A photographic 80 birthday

Volume 7, Issue 2
February/March 2010
We aim for inclusiveness and openness, catering for a diversity of views without rancour.
A photographic 80th birthday
The Somers Yacht Club provided
the perfect venue for Rod Nuske’s
special day. About 80 guests attended including daughter Amanda
and husband Wayne from Terrigal.
The event was ably catered for by
Vic Crust and his staff with added
help from Rod’s grandchildren and
his son Tim presiding over the bar.
An exhibition of photographs
illustrated Rod and Pauline’s family
life and the professional work he’d
been engaged in during 57 years of
living in Somers. Pauline grew up in
Somers but succumbed to illness in
2002. A large cartoon of Rod drawn
by friend(?) Barry Merton greeted
guests as they mounted the stairs. An
excellent string quartet of young musicians provided a very pleasant
background to the buzz of conversation during the afternoon.
A projected display of photographs prepared by son Nic was introduced by eldest son Simon, illustrating highlights of Rod’s life covering his early clerical days and the
later photographic and printing career at HMAS Cerberus. A definite
highlight of this period was being
introduced to the Queen in 1981.
Part-time occupations included photography for The Westernport News
and wedding photography.
Rod was no stranger to the yacht
club as he and Pauline had sailed
together for over 20 years and he
had been Chairman of the Social
Committee and then Newsletter Editor for 14 years. Rod explained that
he was far from being a competent
sailor or swimmer and had in fact,
during a presentation night, provided
Pauline with a medal for bravery.
Simon recalled an incident that
had obviously stayed in his memory
all his life which was when the farfrom-new Holden struggled to get
up the Bulli Pass towing a caravan.
1
Slower and slower the car went as
the automatic clutch started to fail.
“Quick, get out and put a stone behind the wheel!” was the anxious
command from an anxious Rod. The
startled family hopped out into the
pouring rain and managed the task
which stopped impending disaster
and enabled the agitated father to
arrange for a tow truck to pull the
car and van over the crest of the hill.
After the telling of these family
secrets the splendid cake in the
shape of a substantial tennis racquet
was duly cut, ending off what had
been a wonderful day for Rod surrounded by family and friends.
Removal of pine trees
The Editors,
Editorial Committee:
 The enclosed Haiku is for an ob-
noxious bin.
The Editors,
Dear friends,
It is close to the high 30s and as I walk
from Ocean View Crescent I look for
a seat in the shade to rest. I actively
miss my favourite seat under the pine
trees that were opposite Palm Beach
Grove.
I have read the information from
the Foreshore Committee about why,
in their view, the removal of the pines
was necessary. I disagree. All I know is
we have lost a valued shady space in
which to watch the ocean and enjoy a
special part of Somers.
I feel exactly the same about the
pines as Mandy Kotzman does about
the council’s recent pruning. Familiar
trees under which I have walked and
sat for twenty years are gone. They
provided shelter from sun and rain,
welcome shade and protection from
the elements.
Now all we have is a hot, bare
space where weeds are starting to
flourish. I do not believe the environmental concerns as outlined were sufficient reason to remove these trees.
I feel their loss outweighs any potential gain. The vegetation which will
replace these pines will never offer the
shade and ambience they did; and my
much loved seat has gone.
Every time I walk past now the
bare and raw stumps remind me of
what we have lost.
By all means do not plant pine
trees now and remove old ones when
they are diseased. But keep and enjoy
healthy pines, pines which give the
Peninsula part of its unique character.
Yours sincerely,
Leanne Newson
quote
 Your paper is strong on ‘popular’
energy topics – world wide.
 You cannot smell the news at your
nose!!
A Haiku to a Somers Bin
Stinking filthy bin
Somers store car park near the top
Flies haven for disease
Sincerely,
Frank A. Lees AM MBE
Reply from the
Committee of Management:
The smelly bin is really an issue with
the contractor employed by the
MPSC (that’s a service the Shire provides to the community, not CoM).
But what’s worse, an occasional
‘waft’ as the lid is lifted, or the smelly
squish beneath your feet?
From my discussions with the
Shire, the bins are emptied more
frequently during the holiday period,
not just weekly.
Anne Doran
– co-ordination & advertising
Rod Nuske
– reporter & photographer
Louise Craig
– copy editor & proofreader
Bronwen Gibbs
– layout artist
Vicky Arena
– children’s pages
Rosemary Birney
– secretary
Marg Tilleard
– treasurer
Correspondence:
Email:
annie13@tadaust.org.au
Mail :
PO Box 338, Somers, Vic. 3927
Website:
www.somers-nautilus.org.au
Printing:
Curry Printing, Mornington
©Copyright remains with the
authors & editors. Secretary, SFCofM
Earth Hour 2010
At 8.30pm (local time) on Saturday
27 March, the greatest show on
Earth for action on climate change
will take place in homes, office
buildings, town halls and public
places around the globe as lights go
out for Earth Hour 2010.
With 807 cities, towns and municipalities and 82 countries across every
continent already signed up, Earth Hour
2010 is set to show the world that a
resolution to the threat of global warming is possible through collective action.
Whether you are an individual, a
business, a school or a city you can
show your support.
Check out the Earth Hour 2010
website and find fun ways to get involved:
www.earthhour.org
2
Nautilus
on the Web.
Don’t forget back issues
of The Nautilus are
available for viewing
at www.somers-nautilus.org.au
Pine Trees Again
Yellow-tailed
Black Cockatoo
Editors,
Somers Paper Nautilus,
Scientific Name: Calyptorhynchus
funereus
On behalf of our flight of Yellowtailed Black Cockatoos, I wish to
complain most bitterly at the removal of our feasting pine trees on
your foreshore. Each year we have
flown quite some distance from the
Gurnies across Westernport, and this
year we arrive to find our best trees
no longer there! Who is responsible
for this outrage? Point them out to
us and we will deal with them in the
appropriate manner.
Yours screechingly,
Blackie
I noticed that this year there was a
very diminished number of the beautiful Black Cockatoos visiting Somers and those that came not staying
long or enjoying their time here. Perhaps this letter from ‘Blackie’ explains their plight!
Name and address supplied.
Time to de-head
Agapanthus
Despite Agapanthus plants being
sold in our local nurseries, they are
known to be an environmental weed
on the Mornington Peninsula. Left
to themselves they can spread by the
thousands and become uncontrollable.
To keep them under control, remove the spent flowers as soon as
possible. Now is the time!
If you are too busy to do the full
job immediately, here is a quick way
to deal with it. Take a garbage bag,
twist the flower heads right off the
stem, bag them and place in the garbage bin. Later, when you have more
time, you can snip off the unsightly
stalks if you wish. At least your Agapanthus will have been contained.
Take action NOW and protect
our environment.
The following information is from:
www.reptilepark.com.au
Did You Know? The southern
populations of this bird are exclusively seed eaters and will form huge
flocks to feed on the cones of pine
trees in commercial plantations.
Reply
The reasons for the removal of pine
trees have been explained many
times in this paper. Yes, black cockatoos love eating the seeds from pinetree cones, but their natural food,
before the pines were introduced to
this country from Europe, was (and
is) from various tree species indigenous to Australia. Those of you who
love the cockatoos would do well to
plant some of these species in your
gardens and to help the foreshore
committee volunteers to re-plant
them in the area where the pines
were removed. Another area where
pines have been removed is Banksia
Square, which currently has no banksias. The black cockies also absolutely love the seeds of Hakea nodosa.
I know this because they come to my
garden to eat them. They nest in very
tall gum trees, so the frequent removal of gum trees (increasingly
often being replaced with palm trees)
is another reason for the reduced
numbers of black cockatoos and
other native fauna, including koalas.
She-oaks are another source of food
for black cockatoos and I didn’t notice any public outcry when a large
stand of same was illegally removed
from the eastern cliffs reserve.
Louise Craig
3
Habitat: This black cockatoo is
usually seen in pairs or in small
flocks which normally inhabit forests and heathlands, though at certain times they appear in more open
country. They are a nomadic bird
which is found from central Queensland through eastern New South
Wales, Victoria, south-east South
Australia, Tasmania, King Island and
larger Bass Strait islands.
Diet: The natural food is varied,
but much of the diet comprises
seeds of native trees, particularly
Casurina but also Eucalyptus, Acacia, Banksia and Hakea. They are
very fond of the larvae of treeboring beetles and moths, and strip
the bark from the trees and tear
away at the wood to find them.
Reproduction: The breeding
season is variable throughout the
range. The male displays by spreading his tail and raising his crest.
Black cockatoos nest in holes in gum
trees at a great height from the
ground. The hollow is about 25cm
wide at the entrance, and is enlarged
at the bottom by the birds to about
40cm. One or two eggs are laid, but
only one young bird is normally
reared. The male diligently feeds the
female during incubation. He alights
near the hole and calls to her. She
then comes out to be fed after which
she returns tail first back into the
nesting hollow.
David Gibbs
– our lawyer/fireman
Some people have trouble keeping
even one ball in the air at a time
while others can juggle several and
still walk around smiling. David
Gibbs is one of the latter; he has a
solid legal practice to manage, with
all the complexities this throws up
and he has a passion beyond his legal
practice (more of this later).
David was born in Eaglehawk
near Bendigo. His father was a real
old-fashioned country doctor but his
wartime presence at the RAAF installation in Somers kindled the fam-
Looking forward to
autumn ‘arvo’ teas?
Here is a recipe for a delicious Fruit
Tea Cake. It takes almost no time to
prepare, takes only 35 to 40 minutes to
cook and, because it has very little butter, it is relatively healthy for those
watching what they eat.
Serve it up warm with fruit puree
instead of cream or butter and your
guests will be blown away.
You will need:
 1 egg, separated
 ½ cup caster sugar (raw caster
sugar may be a healthier choice)
 ½ cup skim milk with ½ tsp of
vanilla extract
 1 cup of self-raising flour, sifted
(use wholemeal if you wish)
ily’s association with this area.
(David can remember the late Stan
Byrne from the days when he was
Warrant Officer at the camp.) Family
holidays ensued, staying in a rented
house in Tasman Road. Like so
many people who recall their youthful days in Somers, David fondly
remembers knocking around with
other teenagers, boating in the creek
below the Store, going to the outdoor picture shows at the camp; but
there were two happenings that
would be life changing. Firstly, with
some mates he joined the Somers
CFA and secondly, he met Bronwen
Williams who was to become his
wife. They married on Bronwen’s
grandmother’s property in Mount
Macedon.
