guest speaker series 2024

September Speaker - Deryn Thorpe
Gardening in and around Mt Lawley

We had a fabulous full house for Deryn Thorpe’s talk about gardening in the inner suburbs last Monday night.

To say the audience was absorbing Deryn’s every word is an understatement. Those of us who garden, even a little bit, are noticing the changing climate and the different pests that are attacking our plants. The ‘gardening manual’ is being re-written and Deryn pretty much covered everything to help the average, and of course enthusiastic, gardener tackle problems, learn how to read nature in their own garden, adjust how we garden, look after our wildlife and enjoy our garden as well.

Deryn covered the basics – the first rule of thumb of course is build up and look after your soil and it will look after your plants. Then we moved onto verge plantings, which is an important feature in our suburbs as we all enjoy a beautiful verge. Other topics were the vegie patch, what small trees to plant to attract fauna and then onto the latest pest issues affecting us all.

Thank you, Deryn. It was an outstanding talk. #allthedirt

Background

Deryn Thorpe is a fanatical Perth gardener and an award-winning garden writer, co-presenting the multi-award winning ‘All The Dirt’ www.allthedirt.com.au, Australia’s most popular gardening podcast with more than 2 million downloads.

She works in the family revegetation business Plantation and Landcare Services www.palservices.com.au which plants millions of native trees and shrubs each winter on degraded landscapes in the WA Wheatbelt.

Deryn is heard regularly on ABC and commercial garden talkback radio.  She’s a vivacious and popular speaker at Australian and international festivals and garden clubs.

She worked as a European tour manager for Top Deck travel in the mid-1980s and has been leading international and Australian garden tours for more than 20 years.

Leisure time is spent nurturing her beautiful, cottage style garden, and expanding indoor plant collection and reading garden book and novels.

March 2024 speaker

Roger Elmitt: The Transcription and Story of Joseph Rosenthal’s
World War I Diary

There was a great turnout for this wonderful story about the transcription of the diary of Joseph Rosenthal.

That this man wrote a diary for the three and a half years he was a stretcher bearer on the Western Front in World War I is remarkable as there is not much else known about this man.

His diary – 180 pages of tightly written words, in the prose of the times, described his movements, experiences and thoughts – without judgement or censorship – all the slaughter, suffering and destruction, with moments of joy, humour and much camaraderie.

It was painstakingly transcribed by one of our archivists, Roger Elmitt, who says, “never have I read about the medical support teams – the stretcher bearers or medical orderlies. It must have been a depressing, physically and psychologically draining assignment as we see from the entries of Joseph’s diary.”

Amongst all the destruction and death, there are moments to make you smile. In December 1918, Joseph writes “We had a bonza Xmas dinner. We had turkey, lamb, beer, wine, jelly, cigars, sweet cakes etc. etc. I can tell you, some dinner.” Joseph’s final diary entry is simple, yet moving, “Finis”.

After the talk there was a lot of discussion about life in the trenches, the aftermath of war and how it affected those service personnel who returned.

Mount Lawley Society Annual General Meeting

The Mount Lawley Society AGM was held at Forrest Park Croquet Club on Sunday 21 January. A reception was held prior to the meeting with complimentary drinks to accompany some delicious sandwiches, cheese muffins and assorted cakes and biscuits. The AGM was well attended with 29 members present. Reports were presented by Myles Harmer (Planning Sub-Committee), Phill Matson (History and Archiving Sub-Committee), Julie Harrison (Events Sub-Committee), Mark Hodge (President) and Pina Caffarelli (Treasurer), with a short presentation by our Patron, Barrie Baker. Our outgoing President, Mark Hodge and Committee were thanked, and then Mark presented Life Membership to Sheila Robinson for her continued efforts over several years in helping the Society progress, initially as Secretary and then as a reliable support in checking Society emails, selling photographs, maintaining the Society website, membership and anything else that needed doing – it was well deserved!

