Bulletin #27 - 24 January 2025

Presidential Ponderings

It's International Education Day! Celebrate in style if you can and spare a thought for those who need help in this area. It's also the anniversary of the very first AppleMac - Apple Computer Inc unveiled its revolutionary Macintosh personal computer way, way back in1984.

• Michelle Urban OAM – Early WA Jewish History to Now

   

  

  Michelle grew up in Perth, attending Coolbinia Primary School and Mt Lawley High School. She is the child of a Holocaust survivor and 4^th Generation Australian on her mother’s side.

   

  Michelle is a founding member of the Jewish Historical & Genealogical Society of Western Australia in 1998 and has been its Vice President and Coordinator for that time. She has been active in many committees, as a volunteer, archivist and exhibition curator.

  Michelle was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2014 for Service to the Community.

  In introducing Michelle, Host Michael “Gorby” Gottschalk informed the gathering that his grandparents were Jewish refugees from Germany, and his grandfather was one of the founding members of the Synagogue Temple David.

  The Jewish connection with WA started in 1656 with the arrival of the Gilt Dragon, with a pewter spoon bearing the Star of David being recovered from the shipwreck. In 1696 the Dutch Navigator Willian de Fleming discovered and named the Swan River. One of his sailors, Jan Simonsz (alias Jan Israel), was the first known Jewish person to have been in WA.

  The earliest settler was Lionel Samson arriving with his brother William on the ship Calista in 1829, the same time as Captain James Stirling. He arrived with a shipload of wine, spirits and groceries, immediately going into business… The office of Lionel Samson & Sons, in Cliff Street Fremantle, is the oldest family held business in Australia. A son Michael Samson and grandson Sir (William) Frederick Samson were both Mayors of Fremantle.

  Elias Solomon arrived in 1868 and became a business partner of Lionel Samson. He was more successful as a politician than a businessman, having a six-year term on the Fremantle Town Council, became Mayor of Fremantle and was elected to the WA Legislative Council for South Fremantle. In 1901 he became the first Member for Fremantle in the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia. Solomon House in Fremantle was constructed in 1887.

  Solomon Levey arrived as a convict in Sydney and became involved with Thomas Peel and the ill-fated Peel Land Grant Scheme, an enterprise that proved to be a fiasco of historic proportions….

  The convict ships Scindian (1850) and the Hougoumont (1867) brought twenty seven Jewish convicts. Amongst these were Theodore Krakouer and Henry Seeligson. Seeligson went on to establish the Jewish portion of the East Perth Cemetery. His son Phineas Seeligson’s former Perth City Loans Office in Barrack Street is heritage-listed.

   

  
  
  

  Two of Theodore Krakouer’s sons, Rudolph and David, with John Holland forged a way from Broomehill to Coolgardie. However, John Holland Way came from him taking all credit and removing reference to the Krakouer brothers.

  The Krakouer brothers founded a string of hotels from Collie to Norsemen. They married local indigenous women, starting a dynasty of football players of Jewish-Aboriginal descent. Phil and Jim Krakouer were two of the best indigenous North Melbourne players of all time.

   

  

  Between 1887 and now many Synagogues arose in WA, including Kalgoorlie and the Goldfields Hebrew Congregation in Coolgardie. Many would be familiar with the Fremantle Synagogue, a popular restaurant now. It still has the Star of David on top. Others include Palmerston Synagogue (the Little Schule), Perth Hebrew Congregation (PHC) and in 1954 Temple David Progressive Synagogue.

  There were many well known Rabbis in Perth. Rabbi David Isaac Freedman arrived in 1897 and was a minister for the community for a period of 42 years. He became known as the “Anzac Rabbi” during the First World War meeting with Jewish serviceman and, in 1919, helping to establish the Jewish War Memorial in Kings Park. The foundation stone was laid by the famous Jewish Australian General Sir John Monash.

   

  

  In more recent times, Rabbi Shalom Coleman CBE AM OBE was a minister of PHC for twenty years and turned 106 years old in December 2024. He is the only Rabbi to have received both Imperial and Australian honours.

