly qualified doctor in 1963 Hamish was drawn by advertisements for doctors in Uganda and Tanganyika (Tanzania today) and, after a brief interview, found himself on a ship heading for Dar es Salaam, which he described as ‘the most beautiful port in the world.” He was sent up country to a small hospital, completely inexperienced and unprepared for all the work he would have to do. Luckily he was under the supervision of the dour but skilful Chief Medical Officer who, as Hamish said, “Taught me everything I know.”  After 6 months Hamish was transferred to an area the size of Wales, where he became the only doctor, responsible for the health and treatment of the entire population. It was here that he was faced by his first post mortem, especially horrific as the body had already been buried for 3 weeks and had to be exhumed. A major highlight of Hamish’s time here was his management of a smallpox epidemic which he succeeded in wiping out with an aggressive vaccination programme. This was especially significant because it proved to be the world’s last smallpox epidemic.

Hamish returned to the UK to undergo 4 years’ specialist training before returning to Africa. This time to Kenya for two and a half years, and then to settle in WA.

Hamish concluded by talking about his time exploring in the Kimberley, his interest in Aboriginal art and his recent trip to Europe.

It was a fascinating account of Hamish’s early life as a doctor when opportunity took him to places and situations he had not foreseen but which gave him professional skills and many happy memories. His concluding diagnosis? “ Coincidences change lives.”

Barbara Godwin

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ART WITH A PURPOSE

David Hounsome August 2022

David kept us all very engaged with the different forms of art and the different reasons for the message art conveys.

He spoke of Banksy and how his art is like a mirror – letting us see what is happening.  This is obvious and didactic.

However, recent art is mysterious and transgressive and breaks all the accepted rules of art. For example he told of the exhibit of an empty gallery where the lights just turned on and off. This exhibit won the Ultimo Turner Prize in 2001. The half apple and half pear that were joined with a brass screw that had to be renewed constantly as the apple and pear browned.One of Manzoni’s cans of supposedly his faeces called Artists Shit had been bought for 97,000 British Pounds.

To many in the audience these and other examples given by David did not illustrate what they thought of as art.

David explained that when the Box Brownie camera became available in the early 1900’s this took away a lot of the reason for artists to do portraits and landscapes as the images could be taken on film. So artists then concentrated on emotional responses. Marcel Duchamp in 1913 exhibited a Bicycle Wheel and in 1917 showed a urinal that he labelled “Fountain.”

The monochromes (single colour paintings) then followed with Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square which prompted many artists to follow painting in monochrome.

Other art was really propaganda and David illustrated this with a wonderful painting of Mao, not as he presently was but as a young man inspiring others. 900 million of these posters were produced all to promote Mao. Others portrayed the role of blacks, while women’s rights were the causes for others.

So many wonderful paintings were shown by David as he explained the symbolism used and the messages that were being portrayed. His last image was that of the huge sculpture Angel of the North by Antony Gormley located in Gateshead and said to represent the loss of heavy industries in the North East of England.

Members agreed they had learnt a lot and had been provoked to feel and either understand or disagree with some depictions of art.

Thank you David – we really appreciated your knowledge and the wide range of art you presented to us.

Wendy McCallum

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Journeys through the Defence Heritage of WA

Graham McKenzie-Smith AM Sept 2022

Graham gave an expertly researched and detailed account of WA’s defence operations and sites from World War 2 up to the present day.

He informed Probus members about the many Army, Navy and Air Force museums, not only in Perth, Albany and Fremantle, but throughout the State.He described the defence sites still visible including coastal guns and tunnels from Albany to Fremantle and Rottnest and radar stations from the Kimberley to Albany.

Graham concluded by acknowledging the War Cemeteries in Perth and Geraldton and Memorials throughout the State.

Barbara Godwin

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‘Not Always Diplomatic’

Sue Boyd, AM, October 2022

In one of the most entertaining and enlightening talks this year, former diplomat Sue Boyd transported us all into a fascinating field, far from familiar to most Australians. This £10 Pom [born in Calcutta, 1946], told us of her family’s arrival in WA in 1966, just before she began a course at UWA from which Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Politics and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education, then about her 34-year career (1970–2003) in Australia’s Foreign Service as one of its first and most effective female diplomats.

