Saturday-seminar

Paul Gibbs and Jarrod Fleming gave an in-person talk at the Mary Kehoe Centre, in November 2025. 40 people heard how the Elsternwick Golf Course is being transformed to a Nature Reserve.  Paul Gibbs spoke of the story of how this happened and will continue (he’s the Program Manager). Jarrod Fleming explored the site’s ecological attributes, discussing urban ecology, biodiversity, and the broader environmental benefits of restoring nature in urban settings.

Paul Gibbs (left) to spoke about the journey he has taken from the  beginning of the conversion of the Golf Course to a Nature Reserve. Paul works on Bayside open spaces to ensure they are fit for purpose, now and into the future.

Jarrod Fleming (right) is an experienced ecologist and environmental restoration specialist.  His expertise is constructed wetlands and ecological restoration.  Jarrod is the Project Lead for Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve.

The transformation of the former Elsternwick Park golf course into a natural oasis is bringing nature back into our urban area, and providing refuge and tranquillity for both wildlife and visitors. The new wetlands and water bodies will improve the quality of water flowing into Port Phillip Bay.

The diverse habitat, including new trees and vegetation, is encouraging more native wildlife back to the area, and establishing a biodiversity refuge for exploration, education, and enjoyment for the community.

The project is being delivered and maintained by Bayside City Council, with funding support from the Victorian and Federal Governments.

Paul Gibbs PRESENTATION

Jarrod Fleming’s PRESENTATION

No recording could be made of the seminar due to advice from the presenters.  They were prevented from obtaining full approval from their organisation due to the current Bayside mayoral election.

Electrify Your Home:  What to Know, Where to Start

To electrify our homes, we need to think about the transition from fossil fuel appliances to electric ones, and we were privileged to have James Williams from Australian Energy Assessments to talk to us about the Residential Efficiency Scorecard which helps to personalise this transition journey. The Residential Efficiency Scorecard assessments, provide households with valuable insights, practical recommendations and meaningful steps to improve energy performance and create a more efficient home.

Why use the Residential Efficiency Scorecard you ask?, well, it gives you:

• a efficiency star rating for your home, just like your electrical appliances,
• a clear pathway to reduce your energy costs and emissions.

The Electrify Your Home journey involves transitioning to electricity for all energy needs and includes heating, cooling, cooking, and powering appliances. The goal is to create a more sustainable and efficient home environment with benefits in:

• cost savings: switching to electric appliances can save on energy bills.
• environmental impact: reduce our carbon emissions generated in/by the home.

The interactive seminar answered many audience questions which can be summarised into the following steps that one would take:

Assess the current home setup: Identify which appliances and systems can be replaced with electric alternatives, such as heat pumps for hot water, heating and cooling, induction stoves for cooking, batteries for storage and solar panels for generation, insulation and even draft proofing, all in a language that is understandable by us mere mortals. Knowledge is power.

Plan the upgrade: Prioritises the steps based on available budget and needs. Consider starting with heating and cooling systems, as they often provide the most immediate savings.

Explore Incentives: Take advantage of available State and Federal credits and rebates. These can significantly reduce the upfront costs.

Use qualified service providers: Experienced professionals will guide you through the installation process and ensure that your upgrades are efficient and effective.

With these steps you can successfully electrify your home, leading to more sustainable and cost-effective energy usage.

Reach out to Australian Energy Assessments on 1300 241 149 or the website https://ausenergyassessments.com/book-an-assessment and book your free Residential Efficiency Scorecard assessment.

 Chris Colavizza, Seminar Convener

Presenter: Dr Vera Korasidis

Facilitator: Linda Condon

The slides from the presentation are here.  The video of the presentation is here.

Report by Richard Gough on the Saturday Seminar of 16 August 2025
presented by Dr Vera Koresidis, University of Melbourne

Dr Koresidis’s talk focused on the ability of plants to adapt to six degrees of global warming in the Paleogene period about sixty million years ago. The warming took five thousand years to occur and lasted about a hundred thousand years. The warming arose from the growth in carbon dioxide and methane gases in the atmosphere due to extensive volcanic activity. During the preceding Cretaceous period the earth had been both very damp and warm. This had resulted in different regions of earth having climates quite different from today, e.g. the poles had a tropical climate.