   

  As a Rotarian he served as District Governor D9455 at the time Reg Willis was our DG9465.

  Some well known businesses were started by Jewish men. Boans department store by Harry Boan and Myers by Sidney Baevski Myer (born Simcha Myer Baevski).

  Many other personal stories and photos of famous then-and-now Jewish landmarks around Perth are contained in Michelle’s full presentation. A PDF copy can be viewed at:

  millpointrotaryclub.org.au>members only (password)> this link>Guest Speaker Presentations>URBAN Michelle – WA Jewish History

   

  Directors' Reports and Member Announcements

Veronica: 

• Reminder re District Conference and support needed for the District - March 28, 29 & 30 in Margaret River. See Events for details on how to book or your latest copy of "Rotary Round-Up".

Gorby: 

• 17 members are attending the Wongan Hills visit. Still time to book, see Gorby asap.

Scotty: 

• Please sign up now to be a Cenurion or contact Scotty. This is one of our club goals to increase our participation in this worthwhile project.

Wayne M: 

• Exhibit of the photo of the King and Queen and polled if it should be presented to RPGC or Senior Cits? Senior Cits won hands down or should that be hands up?

Rick: 

• Reminder that the Australia Day parking contingent is on this Sunday. Meet at Coode Street, currently have 12 people but if you wish to volunteer please contact Rick asap.

Dianna: 

• BIG thank you to all the volunteers who assisted at the Camp Opportunity lunch on Monday at the Zoo in 40 degree heat - we survived!

Michelle: 

• Update on Phil Doyle, having operation on 3 Feb, will be in hospital for 5 days and probably recovery will take 4-5 weeks to gauge success.
• Anne-Marie Mazanetz has been unwell post operation. Will follow up over next couple of days.
• John and Kerry Hardwick: John is in SJOG Murdoch with lack of energy and appetite but seems to be rallying. All this is taking its toll on Kerry who is also not well and a follow up is needed.

Fines-sing the art of economy extraction!

Whilst purveying the eye candy on the golf course Madam-Joy-Lash had a list of misdemeanors proving that women can do two things at once!

• Tennis Tragics - Australian Open fanatics barracking for the 2 Aussie pairing - first time in 50 years
• Qantas and Virgin Frequent Flyers - havoc being played with your rewards
• Marg H - ignoring Joy thinking she wouldn't be fined - some people never learn!
• Short sleeve shirt wearers - yeah, beats checks and stripes.
• Peanut Butter Day so all you PB lovers - drop in a dollar.
• Only 324 days left to the end of the year - but who's counting? You are so drop one in.
• President Kelly Stealer of Thunder by mentioning Apple's Anniversary of their first AppleMac and EVERYONE  who owns an iPad, laptop, iPhone - well any Mac product.
• Hot Golfers - no not the handsome kind but the ones who piked out of the game when the outside temperature became unbearable.
• Trump 2 watchers - tragics of all time!
• Ken P - not charging for mail collection!
• Scott D - Front Door Centurion.

Everyone who hibernated under the aircon on those 40 degree days

Winner of Heads and Tails

Our lovely Michelle won out after two H&Ts, two Hs and the winning H.

Attendance

33 attendees in all, including guest speaker Michelle Urban and visitors Rael Bricker and Michael Zusman.

Bulletin #26 - 17 January 2024

 Presidential Ponderings!

A great start to President Kelly's first meeting of the year - he forgot what he was doing and Angus forgot who he was - great pauses all round! Makes for good theatre as they say, however when composure was re-established Kelly wished us all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and thanked Brian J and Veronica L for their support when he was MIA.

Also took the opportunity to remind members of the vacancies for the 2025-2026 Rotary Year - Membership Director, President Elect/Club Service and Community/Fundraising.

President Kelly also thanked Wayne the Elder for organising extra storage space at the Senior Citizens abode along with shelves to store our accoutrements with which help is sought to move to their new home. See Wayne for more details.