The new office holders and Committee were elected as follows:
President – Phill Matson, Vice President – Dianela Ion, Secretary – Julie Harrison, Treasurer – Pina Caffarelli, Committee members – Myles Harmer, Rita Tognini, Mark Hodge, Fiona Henfrey (Fiona was a committee member in 2023 but was unavailable to nominate or attend the AGM. After saying she wished to continue on the Committee, the Mount Lawley Society Committee unanimously voted for her to join under item 34(b) of the Constitution).

October Guest Speaker - Prof Geoffrey Lancaster AO

We were extremely fortunate to have Professor Geoffrey Lancaster, AO, of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) as our final guest speaker of 2023.

He gave an illustrated talk about the rare and important collection of historic keyboard instruments held on the Mt Lawley campus. Geoffrey was an enthusiastic speaker with the audience being held in the palm of his hand by his incredible knowledge of the subject and engaging sense of humour. He recounted how, in 2016, Edith Cowan University received an unprecedented and historic gift – the Stewart Symonds Keyboard Instrument Collection. Now preserved for posterity at Edith Cowan University, the Collection comprises 140 instruments – including Australia’s First Piano. It offers a wide selection of exceptionally rare – in some instances, unique – stringed keyboard instruments dating from 1736 to 1874. including an English bentside spinet, and breathtaking examples of square, grand and cabinet pianos.

Geoffrey is to retire from academia in January 2024 but he already has a number of collaborative projects lined up with prestigious institutions that will certainly keep him busy. We wish him well for the future.

SHARING HERITAGE: TREASURES AND MEMORIES OF MT LAWLEY

We were privileged at our August meeting to have Dr Susanna Iuliano, seen here with MLS President Mark Hodge, as the guest speaker. She is the Senior Librarian at the Local History Centre in the City of Vincent Library. Susanna gave us a fascinating tour of the Local History Centre website focussing on stories and images relating to Mt Lawley and East Perth.

Do you remember the Bluebird Tearooms at 661 Beaufort Street, run by Despina Kalaf and her family from 1954 to 1972, or Millar’s Cave in the Millar’s Timber & Trading Co. timber yard and sheds on Lord Street? These questions and more are answered on the website at https://library.vincent.wa.gov.au/local-history-centre.aspx.

Mount Lawley Society Quiz Night

On Saturday 29th July, the Mt Lawley Society hosted our biggest fundraiser of the year, the annual quiz night! This event is always enormously popular and competition is fierce to take out that coveted position at the top of the leader board!

This year’s theme was “Iconic” and guests were encouraged to dress as their favourite icon. The best dressed award went to Mt Lawley’s very own Harry Potter while the Vegemites took out the best-dressed table award. Could anything be more Aussie and more iconic than Vegemite?

The quiz consisted of 8 rounds of questions - Iconic People, Iconic Music, Iconic Landmarks, Iconic Events, Iconic Transport, Iconic Films, Iconic Literature and finally, Iconic Brands with some fantastic prizes up for grabs! In between rounds, guests could join in additional games to win even more prizes.

Our Quizmaster, Steve Chetkovich, kept contestants on their toes throughout, expertly supported by Rosie the Riveter and her council of discerning judges.

A huge thank you to our generous supporters who donated prizes for this year’s event: Simon Millman MLA, the University Club of Western Australia, Chris Pham of Belle Property, Mount Lawley Golf Club, the Inglewood Hotel, Beaufort Street Books, Mount Lawley Hardware, Grand Cru, Irving & Keenan Real Estate, Stephen Patrick for Hair, Willing Coffee, Marble & Expo Pty Ltd, Oh My Cod, Reset HQ, Councillor Elizabeth Re and City of Stirling to name but a few! Our society is run entirely by volunteers and we receive no government funding so we rely heavily on the generosity of our members and donors at events like this to keep doing what we are doing to preserve heritage in our wonderful area!

It’s always exciting to learn about something new in our state’s past - this was no exception

JUNE 2023 Speaker – Monkeying With Nature – The history of the Western Australian Acclimatisation Society

The Western Australian Acclimatisation Committee first met in 1896. It had two roles. One was to introduce animals from Europe into the Australian wild and the other was to establish a zoological garden.