During that interval, Sue held numerous senior postings, both in High Commissions (in Commonwealth countries) and in Embassies (in other countries). Having realised quite early on that diplomacy had great appeal, she went on to fashion a role superior to a woman’s; Sue managed to hold her own in fine style against opponents of both sexes, remaining single (she intimated that she borrowed the odd husband from time to time), at all times revelling in her work and always working seriously on behalf of her newly-adopted Australia.

While young, Sue had moved continuously due to her father’s army postings, in the process becoming fluent in French, German and Portuguese. She learned early on that Australia’s diplomatic aims were threefold:

• Find out what’s happening at your post;
• What does this mean for Australia? and
• What should Australia do as a result?

Her first posting was to Portugal; here she became part of the ‘Carnation Revolution’, during which Portugal shed its colonies. Her next posting was to East Timor, where the residents were debating whether to join Indonesia, to remain with their homeland or to seek independence. Because the Timorese would not accept a woman as a serious diplomat, she became ensconced in Darwin adjacent to a hostile RAAF Commander. We were told in extremely graphic language about their fascinating jousts. Sue claims she came out on top simply by addressing the job at hand.

Her other postings of great interest included East Germany during the Cold War, and Bangladesh, where, as a ‘daughter of the regiment’, she managed to be the only diplomat able to fraternise intimately with Islamic men and women, both. In East Germany, Sue later discovered that the Stasi had kept an 806-page file on her (see ‘The Lives of Others!’).

Sue’s most interesting and satisfying postings were to Fiji (during the ‘Speight coup’) and to Vietnam, where Australia gained a great advantage due to a boycott of that country by the USA during the 1990s.

On her retirement, Sue took 18 months to write her autobiography, ‘Not Always Diplomatic’, then began an entirely new career as an executive business coach. You may follow all of this much more closely on Sue’s website, https://www.sueboyd.com.au/, or read her story, which is reviewed at https://www.sueboyd.com.au/reviews.

Ned Overton

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Novel Exercise Approaches and Exercise for Cancer Sufferers

Dr Jack Dalla Via, November 2022

Jack works at the Health Innovation Research Institute and explained to us a few of the many experiments that are being done or have been done prescribing exercises  for all and in particular for recovering cancer patients.

Resistance exercises are very important.  This is where the muscle contraction is resisted by an outside source.  These exercises help in building muscle mass, strength and power which in turn boosts energy, helps balance and reduces the risk of falls.

He suggested we all did “snacking” meaning doing short exercises for 10 -15 minutes a few times a day.  As yet it has not been ascertained how many times is best.

Exercises need to be challenging and increase in intensity as mastery is achieved, Exercises should involve multi joints – squats, lunges, push ups etc. Others should be weight bearing such as hopping, jumping skipping etc. Balance exercises are also important – both legs, and single leg. Stabilising exercises such as a plank give core strengthening.These all help in staving off osteoporosis, keeping balance and avoiding falls and hip fractures.

With one experiment he described, there were 38 participants with an average age of 70 years. They were required to do 4 weeks of exercises and exercise ‘snacking’.

Another 3 month experiment with 9 female and 6 males involved Amazon Alexa being downloaded on a Ipad.  The participants were shown how to do the exercise and given encouragement from Alexa. They were required to exercise twice a day for the first month, three times in the second month and 4 times in the third month.

With these experiments there were varying rates of success.  Motivation and social interaction played a big part as to whether the participants followed the program fully, partially or just gave up.

Jack then turned to cancer patients and explained that we had a high rate of cancer diagnosis in Australia, but a good rate of recovery. However, side effects can last for a long time particularly with vascular problems.  Often people die from heart problems caused by the treatment rather than from the cancer itself.

Jack’s  PhD involved working with those who had suffered prostate cancer.  His research had required patients to exercise after having androgen deprivation treatment to see if reduced muscle and bone mass could be reduced by regular exercise. An exercise physiologist had helped design the exercises for each patient. The results were not as positive as Jack had hoped and he considered other factors such as diet, commitment, encouragement to improve the benefits of resistance training and exercise.

Wendy McCallum