Perth Rendezvous

Introduction

Margaret and I attended Perth Rendezvous which was held between 14^th September and 18^th September, 2009.

Here is a link to our Rendezvous photos.

If you are unaware of Probus or Rendezvous see this post for details.

The Perth event was our third Rendezvous, as Margaret and I have attended Rendezvous in 2007 on the Gold Coast and 2008 in Christchurch.

In attending these three Rendezvous we have made many friends. We have met five of the people in the photograph below at three Rendezvous and eight at two Rendezvous. Those in the photo come from Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand.



In the photo below we are with some Victorian friends, Jenny, Dick. Graeme and Kathleen. Jenny on the left is from our local Probus club, and Dick and Graeme are members of the local mens' club.


Perth 2009

The Google Map below shows the locations of some of the places we visited. It can be treated like a normal Google Map - click on the blue place holders to see the name of the location and a photograph; the map can be zoomed using the plus or minus signs at the top left. You can see the original map by clicking on the Perth Probus link under the map.


View Perth Probus in a larger map

We arrived on Sunday 13^th and booked into our hotel, the Aarons, which was in an attractive part of town, as you can see from the photo below ...



... the room was small but that wasn't a problem as we did not spend much time in it.

In the afternoon we travelled to the Hyatt, where Rendezvous was held, to register.

Monday 14^th September

As we had already registered, we spent Monday morning perusing the Sponsors' Stalls and catching up with old friends.

After lunch, the Opening Ceremony was held. Naturally there was some speech making, and as usual the organisers had found local talent amongst the youth of the State: A choir from a local school entertained us followed by an up and coming young singer, Maddy Joyce, pictured at left.

The evening event was the Welcome Dinner, in the format of a dinner dance. After the meal,some probian Square Dancers entertained ...


... then a band, the Greg Schultz Trio, supplied the music and we hit the dance floor ...


The other entertainment was a cabaret singer, Jay Weston. This was very much our sort of party and Margaret and I really enjoyed ourselves.

Tuesday 15^th September

The daytime activities on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were local tours.

On Tuesday we took the Lunch with a View tour.

We visited ...

... Wungong Reservoir for morning tea ...	... Armadale Pioneer Village ...
... Waterwheel Gallery ...	... Raeburn Orchards

After lunch we visited a winery.

We were a little disappointed with this trip: the reservoir was closed, the Pioneer Village was run down with many buildings closed, all we could do at the orchard was buy fruit, lunch did not have a view, and the wine at the winery was not to my taste. Happily the Gallery was very interesting.

If this was the low light of the week there were plenty of high lights to come!

Gloucester Park Trots and Buffet Dinner

The evening activity was the trotts a Gloucester park.

This was a fun evening. I am not particularly into gambling but Margaret started to place her bets from the first race as shown by the photo below:



So I decided not to be such a piker and began investigating the form of the horses. I decided on a strategy of picking horses on the second or third line of betting who looked like they had good form. I picked winners on the first three races I placed bets on. Below is a pic of me with my winnings from my first bet.



I thought how easy is this lurk, so naturally my last three bets were losers.

An important event during the evening was the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Probus in WA. Our good friend, Bob Russell, received the certificate and cut the cake as shown in the following photograph.



We had a great night at the trotts as did the other 500 or so Probians present.

Wednesday 16^th September

We took the day tour to New Norcia. Before this day we knew little of New Norcia. When we arrived we were treated to a fascinating tour of the town.

Here is a brief summary of New Norcia's history:

The New Norcia Mission was founded 1846; Benedictine Monks Dom Rosendo Salvado and Dom Joseph Serra, and their small party trekked on foot from Perth to Noondagoonda Pool, some 8 km north of what is now New Norcia some six weeks later. Good relations were established with the aboriginal people of the Victoria Plains and foundation stone of the chapel was laid and the first primitive dwelling and chapel in 1847 were completed on the anniversary of their arrival. Under the stewardship of the monks, New Norcia was Aboriginal mission from 1846 to 1900 and schools from 1908 to 1991.

For more detailed guides to New Norcia's culture and history follow this link, or this one.

There is some beautiful architecture at New Norcia particularly the Chapel in St Gertrudes:





After the tour we had a pleasant lunch at the restaurant at the hotel, pictured below ...



... and then returned to Perth by our coach.

Captain Cook Dinner Cruise

In the evening we cruised to Fremantle and back with Captain Cook Cruises.

Peter and Daisy were sitting fairly close to us so plenty of fun was to be had.



The city lights were spectacular when we arrived back in Perth.



Thursday 17^th September

Fremantle Heritage Cruise

The day began with a visit to the beautiful Kings Park overlooking Perth.

There were many garden beds displaying Western Australia's famous wild flowers.

I will let the photos speak for themselves.

After Kings Park we cruised the Swan River to Fremantle ...



... visited the Maritime Museum, which includes Australia II ...



... and had lunch at Ciocerello's ...



We enjoyed Fremantle, and decided that we would return there after Rendezvous.

We then returned to Perth to prepare for the Friendship Dinner.

Friendship Dinner

The Friendship Dinner was held at the Forrest Centre Atrium which contains a replica of Lord Alexander Forrest's residence and has an old world theme. The Atrium is a garden setting with marble floors and a glass roof, is protected from the elements and is also fully air-conditioned.

The entertainment was from the Bush Poets Rod and Kerry Lee with songs from David Lee.

The photograph shows Kerry Lee entertaining the crowd.



In all honesty I was a little disappointed with the night. The equivalent event in last year's Rendezvous was at the Christchurch Air Force Museum - a stunning venue and the 40s style big band entertainment was the prefect complement to the venue. It is probably unfair to compare the two events.

Friday 18^th September

We sat out the Ecumenical Service, preferring to have a coffee with Bob Russell and Darrell Williams who was treasurer of the Rendezvous committee.

We attended the Discussion Forum, which is held at all Rendezvous. It gives an opportunity for Probians to ask questions of the Probus Centre South Pacific Board. Most of the questions and answers were predictable. Interestingly, I detected an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the role of Rotary amongst some delegates. The forum was chaired by George Wyman the chairman of Probus Centre South Pacific as shown in the photo below ...



After lunch Rendezvous was concluded with the Closing Ceremony. The highlight of this was the performance of Ellie Wilkie, who read some of her poems.

Margaret and I had never heard of Ellie, and found her poems very humorous and entertaining. Bob had met her at some Probus functions and was very happy to make her acquaintance again, as you can see from the photo left. On stage, Ellie, had a large photo of the front cover of her book The Myth of the Vertical Stripe which can be seen at the link above.

After bidding farewell to the friends that we had made at Rendezvous in the last three years, we headed off with Bob to his home in picturesque Mandura for the next phase of our WA trip, a tour guided by Bob.

Photos can be found at this link.