Guest Speaker- David Tucker – Bicycles for Humanity (B4H)

David joined Rotary in 2013, is a past president of (the now defunct) Bayview Claremont Club and is now an active member of the Rotary Club of Crawley. He commenced volunteering with Bicycles for Humanity WA at its formation in 2011, has been Chair of the Management Committee since the beginning and a member of the Board since 2018.

He grew up in Melbourne in 50s and 60s. Graduating with a degree in Geology at the height of the WA Nickel Boom was the start of a 48-year career for David in the Mining industry. He worked in companies large and small, culminating in senior management and Board roles.

David thanked us for the invitation and brought greetings from Crawley Rotary Club President Sharon West.

• Bicycles for Humanity WA was formed in 2011 as a fully registered Charity.
• 100% volunteer organisation with about 85 active members and volunteers.
• HQ workshop in Midvale, where used bicycles are collected and fixed up. 
• Regional workshops run by Rotary Clubs in Geraldton and Esperance and by the Claremont Showgrounds Men’s Shed.
• To date 25 containers, about 9,400 bikes to Africa and over 1,500 to remote community schools, PCYSs and community groups in WA/NT.

How the Program works – The donated bikes are collected and fixed up to safe working order in the Midvale workshop. They are then loaded into containers and shipped off to NGO partners in Africa. The containers then become a community-run bike shop they operate out of. The bicycles are then either sold or donated to the local community.

Bicycles in Africa really change lives!

Here we ride them for recreation or to work. In Africa it is all about getting to work, accessing health care, transporting food and water or getting to school. It will get you there twice as fast and carry four times the load….or sometimes a bit more than that!

 The Community Bicycle Resource Centres (CBRC) become a sustainable small business run by people in the local community. The profits are invested back into community projects, usually run by local health or education NGOs. As well as providing employment for a few people to run it, it is affordable transport for hundreds and hundreds of people.

 Bikes for the World is an International collaboration that was started by the RC of Carroll Creek in Maryland, USA. The RC of Emangeni in Africa started a Recycled Bicycles to Africa project. The vision between those two clubs was to establish twelve CBRCs across rural South Africa over the next three years.

David contacted the RC Clubs of Carroll Creek and Empangeni and offered to talk to Rotary WA about getting together with B4H here. The B4H Board agreed to supply at least three containers over next 2-3 years, with about 450 bikes in each.

It is costing about $15,000 each time, so if three Rotary clubs could put in $5,000 each or if fifteen could put in $1,000 each we have the shipping costs for a container. B4H would provide the containers full of bikes, if the Rotary clubs could help with the shipping costs. A number of clubs, including Mill Point, have become involved, as shown:

Mill Point, through Bulldust N Back, supported Ebikers 2024 E-Venture ride to Esperance 12-18^th October. Thank you for your $3,000 donation.

So far in 2024, four CBRCs have been established:

• Ladysmith (B4H Calgary)
• Kimberley (Bikes for the World)
• Ingwavuma (B4H NSW)
• Howick (B4H WA)

 The first B4H WA container (of hopefully three, at least) was delivered in September. It is hoped to send the second container by the end of March. A problem is, the cost of shipping containers is unknown. The combination of the pandemic disruptions and then the Houti rebels attacking ships through the Red Sea, has meant that container shipping at the moment is chaos. To add to that, there are wharf strikes here as well. A third container will hopefully go late this year or early next year.

 David’s PowerPoint presentation can be viewed at:

millpointrotaryclub.org.au>members only (password)> this link>Guest Speaker Presentations>TUCKER David – Bicycles for Humanity

Directors' Reports and Member Announcements

Veronica: Attended RYLA dinner and met our sponsee (Meg)who is eager to come to the club and share her experience at RYLA as well as her gratitude for the opportunity.

• RC of Como event - please consider attending to support Polio Plus and the RC of Como - see details under events page.
• Camp Opportunity Dinner on Wednesday 24 January. $40 pp at Point Walter Recreation Centre - please support our Youth Director Astrid. See events page for details.
• District conference 2025 in Margaret River and Glam Up Your Truck competition - details under events page.