Getting back to his teenage years,
David needed to pursue his tertiary
education. Just what drove him towards the law is uncertain but having
made the decision he threw himself
into his legal studies, graduating in
1975 as Bachelor of Jurisprudence
and two years later as Bachelor of
Law; both at Monash University. In
1978 David was admitted as Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme
Court of Victoria and subsequently
he established the law firm, David
Gibbs and Associates in Hastings;
this was in 1980 and he is in practice
there to this day.
By now, Somers had become the
family base. The land next to the
holiday house they had rented was
available and the Gibbs’ bought the
land and a church – a much-travelled
church (it had been transported from
Tyabb to Somers and then to another site in Somers before they
bought it), relieved it of its ecclesiastical connections and plonked it on
their block. In time, two children
arrived, Jessica and Angus.
 30g unsalted butter, melted
 4 to 6 halved plums, peaches, apri-
prepared tin and top with the fruit, cut
side down. Bake 35 to 40 minutes,
until a skewer inserted in the centre
comes out clean.
4. Remove from the oven and,
while still hot, brush the top with
melted butter and sprinkle over the
cinnamon and sugar mixture. Enjoy
warm.
cots, nectarines, apples, pears or
the equivalent amount of cherries –
or a packet of frozen raspberries
Topping:
20g of butter, melted
½ tsp cinnamon mixed with 1 tbsp
sugar
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees
C, butter a 20-cm diameter sandwichcake tin and line base with baking paper.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat
the eggwhite until stiff peaks form,
then mix in the egg yoke. Gradually
add the sugar, beating well after each
addition, then the milk mixture, beating well after each addition. Gently stir
in the flour and melted butter.
3. Pour the mixture into the
4
David’s membership of the CFA
continued (for 38 years in fact and is
ongoing), but his involvement was to
go far beyond putting out fires (or
‘running a fire’ which is the terminology used). He found himself
moving into the administrative side
of things. First he was the Deputy
Group Officer for six years and then
he became Group Officer, covering
13 fire brigades over a region from
Langwarren to Shoreham and Mornington to Red Hill. Included in this
area are the major-hazard facilities of
the Esso Plant and Bluescope Steel.
David keeps a suitcase with five
days’ supply of clothes in his office
and he has needed them. As a levelthree incident controller he was involved in the management of fires as
far afield as Horsham, Swifts Creek,
Mount Beauty, Bairnsdale, Packenham and Kangaroo Ground with the
employment of up to 90 appliances.
Nowadays David is on the CFA
board and is required to attend their
meetings at headquarters in Burwood. For all his troubles he has
been awarded the Australian Fire
Service Medal, which is part of the
Australian honours system.
David’s position in the CFA requires him to attend functions, such
as award nights, all around the state
and he enjoys these; he says, “I meet
some awesome people”.
Somehow, David has found (or
made) time to become active in various other community activities. He
served on the Somers Primary
School Council for four years and
was president for two, was on the
council of Westernport Secondary
College and was on the Board of
Directors of the Woodleigh School
for 16 years and chairman for seven.
Add to that his work with the Somers Foreshore Committee and the
Somers Yacht Club and you have the
sum of a man who can obviously be
hyper-active without going crazy!
The core of David’s existence is
his family and his legal practice but
remembering that he just joined the
CFA all those years ago for a bit of
fun, the fun morphed into a very
serious commitment, almost a passion you might say. One good thing
about such a passion is that it is for
the community’s good, not like putting ships in bottles or collecting
china mugs.
The foreshore now has a number of chainsaw-crafted ‘objets d’art’ which include the echidnas
sculpture opposite the Store. This has proven to be quite an attraction to young children such
as Harrison and Isabella who have found the wooden spikes are less prickly than the real
ones. Further down the foreshore is the log seat which on this occasion is occupied by Jo Shoppee with a very young Archie.
Coolart Plumbing
Drainage, Roofing
Sewerage Connection
Contact Peter Tickell
5983 5936
Mobile: 0407 329 800
Barry Merton
5
6
SFCofM Open Letter
The volunteer members of the
SFCoM endeavour to keep the community fully informed about the various projects and activities undertaken in managing the Somers Foreshore Reserve. Unfortunately, lack of
finances and resources means that
this information does not always
reach every resident in Somers.
We do have a regular Newsletter
and we can email these to any person
who requests such, plus we place
current information on the noticeboards outside the PO and in the
upper car park, with further noticeboards to go in the lower car park
environs. We have also placed signage in situ explaining each of our
main projects. On three different
occasions we placed informative
signage in the Pines Project area, but
alas ‘persons unknown’ have removed/stolen these each time,
within days of placement. It isn’t a
viable option to place a fourth lot of
signage! Hopefully the following will
explain the rationale behind the removal of the mature Pines which has
recently created angst with some of
our holiday home owners.
Every Committee of Management is required to improve the sustainability and vigour of the Crown
Land Reserve under their management. The Australian Government is
providing funding for Projects which
aim to “increase the area of native
habitat & vegetation and reduce the
threats to biodiversity and enhance
the condition, connectivity and resilience of habitats in landscape priority areas”.
Australian coastal areas, of which
our narrow strip of Somers Foreshore Reserve is but a small part, is
one of these “priority areas”. Past
land clearing practices and inappropriate subdivision, so close to many
fragile coastal areas, has ensured the
high conservation value of coastal
Reserves and the need to rehabilitate
depleted areas and carefully manage
the few areas of good remnant vegetation; in our area particularly.
The Commonwealth funds are
also directed towards protecting
Ramsar wetlands which includes the
Westernport Bay environs: “to address the threats posed by invasive
plants and animal species to the ecological character of Ramsar listed
wetlands over the next two years”.
Part of the management process
is to determine which areas require
restorative works (i.e. those requiring
weed eradication and replanting
“depleted” areas with suitable indigenous plants) and those just requiring
ongoing maintenance work. As part
of our strategic plan, we look first to
build and expand on good areas of
remnant vegetation, or to connect
separate viable areas, in order to create sustainable wildlife corridors.
The “Pines area” forms a link
between two good areas of remnant,
coastal vegetation. The Envirofund
Grant for the Pines area is to assist
with creating such a wildlife corridor.
Our narrow strip of Coastal Reserve
is indeed very precious, so we must
continue works and projects that
ensure the sustainability and continued vigour of the native Flora &
Fauna.
Rehabilitating this small area is
needed to improve the overall viability and sustainability of the Somers
Foreshore Reserve, as the ‘extended
dry’, along with episodic storm
surges, have added further pressures.
You only have to walk along the
dune tracks to see the damage to
these fragile susceptible areas, with
the loss of so many Banksias particularly. We need to continue to preserve and restore what remains of
these precious coastal areas.
The age of the ‘Permit’ Pines and
their proximity to the Reserve’s
tracks had also raised concerns due
to the potential risks posed to the
general public. Mature Pines are ‘at
risk’ of dropping their limbs, or can
lose a sizable section of canopy; evidence of this fact can be seen with
recent ‘events’ along Lord Somers
Rd & Coolart Rd extension. As a
CoM one of our main priorities is to
ensure all Risks to the Public are
minimised.
Please contact the committee if
you would like further information
about any of our Projects.
Thank You,
SFCofM
Every year Balnarring Probus holds a BBQ in January at Coolart. This year the weather
was very kind and not extreme as has occurred on other occasions. Awaiting their turns at the
hotplates are Lindsay Alexander, Ron Dickinson, Annette Hourigan, Ron Deane and Dan
Hourigan.
7
Birthdays
There has been quite a run of senior birthdays lately (which is better than too many
obituaries). A birthday party can be a
celebration of one’s life with the added advantage of being there to enjoy it! There are
of course many senior citizens in Somers
but also there seems to be an unprecedented
number of babies being wheeled around in
their four- and three-wheeled pushers and
quite a number of expectant mothers. It
certainly makes for an interesting and lively
village.
90 years young
and Balnarring Kindergartens and
Bet was appointed as teacher for
both units, sharing her time evenly
between them, with 15 children at
each centre. Bet remained sole
teacher until retirement in 1979.
From then she spent time assisting the new teacher and with her
love of reading, acted as one of the
residents who kept the local library
operational (this was located then in
a room attached to the ‘Kinda’
which has since been absorbed into
the main room). In the following
years she attended U3A classes, journeyed to UK and Europe and took
several trips to visit her brother in
Tasmania.
Despite her current infirmity she
is determined to remain in her home
to which end neighbours and friends
assist with messages and the occasional trips to the doctor.
Sunday 7 February was open day
at Bet’s household when friends and
family dropped in to bring greetings,
flowers and at least three birthday
cakes.
A Shoreham 80th
Birthday for Marion
A remarkable year was 1920 as Qantas took to the air, Bert Hinkler set
off on his record solo flight to Australia from England, the Princes
Highway was opened, Fletcher Jones
started his tailoring business in
Warrnambool and Bet Campbell was
born in Maryborough.
Despite her remarkable memory
these events are only things she has
read about and reading is something
that is very important to her now as
she is quite restricted in her mobility.
Bet came down to Somers in
1951 with her sailor husband. When
it became necessary for Bet to support herself and care for her two
children Peter and Sharon, she commenced a Pre-School and Play
Leader Training Course. The year
1957 saw the opening of the Somers
Grandchildren Christabel, Alex,
Thomas, Kate and Isaac greeted and
made welcome the guests at Marion
Taylor’s birthday held at the weekend home of Marion and Ian’s
daughter Alison in a pleasant bush
setting in Shoreham. It certainly was
a friendly gathering as the majority
of the guests were known to each
other having been involved with
Marion in the various groups of
which she was a member. These include the Somers Ladies Probus,
Peninsula Hospice, Friends of
Coolart, Somers Craft Guild and
Peninsula Old Collegians.
Growing up in Camberwell
Marion attended school at PLC and
at university was awarded a science
degree majoring in physics and
mathematics. She obtained work at
the Aeronautical Research Laboratory at Fishermans Bend and married
Ian in 1953. With the arrival of chil8
dren Roger, Alison and Judy she became involved with the committees
of the Kindergarten and the Girl
Guides Association. As the children
grew Marion was able to find time to
train as a librarian and worked
mainly at the Holmesglen Institute in
that occupation before retiring in
1991.
Marion and Ian’s connection with
Somers started in 1966 with the use
of rental properties, then a holiday
home in 1980 and finally their present permanent residence in 1991.
This was also the year in which
her years of work at Coolart in the
realms of conservation and heritage
were recognised by the awarding of
an OAM.
The party for this important milestone was organised by family members who also prepared most of the
attractive and enjoyable repast. Prior
to the cutting of the impressive looking cake, Roger spoke warmly of his
mother and was in particular able to
recall the fact that Marion was
probably one of a very few mothers
who knew the Latin name for a tortoise (testudo). After this startling
revelation he then asked his mother
to ceremonially ‘cut the cake’. It was
truly a lovely afternoon amongst
many of her friends who, like
Marion, found satisfaction in working for the benefit of others.
Happy 80th Birthday
Anne Danne
Anne celebrated her birthday in
January with her family at the homestead on Sandy Point Road. On the
10-acre property she is in her element with an extensive garden and
cattle, sheep and a blue heeler to care
for. Born in Killara NSW, the family
moved to a now National Trustregistered sandstone home in Ferry
Street, Hunters Hill Sydney. Anne’s
father was an accountant with The
Women’s Weekly. Eight years later her
parents and two older brothers
moved to Melbourne, her father
having been offered the circulation
manager’s job at The Age. Anne recalls that her education at PLC was
not the great highlight of her life as
there were quite a few visits to the
headmistress over minor misdemeanours, which possibly will not
greatly surprise her many friends
here at Somers.
She had no sooner finished her
formal education when she met
Noel; Anne was 17. She gained a
position as private secretary to the
manager of the stud-stock department of New Zealand Loan in
Collins Street; the manager was Stan
Carr, whose mother lived in Tasman
Road in the house now occupied by
Doug and Patsy Coates.
Custom of the period dictated
that a lengthy courtship was required
and Noel and Anne were married in
l952 in the Melbourne Grammar
chapel and moved into a flat in Auburn.
The first of their five children,
Stephen was born in 1953 followed
by Kersti before the family moved
into their home in Heatherdale,
where Andrew, David and finally
Kate were born. As if the children
were not enough, the suburban
block also contained chooks, ducks,
cats, dogs, rabbits, tortoise, bantams
and a poor abandoned piglet! Anne
was born to the land, not to a classroom!
Anne likes to run a well-
organised household so there was
time also to be involved in the
founding of Heatherdale Tennis
Club, to assist at the scout and cub
group, be president of the mothers’
club and to organise, with others, the
introduction of the tuck shop.
A block of land in Hendon Avenue Somers was purchased in 1968.
A small house was built on this land
and the whole family spent every
school holiday enjoying wonderful
social and sailing holidays as members of the Yacht Club; then in 1984
a 10-acre block was purchased on
Sandy Point Road and Noel set to
and built a 22-square garage. The
family camped in a caravan in the
garage at weekends and the Christmas Holidays – wouldn’t be allowed
today! The beginnings of a small
farm evolved and were “the best
years of our lives”. Noel retired in
1992 and they moved into their then
new, present home.
found that this was a comfort for her
when so sadly, their elder daughter
Kersti died in 2008. The property at
the moment has two very pregnant
Black Angus cows, seven Wiltshire
Horn sheep (this breed shed their
fleece) and a blue heeler dog named
Archie. Her other love is of course
their six grandchildren, two of whom
are far away in England with their
mother Katie. Happy 80th Birthday
Anne!
♦Pilates Matwork
♦Creative Dance
For Children
0417 336 378
Steiner
Early Childhood Centre
Anne soon involved herself in
several local groups and was elected
president of the Ladies Probus Club,
the Craft Guild and the Combined
Probus Club, although not at the
same time, but I am sure she could
have! In her spare time Anne was a
volunteer driver for cancer patients
through Hospice.
She is grateful for the many
friends she has made in Somers and
9
Wurra-Wurra Steiner Early
Childhood Centre in Red Hill.
A Natural Approach to Early
Childhood Education.
Kindergarten and Prep programs. Parent and Child Groups.
Mother and Baby Groups. Nurturing children from birth to age
seven.
For further information please
contact Georgia Murphy on
5989 8309 or 0439 093 575.
10
Community Action to
Repair Westernport
Weather Station
Those using Westernport for recreation and sport will soon again have
access to valuable and up-to-date
weather information thanks to the
Westernport, Merricks and Somers
Yacht Clubs, supported by the Balnarring and District Community
Bank.
The Bank’s commitment to supporting the local community was on
show again last week when Branch
Manager, Rachel Harding and Board
members Max Burley and Heather
Goddard, met with the Commodores of the Westernport, Merricks
and Somers Yacht Clubs to present
$2000 towards the cost of repairing a
weather station used by many groups
in south western Westernport Bay.
Max Burley, Chairman of the
Board of Directors, said that these
three yacht clubs had originally undertaken this important project,
which saw the mounting of the
weather station onto the Parks Victoria south cardinal navigation mark
in 2007.
“The weather station provided
the only ‘real time’ local weather data
in this part of Westernport to boaties
of all types, fishermen, surfers,
swimmers, and local voluntary marine rescue services,” said Mr Burley.
Weather data was provided to a
base station at Westernport Yacht
Club for retransmission via website
links with the other yacht clubs,
Mornington Peninsula Shire and the
Bureau of Meteorology.
“Unfortunately, the unit was
damaged by very rough seas during a
severe storm in July 2009 and was
removed for repair,” Mr Burley said.
“The three yacht clubs originally
involved in setting up the weather
station agreed to undertake the repair and restoration of this important facility and to meet all costs not
covered by donations and the Balnarring and District Community
Bank, which has an ongoing commitment to supporting the valuable
work of the many groups in the local
community, is very pleased to be
able to assist.”
The main computer for the
weather station was returned to Sweden for repair and system restoration
is now well underway. It is hoped
the unit will be reinstalled during
February this year.
Mr Burley congratulated the
members of the Westernport,
Merricks and Somers Yacht Clubs
on their hard work and initiative,
which results in many recreational
and sporting opportunities for the
local and broader communities.
“Whilst visiting the Westernport
Yacht Club we were able to meet the
children and instructors involved in
this summer’s Tackers Program, an
introductory sailing course based on
fun and safety and it showed yet
again just why we are working so
hard to make our community bank a
success – the more successful we
become, the more we can help
groups such as these.”
Church Bulletins
Thank God for church ladies with
typewriters. These sentences actually
appeared in church bulletins or were
announced in church services:
The Fasting & Prayer Conference
includes meals.
The sermon this morning: “Jesus
Walks on the Water.” The sermon
tonight: “Searching for Jesus.”
Our youth basketball team is back in
action Wednesday at 8 PM in the
recreation hall. Come out and watch
us kill Christ the King.
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage
sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those
things not worth keeping around the
house. Bring your husbands.
The peacemaking meeting scheduled
for today has been cancelled due to a
conflict.
Remember in prayer the many who
are sick of our community.
Smile at someone who is hard to
love. Say “Hell” to someone who
doesn’t care much about you.
Don’t let worry kill you off - let the
Church help.
Left to right: Trevor Wilcox, Richard Jagger (Commodore Merricks), Malcolm Kemp
(Commodore Somers), Jim Douglas (Commodore Westernport), Rachel Harding (Manager
Balnarring & District Community Bank), Max Burley (Director) & Marg Douglas.
11
Miss Charlene Mason sang “I will
not pass this way again,” giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
Giving and
Recieving
Lord Somers Camp
We have recently emerged from the ‘season
of giving’. Lloyd Thomas shares some of his
ideas on giving and receiving:
Ted Baillieu addressing the boys during the luncheon.
The annual Lord Somers Camp for boys in
January was visited by the Victorian
Leader of the Opposition Ted Baillieu who
was asked to fire the gun to start the relay
race held on the camp’s sports oval. He
later addressed the boys at the luncheon
urging them to “think positively and realise
that you could be the leaders of the future in
20 years’ time”. He also drew their attention to the fact that no matter what their
background was, teamwork and loyalty can
provide you with success in life.
Ted Baillieu with Camp President Glenn
Bowes in front of a portrait of Lord Somers.
Ted Baillieu with Camp President Glenn Bowes on the sports oval.
12
Do we all give as the rose gives its
fragrance to the air? Do we give in
order to receive? Do we give with no
ability to receive from others? Do we
give out of a sense of obligation to
the receiver? We have all heard the
expression, ‘the flow of life’. When
we resist that flow, we become hardened, brittle and easily broken. In
order to create and maintain healthy
relationships, we need to exchange
energy through both giving and receiving. I know many people whose
only sense of personal worth is dependent on how much they give to
others. They are willing to sacrifice
themselves, even hurt themselves, in
the effort to give to others. For these
people, the flow of life is one way –
always outward from them to others.
Relationships based upon this constant giving generate guilt in the receiver and resentment in the giver. If
I am always giving you water, would
you ever suspect I might be thirsty?
There are others who are only
receivers. These are the people who
are so needy, or so selfish, they never
give out to others and are always
taking from relationships. Always
getting what they want, no matter
what the cost to others. Lately, we
have seen such examples of greed
and fear in highly visible individuals
and corporations, let alone in our
politics. Relationships based upon
this single direction of energy flow
result in emptiness in the others, and
guilt/anger within the receiver.
Both chronic givers and eternal
takers suffer from psychological
stagnation. Stagnation is like stopping the flow of your blood. Whenever your blood stops flowing, it
begins to coagulate, to stagnate.
Non-flowing blood gives neither
oxygen nor nutrients to the billions
of cells in your body. When the flow
of energy is only one way between
people, relationships die.
The word ‘affluence’ comes from
the Latin word ‘affluere’, which
means ‘to flow to’. Affluence implies
‘to flow in abundance’. When we
give and receive in harmonious relationship to one another, relationships thrive and abundance is assured.
Every healthy relationship is one
of giving and taking. Giving requires
a receiver. In order to receive, you
need a giver. Actually, giving and
receiving are the same. They are
merely different aspects of the flow
of energy between each other and
between individuals and the universe. If either person stops that
flow of energy, he or she interrupts
the ‘flow of life’.
In order to be healthy, happy and
fulfilled yourself, you need to intend
to create health and happiness in the
relationships you have. Your intention needs to be to create happiness
in both the giver and receiver, because your own happiness, as well as
the fulfillment of others, is lifesupportive and sustaining. In order
to create joy through giving, you
need to feel joy in the act of giving.
