gemma gray awarded commissioner’s badge · 2019-08-14 · gemma gray awarded commissioner’s...
TRANSCRIPT
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On other pages this week:
Wayne Bevan
Public Duties pix
Vale Sir Zelman Cowen
Cadet stuff
Training
Memories of Christmas past
Weekly Newsletter of St John Ambulance Australia (NT) Thursday 8 December 2011
Rosie Ballinger 08 8922 6234
Assistant Volunteer Coordinator
Frank Dunstan 0429 886751
Newsletter editor
St John websites St John Ambulance Australia (NT)
www.stjohnnt.org.au
St John Ambulance Australia
Members’ website
www.stjohn.org.au
Order of St John
www.orderofstjohn.org
Contact Frank to subscribe to this
newsletter
Please send contributions to
Frank
Closing time
8.00 pm CST Thursday
Some great news – Monday evening was the official NT Volunteer of the Year
Awards and St John NT won the inaugural “Volunteering SA & NT Award for
Organisational Excellence”.
Commissioner Steve Peers and his team need to be congratulated on continuing to
provide a second to none volunteering service to the NT Community and this
recognition is due reward for the excellent work and effort provided by each and
every Volunteer in our ranks. The award again highlights the ability of the
Organisation to work as one with tremendous support from Operational staff
working closely with the Volunteers in all regions of the NT. A special mention
must go to Cheryl, Gwyn and Deb for putting together such a great application.
It has been a big year but the rewards and Community recognition received makes
all the hard work worthwhile.
Well done everyone
Ross Coburn
Chief Executive Officer
Gemma Gray awarded Commissioner’s Badge
Gemma Gray from the Cadet Band
Division recently received the
Commissioner’s Badge.
The Commissioner’s Badge is one of
the highest awards a Junior can
receive. It is the Junior equivalent to
the Grand Priors Award. To receive
the Commissioners Badge, the
member must complete nine Interest
Badges including Knowledge of the
Order which shows great commitment
over a number of years.
Congratulations to Gemma who has
since moved up to become a Cadet.
Kimberlee McKay
Vollie News Thursday 8th December 2011
Page 2
Wayne Bevan
Wayne is Divisional Ambulance Officer in Palmerston
Adult Division, and his job a Paramedic with St John
Ambulance NT.
This photo was taken last month on a training activity
where Wayne joined us to instruct in casualty simulation
for our yearly logs books.
To Wayne’s surprise it was really to celebrate his 17 Year
Service Bar that was awarded in September. Due to his
responsibilities as a Paramedic we were not able to have
the award presented until later in the year because we
all wanted to celebrate with Wayne what he has given to
our Volunteers over the years.
Congratulations and thank you, Wayne.
Benny
Public Duties pix
Thanks to Peter Poole for sending in these photos from the Carols by Candlelight public duty:
Vale Sir Zelman Cowen
Sir Zelman Cowen has just died at the age of 92. As Governor General he was very much a friend to St John in the
Territory, laying the Clerkenwell Stone in 1978 and opening the Casuarina Headquarters in 1980. Having followed the
controversial Sir John Kerr he was called “the healing Governor General”, a name he lived up to.
Vollie News Thursday 8th December 2011
Page 3
Cadet stuff – Frank Dunstan
Did you know there were once Cadet Divisions in the
Darwin northern suburbs at Casuarina, Sanderson,
Leanyer and Dripstone and that one was proposed for
Nightcliff, but failed to go ahead because of the lack of
Adults to properly manage it?
There was also a Cadet Division at Howard Springs
that moved into Palmerston to become Palmerston
and Rural Cadet Division, dropping the “and Rural”
when the Humpty Doo Cadets started up.
There were also Cadet Divisions at Adelaide River,
Batchelor, Warrego and Jabiru.
In the early days there was segregation in St John and
men and boys formed Ambulance Divisions while
women and girls were in Nursing Divisions. The
concept of breaking down the barriers came about
when there weren’t enough members to form a
Division and both sexes united to form Combined
Divisions.
