QBE Outreach

Click on the blue underlined below to hear the concert recordings.    Lindsay's Lobes: RAAF Glee Singers Recording : This is a picture of the RAAF Glee Singers Australia Day concert in London January 1943 which including my late father, 3rd from the right.  During the war they made many recordings for the BBC in between bombing missions over Germany and elsewhere.     My father was one of the lucky ones as four of the group died prior to the ending of hostilities and within  a year or two of this concert.     

 

  Photos from Phillip Island where we holidayed in April his year.  Cape Baron Geese roam freely throughout the island and we encountered  wallabies, seal colonies and of course you have the Penguin Parade.  The last two photos are taken from Churchill Island.    

We traveled down to Barwon Heads in December to enjoy the local scene and to join in a wonderful luncheon with former work mates and spouses. The weather was sunny and lots of people enjoyed the beach. The final photo shows a side view of where we had lunch.   As you would know Barwon Heads is a delightful coastal township on the Bellarine Peninsula, close to Geelong, and less than 2 hours’ drive from where we currently live. It is located on the west bank of the mouth of the Barwon River below Lake Connewarre, while it is bounded to the west by farmland, golf courses and the ephemeral saline wetland Murtnaghurt Lagoon.   

  The Sea was a deep aqua blue, more beautiful than a dark precious stone shimmering under the clear blue sky. I will always remember that colour of the sea on that boat trip from Abyiang to a nearby tropical island in the Sun. I remember my wife sat quietly in the bow, having recovered from an earlier ordeal when she had awoke as if from a sudden nightmare to a raging shivering fever. We were then staying in a thatched hut on Abyiang, the guests of volunteer teachers from Australia and Canada. The schoolchildren upon hearing of her fever brought us coconuts, telling us the juice would soon restore her to good health. True to their word my wife was soon up and about as if the fever was no more than a bad dream, much to our mutual relief. We had arrived the day before by boat from Tarawa the most populated Island in Kiribiti, as our intended plane trip was cancelled due to a breakdown .We negotiated with locals who took us to Abyiang by boat, finally trekking across the coral reef as

My wife is a writer and I have managed to persuade her to allow me to publish one of her short stories, about our adventure holiday. Its Entitled Odyssey It’s midday in late July and I’m huddled in a large fishing dinghy on the Pacific Ocean. The equatorial sun attempts to penetrate the swaddling of this mummy-like figure clinging to the wooden rim of the boat. What am I doing here, I wonder, as I drink greedily from my water bottle? I could be lounging lazily in Melbourne beside a cosy fire, sipping hot chocolate. My friend, Barbara, sitting up on the side of this craft, soaking up the experience, knows why she is here. My husband, Lindsay, perched further forward on the opposite side, unconcerned about the sun’s perforating rays, knows what he is doing here. They are responding to an invitation to visit Abaiang, a small coral island, part of Kiribati (KIR-UH-BAHS) (formerly the Gilbert Islands). “Come and visit my island; you will see the most amazing sunsets,” Judy, a 27 yea