In order to create abundance, you
need to feel fulfilled by receiving.
In his book The Seven Spiritual
Laws of Success, Deepak Chopra MD,
writes: “Practicing the law of giving
is actually very simple: if you want
joy, give joy to others; if you want
love, learn to give love; if you want
attention and appreciation, learn to
give attention and appreciation; if
you want material affluence, help
others to become materially affluent.
In fact, the easiest way to get what
you want is to help others get what
they want.” This translates to: “The
best way for me to succeed in life is
to help others succeed in their lives.”
This principle of personal success
is found most easily through helping
others to succeed and works equally
well for individuals, couples, corporations, societies and nations. For
example, traditional businesses operate on the principle of succeeding at
the expense of others (usually the
employees). An example of businesses succeeding only when their
employees succeed in getting what
they want is most often found in the
industry known as ‘network marketing’.
Chopra writes: “If you want to be
blessed with all the good things in
life, learn to ... bless everyone with
all the good things in life.”
When we work toward the fulfillment of all our relationships through
giving and receiving in dynamic harmony, we are actually practicing
‘going with the flow’ of life. Do this
and you experience life, in all its aspects, much more abundantly. Certainly you will find more joy in your
life.
Lloyd J. Thomas, PhD
Dr Thomas is a licensed psychologist, author, speaker and life coach. He serves on
the faculty of the International University of
Professional Studies, USA.
Good vibes always
travel well
The last three days of an overseas
trip had to be good: Hong Kong
seemed to offer the lot! From silk
and gold to cameras and watches,
magic night-lights and well-spiced
noodles – I just loved this vibrant
harbour city. Yet, my time was up
and my flight to Melbourne was to
leave within the hour.
At the airport I jingled with two
hands full of shiny coins, small
change after visits to Italy, Austria,
Greece and other places. Perhaps my
collection of Marks, Lire, Drachmas
might buy one last gift – a transistor
radio.
The shopkeeper had already
started counting my assorted shrapnel, gave me a pained smile and
wiped the dust off three radios:
“You’ve got less than $60. The very
13
latest radio with am/fm/tape etc.
normally costs $78. But if this is all
the money you have I will give it to
you for all your near-useless coins.”
He slipped batteries into the
‘Fairmate deluxe’ unit and the full
sound of my favourite symphony
bounced into all corners of the departure lounge. This sealed the deal
and I was happy with my purchase.
Soon after, an even louder voice
beamed through the waiting hall:
“Flight XS05 to Melbourne is ready
to board. All passengers are reminded that they must pay the departure tax of [I think] $23 before
boarding the plane!”
I felt as if I had just then received
an electric shock. My last money had
gone but I needed to be on that
flight. The shopkeeper was not keen
to take the radio back – he offered
me a special price of $6! Many families and group travellers around me
had been witnesses of my preemptive purchase, but probably felt
sorry for me and walked away.
From the bar behind me I heard
a male Australian voice: “What
seems to be the trouble, Mate?” One
of the three beer-drinking young
men listened to my dilemma: “If
that’s all that’s bothering you this
should fix it!” With that he stuck a
$50 note in my pocket. “This will
pay for your departure tax and might
even buy us all another beer!”
Tax paid, I learned that the three
young men were wool shearers, returning to Western Australia. I wrote
down the address of my Samaritan
so that I would be able to reimburse
him soon. We had a final drink and I
clung to my prized radio.
As I write these lines, the
‘Fairmate deluxe’ blasts a proud
trumpet concerto across my desk.
Apart from am/fm and other refinements it has an extra quality: It radiates a number of good vibes, created
by a generous and trusting traveller
from WA. His quick decision to help
a stranger was to me both an uplifting and typical sign of the wellknown Australian culture.
Helmut Janssen
Little children enjoy marking the seasons of the year and it helps them to begin to understand the concept
of the passage of time and the calendar with its months, weeks and days.
Kids will love to make a Nature Table in
the living room to represent the seasons
of the year. Take your kids for a nature
walk and look for treasures to place on
your Nature Table. Good places to look
for items for your table would be the local
neighbourhood, a local park, the beach or
a hiking trail. Encourage your children to
collect things that remind them of the season you’re in. For example in Autumn
collect dried leaves in various shapes and
colours, small dead branches or twigs that
have fallen from trees, gumnuts, shells,
stones, flowers, feathers etc.
At the end of each season carefully place
the contents of your Nature Table in a
cardboard box and begin collecting new
items that remind you of the new season.
You can also keep a Calendar above the
table and mark off each day of the season.
14
RECYCLING FUN
Magic Milk
What You Need:
Plate, milk, food colouring, liquid soap
Activity:
Pour some milk on the plate. Next, drop a few droplets of
food colouring. Then, add a few drops of the liquid soap.
Result: Tie-dyed milk. Why does it happen? The soap breaks the
surface tension and allows the food colouring to work its
magic.
www.kidspot.com.au
Easter Chick
Sticks
You Need:
Recycled ice-cream sticks
Yellow craft paint
Orange craft foam or construction paper
Yellow/orange feathers
Goggle eyes OR black beads
Craft glue
Scissors
Method:
1.
2.
Banana Surprise
Ingredients:
2 tbsps honey
2 tbsps butter
A sprinkle of ground nutmeg
2 firm bananas, sliced
A sprinkle of ground
cinnamon
Method:
1.
Place the butter and honey
in a microwave-safe container. Sprinkle the ground
nutmeg on top and microwave for 30 seconds on
high.
2.
Gently stir the bananas
through the warm honey
mixture and cook on high
for 30 seconds to warm.
Sprinkle with a little
ground cinnamon.
3.
Serve with ice-cream, or
sour cream.
3.
4.
Paint the ice-cream sticks with yellow paint and let dry.
Glue a yellow or orange feather to
the back, so that the edges of the
feather curl toward the front.
Cut two small ‘V’ shapes from orange craft foam or construction paper. Dip the ends of the first ‘V’
shape into the glue, then position it
on the craft stick at the top of the
beak. Repeat with the second ‘V’
shape, gluing it below the first one,
as the bottom of the beak.
Glue on two plastic eyes, or two
small black beads, above the beak.
Suggestions:
• If your feathers are rather small, use two
or three for each chick.
• Tie a small ribbon around the neck of the
chick or make a tiny bow tie and glue it.
Compiled by Vicky Arena
15
From England
with Love
It’s a far cry from the softly lit downs of
southern England to the clear-cut outlines
of an Australian coastal town, fringed as
we are by the cobalt blue sea. But in their
retirement, Peter and Jenny Cole have
made that transition. They didn’t have a
lot of choice however. Their three daughters came out here, one by one and their
parents had no intention of remaining on
the other side of the world.
So what did they leave behind?
While we all love drinking in those
scenes of English village life on BBC
television programs, most English people live in the depths of large cities. Not
so the Coles! Peter was born in Bristol
but aged ten, he moved with his family
to a village in Devon. His father was
the headmaster of a small school and
they lived in the adjacent school house
and there were meadows and a stream,
goats, a churchyard – you’ve got the
picture (and no ‘Midsomer Murders’ to
mar the scene either!).
Jenny was born well to the north, in
Cumberland. She was an only child and
was educated at Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Church High School. There’s a side
story there: on the school gates there
was a polished brass wall plaque giving
the name of the school but someone
stole it (more of that later).
Coming from opposite ends of the
island, Peter and Jenny’s trajectories
were converging. Both arrived at Cambridge University; Jenny moved into
Homerton College, enrolling for
teacher training and Peter was in
Downing reading Natural Sciences,
culminating in a degree in Physics. Anyway, for recreation, Peter was expending his energies on the Rugby field and
for the same reason Jenny was captaining the college tiddlywinks team. Peter
was certainly impressed so after sharing
some cheese and bad wine in Kings
College he invited Jenny to the cinema
where they watched Sean Connery as
James Bond in From Russia with Love.
Peter and Jenny didn’t have to go that
far for their love; they were married in
1966 and headed south to live in Sunningdale in Berkshire. Peter took up a
career with Proctor and Gamble and
subsequently joined IBM where he was
fully engaged in developing the world
of commercial computerisation that
controls just about everything we do
today. He had some illustrious clients
including Dun and Bradstreet, Kodak,
Sedgwicks (Lloyds Insurance Brokers)
and Tescos. Jenny meanwhile was pursuing her teaching career but this was
interrupted from time to time with the
arrival of their three daughters, Emma,
Elizabeth and Victoria.
The latter name must have been
prescient because Victoria, Australia
was where they all ended up. Emma led
the way. She won a scholarship to university in Perth and while on a visit to
Cairns for some lessons in skin diving
her instructor demonstrated that he
wanted to get to know her better and
he did, and they married and somehow
ended up in Somers. Elizabeth and
Victoria followed and after a couple of
visits of inspection, Peter and Jenny
packed their bags − and here they all
are!
Peter and Jenny could have remained in their new eyrie on the top of
Somers admiring the view but they are
not like that. In short order, they joined
the Yacht Club, the newly formed Somers Combined Probus Club (where
Peter conducts the wine appreciation
club) and Peter joined the Flinders Golf
Club and is on the committee that organises the Coolart Jazz Festival.
Jenny is doing her bit for the community by working for a most remarkable organisation called ‘Fitted for
Work’. The objective is to help disadvantaged unemployed women organise
themselves for job interviews. Using
16
clothes donated from manufacturers
and private citizens the women are fitted out and then trained in the best
ways of presenting themselves for the
interviews. The success rate is high.
Jenny attends the office in Rosebud and
a new office is being opened in Frankston.
Of course Peter and Jenny have
pangs of homesickness. In the photograph there is a picture of a thatched
cottage on the wall − and they lived in
it. How different from the houses that
surround them now! Like a lot of people in the United Kingdom, Jenny’s
vision of Australia was coloured by
some of our exported TV programs,
particularly the ‘Flying Doctor’ series.
They have now travelled widely, trekking through the Bungle Bungles and
exploring the red centre and they are
definitely not disappointed.
Getting back to the plaque story!
Jenny was browsing in a church jumble
sale when, to her astonishment, she saw
a polished brass plaque from the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne school. Yes! It was
the very one. It had in fact been stolen
and somehow found its way to Sunningdale. Jenny bought it and it will
now be going back to its grateful original owners.
