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Right now I am listening to Kevin Rudd & Malcolm Turnbull delivering the Nation’s apology to those children who were placed in the custody of Orphanages, Charity organisations, and other institutions in the 20th century – and to the children sent out from Britain, Ireland and Malta between 1948 and 1974 (and some before that as well.)
In the early part of the last century my own grand-father was placed in the care of the Salvo’s as a child born out of wedlock, as a baby and was transferred as a child of 4 to Eden Park, where he lived and worked until he was 14 and deemed “old enough to care for himself”. If he hadn’t had the strength of character and forebearance that he did – none of my siblings or I, or indeed our beloved mother would have ever existed.
I just want to say on behalf of the friends I had as a child, who were placed in the “care” of the Salvation Army Home at Wistow – Eden Park – and on behalf of my dearly loved grandfather – thank you gentlemen, this apology has been a long time coming.
Since I was late with November (only did that this morning) I may as well do December at the same time. At least that won’t be late.
4th – 6th December – Celtica Festival – Pt Adelaide
Since many of our members have ancestors with Celtic backgrounds, I thought this would be a good place to start – even though most of us have wound down for the year already. It is reasonably priced too – FREE!! There will be music, story telling, art, dancing and food – all with a distinctly British & European Celtic flavour.
5th December – A Day on the Green – Barossa Valley
If you are into the B52′s or you want to “walk foive ‘undred moiles” and then “walk foive ‘undred more just t’ see a mun whoo’d walk a thoosand mioles” with the bespectacled Proclaimers, then is is for you! Pardon my poor attempt at writing in a Scottish accent. This year’s event will be held at Peter Lehmann wines.
11th December – End of School Year
The witching hour for those with kids at school – now starts the weeks of trying to find things to occupy the little darlings while they are home and complaining of being bored.
13th December – 31st December – Lobethal Christmas Lights
The annual light show at Lobethal turns on at dusk on the 13th and off again on the 31st. A great place to take the kids or overseas visitors. Catch a bus up from the city – it is easier than trying to drive up and find a park.
20th December – Carols By Candlelight
Another annual Christmas event – enjoyed by thousands every year.
Thought it might be a good idea to list some of the relevants things that are on around the place for this month – even though I’m a bit late for some of them, it being halfway through the month and all, but here’s a few that are up coming for the rest of the month -
16th November – National Day of Tolerance
This is the day on which we are all supposed to observe and tolerate the traditions and cultures of others within our community, whether they be indigenous Australians or migrants.
16th – 22nd November – National Adoption Awareness Week
Started only last year, this is a week where the subject, mechanics and consequences of adoption are explored and the support for both birth parents of adopted children, and the adoptees themselves is brought into focus. Through a series of community based events that explore the adoption process, the program hopes to further foster the awareness of all the processes involved from various angles, and to use the knowledge gained from these activities to foster a more constructive attitude to adoption will flow through to policy-making, support services and education, and will help Australia work towards a more positive adoption environment.
The program for this year will be hosted by Deborra-lee Furness (Mrs Hugh Jackman) and moderated by Julian Morrow, will include speakers such as Tim Costello of World Vision; Hugh Evans of the Global Poverty Project; Dr. Jane Aronson of the World Wide Orphans Foundation; Michael Potter of the New Life Home Trust; Jacqui Gilmore of the Hope For Children organisation; and Scott Neeson from the Cambodian Children’s Fund.
19th – 22nd November – Classic Adelaide Rally
This one is especially close to some of us as one of members works tirelessly on this event every year – good on ya NOLA! The annual car rally starts in the Adelaide CBD each day and travels through South Australian wine districts including McLaren Vale, the Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Barossa Valley.
21st November – Our Annual General Meeting & Christmas Luncheon
Our AGM will be held immediately following the luncheon which commences at 12:30pm. The formalities of the day will begin at 1:15pm as usual. Members please bring either a sweet or savoury plate to pool.
23rd – 29th November – Social Inclusion Week
An inaugural NATIONAL week of observation where activities are planned to include all members of the public regardless of race, creed or colour or any other object of discrimination. The catch cry for this project is “It’s not about me, it’s all about WE!” The main event during this week will be the -
National Street Party
National Street Party is about connection, caring, inclusion and celebration. It aims to establish a sense of community by inspiring individuals and groups to look beyond their own ‘backyards’ and engage with those around them. It aims to inspire communities to come together, connect and care for each other.
In South Australia, there will be an event held by the Knox Community – Anglicare Australia’s “Living Beyond Suicide” group beginning at 5:00am – that’s right – 5:00am at either Adelaide Shores Sailing Club or Oarsman Reserve at West Lakes (you can start from either place) and walk 5kms to Henley Beach, where a rememberance ceremony will be held at 6:30am followed by a breakfast, entertainment by the Amazing Drumming Monkeys, and an open air market in Henley Square.
And that’s about it for what’s on around the place. There is of course the Christmas Pageant on this morning in the city (I feel sorry for them walking in town in this stinking heat!), and the Christmas lights in the various towns get turned on later in the month.