Because of this segregation the northern suburbs
started as Casuarina Ambulance Cadet Division (boys
only) and a year or two later, Casuarina Nursing Cadet
Division (girls only). They later united to form
Casuarina Combined Cadet Division and actually had
as many as 160 cadets at one stage. This forced them
to split their training nights and then form other Cadet
Divisions to ease the load. Even with the new
Divisions things got so far out of hand that District and
Corps staff were finally forced to step in to restrict
cadet numbers to manageable levels.
What usually causes Cadet Divisions to fail is a lack of
Adult management and all those northern suburbs
Divisions progressively amalgamated back with
Casuarina, which in turn amalgamated with the
Darwin Cadet Division.
Our Cadets have a very interesting history, but not a
lot is known about their early days because all the
media attention was directed towards the Adult
Divisions. I have also noticed over the years that our
Cadets are very much underrepresented in Vollie
News and that you may be more comfortable with
your own newsletter, a sort of Cadet Vollie News.
I believe there are many Cadets (and also Adult
members) who don’t see Vollie News at all. When I
spoke to one about this and said that Divisional
Superintendents were supposed to forward the
newsletter to their members, the reply was that “this
was in the too hard basket”.
So what about a Cadet newsletter? It may be just the
thing to overcome this apathy and generate a bit of
enthusiasm. There is a lot of talent out there and the
articles sent to Vollie News from Alice Springs Cadets
have been very well put together.
Think about it over the holiday break.
Training
Apply Advance First Aid
Where: Parap Centre
When: Friday 3rd February Time: 1800--2200
Saturday 4th February Time: 0800 -1700
Sunday 5th February Time: 0800 -1700
Anyone who missed out on the last course will be given priority on this one and need not reapply
January 2012
28/ 29 January
Management Development Program 2nd weekend
Palmerston
Vollie News Thursday 8th December 2011
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Memories of Christmas past – Frank Dunstan
Christmas once more ... how it brings back memories,
now that life has slowed and one has time to think
about days of long ago.
Part of my childhood was spent on the family – my
mother’s family, that is – farm at a place called
Oakagee, about 15 miles along the highway north of
Geraldton in Western Australia, then drive or walk
another 3½ miles east from the main road into the
farm. There were no kilometres in those days, just
miles; at least that’s how it was in our part of
Australia, so that would now be a little over 5½
kilometres by today’s measurement.
Don’t kilometres make places seem further away than
they really are? They do for me.
We kids got to know every inch of those 3½ miles
because we walked them every school day to catch
the bus into town and then back home again, until in
late 1950, or maybe even early 1951, when we were
bought second-hand bikes to ride the distance.
Nowadays most parents would be rightfully disturbed
at the thought of a seven (me) and a nine-year-old
(my sister) walking that distance unaccompanied to
catch a school bus, but it was a lonely bush road
without traffic and we were in no danger.
I’ve recently looked it up on Google Earth and the
road now bears the family name (Olsen), they spell
Oakagee with a “j” and the area is a lot more
developed with farms everywhere. The road has been
built up, straightened a lot and widened and looks like
a gravel super highway compared with sixty years ago,
but is still recognisable at the farm end, not so much
further away due to major changes. It was just a dirt
road back then, certainly not the red gravel it is now.
My knowledge of that road is based on more than just
childhood memories through trips back to the farm as
a young adult.
Anyhow ... one thing about walking is that you get to
notice things, unlike when travelling at high speed in a
motor car. We got to know every tree, every rock,
every gully and every other feature along that road.
We knew in which wattles to find the tastiest gum and
when it would be ready and many other secrets
unknown to those with less time and patience.
In the springtime it was absolutely wonderful. Have
you ever been out bush in south Western Australia
when the wildflowers come out? If so, you’ll know
exactly what I mean. If not ... well, that should be one
of the things to do at least once in your lifetime.
When the flowers came out it took a lot longer to
walk home than at other times of the year.
Just as springtime was a time of wonder, summer was
anything but. Top Enders only think they know hot
weather. Western Australia gets hot – brain boiling,
mind numbing hot, and not good weather for walking.