This talk will cover the 125-year history of the Perth Zoo, from its establishment by the Western Australian Acclimatisation Committee to its current role as a modern zoo breeding threatened species for release back into the wild.

what an exciting and entertaining talk!

Guest Speaker Series 2 : The Beginning of Women’s Football (AFLW) from 1921

John McLennan’s presentation on how women’s Aussie rules football began in WA was wonderfully interesting, but even more enthralling was how it was presented by the media of the time. Surprisingly, it wasn’t just the men of the day who weren't very impressed, but a lot of the women’s groups weren’t impressed either.

Fabulous Turnout to the first of our Guest Speaker Series

Who would have thought that our local subway had such an interesting past - all the way back to 1879!

Thank you to Phill Matson for his entertaining presentation and thank you to everyone who attended. It was wonderful to see so many faces and everyone enjoyed themselves. Please come along to our next talk on 24 April and learn about the beginning of women's football in WA (see promo on the Events Coming Up page) and bring a friend. The more the merrier!

We are hoping to upload some video footage and text very soon.

2023 Summer Barbecue and 2022 AGM

… and a bit of croquet fun

The Mt Lawley Society AGM was held at the Forrest Park Croquet Club on Sunday 22 January 2023.

Before those formalities though, an hour or so was spent learning some of the finer points of the game of croquet on the greens. The competitiveness soon emerged and newly acquired tactics came into play. Thank you to Myles Harmer for your patience and excellent teaching and the Forrest Park Croquet Club for the venue and equipment.

It was all fun and the players then joined the rest of the group in the cool of the clubrooms enjoying some refreshments and banter and then a delicious barbecue (thanks Oscar Gustavsen for your barbecue talents) and salads - and more banter.

Over thirty members attended the AGM which followed and there was a positive mood for the coming year. The following were elected on to the Mt Lawley Society Committee:

President – Mark Hodge
Secretary – Tracey King
Treasurer – Pina Caffarelli
Committee members – Myles Harmer, Daniela Ion, Fiona Henfrey, Rita Tognini, Phill Matson and Julie Harrison.

The Society also has two sub-committees: the very active History and Archiving Sub-committee and the hard-working Events Sub-committee.

It looks like 2023 will have some fabulous events, and we will let our members know of these as the year progresses.

Around the World Quiz Night
…. a Snapshot

September 2021

Thank you to everyone who came along to our recent Quiz Night at the Mount Lawley Bowling Club.

Our marketing and events committee – Christine, Mark and Julie – flew us all around the world with a fantastic array of questions and prizes. A big well done to everyone who did manage to win a prize.

Thank you to Chris Pham from Realmark, the Mount Lawley Golf Club, Ka’da Spa and other generous local businesses who helped make our night a success. We raised approximately $2500 which will assist us continue our archiving efforts and cover our costs for our new premises.

Thank you also to our special guests; Simon Millman MLA, our local MP, and Cr Elizabeth Re from the City of Stirling Doubleview Ward, for attending our event. Cr Suzanne Migdale, also donated prizes. Thank you all for your generosity.

We look forward to seeing you at next year's Quiz Night.

MLS Sundowner and AGM 2020

Finally, after nine months of no events or catching up with our members, the MLS was able to hold our annual Sundowner followed by the 2020 AGM. This year, just for a change, we met at the Mt Lawley Golf Club, which was lovely.

After a lot of catchup chatter and a few drinks and nibbles, we settled down to listen to Simon Millman MLS, Member for Mt Lawley, who told us a bit of the story of ECU moving to the CBD, but mainly enlightened us with what is happening to Mt Lawley Senior High School and how it will affect future students and the surrounding neighbourhood. Now that the decision for ECU to leave Mt Lawley is a definite, we hope that the students and the neighbourhood can still benefit from what they might leave behind. The MLS supports the desire to invest in local arts and culture in our community. Thank you, Simon, for sharing your thoughts.