While many overseas people have
settled in Somers, Peter and Jenny may
be among our most recent arrivals (they
have only been here for four years) and
they are a most welcome addition to
our community.
Barry Merton
This article appeared in our last issue, but due to a
software ‘glitch’ it was full of mistakes. We represent it here in its corrected form.
Obituary
Noel StanleyMarshall
24/12/1919 ~ 24/1/2010
Noel was born to parents Daisy and
William Marshall on Christmas Eve
1919 at Yarrawonga. Hence the
name Noel! He attended Yarrawonga Primary School and then
went on to complete his formal education at Wangaratta Technical
School. His father, though by profession a dentist, had acquired a farm
at Mulwala and so Noel decided to
come to Melbourne and work at the
Dalgety Wool Store for a time to
learn more about the wool industry.
When he returned home he began working on the farm which apart
from sheep was also growing wheat.
Then around 1950 Noel moved to
Camperdown and ran a sheep farm
there. In 1954 he purchased the
property Campsie Lodge at Somers
which he developed into a fine sheep
and cattle property. So for Noel it
has been a life on the land. It was
hard work but he was an efficient
and an effective farmer. He loved his
working dogs and horses for they
were an important part of his farm
life.
Noel was a down-to-earth practical person who, despite hardships,
just got on with doing what had to
be done. Always friendly, he had the
ability to relate well to most people
for he possessed a fine sense of humour and was generous-hearted and
willing to help others whenever he
could. Noel did the right thing by
others and he expected the same in
return. His word was his bond.
It was at Yarrawonga that Noel
and Doris met, more than likely at
one of the regular dances held there.
Their love for each other grew and
they were married on the 1st of April
1944. It was the beginning of a fine
partnership and they shared many
happy times but also faced some
hard times. Their love and commitment to each other always saw them
through.
Their family was made complete
with the arrival of John and Diana
who have fond memories of their
father. Although not one to openly
express his feelings he worked hard
to provide well for his family’s needs
and that was just one of the ways by
which he expressed his love for
them. In fact they didn’t see a great
deal of him as he started working
early each morning and ended late of
an evening. However as a young
family they were able to enjoy summer holidays and Queenscliff was
one of their favourite places to stay.
As a father he only ever wanted the
best for his family. Doris’ passing
was a great loss in his life. She had
suffered a stroke five years before
she died and through those distressing years Noel took wonderful care
of her.
He had become a proud grandfather and great-grandfather and loved
to see the children, being keen to
hear how each was doing. Finally the
effects of dementia denied him
much of the pleasure he might otherwise have had with the younger
ones.
Over the years Noel had taken a
general interest in most sports and in
his youth played football for Yarrawonga. Taking up tennis he continued to play into his late 40s. Although a Geelong supporter he
loved to get involved with local football clubs and was an active committee member of the Hastings Club
and rarely missed their games. He
also enjoyed fishing and to that end
he and Doris holidayed at Lakes En-
17
trance. Duck and clay-target shooting was another of his sports when
he belonged to gun clubs at Yarrawonga and Camperdown.
Some years back Noel and Doris
were able to take a nine-month trip
overseas travelling around the world.
Later there were trips visiting countries such as Canada and Japan and
shorter trips in Australia.
Noel was a contributor to the
communities where he lived, first as
a member of the Camperdown CFA
then as a foundation member of the
Somers CFA and later as captain.
Noel became an active member of
Westernport and Hastings Lions
Clubs and became President of
Hastings.
Noel was about 65 when he decided to retire from the farm, and
John took over; but Noel was always
available for advice and guidance. He
was a bit of a hoarder and could see
a possible use for everything he had,
for as he would say, “You might
need that one day”.
For the last couple of years he
had been a resident at the Nursing
Home in Somerville where he received wonderful care from all the
staff. He won the love of many and
the respect of all with his down-toearth approach to life. Noel will be
remembered for his courage and
loyalty throughout life and for the
love and commitment he showed for
the wellbeing of all whom he loved.
From a Service of Thanksgiving delivered by celebrant Bill Newton.
Obituary
Joan Otto
10/11/1922 ~ 11/2/2010
In England in 1922, Keith Derbyshire, a young electrical engineer,
courted and married local girl Alice
Goodrich. He was an Australian boy
who went over to assist with the
First World War and stayed on for
work. The family decided to resettle
in Australia where Keith had family.
So began a torturous eight weeks at
sea with Alice pregnant with Joan,
having constant bouts of morning
sickness followed by sea sickness.
From that eventful beginning two
things happened. Joan had a dislike
of going to sea and henceforth she
was a very good girl, never, it seems,
putting a foot wrong.
She grew up with her family in
Caulfield and attended Gardenvale
Primary School before going on to
Brighton Secondary School.
At 14, Joan left school and took
up a seamstress apprenticeship in the
city, working in the Block Arcade.
Here she learnt and mastered the
arts of dress design and dress making, skills that would prove invaluable in the many years to come. She
could whip up an evening gown in
an afternoon and did so on occasions for herself and her sister Betty.
With the outbreak of the war in
1939 she went to work for Clipse
Radio in City Road, South Melbourne to assist with the war effort.
In 1942 her Uncle Roy, who ran
Dye Casters, asked Joan and her sister Betty to work with him as his
company switched over production
to assist with the growing demands
of the rapidly spreading war in the
Pacific.
During this time Joan and Betty
were singing and acting for Camp
Concert Parties arranged to entertain
the troops. An untrained singer at
this stage she was persuaded to enter
a singing competition in the South
Melbourne Town Hall. She won, and
from then on had singing lessons
and began singing professionally.
She was a natural and gifted soprano and in 1947 signed a contract
with Harry Wren Theatres Limited
and began touring with different
variety shows, singing and acting for
eight pounds a week.
Joan was a popular girl and the
hopeful Deane Otto after his first
date with her had to wait three
weeks for the next available time, but
she soon realised that he was the
right one and all others were sent
packing.
They were married in 1949 and
moved in with the Ottos while they
saved for a house. Coming from a
household of girls she found herself
surrounded by men. In 1951 Greg
was born. The growing family then
moved out to Donvale where Deane
and his father had built a house for
the new family.
Soon there were three terrific
boys, who were active, competitive
and hungry but well under the control of their mother.
With three children under five
Joan soon had them organised by a
system of colour coding. Every article of clothing was embroidered with
their individual colours.
18
She was obsessive about colour
and very good at describing and
matching them.
In the early 1950s she needed to
get her driver’s license. She was having a test with the local policeman
and things were not going well. She
just couldn’t do that U-turn in
Springvale Road. It had seemed so
easy when she had done it yesterday,
but it was harder with the policeman.
The kindly policeman said, “Pull
over and I’ll ask you a couple of
questions”. He said, “I want to test
your colours”. At last, thought Joan,
here’s something I can do! He
pointed to a colour: “What is this
one?” he asked, pointing to the red
circle. “A cross between scarlet and
crimson,” replied Joan.
Bemused, he continued, “And
this one?” “Ah, that’s a mixture of
Ming blue and peacock green.” That
explanation carried the day and the
policeman issued her with a license.
So began the exhilarating years of
raising a family. Joan provided the
boys with constant encouragement,
affection, great cooking, singing,
playfulness, music, art, laughter and
untold freedom. There were cubs,
sailing, swimming, painting, boat
building and school.
Joan continued to sew, act as a
bookkeeper for Deane’s business,
learnt to play the guitar and switched
to singing folksongs, forming a folk
duet with Alan Tisdal.
It was perhaps during these busy,
productive and at times testing years
that Joan found her truest voice –
her dedication to and love for her
family.
All too soon the children were
grown and gone and Joan and Deane
decided to move to Somers, buying a
cliff-top block. Joan’s creative streak
again came to the fore and she
helped design their dream home,
complete with sauna and large entertaining areas. It catered for family,
grandchildren and the many social
occasions such as music nights, film
nights and parties. Joan now sang
solo with her guitar or autoharp and
was much in demand. It was an ongoing family joke that she always had
her guitar in the boot of the car,
ready in case she was asked to play
by some stranger. She began to paint
and draw and mastered oils and watercolours.
Throughout her life Joan maintained her love of fashion and design. Special family occasions were
an opportunity to create new garments. Weddings were much anticipated and outfits planned months in
advance. She loved to knit and crochet and each grandchild was suitably attired in specially designed
jumpers.
The garden also received her
close attention and together with
Deane she developed a real knowledge and love for native plants. She
adored that Somers view and the
bird life that frequented the garden.
In 1993 they made the move to
Melbourne, near where she grew up
and loved going down to the end of
North Road remembering when her
father took her swimming there as a
girl. They frequented the theatre and
ballet, held film nights and sang with
choirs. Although Joan’s health was
declining she loved to sing, do the
daily round of the garden and talk
with family, especially asking about
the developments of her grandchildren and the family dogs Bella and
Ralph, and just having a great laugh
together.
Three years ago Joan needed a
greater level of care and she moved
to ‘Rumbalara’. She and Deane had
always been a devoted and steadfast
team and during this time Deane
gave her a great level of support. As
her health further deteriorated,
Deane bought a car so she could be
transported to restaurants, shopping
centres and the beach. It is fair to say
that without Deane’s constant care
and attention she wouldn’t have enjoyed her last years as much as she
did.
Joan’s was a full life and one well
lived, always with a perpetual sparkle
in her eyes. She displayed a generosity of spirit towards all and was filled
with an enthusiasm for life with
much laughter and love for her family.
Book Review
The Mornington Peninsula is home
to a magical spinner of tales.
Her name is Wendy Orr.
Wendy Orr was born in Canada
and grew up in various places across
North America and France.
We are now lucky enough to
have her living amongst us. I would
love to meet her and you will want
to meet her too when you have read
her books.
I am sure that both parents and
grandparents will really enjoy reading
Wendy’s books – and will want to do
so before they have to hand them
over to the children for whom they
were bought.
The Ark in the Park tells the tale
of a multi-storey ark, complete with
great glass sails, run by two ‘older
people’ who have no immediate family and a little girl living in a high-rise
building with no extended family.
The story tells a very human story of
what happens when they meet.
The story is told lightly and with
humour. It is truly fun. It does not
lag nor languish. Your children (5 to
7 years old) will just love it.
Nim of Nim’s Island and Nim at
Sea is the incarnation of every midyear child’s dream.
