St Leonards Mens Shed Newsletter - August
Gee, this Winter has been cold, glad we have the reverse cycle air conditioners in the Shed. The football ladder is starting to get a bit congested, I'm still in with a chance of seeing my team in the finals. Grandkids are back at school and as usual there is plenty going on at the Shed. This newsletter see's something new and I hope it continues, that is a guest roving reporter. Marie Reed and Fred went to the City
of Geelong Draft Settlement Strategy meeting and provided some details for our benefit. Thanks Marie.
City of Geelong Draft Settlement Strategy
On Saturday 7th
July, Fred Knox and I attended an Open Forum in Drysdale, facilitated by the
Bellarine Community Council.
The topic: City of Geelong Draft Settlement Strategy –
“Protecting our beautiful Bellarine is a key purpose of the Bellarine Community
Council Inc. (BCC), as is representing the interests and concerns of the wider
Bellarine community. Your ideas, opinions and input are valued and we encourage
you to join in the discussion.”
Shane had emailed the
details earlier, and as I read the Draft Greater City of Geelong Strategy, Section B Community Engagement,
“The importance of infrastructure and service provision keeping up with growth”
and Page 26 Recommendations,
Principle “Manage the release of new growth areas to make sure infrastructure,
services and facilities are provided in a timely and efficient way”, I thought
of our fast growing and developing town of St Leonards. I had to attend and hopefully state some
facts which I had discovered!
This is what I said:
Hello!
My name is Marie Reed and I have lived in St Leonards for the past 8 and half
years. During this time I have seen steady growth and development in our small
village.
There
are currently 4 housing subdivisions on sale:
Seachange
Estate in Leviens Rd
420 blocks were
developed and launched in Year 2000
Adjoining land has now been rezoned and is currently being developed
Over 500 lots of this adjoining land have been sold in only 14 months
When complete, Seachange will be home to about 2,000 people
- Bay Breeze Estate in Lakeview Cres
Stages 1-11 have been sold out (240 lots)
Stages 12 & 13 are now selling
There will be a
total of 20 stages
- Blanche St Estate (Golf course land)
- Continuing development
with 400 blocks developed when complete
Swan View Estate in Bluff Rd
Now developing Stage 5 (don’t know any more information)
The
St Leonards Primary School has continued to grow:
The Catholic Church owns the car space and the oval on the adjoining land, which is leased by D.E.T. on a month to month basis
Does not have a Kindergarte, nor a Maternal and Child Welfare Centre
Does not have Daycare or Before and After School Care, nor a Senior Citizens’ Building
Has only 1 Doctors’ Surgery with 2 doctors
Will need a Secondary School at some point in time
May need another Primary School as space at the current one becomes used to full capacity
I
believe there is reason for concern about the growth and development of St
Leonards and the lack of infrastructure to support these aspects!
Marie Reed
There was nothing wrong with Marie's formatting, just my inability to get it right in this bloody thing.
Marie Reed
I left my notes with one
of the facilitators and a few days later he rang to ask if he could include
most of them in the “Response to Draft Settlement Strategy.” Of course I said,
“Yes!”
In the plan 4.3.4 (I have
a copy) he states, “As a demonstration of the concerns which arise from these
issues we include as Attachment 2,
some comments by a long-term resident of St Leonards, delivered at a recent
Community Forum, conducted by BCC to discuss the DSS. In light of the
residential growth to which she refers, it should be recalled that St Leonards
is NOT a designated growth
area. It might also be thought that her
conclusion i.e. that there is reason for concern about the growth of St
Leonards and the non-provision of infrastructure-is a masterful exercise in
understatement.”
The last 2 points about a
Secondary School and another Primary School were not listed, but all the other
points have been noted!
Having spoken to retired
friends since that meeting, I have discovered there are other concerns-no
service station, no Bank (only ATM and P.O. facility) and lack of kerbing and
channeling in the town.
What do you think? Please
let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas!
There was nothing wrong with Marie's formatting, just my inability to get it right in this bloody thing.
Mid-Year Dinner
Scheduled for Thursday the 5th July, I received a phone call from the Ivary at 2:30 Tuesday afternoon advising they had to cancel our booking. Fortunately, I knew Eric had returned to the Bowls Club so thought I'd give him a chance. With less than 48 hours, Eric came up with a menu, shopped as he had already put his order in for the week and cooked us a fabulous 3 course dinner. We had 27 leave the warmth of their lounge rooms to attend our function.
