Chairman
Russell Rolls, who volunteered at the very last minute.
Guests
Guest speakers Zac Lewis.
Dr Cecily Neil, who has applied for membership of RCCMS.
MUNA candidates sponsored by RCCMS, Aditha Sethis and Joseph Nguyen, from Melbourne High.
NYSF candidate sponsored by RCCMS, Adam Schlicht, from Xavier College.
Announcements
- Roger Thornton reminded members that the Changeover Dinner is now only a month away and commented that surely members must know whether or not they’ll be in Melbourne on that date. Still only 29 acceptances.
Elias Lebbos advised that his organisation is selling tickets for the Blues Train and has 10 tickets available at the discount price of $50 each. [See separate invitation in this Bulletin]
President’s announcements
President Roy advised that the guest speaker at the 2015 Paul Harris Breakfast on November 24 will be anaesthetist Professor Kate Leslie, who was the winner of the 2014 AMA Woman in Medicine Award.
A portrait of her, by artist Andrew Mezei, entitled Morpheus was a finalist for this year’s Archibald prize. Professor Leslie will talk on “Awareness, Dreaming and Anaesthesia”. [Right]
President Roy then summarised some of the decisions from the Board meeting, held on May 21:
- Cecily Neil’s membership application was approved and she will be inducted in two weeks’ time.
- It was with regret that the Board accepted Kerstin Steiner’s resignation. Kerstin is finding the pressure of work too great for her to contribute to Rotary satisfactorily but may return at some time in the future.
- $10,000 has been transferred to the Your Own Two Hands fund, to pay for the latest school construction in Laos.
- A donation of $2000 has been made to Disaster Aid Australia, to assist earthquake sufferers in Nepal.
- RCCMS will be conducting a Sports Breakfast on Thursday, August 20. Kevin Sheedy will be the guest speaker.
- A pallet load of equipment destined for the Fitzroy Crossing Men’s Shed is on its way free of charge, courtesy of Toll.
- RCCMS will be hosting 60 students at Camp Getaway this weekend, May 29-31, for MUNA.
Student presentations
Youth Service Committee Chairman, George Mackey, introduced the three students attending breakfast and each spoke briefly about his current school activities and future aspirations.
- Aditha Sethis is in Year 12 and studying science subjects at Melbourne High and hopes to become a physicist. He said everyone has a responsibility to be involved in politics and it is this belief that prompted him to apply for MUNA.
- Joseph Nguyen, also a Year 12 student at Melbourne High, is studying Science, English and Maths. He has been involved in the Model UN and debating club at his school, so it was logical to apply for MUNA.
Aditha and Joseph will represent France at MUNA.
- Adam Schlicht is attending Year 11 at Xavier. He is applying for NYSF because he has a strong interest in Science. However, he is also very keen on theatre and has been in numerous musical productions at school. He also has a strong interest in social justice.
Sergeant’s session
Sergeant Bernie chose the topical subject of the Eurovision Contest with which to test the audience’s knowledge. No-one guessed that the competition has run for 60 years. Most guessed that Abba was the most popular winner, in 1974, but forgot that the winning song was Waterloo. It was certainly a surprise that Ireland has had the most wins of any country.
Guest Speaker
Chairman Russell introduced Zac Lewis, spokesperson for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), to talk about Back from the Brink: Restoring Australia’s Lost and declining Biodiversity.Zac started with good news and bad news. The good news is that Australia has more biodiversity than any other developed nation, particularly in the Top End, which is a biodiversity hotspot. The bad news is that it also has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world.
AWC’s mission is the effective conservation of all Australian animal species and habitats in which they live. To achieve this mission, AWC
- Has established a network of sanctuaries, to protect threatened wildlife. AWC now manages 23 sanctuaries across Australia, covering 3 million hectares. One property with an area of 60,000 hectares, AWC bought for $1.
- Implements practical on-ground conservation programs, including feral animal control and fire management.
- Conducts scientific research that will help address the key threats to native wildlife.
- Employs a staff of 80 people, 80% of whom are in the field.
- Spends less than 20% of its $11-12 million budget on administration and fund raising.
Zac said the purpose of the land acquisitions is to reverse the decline in Australian animal populations. 83% of all native birds and 67% of all native mammals are represented in the properties owned by AWC. Three major extinction drivers are wild fire, feral cats and free ranging feral predators, including herbivore ferals. In the Kimberley, AWC is control burning 24,000 sq km to prevent wild fires, which wipe out native species and their habitats. Cool burning is achieved by lighting spot fires in patches at the start of the dry season. Using this technique, AWC has reduced wild fires by 50%, achieving 130,000 carbon credits in the process, and the distribution of 3+ year vegetation has greatly increased.
Feral cats have the potential to kill many millions of native animals a day. Research being undertaken in the Kimberley, with cats fitted with GPS radio collars, shows that cats interact with fire, hunting along the fire scar, attacking native animals attempting to escape. Zac said cat eradication is unrealistic. Instead, AWC is attempting to fence off large areas, eradicate ferals, particularly cats and foxes, from inside the area and then reintroduce native species. He stressed that field based science is essential for achieving a satisfactory outcome. For example, removal of dingoes might seem appropriate but actually, they are a major deterrent to feral cats.
In closing, Zac said that AWC is protecting more threatened species, has a fire management program that is larger than any other non-Government program and controls more fox and cat free land than any other organisation.
President Roy’s closing
President Roy closed the meeting at 8:45am.
Never before have we had such power to bring the imagery of our dreams into reality. Remote Piloted Aircraft (RPAs or drones) are today’s magic carpets, flying us to places we previously only dreamt of getting a shot!
Travellers Aid Australia would like to invite you and your friends and colleagues to join us for a fun filled night on the legendary Blues Train to raise funds for our work in assisting travellers in need!
