June2012_MT MEE NEWS
Ian Wells
As I write, the glorious Indian summer continues – albeit with crisper mornings than we remember for a while. The drier weather has helped pasture quality and palatability immensly and our cattle certainly look happy about that! And we people have certainly earned a spell of good weather in which we can chase that pervasive mould from house and possesions!
As I write, the glorious Indian summer continues – albeit with crisper mornings than we remember for a while. The drier weather has helped pasture quality and palatability immensly and our cattle certainly look happy about that! And we people have certainly earned a spell of good weather in which we can chase that pervasive mould from house and possesions!
May 14th saw yet another funeral commemorated in the Hall. Longtime Mountain resident Irene Britten passed away overnight, very suddenly and unexpectedly, after spending a happy day with her sister and some friends. More than 150 mourners packed the Hall for the service and morning tea.
Irene was a very fit, bright and active 84 year old. Born in Woodford as Irene Peterson, one of a family of three sisters and a brother, Irene married Vic Britten in 1948. They settled in to a life of dairying on the Mountain – on the place now owned by John Robinson. They reared their two children Kathy and Bob, and farmed until Vic’s untimely death in 1983. Irene returned to the Mountain after a sojourn in Woodford, to be with Maurie Thomason in his declining years.
Irene loved New Vogue dancing, bowls, ladies lunches, sewing, cooking and crafts and was a keen traveller. Her hidden vice was fanatical collection of ‘elephant’ salt and pepper shakers.
She was a very popular member of our community and is survived by her two children, two grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
During May, Mountain resident Ros Dodson rose to national prominence when she was named Barnardos Australia’s “Mother of the Year”.
Each year, Barnados Australia highlights the importance to children of excellent parenting and nurturing with these awards. Mothers are chosen representing each state/territory and are assembled for a national final. Ros was nominated successfully for the Queensland award by her two daughters and four stepchildren, and Ros took out the Australian title for 2012.
Not only has Ros mothered her family of six, but she has played a critical role in locating the families of fourteen people of the stolen generation, and has worked tirelessly in supporting homeless youth in the greater Brisbane area. And even more remarkably, Ros was a key figure in the creation of the ‘Building Strong Mothers and Babies’ program for indigenous parents. This wonderful initiative, now enjoying core funding by the Commonwealth, aims to improve the health of aboriginal mothers and their babies. It sets out to strengthen the family unit, to encourage lost cultural practices, and to see the adoption of preventive measures reducing lifestyle related child illness.
The outcome will be healthier communities for future generations. Mt Mee has every reason to be very proud of Ros Dodson!
A very well attended High Tea was held at the Mt Mee Commmunity Church on Sunday 20th May to commemorate the signing that day of an ecumenical covenant between the Uniting, Anglican, Catholic and Lutheran faiths. This, in effect, is a formal agreement providing for clergy of each faith to conduct services in the Church. This is precisely the spirit in which the community built the Church in 1922, and it is wonderful to see the wishes of our settler forebears respected in this way once again.
By the time you read this, the St Lucia Orchestra’s Mt Mee concert will be done and dusted. Bookings were exraordinarily heavy and our sincere apologies to all of those whose requests for tickets had to be turned down – more than two weeks before the event! We need a bigger Hall!
Also done and dusted is the ANZAC sunrise service at Mt Mee’s Dahmongah Look-Out. More than three hundred people turned out on a chilly autumn morning for a moving service – and for the Gunfire breakfast that followed. VFR flying conditions were OK this year, and the formation flyover of three Chipmunk WW2 trainers was a wonderful touch. Thanks again to the pilots, and thanks again to all who helped organise the service. It really is a community event!
The next scheduled Hall event is the Country Music Night on 7th July – again featuring the ever popular “Lights on the Hill”. Please mark your calendar now, because there will be no more news of the event in the July “Grapevine”. The night will be the usual combination of quality authentic music, good supper and a licensed bar.
Book as usual with Kay (5498 2104) or Joyce (5498 2270).
Mark my words, this will be a top night, whether or not you are a Country music afficionardo.
Following this will be the Sunday afternoon “Brass Sweat and Tears” concert on July 29th. The Hall has been hired for this event by the performers and they will be running the show. They will feature the music of Bach, Basie and Sinatra and much more. can only say that the group – “Sunshine Brass” come highly commended by Adrian King, the conductor of the Sunshine Coast Symphony Orchestra – and that is high recommendation! More news of this in the next issue.
Our future Hall events include the Savoyard Singers concert (Sunday 9th September) and the annual Mt Mee Spring Ball on Saturday September 29th.
And finally, in the midst of all of the political turbulence in Europe I was amused to learn that Angela Merkel has just visited France to meet the new President. The border official knew who she was, but was still obliged to ask the standard questions:-
“Name” – “Angela Merkel”.
“Nationality” – “German”.