Little did they know they had to work for their meal. It was a tasting challenge of both red and white wines. We had the OK from the Bowling Club to bring our own wines, Red's varieties A and B, and Whites C and D. To make if fair for the club, I blew the budget on crystal glasses (well Plastic) although not enough for everyone. There were four tables and the had to negotiate through the night as there was only 2 of each white and 3 of each red. The tables had to come up with a name of guess the type of wine and the year, with a clue the each year started with 201x.
The first table, "The Mature Ones" had a distinct advantage as they had "The Discernible Palette" sitting with them, and as it turned out this was the case as they were the winners.
The second table, "LBDT" were at the other end
of the spectrum as they only had 4 team members, not all wine drinkers, but nearly took the honours.
This table, The Baby Boozers, was voted to be the loudest table and would finish with the most empties. The punters were correct.
The "Rough Reds" was the quietest table, so John had to come over and wake them up. They thought I would provide them some special hints, they were wrong.
Was a great night with a very good meal provided by Eric, lets hope for many more.
The Dog House
Yes its big, but it's only for a small dog. The Pres was asked to make a dog house and when it was nearing completion sent a photo to his customer and received a design modification in response, which asked for the extra large opening. The customer is always right, well, sometimes.
Never to miss an opportunity, Dave jumped in to check it out. "Feels just like home to me, I'm always in the dog house."
Boat Houses
As we discussed in the last newsletter, the boys have been busy doing all sorts of things with windows and doors. It has been a great project, providing a variety of things to do in the Shed and a great fundraiser for us. Everyone pitched in and did things on the restoration, it really was a team effort. Apologies to those whose photo's I didn't get.
Here we have Russell stripping the age old paint from one of the tri-fold doors for Hut 2. The paint was very difficult to remove and took 3-4 hours per door.
Ray has finished cutting out the new flyscreen, cleaned up the beading and re-assembling. You had to be careful removing the brittle beading as they wanted us to try and re-use as much of the original materials as possible.
Mick spent a lot of his time rejuvenating the old door and window furniture, then spraying some of the furniture black. They came up a treat.
Dave busy at work on one of the windows. There was only one broken window and that was not by our team.
Speaking about the Boys,
The Pres, Jimbo and Chris showing teamwork at its finest stripping the paint from Door "X" . It took them an eternity to get this back to bare wood.
Kevin doing a bit of fine tuning on some of the door furniture.
Mick showing Kev the art of buffing the furniture.
When the Pres and I went to drop off some of the completed items, you could see the transformation and some of our restored items. The barn doors on Hut 1, fully functional again and some of the restored windows. Not forgetting the posts and fret work.Hut 2 with some of the returned doors and windows, our posts and fret work on display.
And a closeup of the windows in Hut 1, with the restored large sash window in the middle. The new piece of timber was necessary as what we received was completely rotted.
Every year we talk about the Lions Raffle. Tickets are $2 each, $10 for a book. We would like everyone to get at least one book, every ticket we sell the Lions Club gives us the $2 to add to our coffers. Please all get on board tickets must be sold by mid August.
And in honour of a recent overseas visit.
My Health Record
With the roll out of the Governments new "My Health Record" I was approached by Sue Cartwright from the Western Victoria Primary Health Network to see if we were interested in a presentation, some printed material and an opportunity to ask questions. A time was arranged and these fine folk were in attendance.
Although we had some technical difficulties, the presentation was delivered, brochures handed out, questions asked and if couldn't be answered were noted by Sue for follow-up action. True to her word Sue sent an email with the response to our questions and left behind additional brochures if anyone else is interested.
On the Buses
Being a huge fan of the old English comedy and an ex-bus driver himself, Bruce thought he would build a bus himself. The detail of his work is amazing, considering there were no plans or designs, just what Bruce had in his head. A fantastic job Bruce.
Member Profile
As you know, each newsletter we introduce one of our members and complete a profile. Last newsletter you met Kevin "The Cook" Venville and this month it's time to introduce Fred "The Man of Steel" Knox. And in another first for the newsletter, a bit more information than I have provided on previous members. While her fingers were dancing over the keyboard doing her other write-up, Marie provide the following. Who will take up the challenge and do something similar.
As you know, each newsletter we introduce one of our members and complete a profile. Last newsletter you met Kevin "The Cook" Venville and this month it's time to introduce Fred "The Man of Steel" Knox. And in another first for the newsletter, a bit more information than I have provided on previous members. While her fingers were dancing over the keyboard doing her other write-up, Marie provide the following. Who will take up the challenge and do something similar.