Nim’s island is the dream island
of many, many children. Her adventures are only just beyond ‘everyday’
probability. She and all the other cast
members seem to grow out of a
wonderfully warm and vivid world
that must surely really exist
‘somewhere’.
Wendy’s other books include
Spook’s Shack, Mokie and Bik and for
teenagers, Peeling the Onion.
Look for them – your children
and grandchildren will love them and
so will you.
Rosemary Birney
Please Respond
We’d like parents, grandparents and
children who read any or all of these
books to let us know what they
thought of them, and others which
we’ll be reviewing in future issues.
The best will receive a book prize.
Send your responses to: ‘Book Review’, PO Box 338, Somers 3927.
A Public Meeting was called in December by the CFA as part of their Bushfire Awareness
Program. As can be seen, there was a large attendance as residents understandably were anxious about the forthcoming fire season which, as it turned out, was very different from the preceding season.
The residents were reminded of the necessity to clean up around their properties, to clean out their
guttering, prepare an evacuation plan well before the fire season and check that any fire-fighting equipment is ready and properly functional. One suggestion that brought smiles was to have a child’s waterblaster to hand as it can be quite effective in dealing with small spot fires.
19
Winter Olympians
Watching brave men and women
rocketing down luge runs, bobsled
tracks, ski slopes, and snow-packed
half-pipes, it’s hard for a naturalist
not to think of animal precedents.
After all, just as wasps were making
paper millions of years before Ts’ai
Lun ‘invented’ the stuff in China in
104 AD, animals, rather than the
International Olympic Committee,
pioneered winter sports.
Have doubts? Consider the river
otter. This is a 10- or 20-pound weasel in a zoological sense. Yet functionally, it’s a snowboard or a skeleton sled. Give an otter a snowcovered slope, and it’ll plunge down
head first. Proof that this is sport
comes when the animal bounds back
to the top of the hill and rockets
down again and again.
In fact, otters are such compulsive
winter sliders that they don’t need a
hill to practice. Even on a flat lake an
otter will stop bounding from time to
time and hurl itself forward on its
belly. The tracks tell the story.
No animal cross-country skis the
way my Olympian neighbour Bill
Demong does, but the snowshoe
hare comes close. In autumn it
sprouts rigid hairs on its hind feet,
and these combine to form genuine
snowshoes that allow the animal to
move speedily over the surface of
the deepest powder. I’ve tracked
hares and always come away impressed by their endurance and the
length of their bounds. A hare going
for gold can take to the air and travel
four feet or more before it drops in
for a landing.
Swimming belongs to the summer Olympic Games, but don’t tell
that to the beaver. This hydrophilic
rodent spends the entire winter diving and swimming in frigid waters. It
has a peculiar adaptation for passing
the winter. Rather than hibernating,
as its cousin woodchucks and jumping mice do, the beaver idles the season away inside a dark, clammy, windowless house.
To fend off starvation, the rodent
with the pancake tail must eat. To
eat, it must leave the cold comfort of
its lodge, plunge into icy water, and
swim to a food cache on the bottom.
There, using teeth like vice-grips, it
grabs a meal of tree branches, swims
back home, and hauls itself and the
food inside through an underwater
portal. A single round trip is an
Olympic-worthy event, and the beaver makes them by the score.
Perhaps the greatest of our fourlegged Olympians is the moose. This
titanic member of the deer family is
built for winter. Its great size aids in
retaining warmth (the larger an animal, the lower the ratio of surface
area to core volume, and it’s surface
area that sheds heat), its thick shaggy
coat serves as magnificent insulation,
and its long shapely dancing-girl legs
find hard ground almost no matter
how deep the snow.
Track a moose in winter and
you’ll stand in awe of its power and
perseverance. Slogging through five
feet of powder without snowshoes
would sap you of energy in a dangerous hurry, but unless conditions get
really extreme, a moose can handle
it. On and on the moose steps confidently, nibbling some bark here and
a few dozen buds there, stoking its
metabolic furnace.
Spring is the finish line. When the
moose arrives, no crowd waits to
cheer. But by traveling miles through
deep snow, in sunshine and in darkness, for months on end, often in
temperatures far below zero, the
great symbol of the North earns the
gold of April sunshine, the silver of
melting ice, and the bronze of newborn calves.
Ed Kanze
“We’re in northern New York, in
the Adirondack Mountains, not far
from the Canadian border. Montreal
is a two-hour drive to the north.
Burlington, Vermont, is a two-hour
drive to the east. Albany, the state
capital, is a two-and-a-half-hour
drive to the south. New York City is
a six or seven-hour drive south. Our
little town is Bloomingdale, New
York, near the villages of Saranac
Lake and Lake Placid (home of the
20
1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic
Games).”
‘All Things Natural’, Ed’s weekly
newspaper column, has been published since 1987. Today it appears
in nine Connecticut and New York
newspapers and reaches more than
100,000 readers.
Funny Dunny
In a civilized country like ours we go
to the toilet or lavatory or ‘wash our
hands’ – although that can cause a
problem. As a young chorister at
Trinity College, I was keen to find
the toilet after a long drive to a
country church and a lengthy service. The local ladies were preparing
cakes and tea, and I asked where I
could ‘wash my hands’. The euphemism proved fatal! A basin was
cleared, soap and a towel were produced and my hands were washed
very clean – followed by a rush to
the back of the hall!
In the USA the ‘powder room’ is
fine, although rather suggestive, but
you’ll need a phrase-book in Europe
when you’re in a hurry to relieve
yourself and are confronted with
titles like ‘retretes’, ‘aborts’,
‘gabinettos’, ‘casa de banhos’,
‘nuzniks’ or ‘zahods’.
And then which is which? Here
‘Gents and Ladies’ or ‘His and Hers’
are unambiguous, as are the American ‘Braves and Squaws’ or ‘Guys
and Dolls’. But in Norway, as I once
found out to my acute embarrassment, ‘Herren’ means ‘Men’ not
‘Hers’, with ‘Kvinner’ for ‘Women’,
and in Italy it can be confusing with
‘Signore’ and ‘Signori’ or ‘Donne’
and ‘Uomini’, and in Portugal it
reads ‘Senhoras’ and ‘Homens’. Very
off-putting! The Spanish are far
more virile with their ‘Caballeros’ or
even ‘Hombres’.
Even more off-putting is the
women you find in almost every
male toilet, especially in Far-Eastern
airports, who watch your every
move, hoping for a coin in the saucer – enough to afflict any man with
a stricture!
John Martyn
Plinth, on looking
back with a stiff neck
When you reach an uncertain age
you don’t spend much time looking
forward because when you do,
there’s nothing to see – well there is
but you don’t want to go there.
Looking back? Well that’s another matter. There’s so much material that you could bore on about it
for years. Apparently it’s quite common for mature-aged men to regress
to the stage where they start sniffing
out old girlfriends, going through
dusty diaries and photo albums and
generally dreaming of how things
might have been.
Then there’s the ‘my first car’
syndrome. Plinth has a 1938 Baby
Austin ‘7’ and you would be amazed
how many totterers approach him
misty-eyed with stories, mainly of
remembered loving embraces, supposedly performed in their Baby
Austins. It’s probably an example of
long-distance memory making things
seem much more achievable than
they really were. To have a cuddle in
a Baby Austin would require such
contortions that you would probably
take half an hour to get untangled.
Plinth’s first car was a 1928 Baby
Austin, appropriately called the
‘Chummy’ model. It had been part
of a back-yard chook run near the
Harp of Erin hotel in East Kew. The
vendor removed piles of straw and
some eggs and handed the car over.
After swinging the starting handle
for about half an hour the engine
Plinth’s Baby Austin containing brave girls.
spluttered into life and having parted
with 25 pounds, Plinth drove it
away. Heading down Harp Road
there was a sudden bang and the car
sat down on the bitumen and Plinth
saw a wheel rolling past and assumed
it was his. He was right! Hailing an
interested bystander, Plinth had him
lift the back of the Austin up by
hand (quite easy), while he reattached the wheel. Heading for
home up Doncaster Road another
alarming thing happened. Geysers of
scalding water and steam shot up out
of a breather hole in the radiator cap
and showered back over the car
which had no roof. In fact, this went
on for months and Plinth resorted to
wearing a mackintosh as he went
around the streets with his vehicle
looking more like Thomas the Tank
Engine. Anyway, one day he contacted the previous owner, looking
for advice on the matter, only to be
told that the hole was not a breather;
it was a threaded opening from
which a mascot had been removed.
So Plinth slipped two shillings under
the filler cap and the problem was
solved.
The one thing everyone remembers about Baby Austins is that they
were almost brakeless. In the user’s
manual it stated that the brakes were
“to control the speed of the car”.
They said nothing about actually
stopping. This problem came to the
fore one day when Plinth was heading up the street on the way to work.
There was a well-known and hearty
lady – wife of the local MP – and she
expected a lift to shopping from any
passing motorist. Plinth rolled the
car to a stop and was preparing to
explain to Mrs FitzHerbert (not her
real name), that travelling by Austin
21
was dangerous and he had barely
begun when the lady had started
backing in through the door. Mrs
FitzHerbert wore a suit involving
several yards of heavy charcoal-grey
material and by the time she had
flounced herself into the seat, Plinth
found himself engulfed! The first
problem was finding the gear stick
(or guessing stick as Austin owners
tended to call it). He knew it was
under her folds somewhere but he
feared that feeling for it was likely to
earn him a slap across the face. Anyway, Mrs FitzHerbert took all this in
good part and with the gear stick to
hand Plinth set off. All went well
until they started the ascent of the
hill up towards the Kew Cemetery
gates. Being overtaken by all other
vehicular traffic was normal but being passed by a W-class tram full of
cat-calling school children was embarrassing. Mrs FitzHerbert seemed
quite oblivious to all this and she
chatted away happily, noting from
time to time that “this is so much
fun”. For Plinth, the fun was only
just starting. His passenger wanted
to be dropped off at the Kew Post
Office and this was at the bottom of
a long descent. Forward planning
was required. He waved the guessing
stick around trying to find a lower
gear, placed his foot on the brake
pedal and leant back on the hand
brake. Austin owners soon learnt
different strategies for stopping their
cars; it usually entailed mounting the
kerb and coming to rest against
something; preferably not a fire hydrant or a tram shelter full of commuters. The other idea was to slip
the door open and scrape your foot
along the ground. Plinth always had
metal heel protectors and these
caused the sparks to fly. With all this
going on you could generally rely on
people to jump out of the way. On
this occasion however, Plinth was
able to stop the car and Mrs FitzHerbert climbed out, expressing her
elation at having such a lovely ride.
