Page 97 - Friendships Through the Years

speaker for Harry’s year was Dr. David Warren. He was the inventor of the aircraft
‘Black Box’. He gave a very interesting talk.
Some of the outings were to the Horatio Tin House at Tecoma, Variety on Parade
at Warburton and Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind. 52 attended a coach trip to the
Ashcombe Maze and Rose Garden at Somers, then to Pine Ridge Car Museum. Another
well attended outing was a coach trip to the city, then a ferry along the Yarra and then up
the Maribyrnong River to the Flemington racecourse, where the facilities were inspected,
plus lunch.
Of course, the Annual outings and functions continued. Carl Adamson’s fourth
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annual coach trip in the spring was to Mildura, from the 4 to the 8 of October 1993. A
different coach company was used in this year: Sunlee Coaches. It drove 45 people to the
Sun River Motel, Mildura, via Tullamarine freeway, Carlsruhr for morning tea/coffee,
lunch at Swan Hill then on to Robinvale.
After the long drive on the Monday, the next day we left the motel for a day trip
to Broken Hill, arriving there at 10.45a.m. We toured the area very thoroughly, including
a sandwich lunch at the “Coin -up Café” where the uninitiated were introduced to the
Australian game of “Swy” or “Two -Up”. Playing with their paper money (provided by
the Café), they had a lot of fun.
Arriving back at the Mildura Motel at 8.15 p.m., the evening meal consisted of a
salad and fruit salad from the unit refrigerator, eaten in the room. Everyone was
thoroughly exhausted after two days of long driving. (All coach companies seem to think
that they must fit as much as possible into each day, and they forget about the age of most
of the participants. (Author’s comment.))
The remaining two days involved visits to orange and avocado orchards and the
home of the Chaffey’s: “Rio Vista” homestead. We h ad dinner one night at Wentworth
(and afterwards playing the “pokies”); explored some aspects of the dried fruits industry
and had a cruise on the Murray on the paddle steamer “Avoca”. Finally we had a visit to
the Mildura Working Men’s Club with the (then) longest bar in the world. We were back
at Lilydale at 6 p.m. Friday. We saw a lot of Victoria and N.S.W but it was tiring.
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The 11 Probus annual bowls tournament for greater Melbourne was again held
on the second Wednesday in March. As usual, the Probus clubs in our area played at the
Heathmont Bowling Club. Two teams competed: Brian Walsh, Pat Wilkinson, George
Sank, Bob Shellard were the number one team and the other rink consisted of Graham
Kenyon, Bill Head, Jack Coffey and Alan Millsom. There is no mention in the records of
the results, so may only presume they weren’t very successful in1994!
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The 11 Annual Christmas Luncheon at the R.A.C.V. Healesville attracted 67
members, ladies and friends. The cost was within reach of most members at $22 per head
for the meal plus $3- for those going by coach. The numbers in attendance at this event
continued to rise each year, in spite of the rising costs.
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For the first time the 7 annual car trip was to a venue where we had previously
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been. The second trip was to Hall’s Gap and in 1994 from Monday April 18 to Friday
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22 1994 we again stayed at the same Motel. Twenty-six people occupied 13 units. This
was probably not one of our better car trips as the Motel was not ideal and some of the
members had unfortunate experiences at the hands (and mouth) of the Proprietor’s son
who was in charge for a couple of the days. The last three nights the group ate at the
Hall’s Gap Hotel and this was a big improvement.