Next, was Gerard Foley who is the Senior Archivist at WA State Records, who told us (with some really interesting drawings) of the new RetroMaps which we can all access to find out what our property looked like (or didn’t look like) historically. It was wonderful to hone down on properties and see where their horse stables and windmills were back in the early 1900s. If you haven’t found this wonderful site, here it is. Go search https://mapping.sro.wa.gov.au/#/

The AGM followed and even though we still haven’t filled the Secretary’s position, we thank some of the current committee for re-nominating and welcome two new committee members:

Our office bearers and committee are:
President: Tracey King
Vice President: Mark Hodge
Secretary: yet to be filled
Treasurer: Pina Caffarelli
Committee: Rita Tognini, Christina Gustavson and our two new committee members, Julie Harrison and Fiona Henfrey
Patron: Barrie Baker

HUGE TURNOUT AT OUR 2018 SUNDOWNER

It was a huge turnout of members and their friends who attended our Summer Sundowner at the Mount Lawley Bowling Club on Wednesday 5 December. Over the years, our Sundowner has been a fabulous event to celebrate the past year, meet new members and mingle with old friends.
Over the past few years our guest speakers have been outstanding. Alec Coles (CEO of the WA Museum) enthused us with his knowledge and love of our museum and told us all about the exciting new WA Museum. Jenny Gregory (President of the History Council of WA) entertained and informed about how WA has celebrated its milestones over the years.

This year, our talk in this 100th anniversary year of the Armistace was 1918 – The Year of Victory presented by special guest, Captain Wayne Gardiner (Assistant Manager Australian Army Museum of WA). His vast knowledge of ‘the greatest victory in the history of Great Britain and her Empire’ was shared with our large group. It was a very moving and enlightening presentation filled with lots of heart-warming photos and not-seen-before graphics depicting the devastation that tore through western Europe during those Great War years.

We sincerely thank Captain Gardiner for sharing this story.

AGM

Our AGM followed the Sundowner and as well as the formalities, we farewelled committee member, Terry Tyzack who has been instrumental in many submissions as well as helping members with their various issues. Welcome to our three new committee members: Adrienne Horrigan, Lisa Stanley and former President, Tim Hammond. We look forward to 2019 being an exciting year.

LOCAL FILM MAKERS WOW AUDIENCE

Perth’s future film industry is secure if the quality of films in the Society’s recent Mt Lawley Short Film Festival is anything to go by.

Some of Perth’s emerging film makers showed their outstanding skills and talents recently at the Film Festival held at the Astor Lounge in Mt Lawley.

This is the second festival to be run by the Mount Lawley Society. With the Astor Lounge near capacity, the audience was entertained by historical footage of Perth in the 1950s, the Commonwealth Games in 1962 and some amazing historical film of Perth as well as seeing the outstanding finalists’ entries.

Two deserving winners were announced.

The winner of the Open Category and $1,000 was Roger Elmitt who produced McPherson Street, a short history of a street in Menora. In accepting the prize, Roger said “this film, based on my book of the same name, was very much put together with enjoyment and collaboration – both near and far.

My brother in England, Ray, was the film maker, I wrote the screenplay, my daughter’s partner, Scott, was in charge of sound and the wonderful Molly Worsnop – who has devoted her whole life to Perth theatre – was the perfect narrator”.

Student category winner of the $750 prize was awarded to ECU student, Corina Stagg, who went with one of the themes for this year, ‘Mt Lawley,’ with her film, Heart in Hardware.

Her film highlighted the history of the Mt Lawley Hardware Store in Beaufort Street.

Finalists included Cassandra Lionetto-Civa with her heart-warming film Sunday Lunch and Ellien Wardyn with a different but interesting take on one of the themes, ‘Remember When …’, with her film D13. Both finalists received $200 Camera House gift vouchers.

