Category Archives: Events

Yarn February-March 2021

The Southern Yarn – February March 2021

The February-March issue of The Southern Yarn is available for download now. Also check out the back issues at our dedicated Yarns page.

To get your started, here is the Editorial:

A common theme to much of our content for this issue is “nostalgia” – not by design, it just turned out that way. You will especially find some of that if you follow the links provided in the OZ and NZ News to the respective Film and Sound Archives – thank you to Ed in Adelaide for those. Maybe during the pandemic lockdown(s), you watched a Bond movie, or two. A run of them was offered by a TV channel here in the ‘Peg. “Getting to Know ..” on p. 7, explains the inspiration for the 007 super spy. Do you remember Chips Rafferty? Did you know he was born in Broken Hill? When we lived in Laidley, Queensland, a special treat was to cool off with a Weis Bar – a uniquely molded ice cream made with real fruit. Sadly, they’re no longer being made up the range in Toowoomba (p. 5). And I’m showing my age, but I used to enjoy listening to “Dad and Dave” on the ABC. Dave and his girlfriend, Mabel, are featured in this month’s Bush Yarn (p. 6). There is much more to reminisce over if you keep reading.

Thank to Ed, Jenny, Judy, Peter, Brian, Lucia’s sister in NZ, and our sponsors.

Yarn Dec 2020 /Jan 2021

The Southern Yarn for December 2020 and January 2021

The final 2020 issue of The Southern Yarn is also the FIRST issue for 2021. Read it now, or if you prefer, some of you can wait for the B&W one on yellow paper version to wend its way through the post to you. 

Here is the Editorial to get you started.

Just as “Google” came into our vocabulary several years ago, now, thanks to the pandemic, the new understanding of “Zoom” has become commonplace. What a gift! (Every cloud has a silver lining!). Meetings and birthday parties have been enhanced, under the circumstances, by this sharing technology, which facilitates virtual togetherness. Zoom will no doubt play a useful role for many Canadian families this Christmas as COVID restrictions continue to be necessary. Kudos to the Kiwis and Aussies for managing to come through their lock-downs much more successfully than most!

The other understanding of “zoom” played a big part of this past year for me. My trusty Canon SX720 HS with 40x optical zoom brought me up close to many new birds – some of which I share in this month’s Birds I View (back page).

In Getting to Know, p.7, you will learn about a very resourceful lady named Gladys Sandford. And, in 100 years ago, on page 6, how Qantas was started. All this and so much more!

With little in the way of Club event reports, I am again grateful to Jenny Gates for her contributions to this issue, including the “Lady in Red” piece; also to Peter, Brian, Terry D., Jodie S. and our advertisers.

YOU, too, are encouraged to become a Yarn contributor! Don’t be shy – share. Make the most of your Christmas, as we say goodbye to this year,

Stay safe!

Revisiting Our Bushfire Fundraiser

The video is online and the reviews are in. The video by Brian Rougeau of our Winnipeg Fundraiser for the Australian Bushfires is “beautifully done”, “incredibly moving”, “a powerful testament to all the work you did”, and viewers “… can’t stop watching it”.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, be sure to check it out today. And please take a moment to “like” the video and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We only need 100 subscribers to get a dedicated name for our channel, and then we can start adding more videos about the club and other interesting topics.

Stay safe, well and happy, everyone!

Yarn June-July 2020

The Southern Yarn for June and July is ready for you to download, either directly, or through the Yarns page.

Many of our anticipated events will be impacted by the Covid-19 restrictions, but perhaps now more than ever, we value our connections with one another, even if meeting in person is harder to achieve.

Here’s Charlie’s editorial to get your started: 

One thing I enjoy about this “job” (as editor of The Yarn newsletter) is hunting for good news stories to share. So, it is encouraging to find a good number of sites devoted to offering just that. You will find some of them in the following pages.

Continue reading

Online ANZAC Day Services

Although our ANZAC Day event on April 25th has been cancelled, there are other ways to participate in ceremonies in Australia and New Zealand to commemorate all the ANZACs who fought and died for our freedom. Remember that services on April 25th are in fact on April 24th for us here in Canada:

  1. standatdawn.com/home – RNZ Defence Force
  2. awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac-day – Australian War Memorial
  3. abc.net.au/radio/brisbane/anzac-day-2020/12132330 –  ABC Radio
  4. dva.gov.au/commemoration/personal-commemorations – mark the day in your own way with your family

And in case you’ve not called down under recently, the time difference for ANZAC Day is:

  • Sydney = 15 hours ahead … 5:30 am Sydney Apr 25 = 2:30 pm Winnipeg Apr 24
  • New Zealand = 17 hours ahead … 6:00 am Wellington Apr 25 = 1:00 pm Winnipeg Apr 24

Hopefully this will help you all participate in ANZAC Day this year.

Lest we forget.