End of episode one. In the next instalment we will jump 50 years to find Plinth,
once again, struggling with Baby Austins.
Barrington Plinth
HAVE YOU DINED AT
VERAISON RESTAURANT @ BLUESTONE LANE VINEYARD?
SMALL-PLATE LUNCHES $18/CELLAR-DOOR WINE SPECIALS
Affordable Alfresco Local Dining with Beautiful Vineyard Views.
Estate Grown and Produced Food & Wines.
"Australian Dining Guide Chef’s Hat Rating Restaurant"
Open: Lunch Thurs-Mon 11-5pm
Dinner Fri/Sat 6.30-11pm
Baby Grand Piano Music Every Fri/Sat Night.
269 MYERS RD, MERRICKS NTH Melways 163 A7 BOOKINGS: 03 5989 7081
www.veraisonrestaurant.com.au
www.bluestonelane.com.au
Coming Events @ Veraison Restaurant
Easter Sunday:
Romajanco Live Acoustic [4-Course Small-Plate Set Menu $65]inc. Glass of Wine
Mother’s Day:
Mojo Pearls Live Acoustic [4-Course Small-Plate Set Menu $65]inc. Glass of Wine
INQUIRE NOW ABOUT OUR COMING EVENTS @ VERAISON RESTAURANT
*
* Latin Dance Lesson & Dinner: Fri Nights coming soon in June-October
Pinot Noir Regional Wine Dinner: 5-Course Degustation Menu with Matching
Local and Imported Pinots. Sat 17th July
* Local Comedy & 3-Course Degustation Dinner: Friday Night 30th July
* Magic Show & Dinner. Saturday Night August 14th
Rye and date bread recipe
I was fortunate to have tasted this recipe as it came out of
the oven. It is a recipe of Alan Bickford who loves experimenting in the kitchen. He served it buttered, with Gorgonzola cheese and apple slices. It was truly delicious.
Alan believes that the reason bread-making is not so
popular or recipes fail is that we are not patient enough.
Dough must be left to rise and not be rushed.
Anne Doran
1 cup dark rye flour
1 cup light rye flour
½ cup bread flour
1 tbsp yeast
3 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
chopped dates (or walnuts)
 All plumbing maintenance
 Gas appliance repairs and installations
 New homes and extensions
 HWS replacements
 Cold water pipe renewals
 Roofing guttering and downpipes
 Running taps and toilets etc.
Mix together the dry ingredients.
Make a well in the middle and add enough warm water to
make a stiffish dough.
Let it rise until it doubles in size.
Knead well and place it in bread tin.
Let it rise again for approx. 20–30 mins while the oven is
heating to 200 degrees.
Bake for 35–40 mins.
Cool on a rack.
Prompt & reliable
Call Richard 0417 138 616
22
The Bock connection
The purchase in Port Arthur of a
catalogue of the work of Thomas
Bock, convict engraver and society
portraitist, has led to a slight but
interesting connection to at least
two local residents. This catalogue
was attractive to the purchaser
from Somers because it illustrated,
both in the paintings and in the
historical storyline, that period of
Tasmania’s history when there was
a beginning of an affluent society,
but at the same time, the Aboriginal
people were being decimated.
There was for the purchaser the
added emotion created by the fact
that one of her own forebears also
arrived in this period to restart their
life in this strange land. The catalogue had been printed for an exhibition of Bock’s work in 1991 for
the Queen Victoria Museum
Launceston, and the Australian National Gallery, Canberra.
I happened to see the book
when visiting and picked up on the
name Bock which happened to be
the surname of one of my tennis
friends in Shoreham. A quick
phone call produced an, “Oh yes
indeed, Thomas Bock certainly is
my forebear and he did live a most
interesting life”.
This life commenced in Sutton
Coalfield, Warwickshire in 1793.
He became a cathedral chorister at
nearby Lichfield, but at age 14 was
apprenticed to an engraver in Birmingham. On completing his apprenticeship he set up as an engraver and a painter of miniatures.
He married in 1814 and in 1817
was awarded a silver medal by the
Society of Arts and Commerce for
an engraving of a portrait. By 1823
his wife had given birth to five children but in this year he was found
guilty at the Warwick Assizes of
administering a drug to his sisterin-law to procure an abortion and
was sentenced to 14 years transportation.
With 150 other convicts Bock
spent 163 days to reach Hobart
Town on the other side of the
world. He was immediately set to
work for the government using his
skill as an engraver and soon produced a plate for a four-dollar note
(Spanish dollars were currency
then) and received accolades from
the Sydney newspapers for the
quality of his work. He went on to
produce engraved plates for a number of other Van Diemen’s Land
banks as well as commercial requirements such as bills of lading,
almanacs, invitation cards etc.
Bock also began painting miniature portraits but was directed in
1824 to produce sketches of bushrangers (alive or dead), the most
infamous of these being Alexander
Pearce (of cannibalistic notoriety).
By 1831 he had a gallery in
Hobart and became the first professional painter to practice there,
becoming well known for his portraits of wealthy landowners. His
work was carried out in a variety of
mediums including oils, pastels,
chalk, watercolour and pencil and
he even indulged in life drawings
which was really unheard of in that
staid township.
The Protector of Aborigines
G.A. Robinson commissioned Thomas to produce portraits of Aboriginal people, thinking he would
produce a book that recorded his
labours amongst them. The best
known of these is the portrait of
Truganini.
He received an absolute pardon
in 1835. (His convict record states:
“Former character good, respectably connected and very orderly”).
When Governor Franklin arrived in
1838 Bock was soon commissioned
to paint a portrait of Lady Franklin.
In 1843 Thomas commenced a
photographic practice using the
daguerreotype process, many examples of which are still in existence.
Six children were born to Thomas Bock and Mary Ann Cameron,
two of the boys following in their
father’s footsteps but with not quite
his skill. Thomas died in 1855 from
23
An 1852 portrait of Thomas Bock, possibly photographed by his son Alfred.
An oil painting by Thomas Bock of Eliza
Sophia Tilley (c.1844).
what is described as ‘debility’.
He left an indelible record of
the people of Van Diemen’s Land,
being swept along by the Colony’s
great need for his skills and gained
acceptance as a society artist, overcoming the convict stigma. Now
his paintings and drawings are
treasured by the galleries and libraries having the good fortune to possess them.
(Some text and illustrations
from: Thomas Bock – Convict Engraver, Society Portraitist.)
Rod Nuske
Wise Head, Sore Arm
Did you ever say, shaking your head,
that you cannot put a wise head on
old shoulders?
Well I plead guilty and this is one
of those tales.
Recently I was prescribed an antibiotic, which I am not going to name
in case I get a law suit.
Reading the advisory blurb, I noticed that this medication has the
ability to increase your skin sensitivity to sunlight. I usually avoid
sunlight. I chose to have ancestors
with a strong Celtic line and so am
not really suited to the golden tan of
Australia. I tried as a teenager and
peeled and peeled until I finally woke
up that I am really a damsel who
should retain the pale and interesting
look.
I was ferrying a car to Ringwood
for service and went up Eastlink.
Travelling up it was early and, although the sun was shining, it did
not bother me. Coming home midafternoon was another story. I could
not keep my arm out of the sun. I
didn’t have a long-sleeved shirt or
garment of any kind to cover my
arm, the sun-shade would not come
low enough to give me shelter and I
had to drive with my arm fully exposed to the heat. It felt a little tender by the time I reached Somers but
I didn’t think anything of it. Perhaps
a touch of sunburn.
The next morning I found out it
was more than a touch. My arm felt
as if I had been sitting all afternoon
on the beach. It wasn’t any different
in colour to my left arm but it was
sore to touch as well as expose
briefly to the sun. I smoothed it with
cream, ice-bathed and rested it but it
was still stinging. It made me remember the heedless days of youth.
So when you read the cautions
and warnings on the medicine bottle,
do take it seriously enough to avoid
something like my uncomfortable
arm.
Jean Stokes
Farewell Somers Primary School and hello Mornington Padua College, Tyabb Flinders Christian Community College, The Peninsula School, Bayside Christian College, Dromana Secondary College and Woodleigh School!
Not like the ‘good old days’ when there was just a choice between Frankston High School
and Padua. We wish all these wonderful happy young students Elizabeth, Daniel, Ellie,
Matt, Lucinda, Nanea, Briony and Eleanor all the very best with their senior education. It
would be great in six years’ time to re-take this photograph at the Somers Store to note the
difference and the maturity of these young people.
Iyengar Yoga
Beginner classes with Frances Willems
(Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher)
NEW VENUE
Bittern Hall, Frankston-Flinders Rd, Bittern
next to CFA Station
Tuesday 6.45-8.15 pm
Thursday 9.15-10.45 am
For further info and bookings contact:
Frances Willems • 0419 333 642
24
Art Classes For Terrified Beginners!
Develop techniques and a passion for using the vibrant and inspiring
medium of pastels with Somers artist Monique Morey.
Course times for term 2, 2010:
Mon: 10:30am-1:00pm (starts Mon 12th April)
Wed: 7:15pm-9:45pm (starts Wed 14th April)
Fri:
10:00am-12:30pm (starts Fri 16th April)
Qualified teacher
Maximum 6 students in a class
Fun and relaxed environment at home studio in Somers
All materials available from tutor
Weekly informative handouts
Topics include drawing, tonal values, colour theory, composition and painting
from photos.
Cost: $200 for 10-week term.
For enquiries, or to visit a class in progress and see the studio, contact Monique:
5983 2604 or 0409 836 507
moniquemorey@y7mail.com
Koala Lesson in Captivity by Ross Topham
I entice our terriers with marbles of dry food
that I frantically all-thumbs try to gather
but they are single-minded in their frenzied lather,
and so I run for the garden hose which I turn to jet spray
and water-cannon them away, like the tanks of Pinochet’s
Chile,
washing them behind the locking door of the incarcerating garage.