The evidence about plant life was drawn from the very deep layered coal deposits in the Latrobe valley in Gippsland. The coal was formed from wetlands, which were rich in their variety of plants. Analysis of plant pollen in the coal revealed their adaptation to changes in the climate. This fieldwork was complemented by research on dry cliff faces in Bighorn in Wyoming, US.

The implications are for this research for current concerns with climate change is to show that plant ecosystems can adapt, especially by moving to differing climates, which are more supportive. However, global warming today is occurring at a rate ten times faster than the Paleogene period sixty million years ago. Dr Korasidis argued that helping plant ecosystems adapt to faster change in temperature is important, current efforts to reduce climate change are critical. The creation of seed banks is also very important to enable the introduction of extinct plants.

Presentation by Ian Mackay, facilitated by Margo Anderson.

Ian Mackay joined us to tell us about Scotland. There was so much I didn’t know.

Scotland has 150 distilleries that produce Whisky (no E, and the Scottish way of spelling it is Uisge Beatha)) with 40,000 jobs – and the distilleries produce 1.35 BILLION bottles a year – mostly for export – $12Billion in export sales.

Most popular food – Deep Fried Mars bars and Porridge.

I had previously asked Ian what Haggis was, and to please include it. I’m vegetarian, but please go watch the seminar recording if you want to find out. Apparently, it’s very tasty, but you’ll need to watch your cholesterol intake for a while after.

Ian’s Touristy Tips:

• Avoid Summer – apparently, it’s way too populated then. The best months to travel are May, June and September.
• If you’re driving in the Highlands (the least populated area – more on that below), BE Aware: manual transmission is the main rental option. Google driving times are VERY unreliable. There are very few dual carriageways in the Highlands and are mainly single lane with passing areas about every kilometre or mile.
• DON’T Bring Scottish Notes home, unless you’re collecting currency. Scottish notes are NOT legal tender outside of Scotland and England. The Bank of Scotland was the first bank in Europe to successfully print it’s own bank notes.

Then Ian talked about the rivalry about which is better: Edinburgh or Glasgow – Hmmm… watch the video to find out his thoughts on that…!

Clans were developed to protect the people. The Toughest Man in the neighbourhood became the clan leader. An organisational structure was created, but it was NOT family, although many families lived within the area, the organisation protected them.

There are many types of bagpipes, however the most famous one is the Great Highland Bagpipe. Ian had a picture of a gentleman in full regalia with a huge bagpipe. The full regalia included a the full plaid and a kilt. Ian went on to explain that the kilt was really just 12 metres of simple fabric, generally not well coloured, based on the picture he shared with us. King George IV 1822, who wasn’t very popular at the time, hired Sir Walter Scott to do some PR work for him. He regionalised the plaids, and made them brighter. Makes them about 200 years old (and here I thought they had been
around WAY longer that that!)

Then we heard about Sport: Golf… yup, invented in Scotland; Rugby is popular BUT… SOCCER IS HUGE – over 200,000 Scots travelled to Germany to get 20,000 tickets (I hope they had good beer for the ones that didn’t get in).

Scotland’s National Anthem is NOT God save the King, its Flower of
Scotland. I’m listening to it as I write this, with bagpipes, it’s really lovely.

Ian ended with this from Voltaire: We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation. There are so many famous Scottish authors and inventors. Ian listed some.

P.S. (I love knitting, and thought one of my favourite knitting designers, Alice Starmore, who lives in the Shetland Islands, was/is Scottish – is really from a Norse background.)

For those who missed the seminar here is a VIDEO.

Here is a copy of Ian’s SLIDES.

Chris Colavizza, Saturday Seminars

Presentation by Judith Buckrich, facilitated by Michael Perkal.

An absolutely fascinating look at the history of the Yarra Birrarung and the changes that have happened since the first picture that Judy could find. The artwork told the story, perhaps better than any words could. The changes and the rapidity of the changes in Melbourne were amazing. From the first picture to one about twenty years later, Melbourne went from a few huts to a full-on active and large port. Some of the talk was interspersed with pictures much farther away from Melbourne (Warrandyte, for example) same time period as the more industrial ones, but so much more rural and relaxing to look at.

