Our guest speaker, Stuart Coleman, gave us a talk about being a ten-pound Pom.

Stuart was born on Christmas Eve, 1946, in Manchester, England. Post-war Britain was still recovering from rationing, food shortages and bomb damage. The one thing which stuck in Stuart’s very young mind was the weather – it was always raining and cold.

At age 16, Stuart started as a student electrical apprentice at John Shaw and Sons, which built hydraulic presses. By his early 20s, he moved into design work, which he loved.  Then at 25, and newly engaged to Linda, with the optimism of youth and very little wisdom, he decided to emigrate to Western Australia. Ten pounds bought a one-way ticket. 

They arrived here in March, 1971 and one surprise after another quickly followed, such as being overly dressed against the English cold only to swelter here; and being separated and transported on different buses to their accommodation – Linda to Noalimba in Bateman and Stuart to a hotel in Northbridge.

Stuart showed us a handwritten letter he obtained years later from the Immigration Department, detailing his physical appearance (“presents well”) and noting his willingness to work. 

Stuart joined Western Mining at the Kwinana Nickel Refinery and Linda worked as a midwife at Osborne Park Hospital. The pay was extraordinary compared to England and they thought they had struck gold.

Stuart left Western Mining and entered the WA fluid power industry.

In 1979, Stuart co-founded Pressure Dynamics with two colleagues. The company grew, succeeded, struggled, recovered and taught Stuart more about leadership than anything else could. In his later career he was privileged to help train and mentor young engineers.

After he retired in 2004, he remains active playing golf and bowls and volunteering with the Jaguar Car Club of WA, the Australian Fluid Power Society and British Pensions in Australia publications.

CES DECEAU RESERVE BRENTWOOD

On Saturday16th May, while many Rotarians were cleaning up the Swan River foreshore, I attended a workshop, as a representative of Applecross Rotary to help in planning the planting of a community pocket forest planned for the Ces Deceau reserve in Cambey Way, Brentwood.  On my arrival there in front of me was Hamish Turner attending in his own right and able to offer (needed) agronomy advice.  So together we made a formidable team having  had the experience of planting days from almost 10 years ago when Applecross Rotary was involved, over several years, in the  planting out along the Waylen Bay foreshore from the tennis courts to the Applecross jetty with our last effort being in 2018 when the degraded land between George Welby park and the freeway was planted out, one cold and wet winter’s day.

Kate Zappa approx. 2016 planting sedges along foreshore 

planting out degraded land between George Welby park and the freeway (2018)

The CES Deceau reserve is an undeveloped piece of land a little over 50 metres by 30 meters, about the size of 2 or 3 suburban house sites.  The main activity on the reserve would be the City mowing the weeds.  It has well established housing on 3 sides.

The concept plan is to initially plant out an area of about 15 by 20 metres with dense plantings of native vegetation known to have grown in the area and be suitable at this particular location with respect to things like soil type, natural drainage and ground water.  Of particular  concern is that the vegetation, when established in a couple of years, will be to the liking of Carnaby Cockatoos.  These birds are forecast to become endangered as their preferred environment is encroached by urban sprawl and pocket forests such as this  may alleviate some of this problem.

This project is supported by the City of Melville, the  WA State Government with a $120,000 grant for the first stage, and a strong community support.  It is the strength of the community support that it is being “termed” a Community Pocket Forest.

Towards the end of the workshop each group had to summarise  their discussions, and when our group presented those present became well aware of Applecross Rotary’s involvement in previous planting days. It was then that our table became a focal point being joined by  Friends of Applecross Foreshore, a Melville City Councillor and the project facilitators .  I think we made our point that Applecross Rotary cares for the community and the environment.

The planting day is planned for July, this year.

Saturday Morning ‘Day of Action’

OK, so who believes in those mystical, magical 'in your face' messages on the Government revenue raiser excise on cigarette packs and cancer sticks .. over $1per stick, by the way!

Well, obviously not the good folk who sit on the benches along the foreshore and suck nicotine deep into their metabolism. 

Murray McKay and I set about cleaning up the foreshore area nearest to Canning Bridge and were truly surprised that we did not unearth a number of human corpses tucked amongst the tussocky foreshore! 

Yes, not one cadaver, but possibly hundreds of butts that surely end someone's life a little earlier than otherwise.

One day, maybe, we will find a Government message that delivers an outcome.

Apart from this, and a lot of small plastic and polystyrene pieces that wash and blow into the Swan to enter the bio world of fish, birds/ human etc, the zone was very clean of major trash, especially considering the building work going on in the area.

A job well done and worth the effort.

Rotary Partnership with the Melville Cockburn Chamber of Commerce.

This Thursday evening, our 3 local Rotary clubs will be presenting an award at the prestigious MCCC Business Awards evening at South of Perth Yacht Club.

Our Award will be for an outstanding business in the Melville Cockburn zone for its contribution towards 'Sustainability and Environmental Impact', and each club will contribute $1,000 towards this presentation.

Importantly, our 3 clubs will also be announcing our new MCCC Partnership whereby local Rotary will offer to work with Business and build closer relationships within our communities for volunteering and give back, for both existing and new community initiatives.

Peter McEwen will be presenting to the Awards evening on this new relationship, and we have developed an excellent package to both introduce and promote ongoing how this can be achieved for the best interests of both Business and Rotary.

This is certainly planned to be a longer term project, and forms part of our Membership Grant from our Rotary District involving AxR and MelR. 

All about a broader community impact for Rotary ( and new members), increased exposure for what we do, and a win for Business in helping earn its social licence.

Kenn.

Westfield Booragoon

• Enter up to 4 artworks
• Pay the entry fee, $17.50 per artwork
• Enter before 23 May

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Lorri is still looking for a few more starters especially for Sunday setup and packup .

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M: 0404 014 634 or pmmparking@applecrossrotary.org