Mornings were tolerable, but the afternoons were
hell. Schools weren’t airconditioned in those days and
neither were school buses and already hot and tired
we dreaded getting off the bus to face that long walk
home. On very bad days Uncle Johnny would drive out
to pick us up, much to our relief, but it was an
unexpected treat that didn’t happen too often. It was
always Johnny, never George. Johnny was an old
softie, but George was a hard man (to us), something I
believe he got from his Swedish father. However, I
later saw on several occasions that same man kind
and considerate to other people in trouble or down
on their luck. It’s a strange world.
We were glad to finally get the bikes and the road
now became something to travel as fast as we could
and much of the adventure was gone.
As a young adult I went back to the farm to visit and
found that Uncle George was now married and drove
his kids to the highway to catch the bus. They were his
kids, not his sister’s brats who had been dumped on
him while she was down in Perth working. I didn’t feel
envious of my cousins though, I just thought they
were soft and spoiled and still think that today.
I have only vague fleeting recollections of how we got
on in winter. Winters down there can be cold and wet
and miserable, although not as bad as Perth, and for
the life of me I just can’t drag up any substantial
memory of how we got to school in that weather.
You’d think that after remembering all that other stuff
this would be easy, but it just isn’t there. I have tried
to imagine what it may have been like, but just can’t
trigger the memory. There are glimpses of being out
Vollie News Thursday 8th December 2011
Page 5
on the road in the rain, but so vague as to be probable
imaginings from trying too hard to remember.
There’s little point in asking my sister, even if I could. I
won’t go into details except to say that it’s very
important to keep mentally active, especially as you
get older and don’t get yourself addicted to DVDs.
Meanwhile, back on the farm. There were sheep and
chooks and the uncles grew wheat, peas and lupins
and sometimes barley, though the lupins were just a
manure crop to put nitrogen back into the soil. We
also had a cow and a horse, old Jiggle, but the uncles
never rode him and we kids only ever got on his back
when older cousin Bob Fitz came out to the farm and
we rode up behind him.
The farm was too far out from town to have electric
power, so we made do without it. A windmill pumped
water from the well and lights were candles made
from dripping instead of the more traditional wax.
Cans that once held food were filled with dripping and
a string wick run down the centre. It was crude, but
effective. We also had hurricane lamps and pump up
pressure lamps fuelled by kerosene, but these were
usually only lit when we needed to go outside or
wanted extra bright light.
There were canvas bags of cool drinking water and a
fly wire covered safe to keep food away from the
blowies. The legs of the safe stood in cans half filled
with water and topped with kero to keep the ants out.
There was the usual wood stove that burnt all day
with always a kettle of hot water on the side.
We very soon learned to eat everything on our plates
because what we didn’t eat was put into the safe and
served up for our next meal, usually breakfast. There
was no wastage or room for fussy eaters.
Every so often Uncle Johnny would kill a wether and
we’d have fresh meat to eat for a few days, the rest
being salted down with rock salt that we used to
gather from a salt lake at Port Gregory to the north.
We called the meat ‘salt junk’ and I’m glad I don’t
have to eat it this Christmas.
Port Gregory was interesting for the old convict ruins
that had remains of the tiny cells. Western Australia
was the only colony that started out free and actually
asked for convicts as a source of slave labour. South
Australia would have nothing to do with that rotten
trade while the other colonies had them imposed,
although not unwillingly, at least until they were no
longer needed.
Now where was I?
We didn’t always eat mutton though, as every now
and then one of the hens would be too slow and get
itself run over and we would have a tough old bird for
our dinner. Every year we would catch a chook for
Christmas dinner, lop its head and then let it go. Have
you ever heard the expression “running around like a
chook with its head cut off”? Believe me, they can
sure run.
The chook farms of the day were more for eggs than
table birds and chicken on the table was a rare treat.
Our chooks were unfenced free range that mostly
died of old age and Grandma used to sell the eggs in
town. Sometimes she’d send us to the Oakagee
railway siding with eggs to sell to the train crew, for
about a shilling a dozen, if I remember rightly.
That railway line is long gone and I could find no trace
on Google Earth of even where it may have been.
Then one year – 1951? – we got flash when the uncles
brought home a kerosene fridge. The luxury of cold
water that didn’t taste strongly of canvas, fresh foods
instead of canned and the greatest luxury of all,
homemade ice cream; we were in heaven.
