Monday, 2 December 2024
We had an excellent Roll Up of forty-five (45) for this, our last event for the year, which included two new members (John Brennan & Peter Mosedale) along with one visitor (Cameron Te Strake) who is visiting from the UK – Welcome John, Peter & Cameron.
After our usual meet & greet along with checking in we travelled to Rotary Park, Oakey for Smoko.
Following Smoko we travelled onto the Army, Aviation Museum where we were met & welcomed by our guide Scott. To sum up: Scott is a fourth generation Aviation Soldier (two more generations in the pipeline after Scott); has an incredible memory for Aviation History; provided us with the Genesis of Aviation right up until today; & covered Aviation involvement in all the Theatres of War from the First World War onwards. His guided tour was amazing to say the least, & he was so Enthusiastic that we had to wind him up in the end so we could meet our lunch time booking – I would suggest that all attendees would agree with me that this was one of the best Guided Tours we have had to date. We then boarded our coach & headed back to Club Glenvale for lunch.
Bob Whittaker found this YouTube video relevant to our visit to Oakey Army Aviation museum. At the time, the RAAF operated the helicopters, but they were incorporated into Army Aviation post Vietnam.
After lunch we acknowledged & celebrated birthdays falling in December in our usual manner (with birthday cake etc) Viz. Carl Betros, John Brennan, Pat Dwan, Ron Lewis, Mark Manchee, Dick Neal, Rob Rimmer, Owen Schulz & Rod Webb.
Following this we had our annual meeting to discuss & agree on what items that had been put forward for consideration were agreed to for inclusion in our Calendar of Events for 2025 & Supplementary – Please refer to my email re Calendar of Events for 2024 & 2025 dated the 24th of November 2024 for the list, plus the following items that were put forward & endorsed during the meeting –
- Guided Tour of McLean Farms Pittsworth – End to End Poultry Farm – Eggs & Chicken Meat. Pat Sullivan
- Guided Tour of the Australian Rodeo Centre, Warwick Derek Phillips
- Guided Tour of Toowoomba Regional Council (T R C) Recycle Plant, Toowoomba. Harley Storch
- Guided Historic Crime Tour of Gatton – Jack Sim. Peter Taylor
All endorsed proposed events will now be considered for inclusion in our Calendar of Events for 2025 giving due consideration to a mix of short, medium & long trips; suitability for Winter & Summer; & available seating arrangements etc – The leftovers will be added to our Supplementary List.
The updated list will be emailed to members under separate cover in a day or so, &, the Draft Calendar will be emailed out for perusal & comment in the next few weeks.
Thank you to all for participating constructively in our discussions.
In closing, special thanks to those who contributed to making this another safe & enjoyable event for the attendees, including:
- Peter Taylor with assistance from Warwick Dingle & Scott (Guide) – For organising this event
- Lorraine Betros – For providing us with nice freshly made sandwiches for smoko.
- Staff at Club Glenvale – For providing us with a good lunch.
- Scott (Guide) – For our excellent tour including our Aviation & War Theatres History Lesson along with looking at examples of different types of planes etc. – Well done Scott & much appreciated by all attendees.
- Bob Whittaker & Warwick Dingle – For being on duty as our trusty first aid officers, along with Bob for his safety briefing & reminders.
- Rowdy Reid – For his Gig as our coach doorman ensuring we all got on & off the coach safely at each stop.
- Michael Bourke & Russell Mauch – For looking after our finances & name badges, & Russell for the receipting & banking of our surplus cash.
- Warwick Dingle, Russell Mauch & Rowdy Reid for assisting with delivery of our meals along with the cutting up & serving of our birthday cake.
- Warwick – For his usual Gig as head counter ensuring we don’t leave anybody behind at each stop.
- Ron Lewis & Lindsay Reis – For looking after our hydration & hygiene requirements with bottled water & handwash respectively, along with loading & unloading of the coach as required.
- Jan Neal – For making our much-appreciated birthday cake.
- Nick Peters – For transporting us to & from Oakey safely.
- Photographers including Peter Taylor, Ron Lewis & Ron Bathurst – For sharing their photos taken with us.
Dick Neal
7 December 2024