Saturday-seminar

MAPPING PORT MELBOURNE

MARGARET BRIDE & JANET BOLITHO

19 AUGUST 2017

A study of the Yarra delta from the 1850s to today.

An enthusiastic audience of 50 including several visiting members of the Port Phillip Historical & Preservation Society listened to a detailed talk based on a study of the development and realignment of the Yarra, its impact on the Sandridge, Port Melbourne and Fishermans Bend precincts and on the economy of Melbourne.

Janet Bolitho and Margaret Bride co-ordinated this project for the PMH&PS with a generous endowment from the Auty family, descendants of the original settlers of Port Melbourne, the family of WFE Liardet.

The landscape of Port Melbourne has been hugely changed by human intervention since white settlement. The shape and the course of the Yarra River have been changed, the swampy terrain is now covered with roads and other hard surfaces, and there is a new landmass at the mouth of the river. Through a series of maps and aerial photographs, “Mapping Port Melbourne” graphically presented these changes that were planned, some discarded and others implemented, and their effect on Melbourne’s ports.

An active Q&A ensued with recollections of life in the 1930s and 40s and discussions on future developments of our ports to enable the receipt and discharge of goods into the second half of the 21^st century.

ADVANCE CARE PLANNING

SHARON BILLINGS

17 JUNE 2017

Sharon Billings is a clinician working within the Alfred Advance Care Planning department.

Initially Sharon discussed the importance of preparing a Will, an Enduring Power of Attorney and an Enduring Medical Power of Attorney.

In each case these documents appoint people to make decisions on your behalf.

Sharon went on to explain that Advance Care Planning is a process that ensures your family and treating healthcare team understand what is important to you and how you want to be treated if you become unable to make decisions or communicate your wishes.

In conclusion she stressed that it’s never too early to detail the way you want to live at the end of your life and therefore the need to communicate the kind of care you do or don’t want for yourself. Alfred Advance Care using their wealth of experience in these matters is well placed to guide and record these decisions.

A continuous stream of questions indicated a genuine interest from the almost thirty-strong audience.

HEDY & FRIENDS
STRING QUARTET

20 MAY 2017

The Hall was almost full to bursting point as 84 members, friends and public were entertained with an afternoon of chamber music featuring a string quartet led by Hedy Mameghan on viola with Bill Forrest first violin, Moyra Cummings second violin and Claire Shephard on cello.

Selections from works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Franz Schubert were delivered with great passion, receiving warm applause from an appreciative audience. Hedy introduced each selection with an explanation if it’s construction and significance within the development of classical music in the 18th and 19th centuries.

A final encore set a “guess the composer” test for the audience, most of whom felt it was Piazzola. The correct answer was “Por un Cabeza” written in the 1930s by the Argentinian, Carlos Gardel making an interesting contrast to the preceding works.

As the friends usually play once or twice a month, enjoying making music in a home environment, the opportunity to extend their talents in an open space was relished. The volume of the final applause was their reward and capped off an entertaining afternoon.

Mark Denniston, Course Co-ordination Team

THE POLITICAL IS PERSONAL, A 20^th CENTURY MEMOIR

JUDITH BUCKRICH

18 MARCH 2017

An audience of 40 members welcomed and were enthralled by the extraordinary life lived by this independent, determined woman which began in the mid-20^th and continues today.

Judith Buckrich was born in Hungary of a communist father and a Jewish mother who had suffered and eventually escaped the Nazi terror of Auschwitz.

She ended up in Australia in a society that encouraged her independence and a determination to right all political wrongs, espouse women’s liberation, marry, have a child then continue at the same time to write plays, act on stage and latterly to write books. At last count 13 published and the 14^th, a history of Acland Street about to be released.

As some one said to me afterwards – “..she made me feel very inadequate. I am in awe of her energy”.

Mark Denniston – Course Co-ordination Team

MAIDEN VOYAGE, AN AUSTRALIAN SONG CYCLE

LORRAINE MILNE

18 FEBRUARY 2017

Lorraine Milne took an audience of 30 members on a journey of the development of Australia through the eyes of ordinary and outstanding women in a cycle of 13 songs, the lyrics written by Lorraine and supported by her own compositions.

Beginning with the First Fleet, through wars, emancipation, Liberation and political achievements she wove a pattern of independence and resilience that resonates today with the freedoms available to all Australians but still with all the indignities and restrictions that face our women.

Mark Denniston – Course Co-ordination Team