The Society would not have been able to run the festival without the support of our sponsors who provided the funds for the prizes this year. We sincerely thank our wonderful local businesses: Irving & Keenan Real Estate, Matusik Jewellers and the Inglewood Hotel. Member for Mt Lawley, Mr Simon Millman MLA, donated the Camera House prizes for the two finalists and for that we are extremely thankful.

We can’t wait to see what fabulous films we are presented with at our third film festival. It looks like the Mt Lawley Short Film Festival is here to stay.

A GREAT SUMMER SUNDOWNER

About 70 of our members came along to our Summer Sundowner at the wonderful Art Deco Mount Lawley Bowling Club on 4 December 2017.
It was great to spend the first part of the evening with members, committee and visitors enjoying some fellowship.

We then moved to the main hall to listen to Jenny Gregory, Emeritus Professor of History at UWA and President of the History Council of WA, talk about how WA has commemorated its milestone events, such as our jubilee, our centenary, our 150th and 175th? – and how indeed we might celebrate our 200th and all that this celebration means. There were some wonderful slides showing the celebrations of the past and the memorabilia created for these events.

We sincerely thank Ms Gregory who held our attention with a very delightful and entertaining talk which showed us how the people of our State celebrated those very early milestones, brought back many memories of our most recent celebrations and gave us much to think about for our next big anniversary.

We also greatly appreciate the attendance of Member for Mt Lawley, Simon Millman, as well as seeing some of our friends from local Councils: Mayor Dan Bull, Deputy Mayor Chris Cornish and Cr Catherine Ehrhardt from the City of Bayswater; Deputy Mayor David Lagan, Cr Elizabeth Re and Senior Planning Officer, Linda Hanna from the City of Stirling. Our very good friends, former City of Stirling Councillors, Rod Willox (and Lyn Willox) and Terry Tyzack (and Pat Tyzack) also came along. These two gentlemen later received Life Memberships of our Society for their support of our group over many years.

Mount Lawley Society Celebrates its 40th Birthday

Our 40th Birthday Banquet was truly a night of celebrating and reminiscing with old and new friends.
For those of us who are 'more recent' members, we felt honoured to hear the stories from over the past forty years of the Society's early challenges, wins, losses and fun times. With seven Presidents, three Secretaries and one fantastic Patron, there were lots of stories to listen to.
The feeling of warmth and camaraderie in the room was something to remember.
It was a privilege to have the magnificent Ashley Arbuckle and Richard Price of Arco Duo entertain us during the night.
Well done to all who worked hard to make it a success.
Happy 40th Birthday to the Mount Lawley Society.

QUIZ NIGHT A SUCCESS

Our recent Quiz Night was a great evening on all fronts: lots of members and friends having fun; some great and memorable questions from our Quiz Master Extraordinaire, Mark Hodge, our Committee 'Whip' Christina Gustavson kept things running on time and there were lots of fabulous prizes and raffles.

The evening was enhanced by the venue – the fabulous art deco Mount Lawley Bowling Club. With huge thanks to all those who attended, we also raised some much-needed funds to update some of our archiving equipment and to keep highlighting and fighting the many issues relating to heritage in our suburbs.

Thank you to the organising committee: Christina Gustavson, Mark Hodge, Phillipa Baines and John Wreford.
We especially thank our donors: Inglewood Hotel, Kaos Hair Studio, Mia Flora Garden Centre, Caffarelli and Associates, Astor Theatre, Tim Hammond, Nervana Chiropractic and the City of Stirling.

Watch out for details of our next fabulous event which celebrates our 40th Anniversary – our Birthday Banquet Saturday 29 July 2017.

Living and Renovating in a Heritage Area in Changing Times

Monday 30 May at Mount Lawley Bowling Club

It was great to see old and new faces and prospective new members at our 'Living and Renovating in a Heritage Area in Changing Times' talk last night.

Our three guest speakers enlightened more than 40 attendees with their in depth information about their particular field of knowledge.

Anne Arnold, Chair of the Heritage Council of WA, talked about the role of the Heritage Council and what powers it does and does not have in their bid to look after WA's heritage for future generations.