“Occupation” – “Not this time – I’m just visiting for a day or two”.
ERRATUM:
In my May column I stated that Audrey Pickering was one of the Hickey family. This was incorrect – Audrey was one of the McKavanagh family. My confusion arose because while I knew the farm very well from my TB testing days fifty odd years ago, I had forgotten that the McKavanaghs sold out to Trigells who later sold out to the Hickeys.
My sincere apologies for the oversight!
IDW
Irene was a very fit, bright and active 84 year old. Born in Woodford as Irene Peterson, one of a family of three sisters and a brother, Irene married Vic Britten in 1948. They settled in to a life of dairying on the Mountain – on the place now owned by John Robinson. They reared their two children Kathy and Bob, and farmed until Vic’s untimely death in 1983. Irene returned to the Mountain after a sojourn in Woodford, to be with Maurie Thomason in his declining years.
Irene loved New Vogue dancing, bowls, ladies lunches, sewing, cooking and crafts and was a keen traveller. Her hidden vice was fanatical collection of ‘elephant’ salt and pepper shakers.
She was a very popular member of our community and is survived by her two children, two grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
During May, Mountain resident Ros Dodson rose to national prominence when she was named Barnardos Australia’s “Mother of the Year”.
Each year, Barnados Australia highlights the importance to children of excellent parenting and nurturing with these awards. Mothers are chosen representing each state/territory and are assembled for a national final. Ros was nominated successfully for the Queensland award by her two daughters and four stepchildren, and Ros took out the Australian title for 2012.
Not only has Ros mothered her family of six, but she has played a critical role in locating the families of fourteen people of the stolen generation, and has worked tirelessly in supporting homeless youth in the greater Brisbane area. And even more remarkably, Ros was a key figure in the creation of the ‘Building Strong Mothers and Babies’ program for indigenous parents. This wonderful initiative, now enjoying core funding by the Commonwealth, aims to improve the health of aboriginal mothers and their babies. It sets out to strengthen the family unit, to encourage lost cultural practices, and to see the adoption of preventive measures reducing lifestyle related child illness.
The outcome will be healthier communities for future generations. Mt Mee has every reason to be very proud of Ros Dodson!
A very well attended High Tea was held at the Mt Mee Commmunity Church on Sunday 20th May to commemorate the signing that day of an ecumenical covenant between the Uniting, Anglican, Catholic and Lutheran faiths. This, in effect, is a formal agreement providing for clergy of each faith to conduct services in the Church. This is precisely the spirit in which the community built the Church in 1922, and it is wonderful to see the wishes of our settler forebears respected in this way once again.
By the time you read this, the St Lucia Orchestra’s Mt Mee concert will be done and dusted. Bookings were exraordinarily heavy and our sincere apologies to all of those whose requests for tickets had to be turned down – more than two weeks before the event! We need a bigger Hall!
Also done and dusted is the ANZAC sunrise service at Mt Mee’s Dahmongah Look-Out. More than three hundred people turned out on a chilly autumn morning for a moving service – and for the Gunfire breakfast that followed. VFR flying conditions were OK this year, and the formation flyover of three Chipmunk WW2 trainers was a wonderful touch. Thanks again to the pilots, and thanks again to all who helped organise the service. It really is a community event!
The next scheduled Hall event is the Country Music Night on 7th July – again featuring the ever popular “Lights on the Hill”. Please mark your calendar now, because there will be no more news of the event in the July “Grapevine”. The night will be the usual combination of quality authentic music, good supper and a licensed bar.
Book as usual with Kay (5498 2104) or Joyce (5498 2270).
Mark my words, this will be a top night, whether or not you are a Country music afficionardo.
Following this will be the Sunday afternoon “Brass Sweat and Tears” concert on July 29th. The Hall has been hired for this event by the performers and they will be running the show. They will feature the music of Bach, Basie and Sinatra and much more. can only say that the group – “Sunshine Brass” come highly commended by Adrian King, the conductor of the Sunshine Coast Symphony Orchestra – and that is high recommendation! More news of this in the next issue.
Our future Hall events include the Savoyard Singers concert (Sunday 9th September) and the annual Mt Mee Spring Ball on Saturday September 29th.
And finally, in the midst of all of the political turbulence in Europe I was amused to learn that Angela Merkel has just visited France to meet the new President. The border official knew who she was, but was still obliged to ask the standard questions:-
“Name” – “Angela Merkel”.
“Nationality” – “German”.
“Occupation” – “Not this time – I’m just visiting for a day or two”.
ERRATUM:
In my May column I stated that Audrey Pickering was one of the Hickey family. This was incorrect – Audrey was one of the McKavanagh family. My confusion arose because while I knew the farm very well from my TB testing days fifty odd years ago, I had forgotten that the McKavanaghs sold out to Trigells who later sold out to the Hickeys.
My sincere apologies for the oversight!
IDW