Gorby: Wongan Hills Rotary Club Vocational Visit on Tuesday 4 February, overnighting in Wongan Hills. 17 members booked - please let Gorby know asap if you are interested 0417 935 504.

Wayne: BNB meeting after breakfast

Rick: Thanks to all who donate to PICYS, recent visit by Rick allowed him to see the benefits that donations make and in particular the new beds at the premises.

And what a Fine(s) Performance!

...and he's baaaaaak! Owen took great delight in alighting to the podium amidst some severe silent hand-clapping....

• Wayne the Elder who confused us, multiplied us, divided us and square-rooted us as fines master last week.
• Those of you who have already broken your New Year resolution.
• All of you who didn't manage to stay awake and welcome in the New Year.

Last year was the year that...

• Saw new granchildren swell our ranks - pay up if this was you.
• Hospitalisations - of which there were many...
• Downsizers - gone from the MacMansion to smaller abodes.
• Non old-schoolers who turn their air-con on in the hot nights.
• Holiday makers who ventured on extended "Tours".
• Tennis Tragics who survive(d) the late match(es).
• Peter Matthews - 1. for trying to grow a moustache and 2. for constantly returning to the club.
• Alison - 21 again x 3?
• Wayne the Elder - lack of interest in Fran's birthday - tut, tut!
  

Winner of Heads and Tails

Wayne the Younger snagged the bottle again after a H&T, 2 x H's and an H&T. 

Attendance

37 attendees in all, including guest speaker David Tucker (also a Rotarian), visiting Rotarian Bill Boekman from Wongan Hills and Peter Matthews. 

 

Bulletin # 25 - 10 January 2025

 President

January is the month of Vocational Service, a major objective of Rotary as a philosophical statement of Rotary's purpose and the responsibilities of Rotarians, which means Rotarians practice high ethical standards, recognise the worthiness of all occupations and use professional skills to serve society.

This is manifested in the projects we are involved with such as with 12 Buckets and their mentoring program; and involvement with the Sri Lankan eye camps coming up next week - to name just a few. These are the ways in which Rotary is set apart from other service organisations.

 

About Time - Wayne Muller

Our very knowledgeable member Wayne Muller saved the day after the short-notice cancellation of our planned speaker. He was able to step right in with a very informative presentation on About Time, having set the scene with his Fines session based on a mathematical analysis of the year 2025….

Wayne’s presentation is based on the book A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks, by David Rooney, the son of a clockmaker, one time technology curator at the Science Museum in London, later curator of timekeeping at The Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

The twelve chapters (probably for the twelve hours of the clock…) are named for an event that happens that year.

1 Order - Sundial in the Forum, Rome (263 BCE)

Manius Valerius Maximus, war hero who captured Catania, in Sicily, from Carthage, returned to Rome and erected a stolen sundial in the Forum.  Additional sundials were set up all over the empire to establish order.  One writer proclaimed “The gods damn that who first discovered the hours, and – yes – who first set up a sundial here, who’s smashed the day into bits for poor me! You know, when I was a boy, my stomach was the only sundial…… But now what there is, isn’t eaten unless the sun says so”.  (Photo of Tower of the Winds, Athens ~140BCE)

2 Faith - Castle Clock, Diyar Bakr (in today’s Türkiye) 1206

This was the palace of King Nasir al-Din.  The King had an engineer inventor, al-Jazari, who wrote The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, providing the status of technology and engineering in the Islamic realm.

Automatom water clocks such as this one were regularly built in Islamic city mosques as a sign of Faith, setting the hours for prayer.

Christians followed. these for the routine of monks in monasteries.  Also, Jews, Hindu and Buddha, Sikh and so on.

The more accurate, elaborate, obvious, spectacular, clearly the deeper your faith. [Photo -14^th century engraving] 

3 Virtue - The Hourglass of Temperance, Siena 1338

High tensions existed between the City State of Siena and neighbouring rivals Pisa and Florence.  Siena’s Signori Nove (Council of Nine bankers, merchants etc) commissioned artist Ambroglio Lorrenzetti to paint big pictures to show the difference between peace and war.  He selected the three holy virtues – Faith, Hope, Charity, plus Peace (the olive branch), and civic virtues of Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, Magnanimity and Temperance.