This came to me today from a friend in our group – I have doctored it a little so that it applies to Australia and to England as well :-
Quote:-
“Here is something everyone should read and act accordingly. If you don’t, you’re hurting yourself and your email mates. Please read right to the bottom.
By now, I suspect everyone is familiar with www.snopes.com (Rumour busting site hosted in US) and/or www.truthorfiction.com for determining whether information received via email is just that: true/false or fact/fiction. or Urban myth Both are excellent sites.
Advice from Snopes.com Very important!
1) Any time you see an E-Mail that says forward this on to ’10′ (or however many) of your friends, sign this petition, or you’ll get bad luck, good luck, you’ll see something funny on your screen after you send it, or whatever, it almost always has an E-Mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and E-Mails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of ‘active’ E-Mail addresses to use in SPAM E-Mails, or sell to other spammers. Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you’re not ashamed of God/Jesus ….that’s E-mail tracking and they’re playing on our conscience. These people don’t care how they get your email addresses – just as long as they get them. Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease - “how would you feel if that was your child”….E-mail Tracking!!!
Ignore them and don’t participate!
2) Almost all E-Mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of E-Mail is, is a way to get names and ‘cookie’ tracking information for telemarketers and spammers – - to validate active E-Mail accounts for their own profitable purposes. You can do your friends and family members a GREAT favor by sending this information to them; you will be providing a service to your friends, and will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam E-Mails in the future! If you have been sending out (FORWARDING) the above kinds of E-Mail, now you know why you get so much SPAM! Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(s) to those types of listings regardless how inviting they might sound!…or make you feel guilty if you don’t!…it’s all about getting email addresses – nothing more! You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT! Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus attached! Plus, you are helping the spammers get rich! Let’s not make it easy for them!
Also: E-Mail petitions are NOT acceptable to White House, Congress (this applies only in the USA – No 10 Downing Street, London and Parliament House, Canberra DO accept electronic petitions – but they have to be set up correctly) or any other organization – i.e. social security, etc. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you’re just helping the Email trackers.
AND MOST IMPORTANT:… don’t forget… delete other people’s e-mail addresses on your e-mails and when forwarding/sending useBCC.” - un-quote.
So there you have it folks – all those help this and save that emails that you are total junk!
On December 10th this year, Queensland will officially celebrate its emancipation from the contol of New South Wales. This milestone provides many opportunities to celebrate throughout the year.
There is a website you can visit where much more detail is given that the bit I have put here -
www.q150.qld.gov.au/ will get you there.
On the www.news.com website on Satuday morning there appeared a story about the latest happenings – or rather non-happenings to do with the clipper ship “City of Adelaide”.
To say that I was absolutely disgusted to read what the journo had written would be more than just and undersatement. I simply couldn’t believe how ill informed this person really was, AND I still can’t believe how useless our State Government is.
I can’t believe also that people cannot see the signifcance of this vessel to our history here in SA, and in fact to world maritime history as well.
The City of Adelaide is now the ONLY surviving clipper ship in the world – the other was the Cutty Sark but since she caught fire and was badly damaged, the ‘City’ is really the only one left. This ship was purpose built to carry migrants to South Australia, and did so 23 times between 1864 and 1887.
She is one of only TWO surviving vessels that brough British migrants to Australia – the other is the Edwin Fox and that is now in New Zealand!
She is the OLDEST surviving composite clipper ship in the world – built in Sunderland by Pile & Co in 1864, she is 6 years older than the Cutty Sark.
It is estimated that somewhere in the vicinity of a quarter of a million people – that’s 250,000 people – are descended from the passengers who travelled aboard this vessel during her 23 voyages to South Australia. That is one hell of a lot of people!
In 2011 it will be the 175th Anniversary of the beginning of South Australia. Wouldn’t it be nice to have this living piece of our history & heritage back in Adelaide for those celebrations?
Did you know that the City of Adelaide bears the coat of arms of our city of Adelaide on her stern? That’s right – when Adelaide the city was just 30 years old, some far seeing gentlemen, including the ship’s first master David Bruce, built this fine vessel and named it after out city, and had the Coat of Arms of Adelaide carved and painted on her stern.
But that is not the only connection to this city and our state – for 23 years she made annual voyages back and forth between English ports and Adelaide. She did not go to any other Australian capital city ports – only to Adelaide and other South Australian ports like Pt Augusta to load wool. And during those 23 years her captains numbered 3 members of the one family – David Bruce, her first master was in charge of the “City” from 1864-1867; his son John Bruce was her master from 1867-1873; and another son Alexander Bruce was her master from 1875-1876. Twelve – yes 12 of her 23 voyages were under the command of members of the one family. One of those captains – Alexander Bruce was also the Wharfinger at Port Adelaide between 1881 and 1891. Many of his descendants live in South Australia today. And to add to that, John Bruce married the daughter of George French Angus!!
It would be truly great if the Government got off their bums and looked into this vessel properly and did something about saving our heritage!
Please visit the City of Adelaide website at www.cityofadelaide.org.au and while you are in a visiting mode go to that news.com story and read what they have to say there. Oh, and leave a comment too – the address is http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26283225-2682,00.html
