Guest Speaker Carla Benham has a Masters in International Community Development and degrees in Economics and Social Science, and has recently returned to Albury to live after working internationally for nine years, most recently as a Senior Accountability Advisor with World Vision UK.  Carla is an expert on establishing community feedback and response systems in development and humanitarian disaster relief operations which have extended across Asia, the Pacific, Middle East and East Africa Regions. For the past seven years her professional focus has been on building organisational architecture, culture and staff competencies to effectively listen and respond to community feedback, so that resources intended for these communities are used in their best interest. Drawing on 2013’s Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines as an example, Carla presented on how Aid agencies prepare, respond and eventually transition out of
disaster response. In each of these phases, good intentions aren’t enough. How Aid agencies share information with communities and listen and respond to their priorities and concerns is integral to successes.

Guest Speaker Rosemary Creed has come from a farming background near Jerilderie NSW.  We had four daughters and we were very involved in many organisations in the District. In the early 1980’s I became a member of “Health Right” a branch of Albury Community Health, where I coordinated and ran health related groups between Albury and Deniliquin, mainly for Women. Rosemary has been a Lifeline councillor with Albury Lifeline for six years, and was one of the first members of Palliative Care in Wodonga when it began in the nineties. For the last 11 ½ years Rosemary has been coordinating the “Look Good, Feel Better” workshops for the Albury/Wodonga and surrounding region.  These have grown enormously, when she began in this role in 2006 there were only four workshops a year with six participants and now she with her volunteers runs eight workshops a year with between eight and 14 participants. Rosemary enjoys her volunteer work and social interacting with many people from all walks of life.

Guest Speaker this week was Bree Pickering from MAMA … Artists from across the local region and around the country were invited to apply to exhibit at MAMA in August this year. The sixty-five applications received were then assessed by local Waragerie (Wiradjuri) artist Lorraine Connelly-Northey and Artistic Director of Melbourne’s Gertrude Contemporary, Mark Feary with MAMA Director, Bree Pickering and MAMA Curator, Michael Moran. Proposals were assessed on grounds of innovation, artistic potential and relevance to a local audience. This year the program has been updated to better reflect the supportive role MAMA plays in local art. With increased support this year from Create NSW, upgrades to the program have been instated. These include the removal of financial barriers to local artists seeking to exhibit at MAMA, such as the removal of hire fees and the payment of national-standard artist fees. MAMA staff will work closely with the selected artists on the development of their exhibitions, offering professional support, assistance with production and advice on advancing emerging careers.

Guest Speaker Mick Brennan, Assistant Curator at the Albury Botanic Gardens gave us an insight into future projects planned for this four hectare site  known for its established trees, meandering pathways and colourful garden beds.

When Albury Mayor, Alderman William Jones opened the gardens with the planting of an English Elm tree in 1877, he created an icon which has stood the test of time. The gardens have a long history and are extremely popular with horticultural enthusiasts and garden lovers, many travelling from around the country to explore the 1,000 plus native and exotic plant species. There are a range of things to do when you visit the gardens such as self-guided walks, the dinosaur family in the children’s garden or you can simply relax and watch the world pass by. From a conservation point of view, work is going into regeneration and replacement of species that have reached the end of their life-span, in particular the elm trees in Elm Avenue. With the assistance of the Friends of the Botanic Gardens, there is  planned a range of improvements to not only keep people going here, but to engage a whole new audience, in particular children through the creation of a Children’s Garden.  To guide the management and ongoing improvements to the gardens the Conservation Management Plan was developed in 1997 and a Marketing Strategy in 2005. While the gardens already attract around 300,000 people a year, including over 75 weddings, there is room for many more, making the Albury Botanic Gardens one of the most visited outdoor attractions in Australia.

Noel Jackling was born in Albury, and lived next to Ian Harrison (!) but  was only there until the age of three. War-time meant family removal to Melbourne when his father Stan Jackling joined the RAAF. The family unit never returned to Albury, leaving Stan with a law business in Albury and a family in Melbourne, a disjunction that he resolved by becoming a weekly commuter between the two cities. For Noel, with grandparents in Albury and Wodonga, Albury-Wodonga became a wonderful holiday venue in his younger years. Following the death of his father in 1994 he donated his father’s Albury Choral Society and ABC International Celebrity Concert programs to the Albury LibraryMuseum and wrote a book to interpret them. In 1998 Noel became executor of the deceased estate of a former Albury Choral Society chorister Ruth Whyte, whose residuary estate of $1.2m was equally divided between the Albury Wodonga Regional Art Foundation and the Charles Sturt University Murray Conservatorium of Music, a bequest that remains the largest cash donation to the Arts in Albury. In the late 1960s, Noel became the lawyer for Arthur Newnham, the ABC radio 2CO announcer who called on cars to go to the Albury Racecourse to illuminate a landing strip for the Uiver. As a result of this connection, Noel has in recent years developed a keen interest in the Uiver, an interest that has led to him securing major donations of Uiver-related objects for the Albury LibraryMuseum, and with others, to ensure that Albury’s memorial DC-2 Uiver remained in Albury for restoration here. Noel successfully advocated for the Uiver collection at the LibraryMuseum to be nominated for heritage listing and in August 2017 it was added to the Hetitage Register of the State of New South Wales.

Noel is a retired lawyer who has also worked as a University-based instructional designer.