Meetings
Club meetings are held at the Club Marion, 262 Sturt Road, Marion on the 1st Monday of every month (If a Public Holiday, then 2nd Monday) with the following program:

• 10:30 am Club Business
• 11:15 am Tea Break and Fellowship
• 11:45 am Guest Speaker
• 12:30 pm Close
After the meetings, many members enjoy a lunch at Club Marion

Past Speakers
Monday 4th September 2023
Ms. Marianna Boorman “Port River Dolphins”

Marianna Boorman
Monday 7th August 2023
Mr Ben Porter “10 Clubs for 25 Years – The Golden Age of the SANFL”
Ben gave a very informative presentation about the 27 years of South Australian National Football League when there was 10 teams before Adelaide joined the A.F.L. He spoke about numerous players & all the Clubs. Ben has written a book about this period.
Monday 3rd July 2023


Ben Porter
Ian Burnett – Concrete construction and life’s experiences outside Australia
Ian described the highlights of his journey through the concrete & construction Industry. He started with ReadyMix in Adelaide in 1964, then onto many other world-wide places including Hobart – Melbourne – Johannesburg – Melbourne. His roles were Technical, Operational, Management, Marketing & Development. Some of the major projects were; Bourke Place – Melbourne, Baiyoke 2 Tower – Bangkok, RC&C Towers – Manilla, Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor, Litigation – Tsing Ma Bridge – Hong Kong, Alice Springs to Darwin Rail Link, Taiwan High Speed Rail, also other countries including Vietnam, China, Russia, USA, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar & Singapore. He worked on various developments of quick-setting concrete which could be pumped to the top of towers under construction
Monday 5th June 2023

Mr Rod Barton
“I was no James Bond with a licence to kill, but I did work with the British intelligence services and for the CIA. I had guns pointed at me, death threats issued, a price placed on my head.“
In 1971, Rod Barton applied for a junior scientist role in the Australian Department of Defence. Little did he know what it entailed: as the Cold War intensified, Barton was inducted into the murky world of espionage.
For the next few decades, Barton lived a life straight from an adventure novel. In war-torn Mogadishu, he disarmed militia, while sleeping in rat-infested barracks. As a UN weapons inspector, he flew to Baghdad on special missions, interviewing top scientists to uncover an illegal weapons program, and raced to chemical firms across Europe, tracking materials sold to the Iraqis.
After 9/11, Barton became senior advisor to Hans Blix, seeking the truth on Iraq’s WMDs. His clashes with the CIA over what he saw – and what he didn’t find – reveal the terrible politicisation of the War on Terror. It prompted him to step from the shadows and share a truth about Iraqi prisoners – and to tussle with the Australian government. This is an extraordinary behind-the-scenes account of a world marked by risk, secrecy and individual acts of courage. The Life of a Spy will introduce you to a man of principle in a time of chaos, and take you to the frontlines of politics and war. Rod was a very interesting Speaker, telling his life’s Story as a Spy.
Monday 1st May 2023

Mr Graeme Hall AO
Graeme Hall gave an informative and emotive talk on the SUNRISE CAMBODIA orphan villages at our May meeting. SUNRISE CAMBODIA run by founder Geraldine Cox has been a very special charity that Graeme and Elaine have supported for over 20 years. Graeme was pleased to advise that members had donated $579 towards the charity.
Monday 4th April 2023

Honorable Kris Hanna, Mayor City of Marion
Kris spoke on the spending of nearly $100M per year income for the City of Marion, breaking spending down to approx. 8 categories. He gave details of spending on significant infrastructure projects recently completed and those planned for the future
Monday 6th March 2023


Members, David Wilkinson and Remo Porcaro
Both David and Remo spoke for 12 minutes on aspects of the their lives. Both had lived through WWII or its after effects in Europe and had emigrated to Australia. They described specific events or memories from their lives with bits of humour along the way
Monday 6th February 2023

Cate Clements spoke on the topic “A flight Against All Odds”
Cate described her emigration to Australia in the 1960s with her newly married husband as inexperienced pilot and navigator, naive 20 year olds in a single-engine aircraft with no navigation aids and certainly no GPS. As the range of the aircraft was only 3 hours maximum and with a jerry can of aviation fuel sitting on her lap, careful consideration was necessary in planning the next hop on their adventure. Cate described just about every impediment possible, but after a very hair-raising trip they eventually made it to their new home, Adelaide. This was a thoroughly enjoyable talk provided by Cate with some great slides of their adventures.
Monday 6th December 2022

Andrew Clark from the RAA “Modern Motor Vehicles“
Andrew spoke on advantages and disadvantages of current and future design of standard combustion, hybrid, electric and hydrogen vehicles. As well, he illustrated how sensors on modern vehicles are featuring front, back and side sensors to assist drivers to avoid vehicle collisions
Monday 7th November 2022

Gerry Guerin and Marlene Haese – Introduction to Advance Care Directives and Enduring Powers of Attorney and the role of Justices of the Peace
Spoke on the consequences of not having a completed ACD form, how to complete the form and the role of the Justices of the Peace in ratifying the form. They also outlined the Enduring Power of Attorney form and it’s importance in financial decisions on behalf of a person who is not able to manage their own financial affairs.
Monday 10th October 2022

Phil Hoffmann “Travel – Moving forward after Covid19 challenges”
Phil spoke on how the pandemic had affected his travel business & the travel industry as a whole. Before Covid19 started, he had 10 travel offices & employed around 230 staff. The city office was the only one he had to close & today he is now operating with about half the staff. He, like a lot of businesses, is looking for more staff, but they are not available.
Australia was very strict with its lock down during this time which caused us to become very isolated. He believes that it will take up to 3 years to be that number one tourist destination again. He says that the World is once again opening up to travellors. To date, the most popular is the USA followed by UK, Europe & NZ
Monday 5th September 2022

