Je
nny Stone was our chairperson for today's club meeting at Cilantro. Guests included our guest speaker, PDG Dr Daryl Moran, Jenny Moran, PDG Bob Richards, Nicki Chung, and Gary Ramage.
nny Stone was our chairperson for today's club meeting at Cilantro. Guests included our guest speaker, PDG Dr Daryl Moran, Jenny Moran, PDG Bob Richards, Nicki Chung, and Gary Ramage. Past President Tim Lynch had the very pleasant duty of presenting a Certificate of Appreciation to our Youth and Vocational Chair, Julie Reid, who, together with her team, does a power of work in the background for the Youth/Vocational committee.
GUEST SPEAKER - PDG Dr Daryl Moran
Daryl Moran returned to our club for a second time to talk about a personal historical interest he has in Australia's war history and bringing to the fore often forgotten and unrecognised feats of heroism and personal sacrifice made by many Australians during the war. This year is the 80th year since the end of WW11, and Daryl and Jenny Moran both had fathers who served in the RAAF. It is the efforts of previous generations that we are able to enjoy our lives today in a free country, and we should be so grateful. Yet there are so many stories that are not told, and which we know so little about. Daryl's first book was the Empire's Noble Son that highlighted the life of a young Australian fighter pilot who served in the British Army Royal Flying Corp. For Daryl's new book, In the Fight, he collaborated with Andrew Kilsby to research and sift through the volume of material unearthed to tell the story of individual men and women who represented Australia in the forgotten war - Burma 1942 - 1945. The book serves to highlight and reveal the long hidden stories of the Australians and the war in Burma. . Daryl briefly touched on individuals to illustrate the involvement of Australians in the war against the Japanese in South East Asia, encompassing India, Ceylon, Burma, China, Thailand, Indo-China, Malaya, Singapore and Sumatra. The book describes the ravages of famine experienced by POWS in the Rangoon Jail. We learned that Australia conducted commander training in Burma, we served in the Indian Army, and that women also served in Voluntary Aid Detachments in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Qantas played a part and in June 1943, they started a service of the longest flights in the world flying from Perth to Ceylon - a distance of over 3,000 miles that took 30 hours, to deliver mail, military documents and passengers. Daryl has a third book in the pipeline, and will return to our club in November to provide an update. Daryl is a great storyteller, and an excellent historian determined to ensure the lives and sacrifices made by many Australians who fought for Australia are not forgotten. Thank you Daryl for your fantastic presentation.
Linda had the pleasant duty to present Daryl with our first club speaker gift - a BMC club monogramed cheeseboard and knife.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- The rosters were announced
- Birthday greetings for club member, Paul Ferguson - a milestone birthday that recently passed by
- Next week's guest speaker is Colleen McPhee from DIK - Donations in Kind, and who will talk about how DIK operates
CLOSE
President Grant thanked Daryl for his wonderful presentation, everyone who attended, and looks forward to catching up again next week. His parting words were this year's Rotary theme to 'Unite for Good'
To purchase the book go to any of these sites:
