Guest Speaker Bill Traill  is chairman and founder of the of the Border Rail Action Group  which boasts BRAG as its acronym. Brought up in a small rural town  in Gippsland, his earlier interest in rail services was cultivated by hanging out as a kid in the freight yards of the local branch line station and observing  the  remarkable volumes and diversity of freight that was observable in that busy rail yard. Trains  then represented a window to his  outside world. Later  he went off to senior secondary school in Melbourne and commuted back and forth to Maffra –  by train of course. Geography was his favourite subject, and the efficient transporting of goods in the modern economy became a  special sub interest. In the Melbourne university commerce course  there was a subject called economic geography which he absolutely devoured and later taught for half of his  professional life. Fast tracking  to  retirement from the Victorian public teaching service in the early 1990s, long haul passenger rail services on the Victorian network came under severe threat from the newly elected Kennett government. Bill became chairman of the Wodonga Trains Group. His rail advocacy interest  was then set in place, and has continued more or less  unabated for over 20 years. BRAG is a recently formed community action group which has evolved out of the gross underperformance of the rail track and associated rail services on the Melbourne/Albury corridor, a situation which has persisted since late 2008, and is still far from resolution.       

Guest Speaker, Gary Essex… Surviving PNG’s Black Cat track …  members were captivated as Gary Essex recalled his mind-blowing experiences with tragic consequences in PNG in September 2013 when he with nine other Australians, one New Zealander and a group of porters were set upon by six men on the Black Cat trail in PNG’s Morobe province …. a truly remarkable story … thankyou Gary

Guest Speaker Mathew Poppins  presented us with an interesting overview of Freemasonry and its  operation, the cross-section of membership and also gave us an indication of the community work in which most Lodges are involved.  A powerpoint presentation further detailed the complexities of Freemasonry, however, Mat assured us of the benefits he has experienced during his long association with Freemasonry.

Guest Speaker, David Cooper gave us a detailed insight into the operations of his company…,Milspec Manufacturing Pty Ltd. Milspec is a Albury-based high-class engineering company that specialise in the design & manufacture of a number of high quality (and technical !) products for contracted clients. David explained that Milspec are involved in component manufacture rather than the finished product of what is regarded as preventative defence material. They are one of Australia’s few manufacturers that have obtained an AS9100 Accreditation. Milspec are a reliable supplier of high quality Wiring Harnesses, Alternators and Subsystems to a number of Defence companies for the use in Military Vehicles, the NULKA (Aboriginal for ‘be quick’) Program and Live Fire Target Ranges, working closely with BAE defence Systems … the company is held in high regard within the industry.