Then along came television. At first we used to watch
it on trips into town, but the uncles had a real surprise
in store. They had somehow managed to get hold of a
TV set that ran on kerosene and it was delivered to
the farm just before Christmas 1959.
There was a monstrous great aerial put up on a tower
next to the house and after a lot of fiddling the set
was fired up on Christmas Eve. Amazing, we now had
TV, which was more than many people with electric
power could say. The picture wasn’t perfect and the
blue dye they put in kerosene gave the picture a
bluish tint, but it was heaven to us kids. A minor
problem was that the wick needed regular trimming
to stop it smoking and blacking out the screen with
soot, but we soon got used to that and often fought
over whose turn it was to trim the wick.
Vollie News Thursday 8th December 2011
Page 6
There was a major drawback with those early kero TV
sets though, as we were soon to discover. In the early
days of TV the airways were filled with Western
shootemups, which we kids absolutely loved. It
appears that electric TV sets automatically zap all the
dead cowboys out of existence once the scene
changes, but a kero TV didn’t have the ability to do
that. In our TV the little dead cowboys used to pile up
in the bottom of the picture tube which got quite
whiffy after a few days. Then we’d have to get the TV
repairman out from town to empty them out and give
the inside of the picture tube a good clean at the
same time.
Well, we soon got used to that too, and enjoyed our
little kero TV set.
Then colour TV came to Australia, in about 1975 as I
remember.
The uncles hadn’t run out of surprises and just before
Christmas 1976 they bought one of the new colour TV
sets by mail order. This was a vast improvement over
the old black and blue, even though it needed more
maintenance. This one came with three tanks for the
specially dyed kerosene; magenta, blue and yellow. It
also burnt wicks of the same colours in each tank.
After a bit of mucking about we fired it up on
Christmas Day and enjoyed the wonder of a coloured
picture on the screen. Bliss!
This set had a new innovation in that the little dead
cowboys no longer piled up on the bottom of the
picture tube, but were funnelled into a bin that could
be easily removed and emptied. Every three or four
days or so we kids would dig a little grave in the
garden and hold a proper funeral service with full
honours for these miniature warriors. In our hearts
we needed to do this because with the old set the
little deaduns had been grey and artificial looking, but
these were now in full colour and seemed more
pathetic and real, and we couldn’t just feed them to
the cats as Uncle George said we should.
Another feature of the new set was an internal
cleaning mechanism, similar to a car window wiper,
but with an up and down motion, rather than in an
arc. Just put soapy water in the tank, crank the handle
and let it automatically clean the soot from the inside
of the screen.
Then in 1993 a powerline came out to the farm and
we had electricity at long last. It was farewell to the
kero fridge and that beloved old kero TV that had
served us well for so many years. The special wicks
and kerosene had long gone out of production and
the stuff we made ourselves just didn’t come out
quite right, anyway.
There were no more little funeral services and the fun
had gone out of being kids, so we decided it was time
to grow up and leave home.
I joined the Navy and retired after a long and
illustrious career as Captain of the Heads.
My sister had a pet rabbit on the farm which died
when the myxo came through and wiped out all its
wild mates in the early 1960’s. In memory of that little
rabbit she bred like one and at last count had just one
more to go for a cricket team of kids.
Cousin Gordon said it just wasn’t fair and that he
wasn’t going to be made to grow up by anybody. The
last I heard he was still on the farm, a wizened grey
bearded, bald headed 12 year-old, still trying to get
that old kero TV to work once more.
I think that the new digital TV will flummox him once
and for all, though. The old kero sets were purely
analogue and I’ve been told there’s no way they can
be converted to digital, not even with a set top box.
Besides, there’s no such thing as a kero set top box, is
there?
Merry Christmas
For the sceptics, just google “kero tv” and see what
comes up – it’s all true, you know.
It has been suggested that your newsletter has a name change to go with its new look. What do you think?
Should it stay Vollie News or be renamed and if so, to what?
Please send your thoughts and suggestions to [email protected]
My vote is for keeping Vollie News, but I thought that name up in the first place and am biased. Frank