Twilight Talks 2024

Logo

WHAT ARE TWILIGHT TALKS?

Twilight Talks have been held at the BMI since 2001, providing a great opportunity to hear some fantastic speakers and meet up with friends over drinks.

Participants arrive at the Humffray Room from 5.30pm for drinks and conversation, followed by a 30 to 40 minutes at 6pm.

ADMISSION

BMI Members $8.00 per person, non-members$12.00. However for Season 1 of the 2024 sessions are Free being proudly supported by Community Bank Buninyong

Refer to our events page for upcoming events.

Contact Rosemary in the BMI Library for information on 5331 3042.

Follow Community Bank Buninyong on social media
Dr Phil Roberts OAM | Twilight Talks Host

Former school teacher and Principal, Phil is the author of 15 local history books, member Ballarat Golf Club, Royal Tennis Club and a keen cyclist.

His extraordinary knowledge of the BMI continues to be invaluable.

Past President 2004-07

Neil Leckie | Twilight Talks Host

Neil Leckie is a BMI Member and is a former Electrical Engineer, TAFE Teacher and BMI Employee with an interest in Ballarat’s history. He is one of the BMI Tour Guides. Neil is also a former Army Reservist with an interest in Ballarat’s military history. He manages the military museum at Ranger Barracks in Alfredton.

Neil’s family has also donated a collection of photos that now belong to the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institue Image Collection,  the Arthur Leckie Collection.

 

Session 4

Tue 20 March

 

Women in Sport:
A Changing World

 
Speakers:  Sara Kennedy

Session 5

Wed 27 March

 

Ballarat Punch Magazine 1867-70

 
Speakers: Dr Annie Thomas, Prof Keir Reeves, Prof Richard Scully

Session 1

Wed 28 February

Writing a Memoir

 
Speakers: Dr Frank Hurley &
Pastor Bill Sutcliffe

Session 2

Wed 6 March

 

Ballarat Doctors & Nurses
in WWI

 
Speakers: Dr Jean Douglas
& Garry Snowden

Session 3

Wed 13 March

 

BMI Stories

 
Speakers: Rex Bridges & Neil Leckie

Session 4:

 

Wednesday 20 March |  5.30pm |  Humffray Room 

 

Women in Sport – A Changing World

Speakers:

Sara will be in-conversation with Kate McMahon
Kate McMahon is WestVic Academy of Sport Netball Program Lead Coach she is also ABC Radio Statewide Drive ‘Weekly Sports Wrap’ Regular with Prue Bentley.
Kate coached the Redan Football Netball Club’s A-Grade team to the club’s first and only Ballarat Football Netball League premiership in 2011.
 
Kate has also lead the netball program at the WestVic Academy of Sport for ten years, and in 2023 coached the Central Highlands Region Open Team to a premiership at the Netball Victoria State Titles.
 
She is also a keen golfer, a member of the Ballarat Golf Club and has won the Women’s A-Grade Club Championship four times. She recognises the benefits of the development of active sport participation and the sense of community it engenders, not only within the team environment but also those that follow and support them.
 
Kate has been a regular member of the ABC Radio Statewide Drive ‘Weekly Sports Wrap’ segment for the last two years, and is passionate about everything and anything to do with sport and recreation. 
Kate McMahon
Sara Kennedy
Subject: From Skipton to the WBBL
 

Sara, 16 years old, lives in Skipton on her family’s sheep and cropping farm, and is currently boarding at Ballarat Clarendon College in Year 11. She made her Melbourne Renegades debut in the WBBL at the end of 2023, and plays for Carlton Cricket Club’s 1st XI in Victoria’s Women’s Premier Cricket League.

Last year, Sara was named in the Under 19 Australian World Cup squad, and has played state cricket in the Victorian underage program for the past 4 years.

Sara image: of the Renegades bowls during the WBBL match
between Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Sixers at CitiPower Centre,
on October 28, 2023, in Melbourne, Australia.
(Photo by Martin Keep/Getty Images)

Female cricket player, bowling
Sara Kennedy

Session 5

 
Wednesday 27 March | 5.30pm | Humffray Room

Ballarat Punch Magazine 1867-70

Ballarat Punch was a satirical publication which contained funny cartoons and drawings, satirical articles which made fun of local public figures, and provided a chiding moral commentary on everyday life.

Ballarat Punch was based on London’s Punch magazine which commenced in the United Kingdom in 1841. Ballarat’s first edition was published on 28 October 1857 and only lasted for five issues. Production on this first series ceased in November 1857.

Ballarat Punch was relaunched on the 9 February 1867 and remained in publication until 9 January 1870, when it ceased production. The Australian Research Collection has several copies of the 1867-70 editions in its collection.

The second image is the front cover to the 15 February 1868 edition. It was typical of the satirical drawings that Ballarat Punch was known for. The images were filled with references that would have resonated with news stories from the period and general life in Ballarat.