This is Temperance holding the hourglass containing sand, the oldest known depiction of this device. Other paintings depict the horrors of war, death, tyranny, the horned Devil, and the various vices.

They are mounted in the room at the Sala dei Nove

4 Markets - Stock Exchange Clock, Amsterdam   1611

[engraving 1612]

This was a major location for the exchange of shares in companies – indeed, the only place for such exchanges and strictly within stipulated hours. Dutch East India Company shares were traded here.

Rising above the square was a tower with a clock, the only one used to date or time every transaction. Transfers began person-to-person, shifted to agent-to-agent, (nowadays in massive numbers between high speed computers….)

They are now timed by oscillations within atoms built into atomic clocks. 

-       In 1955 accurate to about 1 second per 300 years

-       by 1980, 1 sec in 300,000 years

-       now closer to 1 sec per 160 million years based on a Cesium atom.

The UK’s National Physical Laboratory acts as a “Grand Master”, setting the timestamp on each transfer to an accuracy within a millionth of a second.

 

5 Knowledge - Samrat Yantra. Jaipur 1732-1735

A new city was established by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in 1727. About 3 ha of the 50ha Palace was set aside for the observatory named Samrat Yantra (President Kelly has been here….)

 

The flight of stairs standing 23m high is aligned north-south.  Its shadow on the east-west concave semicircle acts as a sundial with a scale marking each 2 degrees.

Rulers such as Singh II wanted to show their legitimacy of sovereignty by getting calendars and astronomical tables drawn up to show their knowledge of the universe of which they were the centre.

We are still doing the same!  The James Webb Radio Telescope launched this year will enable astronomers to see back close to the first stars created billions of years ago.

 

6 Empires - Observatory Time Bell, Cape Town 1833

The inability of ships at sea to know their exact position when out of sight of land caused the loss of ships, sailors, and cargo.  There remained no way of determining longitude.

England established the Board of Longitude, Astronomers, Navy and Government in 1714 to call for solutions. 22,000 pounds was offered for a winner.  They expected a winner to use the positions of stars. John Harrison (a direct ancestor of Brian Conway) provided a mechanical clock, but was ridiculed.  The clock was so accurate it could handle being on sailing ships and provide a reference for Grenwich Mean Time (GMT). This was compared to noon local time on the ship and the difference used to calculate longitude.

James Cook, known as top mapmaker, best navigator, great maritime explorer, carried Harrison’s clock.

Cape of Good Hope Observatory signaled to ships with a large ball falling off a high point at 1pm, so ships could view the signal without having to enter the harbor and dock. (Cannon shot too slow.)

 

7 Manufacturer - Gog and Magog,   London  1865

Watch- and Clock-maker shop owner, John Bennett in London’s Cheapside modified the front of his 5-storey building with elaborate clocks with moving figures to attract a crowd every hour, like Perth’s London Court.  Neighbouring businesses complained!

In the 18^th Century Britain was the leading manufacturer of timepieces.  150,000 per year at the end.  When the textile industry’s Richard Arkwright wanted skilled workers to make mechanical looms, he recruited clockmakers.  Factories started working shifts, needing clocks.

The Swiss started making clocks.  In Connecticut, Eli Terry, who began making wooden clocks, built a factory to make 100 metal clocks at a time.

Henry Ford bought the entire front of Bennett’s shop and moved it to US 1929.

8 Morality - Electric Time System, Brno, Czeck Republic 1903-1906

St James Church clock bells ring out the hour for a christening.  So does the clock on the Town Hall, one on the rail station and at the next church.  Electric clocks have arrived, all interconnected.

Railways have forced towns across the country to have the same time.

In 1884 the Meridian Conference was held and agreed, after much argument, the zero was the line of longitude passing through Greenwich.

Standard time across the country.  In UK laws now related to this new time.  Victorian morality decreed that all pubs would open and close as determined by standard time.

