Local resident and author of “The Ugly Daughter” Julia Legian was Guest Speaker at the Probus Club Xmas Lunch Function held at St Bernards recently. After the allied troops retreated from the war in 1975 the North Vietnamese Communist regime, who wanted revenge, inflicted all manner of atrocities on the South Vietnamese people. Julia, born in the early seventies, spent her childhood near Saigon in South Vietnam during those wretched years. Not yet in her teens she and her family fled from war torn South Vietnam as boat people eventually coming to settle in Australia. Tirelessly she managed to learn the language and customs of Australia while working to help feed her family knowing that she must be able to speak and write English to succeed. This she achieved and recounted in her talk of some very strange and humorous anecdotes which surround our Aussie culture. Julia presented a compelling story of her rise from refugee to real estate entrepreneur exemplifying her courage and character through her childhood adversity. Truly an inspiring ambassador for all new Australians.
Bryan Rolston, another mountain resident and former Bureau of Meteorology analyst was Guest Speaker at the November Probus General Meeting.
Bryan explained the uniqueness of our Mountain weather, and spoke about weather events generally around our part of the world, pointing out that the changing climate is necessary and normal. When earth settled down to support life some 3 billion years ago the climate started evolving to what we experience now. He attributed weather events in the main to the El Niño and La Niña oscillations, a phenomenon which produces fluctuations in ocean temperatures causing cyclical periods of heavy rain and droughts. Scientists from CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology have yet to find any evidence that carbon emissions namely carbon dioxide cause or influence atmospheric temperatures in any measurable quantity, despite seemingly plausible arguments from those who profit by the narrative that it is a much maligned greenhouse gas. Earth’s rotation, proximity to the sun, equatorial and polar air movements combined with the concentration of water vapour are just some of the complexities which determine our weather and thus our climate. Most educational, thank you Bryan.
Guest Speakers are invited every month on a variety of topics, so if you are retired or semi retired and enjoy the company of like minded individuals, you too could be entertained by our speakers. Call the Membership Secretary Bob Hepple 0411 776888 for an invitation to attend one of our meetings.
Check out our website https://probussouthpacific.org/microsites/tamborinemountain