Judy (Dr. Judith Buckrich, she worked VERY hard for the Dr.) was a fantastic presenter and very passionate about Melbourne. We had one viewer already writing to me telling me how amazing she found the pictures (her family has been here since 1840, and she loved seeing what her ancestors would have seen).

I encourage you to watch the video. If, like me, you’ve seen a few pictures of Melbourne at the State Library of Victoria or the Parliament House, and thought, ok, those are nice; you’ll be AMAZED at the diversity of artists and shapes and colour ( yellow area in Kensington because of abattoirs – imagine the smell). Judy
brought the history to life. Thank you, Judy!

Watch the VIDEO of the presentation.
Here are the SLIDES that were shown.

Chris Colavizza

Presentation by Nick Bailey, CEO of the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) facilitated by Helen Vorrath. Saturday Seminar 16^th November.

Nick opened his talk by showing a video of young 18 year old violinist, Louise, playing with a pianist Ravel’s Tzigane for orchestra M76. She played the solo violin part at the beginning superbly with intense concentration, dramatic phrasing and feeling for the music.

Nick used her example to elaborate on the elite quality of the 20 musicians a year, who enter the ANAM programme. He explained that the young musicians are exposed continuously to live performance, as distinct from just practicing with a teacher in a studio, which is the standard method of conservatorium’s of music in universities. The public performance part of ANAM’s approach is aimed at engaging with its community. He said that the students’ enjoyment in interacting with the audience comes across in their playing. Members of U3A Port Phillip are able to attend, for free, these performances by contacting ANAM and joining it as ANAM-mates.

Nick also said that ANAM also differed from university or other musical training, in that it did not grant degrees or diplomas. Another of ANAM’s unique features is that each of the young performers is paired with a composer, who creates a piece of music for them to perform. This does not occur in any other prestigious musical academies throughout the world.

Nick also gave an account of the history of the development of ANAM from the mid 1990s, when it was created by a decision by the then Prime Minister Paul Keating with support from the State Premier Jeff Kennett. ANAM at this stage was 95 per cent funded by Federal Government funding. ANAM was housed in the old South Melbourne Town Hall. However, ANAM did not develop a clear plan of what it was to be and did not have any involvement with the local community of Port Phillip during its first decade.

It suffered a near death experience, when the then Minister for the Arts, Peter Garrett, decided to cease funding ANAM and close it down. Strong protests and a petition signed by thousands led to it surviving. It changed its funding model away from total reliance on the Federal Government to a variety of sources including funding from private donors. It developed its current model of developing young musicians, with ideas from a number of staff, including Nick.

Nick also explained the story of the water damage of the old town hall, which led to ANAM leaving the building for temporary premises for the old convent in Abbotsford. He indicated that with funding assistance by Port Phillip Council and money from public donations, the structural problems have been fixed and a major refurbishment of the building is under way. The refurbishment aims to make it more appropriate for ANAM needs and also those of the community. These changes are underway and will be ready by 2026. In his presentation he provided a number of examples of what the building will look like. Further community support will be needed to finance the changes.

See the one hour VIDEO of the presentation.

Richard Gough, Co-Coordinator,  Saturday Seminars.

Dr Zara Thompson, the presenter from the University of Melbourne, started out with “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”. We sang it, and then added movement. I did ok on the first two times through but got mixed up on the last two. I may have been laughing too hard.

Zara proceeded to explain to all of us about the problems we all have (not just older people) of new action and memory. This was a fabulous entry into the rest of her presentation. What we learned is that learning to play an instrument assists in preventing memory loss and so many other skills. If you play or learn with a group, your well-being improves because of the interaction, your identity and autonomy, confidence, and many other benefits are realized. Zara also emphasized finding the right teacher, one that is able to teach YOU, not you learning their way of doing it, but the way YOU need to learn. I encourage you to watch the seminar, if only to chuckle at yourself as you sing “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”.

Here is the RECORDING of the Seminar.

Zara has provided a list of resources (teachers, studies, etc) as mentioned in her talk.

Report written by Chris Colavizza.

Helen Vorrath was the facilitator.