The Pomeranian, the Maltese, the Australian:
our three flyweight tribal terriers
never deterred from fighting out of their division,
this day had taken on a blundering male koala,
thick in girth, but quick, with razor claws,
this cuddle-soft tourist-shop icon,
an Edward Scissorhands in fur,
rave-party high on the ecstasy of eucalypts,
ringed by our manic dogs who instinctively
revert to ancient hunting tricks,
like taking turns in their attack, while the other two of the
pack
encircle the grunting, spitting beast,
but Pepper is too slow, the disgracefully ageing Maltese
clawed by the desperate koala who takes this chance to
clamber to the branch of nearest sanctuary,
but out of the terriers’ would-be frying pan,
and into a Rose, a Standard, almost two metres tall,
with thorns like shards of splintered glass,
the dogs yelping, snarling, leaping up,
desperate to break this cruel impasse
around our weeping Apricot Delight.
The koala meanwhile stays embedded
in the wine-glass shape of the orange rose,
and so I hose this wild Somers creature too,
but I cannot dislodge the stubborn, moaning male
from its place of desperate refuge:
refusing to budge, it prefers the thorns and masochistic
pain
to risk of release and any hope of ultimate peace.
I watched, then, from the kitchen window,
watched and waited for the koala to climb down,
but it remained clinging and stupefied into the fright of
night,
and I knew that I also have too often done the same.
By next morning, the embattled marsupial, no doubt traumatised and sore,
had gone to eat and sleep, and sleep and eat once more,
chore and mundane repetition the animal essence,
I have koala-learned, of every captive’s life.
I know rescue is needed, but my commands
go typically unheeded by the dogs,
even grey Pepper is back into the fray
the welts on his stomach apparently not fatal.
25
How WE can
help THEM
WE live in a magnificent part of the
world, untroubled by many of the
issues that impact on so much of
humanity. But all is not rosy in our
small coastal village. THEY are
causing problems again!
THEY shouldn’t have
‘vandalised’ the Pine trees. These
trees are a declared weed species and
as such are to be systematically removed from Crown Land Foreshore
Reserves in order to improve the
biodiversity of the regionally threatened Banksia Woodlands; Commonwealth and State government environmental legislation is in place to
protect and restore our narrow, fragile strips of coast; THEY are only
doing what THEY are required to
do. As the appointed Managers of
the Foreshore Reserve THEY are
bound by these requirements. So
please don’t continue to Pine for the
Pines and hurl your abuse at volunteers; THEY have done the right
thing in removing the weed species,
our greatest fire hazard on the Reserve!
As a community, WE need to get
together and help with the restoration and revegetation works – cast
your eyes at the new Picnic area near
the Lower Car Park to see what fifteen months of WE effort can
achieve.
THEY should do something
about the fire risk on the Foreshore
Reserve: The Dept of Sustainability
and Environment (DSE) fire management officers and Regional CFA
assessors have rated the Foreshore
Reserve Fire Risk as low. Recommendations from these assessments
have been and are being implemented now and will continue, using
mostly contract labour but with assistance from volunteers as well.
THEY have done this to assist the
community but volunteers will be
needed for WE assistance with further works to ensure the fire man-
agement plan can be fully implemented.
THEY let the tracks get overgrown . . . why don’t THEY cut
them back? THEY have tried in the
past to have working bees with volunteers brush-cutting the tracks
(some had been done by volunteers
months ago but had grown back all
too quickly!). With a limited revenue
stream of $$$$$$ THEY need more
WE assistance and/or funding, if the
large number of tracks are to be well
maintained. When the ‘welcome’ late
Spring rains ceased, THEY employed contractors to do a thorough
job of track cut-back that should last
through summer. Follow-up works
will ensure that in time, these tracks
will be better maintained and not
have the abundance of track-side
weedy grasses. But, THEY need to
apply for grants and funding in order
to pay for these works!
THEY are trying to reduce the
number of car-parking spaces! With
the addition of line marking
(courtesy of MPSC), there are now a
designated number of car-parking
spaces in the Upper Car Park. All car
parks on Crown Land Reserve are
primarily for the use of those engaged in Coastal Foreshore activities
(swimming, fishing, boating, bush
walking, picnicking etc.).
DSE provided funding for this
Upper Car Park on Somers Foreshore Reserve and THEY along
with volunteers maintain it. The ad
hoc parking arrangements in the
Lower Car Park have been impacting
on the aged remnant vegetation for
26
many years. THEY are trying to do
what’s required; to preserve what
remains before all is lost, while at the
same time catering for the needs of
coastal users – a delicate balancing
act – but THEY and other community groups are working on it!
THEY will keep trying to do
what’s right and what is required, but
WE in the community need to think
carefully about how our Foreshore
Reserve’s resources and facilities are
used, so the original intent of preserving the scant coastal Foreshore
Reserve is maintained. WE need to
understand that THEY are volunteers, appointed by the Minister, to
manage the Crown Land Reserve on
behalf of DSE. Without a substantial
revenue stream or a paid Ranger/
Manager, there needs to be more
WE assistance.
If local people were to ‘commit’
to assisting with works required in
managing the Somers Foreshore Reserve, then the THEY tag might just
disappear and become WE.
“Our community looking after
our community’s greatest natural
asset” has a nice inclusive ring to it.
If you would like to assist the
SFCoM in any capacity or you
would like to receive an emailed
copy of the monthly Newsletter (to
keep you better informed of meetings, projects, activities and working
bees) then please email: Somers.Foreshore.CoM@gmail.com
If you would like a hard copy of
the Newsletter sent to you, then
please write to: SFCofM, PO Box
466, Somers 3927.
Picnic at
Sandy Point
The Somers Yacht club is a community social club where many of the
members happen to be enthusiastic,
skilful sailors.
If you look through the early history of the Somers club it was always
intended to be a sailing-oriented social club. That objective was certainly
achieved and today a very large proportion of the members are ‘social
members’. Racing is still a very important part of the activities at SYC,
but ‘social sailing’ is also a part of the
calendar.
Retired navy man Tassie Cusick
commented, “Stan Byrne, with others, started the yacht club at Somers. Stan Byrne came to Somers
during the war in the Air Force. He
was a most likeable, cheerful man.
He married Dorothy, one of Ron
Stone’s daughters. The Stones
owned the General Store for many
years.”
So it was that on 8 January we
headed off to our picnic at Sandy
Point, perhaps invoking the spirit of
Stan’s vision. There were about 20
yachts and a couple of safety power
boats. The sea was comparatively
calm and it was a pleasant, sunny
Somers … er summer’s day. The tide
rushed out a little sooner than we
expected, or perhaps we set off a
little later, so we decided to have our
picnic this year on the club side of
the point. If you are wondering
where all the sand from the Somers
beach went, it’s sitting off Sandy
Point in a great arc out into the middle of Westernport Bay. We decided
not to fight the sand bar and everybody seemed to be quite pleased
with this arrangement. The group
was a mixture of youngsters through
to some of our octogenarian sailors. After a couple of pleasant hours
chatting on the beach it was time to
head back to the club.
Peter Hohaus
(Peter is a member of the SYC
rescue-boat crew.)
Seniors and retirees
be kind to yourself and have a massage.
Special offer on
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
You will never pay more than $30 a visit!
Even less, if you choose a massage seated in my
professional massage chair
‘dressed as you are’.
***********
Phone now for a discussion
with Kenn McIntosh, your local massage man for 11 years.
If you don’t look after your body, where will you live?
Kenn
27
Tennis Club News
Winners and Losers
The club’s men’s night team of Peter
Wilson, Glen Mealey, Graeme Wilson, Brad Culley and Mark Jaensch
won the B Grade grand final defeating Balnarring by four sets to two.
This team has now been promoted
to A Grade.
The mid-week ladies’ section-2
team of Yvonne Allenby, Jacqui
Austin, Anne Thomson, Bindi
Mealey and Peta Howell lost their
grand final to Pearcedale by just one
game.
Annual General Meeting – Sunday 21 March
From 1.30 pm you can come
along and enjoy a game of tennis and
watch an exhibition match of top
players. This will be followed by the
AGM at 3 pm and afternoon tea in
the Clubhouse, Stone Reserve, Camp
Hill Road, Somers.
All members and their families
welcome.
Court Hire
Courts are available to members
of the community to hire. To collect
a key, ring 5983 1360, 5983 1834, or
5931 3313. Key deposit is $10
(refundable on return) and hire fee is
$15 per hour per court.
Children’s tennis
program
doubles in size
Somers Tennis Club’s after-hours
coaching program for children from
Somers Primary School has more
than doubled in size since last year
with 32 children now taking part.
This is the maximum number the
club can handle at one time. More
than 40 children out of the school’s
enrolment of 180 applied to take
part.
The program, Active AfterSchool Communities (AASC), is a
national initiative of the Australian
Sports Commission in association
with Tennis Victoria and is designed
to stimulate local community involvement. It is funded by the Federal Government and is available
free of charge to all primary-school
children.
After the program is completed
the Australian Sports Commission
monitors the participants to see if
they continue with the sport by joining a local club.
The Australian Sports Commission provided funding for racquets,
balls and specially designed lowerrise nets for the program. The children have to provide nothing other
than suitable footwear.
The sports commission’s regional
co-ordinator for the Mornington
Peninsula, Jane Heseltine, said the
local program had been a huge success.
“It’s great to see these children
becoming involved in an activity like
tennis which, if they stick with it, can
become a life-long love,” she said.
“It also gets them involved in a
healthy activity in the outdoors as
well as refining their hand-eye coordination.”
Somers Tennis Club president
Graeme Wilson, a former professional tennis coach, together with
Park Shields, a former school principal and a club member, conduct the
coaching sessions which last approximately an hour.
Sea Rocket
The plant growing along the beach at
Somers is Cakile maritima – Sea
Rocket.
It is a succulent annual herb with
glaucous, variously lobed leaves and
small white, pink or purple flowers
during spring summer and autumn.
It is now naturalised. It was introduced early in colonisation and has
spread around the temperate coast
of Australia. There are actually two
species, C. maritima and C. edentula.
The differences are C. maritima
has the lower segment of the fruit as
broad as the upper. C. edentula has a
much narrower lower segment.
I did not look at the fruits to determine which one. C. maritima is the
most common.
It may be a weed but perhaps it’s doing something positive for Somers beach. It is Cakile
maritama or Sea Rocket which I’m told has been accepted as an Honorary Australian. If
it helps slow down the beach erosion by allowing wind-blown sand to collect around it then
welcome to our beach. Then again perhaps one good winter storm may undo all the gains of
the summer.
28