Frederick Knox Profile
Name: Frederick
Latham Knox was born at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Carlton, on the 27th
April, 1939. (He will be 80 years old next year!) He is the eldest son of
Frederick and Theodora Knox and has two younger brothers-John and Len. (Len
passed away in May of this year!) Frederick senior, was a
faller for the sawmill at Clonbinane, above Anderson’s Gardens (near Broadford)
and Theodora kept house in a small log cabin, supplied by the sawmill. She was
also an accomplished dressmaker and much sought after by the local community.
As the
family grew, Frederick senior, changed jobs and became the
foreman/nurseryman/storeman for the Forest Commission in Broadford. They bought
their own house in Broadford and all the boys attended Broadford Primary School
and Seymour High School. At Seymour High School, Fred enjoyed Science and
Geometry. In his spare time at this school, he was one of the students who used
to dig the septic line and look after the gardens. He would take his work clothes
to school each day in a “Gladstone” bag.
After leaving school at fifteen years of age, Fred
completed 4 years and 9 months of his Blacksmith/Coachbuilder apprenticeship with his
brother-in-law Les Stray, at Les’ Blacksmith business in the main street of
Broadford.
After that, Fred drove trucks and worked for a short
time as a farmhand. He also drove tractors, rode horses, mustered sheep and
cattle, and flew around the farm in an Austa 4 seater plane. He worked as the
ground-crew person loading two Tiger Moths and a 180 Cessna, with
superphosphate and farm chemicals in N.S.W. Then he travelled to Hamilton and
worked in a shearing team for a few months until it became too wet.
He
Fred returned to Broadford and joined the Victorian Railways as a labourer, building
railway bridges. He was encouraged to complete his apprenticeship with the
Railways at Spotswood, where he stayed for 3 years and became a qualified
Boilermaker/Welder. He oversaw the
construction of the last hand-riveted water tank, built at Moorabool, near
Geelong for the Victorian Railways. He then shifted to Kilmore to work for Knight’s
transport as a Welder/Mechanic and began his own Welding business in the main
street of Kilmore. At the same time, he worked part-time at Apex Quarry (also called
Pioneer Quarry) at Kilmore East, as a contract/welder fitter. Fred continued to work at Pioneer until the year
2000, when he was told he was “too old” to work there anymore. So, at aged 61
years, he started his own engineering business again, on his property in
Broadford and continued there until he was 71 years old, contracting part-time
to North-Vic Constructions, Kilmore and building moulds for their concrete
bridge beams.
Partner: He met his partner, Marie, 24 years ago, on the
verandah of a friend’s house in Broadford. Fred had been persuaded by his friend Reg, to
learn to dance with the Seymour Dance Group. Marie could already dance and wanted to
add some new dance moves to her repertoire. She was persuaded to accompany them
to the dancing classes as well. Well the rest is history! Fred never did learn
to waltz but he gained a new partner, Marie.
Broadford: In 1995 Fred bought an acre of
land in Kearns Close Broadford and he and Marie built a lovely home there. It
was completed in 1998 and they shifted in, after living in their shed on the
property for three months. While both were working full-time, Fred and Marie
got the “travelling bug” and took every opportunity to visit different parts of
Australia and nearby.
Children: Fred has one daughter and two sons. The eldest son
passed away in 2009!
Fred (aged 22) with motorbike.
Fred today.
Grandchildren: Fred has 5 grand-daughters and 1 grandson, whose ages
range from 22 years to 9 years. The 2 oldest grandchildren are working and the
4 youngest grandchildren are at school.
St Leonards: Fred and Marie lived
in Kearns Close Broadford, until a sea-change beckoned and they relocated to St
Leonards at the end of 2009. They lived in their on-site caravan at the St
Leonards Caravan Park for three months, while the shed on the house site in
Blanche St, was being built. Then shifted into their road caravan, in the Blanche
St shed, for another four months, until their new house was completed.
They have continued to enjoy travelling, both in
Australia and overseas.
Since living at St Leonards, Fred has enjoyed
fishing, Men’s Kitchen, Men’s Shed, Probus and travelling. He
is enjoying his retirement years, has made many new friends and loves to read
“Western” books! He has deserved to slow down and smell the roses!
Fred (aged 22) with motorbike.
Fred (age 20) with Sam his horse.
Fred today.