9 Resistance - Telescope Driving-Clock, Edinburgh 1913

A bomb was discovered in a chapel in Edinburgh before the clock reached the time to set it off.  A day or so later a bomb exploded at the local Observatory which had responsibility for determining the time.  Suffragettes are blamed, but it could not be proved who did it.

Standardisation of time was seen as a means of control and enforcing power.  Science itself was an enaction of control. George Woodcock wrote The Tyranny of the Clock -  Tyranny leads to resistance, Luddites are rioting,  Factories have weaponized the clock, workers are slaves of the bells.

The body of a Frenchman was found at night in the grounds of Greenwich Royal Observatory.  It was suggested he was making his way to the Greenwich Public Clock, when the bomb he was carrying exploded.

10 Identity - Golden Telephone handsets, London  1935

This chapter suggests we and the clock are one.  Our nation is defined by the time we keep. Soldiers in the First World War started wearing wristwatches. We talk to our watch “Hi Siri, what will I have for lunch?”

Wayne unfortunately ran out of time. The remaining chapters (from his notes) is included for the continuity of his presentation.

11 War - Miniature Atomic Clocks, Munich 1972

Daylight saving was introduced. GPS weaponizes clocks.  Miniature atomic clocks on satellites are used to determine accurate position of a missile using trilateration.

GPS signals are subject to four problems: errors in complex coding; loss through natural causes; deliberate jamming; spoofing – another nation destroys your system.

12 Peace - Plutonium Timekeepers, Osaka 6970

Buried 14m under a park in Osaka inside a spherical 500lt steel cylinder 1m across protected by layers of steel, sand, clay, and reinforced concrete rests an atomic clock.  It is a gram of plutonium and as it is undergoing radio-active decay it releases one helium atom, allowing the clock to move its dial.

Now, 5,000 years since it was buried in 1970, it is about to be retrieved, giving access to the other 2,000 objects it contains as a record of life on Earth.

One is a message written by a fourth-grade student in Tokyo.  “A society in which everyone lives cheerfully and happily ….. this must be the same goal for me and you, I believe.  We must do our best until the next age takes over.  Goodbye from 5,000 years ago”.

Directors' Reports and Member Announcements

Raelene: Sri Lanka project has 20 Australian representatives setting off on Thursday 16 January. 8 are from WA, 1 from Melbourne and 11 from Sydney. The largest contingent so fa! Raelene raised $11,000 from the BNB to help against budget of $18,000 so hopefully others have also raised funds to help out.

Astrid: Camp Opportunity is on from 19 - 25 January, with Mill Point supplying lunch at the Zoo on 20th January. Assistance has been offered from Brian & Siew Johnson, and Dianna Goh but a few more helpers would be welcome (contact Dianna on 0406 370 022). Also please consider supporting us with your attendance at the Camp Opportunity Dinner on Wednesday 22 ($40 per head). Please see flyer under EVENTS for further details.

Brian: Club duties/dress/attendance roster is now being spread across the membership so please watch out for when you are rostered. 6.30am start and instructions will be prepared for those not familiar with what needs to occur. Thanks for your support.

Gorbi: Wongan Hills visit on 4 February is now imminent to celebrate their 60th year of existence, new member induction and PHF awards. Please contact Gorbi direct on 0417 935 504 or mjgwaconsuslting@gmail.com if attending. See flyer under EVENTS for accommodation bookings

What make a Fine(s) Number?

If this makes sense to you 'you are a better man than I, Gunga Din...'

Wayne the Elder amazed (and confused) everyone with his fines session but only in order for us all to pay up to gong him off! It worked even though Astrid fell asleep...

Apparently 2025 was the perfect square - 45 x 45 = 2025, it's only happened once before in 1936 when 44 x 44 = 1936, the rest of it was just blah, blah, blah - for a numpty like me!

Winner of Heads and Tails

2 lots of Head and Tail's, followed by 2 Tails and lastly a single Tail saw Brian Conway grab the grog this week! Thanks to Margaret and Lyn Metcalf for their generosity in supplying each week's bottle of grapes!

Attendance

31 attendees in all, including visiting Rotarian Bill Boekman.