Four of our own members – Ray Brand, John Godden, George Newson and Pieter Boschma spoke on Aspects of their Life
Monday 1st August 2022

Emily Johns “Improve your life with new technology”
Emily spoke on the range of useful “smart” devices available for your home available at the present time including smart lights and globes, smart speakers, door security systems etc. As well, she highlighted some futuristic devices which at this stage are more fanciful.
Monday 4th July 2022

Darren Davis “Road Safety – We can all help”
Darren is the President of the Get Home Safe Foundation and described the various functions and activities of the group
Monday 6th June 2022

Pamela Rajowski “Pioneering Afghan cameleers of Australia”
Pamela spoke on the opening up of outback South Australia and beyond in the 1850s by the cameleers of Afghanistan, Pakistan and North-Western India. On finding bullocks and horses were unsuitable for pulling supplies into inland Australia because of the lack of water for the animals, Thomas Elder began importing camels and cameleers from Pakistan in 1866. They were employed for the transportation of goods to remote sheep and cattle stations, the transportation of wool and ore back to Port Augusta and proved of immense value in carrying supplies during severe drought. Over 100 camels were engaged in the construction of the Adelaide-Darwin Overland Telegraph in 1872, to carry wire, insulators and supplies.
Monday 2nd May 2022

Rosie Allen “Communication Centres in WW 2”
Rosie described preparations for invasion in Adelaide in 1941 and showed historical photographs of documents and air raid shelters built at that time, including the one adjacent to the Glenelg Oval. This was built to handle communications for the Zone H, including the Holdfast Bay and Marion areas back to the Central Control Centre in the CBD
Monday 4th April 2022

Nicole Flint, MHR, Federal Member for Boothby spoke on “Women in Politics”
Nicole spoke on her early influences which led her to politics, problems with radical protest groups, difficulties with women in Parliament and what led her to not continue in Federal parliament. After two terms in Parliament she has decided to do other things in her life. Like other members of Parliament, Nicole has helped many groups and organisations in her electorate, including the Marion Probus Club
Monday 7th February 2022

Dr Tony Lake a forensic orthodontist, “The tooth, the whole tooth and nothing about the tooth“
Tony spoke about how modern forensic orthodontology can be used in victim identification and causation of injury including his experience in natural and man-made disasters and criminal justice.
Monday 1st November 2021

Michael Peachey, SA Home Therapies: “Healthy ageing – what’s normal and what’s reversible”
Michael spoke about the importance of mobilisation, balance, and simple measures to assess and increase your mobility and strength
Monday 11th October 2021

David Jarman, one of our Life Members and recognised historian spoke on the life and importance to South Australia of Sir Hubert Wilkins
Monday 6th September 2021

Members Alan Marriage, Peter Laver, Colin Burford and Jim McInerney spoke on aspects of their lives
Each presenter was restricted to a 12 minute presentation from a particular aspect of their life, whether from the work experiences or their personal interests
Monday 4th July 2021

Adjunct Professor Haydon Manning – “How Australia is governed and what might change the system”
Monday 7th June 2021

Angelo Mastripolito ” Home Fire Safety”
Angelo, from the Metropolitan Fire Service, gave a very informative talk on the common causes of fires in the home, the use of door safety locks, smoke alarms, storage and use of electric blankets, the use of heaters, and the placement and alternatives of using candles. He demonstrated how to extinguish oil cooking fires using a fire blanket. He finished with an impressive video of the spread of a fire in pre-plastic era room compared with a room with modern-day furniture, carpets and curtains.
Monday 3rd May 2021

Graeme Hall “This is your life”- David Jarman
Graeme surprised David Jarman by “selecting” him to come to the podium where he spoke of David’s life and achievements. A message from David’s twin brother in Canada was read out and addresses from his daughter, Tanya, Kris Hanna, the Mayor of the City of Marion and Nicole Flint MHR, the Federal Member for Boothby.
Monday 12th April 2021

Max Anderson – “A Golden Dilemma”
Journalist Max told us about his experiences, when in 2002 he spent six months learning to be a gold prospector and gathering information for a book he was commissioned to write. He spoke about arriving in the town of Kookynie, a small outback town in Western Australia, 200k north of Kalgoolie population 13, with his 4-wheel drive vehicle, tent and his trusty dog, Digger. and setting up camp on the outskirts of town near the water tanks under a pepper tree.
Monday 1st March 2021

David Simpson – Chairman, Board of Probus South Pacific
David described his general background in SA and the roles he has filled in Probus. He expressed his pride in the opinion that SA Probus “punches above its weight”. He presented a Probus South Pacific PowerPoint summary of a variety of perspectives of Probus membership and enunciated the elements of support that the organisation has offered to clubs since its establishment in 1981.
He offered suggestions about what makes a successful club; viz, an effective leadership team and less focus on administration. Meetings to be kept simple, with business being minimal, good speakers and operating as many interest groups as are practical and relevant to members.
Monday 1st February 2021

David Kilmer – “History of Crime Writing”
Tony Henwood introduced David Kilmer, a local crime fiction writer with three published books to his credit. David discussed the elements of crime fiction and outlined its history. Crime fiction does not just entertain but tells a little of the dark side of human nature, giving example of coping with fear, besides educating in aspects of law enforcement and detective methods.