Category: News

Guest Speaker was Richard De Grijs
Richard is a Dutch astrophysicist based at Macquarie University in Sydney. He is a volunteer guide and consultant with the Australian National Maritime Museum. He tells how, after World War II, the Commonwealth government sought to establish a permanent base in the Australian Antarctic Territory and assert sovereignty.

For their expedition vessel, they overhauled an old polar favourite, MV Wyatt Earp. Plagued by problems during the 1947–48 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition, its crew turned a potential disaster into the navy’s first and only successful polar research expedition.

Members enjoyed Richard’s story and had a few questions after his talk.

Our guest speaker was John Quek from ID Support of Service NSW. He talked about personal information scammers who impersonates you and stated that Australian seniors are a favorite target.

He listed the various types of scams and how they contact us. John suggested that we set up key codes with our family to ensure any messages from scammers (such as needing urgent money) are genuine and never to click on an email if you are unsure.

Our July guest speaker, David Blair, was both interesting and entertaining. He was able
to elicit laughter at regular intervals throughout the talk. David Blair is a specialist researcher and teacher in Australian English. He is a lexicographer who was a founding member of theEditorial Board of the Macquarie Dictionary way back in 1969 at the Macquarie University.

He discussed how to find all the words in the real world and how many words are no longer
used. He reminisced about the days when he and his colleagues began editing the
Macquarie Dictionary.