Bruce Roberts, General Manager Operations of Landgate, gave detailed information about the new and long-overdue strata reform for WA.

And, Terry Tyzack, City of Stirling Councillor, Inglewood Ward, provided an overview of the local area's history of heritage protection.

Many guests stayed well after the end for some good old-fashioned social chin wagging and refreshments around the very comfortable bar at the Mount Lawley Bowling Club.

Hip on Heritage Short Film Festival 2016

A big congratulations to the winners of the inaugural Hip on Heritage Short Film Festival!

Winner of the Student Category: Finnian Williamson with his film "Empty Shelves"
Winner of the Open Category: Alfindy Agyputri & Cassandra Lionetto-Civa with their film "Sojourners:The Story of 124 James St"

The festival was a huge success with a great turnout and the organisers would like to thank the Astor Theatre, Alison James for judging the films, the event sponsors, Irving &Keenan and the City of Stirling. The festival wouldn't have happened without the many entrants, so thank you to the talented film makers in our suburbs as well as those who attended the viewing of these fantastic films.

Beaufort Street Festival 2015

Thank you to everyone (old and new friends) who visited us in the 'very cool' Astor Theatre foyer at the Beaufort Street Festival this year. It was lovely to show people our heritage photos and to talk about their particular houses and their issues.

Community Get Together - What a Fantastic Night

The MLS Community Get Together on 29th July was a wonderful night. An old fashioned gathering, in the 'bring a plate' style, was the plan and it worked! The aim of a community get-together that didn't cost much was well and truly achieved. 

People excelled themselves with the 'bring a plate' and the tables looked great, resplendent with fabulous food, lovely flowers in crystal vases and lace tablecloths. Music, from various past eras, was perfect and a lovely background to the chatter and game-playing. Everyone immersed themselves in games of Heads and Tails, Heritage Prize Spinning Wheel with gusto and the prizes were received with the same enthusiasm in which they were given! Guests walked away with home-made jams and pickles and linen pieces, household items and sweets from a bygone era.

The local Mount Lawley Bowling Club venue was warm, comfortable and inviting and we thank them sincerely for their help and their fabulous refreshment counter.

Photo Display at Menora Gardens RSL – 20 November 2014

Today we visited the Menora Gardens RSL to have a chat to residents, a lot of whom have lived in Mt Lawley, Inglewood or Menora, as well as display some of the Society's many historical and contemporary photos.

Beaufort Street Festival – 15 November 2014

Once again, there was a huge turnout at the Beaufort Street Festival, and with the Mount Lawley Society featuring at two venues, a lot of people visited our photographic displays at both St Alban's Church and the foyer of The Astor Theatre. This year we featured our new T shirts (in three different styles) with the MLS Hip on Heritage design. There are still some available so email us if you'd like one - mountlawleysociety@gmail.com.

Visit our new Facebook page to see more photos.

La Vigna Dinner – 12 September 2014

It has been a couple of years since The Mount Lawley Society and friends gathered in the Wine Cellar at La Vigna Liquor Merchants. Bus as usual tickets were snapped up fairly quickly and about  forty people enjoyed some authentic Italian food, whilst being spoilt with some beautiful wines from La Vigna's cellars and entertained by La Vigna's own Michael Tamburri, who enlightened us with his vast knowledge of wines.

It was a wonderful night of food and good wine, and, just to get our brains working, we very energetically took part in an historical quiz put together by the Society's Patron, Barrie Baker.

It was also a great way to meet new 'locals' and catch up with old friends in a very social environment.

Thank you to hosts, Michael, Grace and Ann Marie Tamburri for looking after us so wonderfully.

Sundowner AGM – 1 December 2014 6.30pm onwards

The Society Sundowner (including an extremely short AGM) is growing in popularity. It was a sellout last year - heaps of fun and a great way to catch up with friends in the Society and meet some new neighbours in your area.

Held at the Mount Lawley Bowling Club cnr Storthes and Rookwood Streets, Mount Lawley. Download an invitation here.