During this period a troupe of Japanese jugglers and acrobats were touring the goldfields. The front page shows the stage at the Theatre Royal where they were performing. There a number of the acrobats featured at the top of the image, however instead of the performers on the stage we can see Mr Punch walking through Ballarat with a cart of tricks, a piece of paper falling states ‘You never can tell’, the name of a growing mine in Ballarat but also potentially a warning. 1967/68 was a turbulent period for the Ballarat Stock exchange, on the left side of the stage you can see people clawing their way up, tempted by dividends, the right side shows them tumbling down again. At the top many are drinking from ‘Warrenheip’ – a reference to the Warrenheip Distillery. Perhaps though the acrobats were performing at the theatre, it was life in Ballarat that was a juggling act.

Source: Simon Jacks
Australiana Research Collection
Ballarat Research Hub at Eureka (BRHAE)

Speakers:

Image: Ballarat Punch inaugral edition, Febrary 9 1867 | Engraver F.W. Niven | From the BMI Heritage Publications Collection.

Ballarat Punch Cover, 15 Feb 1868: Source Eureka Centre Ballarat.
Dr Annie Thomas
Subject: Cartoonist, Charles Augustus Abbott
 

The Ballarat Punch provides a treasure trove of humorous insights into this city’s social and political development during the gold rush era. Central to the Ballarat Punch’s story is the magazine’s writer, editor and cartoonist, the well-connected, cultured Englishman Charles Augustus Abbott, who lampooned the corrupt and promoted a fairer go for everyone.

head shot of speaker
Dr Annie Thomas
Prof Keir Reeves
Subject: Ballarat Punch a reflection of its time and place
 

“The Ballarat Punch was very much a reflection of its time and place. The magazine has proven to be an important source for examining various aspects of the Victorian gold rush era and provides valuable insights into the earliest days of complex imperial-colonial culture during unprecedented levels of European immigration”.

Prof. Keir Reeves
Prof Richard Scully
Subject: Ballarat Punch a unique publication
 

Ballarat Punch was both a unique publication, and an example of a global phenomenon. The original London Punch spawned countless imitators across the world during the latter part of the nineteenth century, and to understand Ballarat Punch, it is essential to get a sense of its counterparts across Australia and the world’

 
Prof. Richard Scully

Session 1:

 
Wednesday 28 February | 5.30pm | Humffray Room

Writing a Memoir

Speakers:

Dr Frank Hurley OAM
Subject: Memoir – Look Back on Languor
 

Frank Hurley’s memoir, Look Back on Languor, was launched at the BMI by former Premier of Victoria, The Hon Steve Bracks, in April 2023. In his talk, Frank will discuss the nature of a memoir; his motivation in writing one; choosing a title and themes; potential audiences; structuring, style and language of his memoir; production aspects and costs in self-publishing a book.

Frank was a BMI Board member for more than 30 years. He served numerous terms as President and, later, as Patron.

Frank served on the BMI Committee for over 30 years till retiring in 2013. He was then BMI Patron for a further five years. He served numerous terms as President and as Secretary. He played a leading role in the restoration and revitalisation of the BMI in the ten or so years from 2000.

In other spheres, Frank was deeply involved, as a senior academic for 25 years, in the evolution of the University of Ballarat (now Federation University) and in the establishment of the University’s Arts Academy city campus in the complex of former government buildings on Camp/Lydiard Streets.

Frank lived some of his boyhood years in Howitt St, Wendouree. He attended St. Columba’s Primary School and St Patrick’s College before moving to Melbourne in 1952. With his wife Helen and their four daughters, he returned for a “second coming in Ballarat”, as his memoir terms it, in 1974. Over the 40 years since, he has been a prominent participant in social, political, cultural and educational affairs as a media commentator, writer, speaker and member of a wide range of committees and organisations.

With insight, candour and wit, in this memoir Frank recounts and reflects on his experiences, his beliefs, values and the changing times of his life.

Look back on Langour: The life of a 'hurkle durkle' Australian male

Frank reckons that the old Scots phrase – hurkle durkle, meaning to lie in bed, or lounge, long after it is time to get up – sums him up well.

Pastor Bill Sutcliffe
 
Subject: Memoir Driven
 

Today, Bill has helped literally thousands of underprivileged Australians find hope with the simple belief that when you realise someone else thinks you have potential, you’ll start believing in yourself. He knows that to be true because it’s the story of his own life. Driven is a compelling memoir about the exceptional power of love, forgiveness and encouragement.

“Writing a Memoir has enabled me to encourage, inspire, and motivate many people from the most difficult backgrounds. Mine was one of severe domestic violence and sexual abuse. However writing has enabled me to not just survive but to thrive through assisting others to do the same thing.”

 

Overcoming a childhood of abuse and neglect, Bill Sutcliffe’s unselfish life proves that one goodhearted person can make a difference to many.

‘A wound is very precious because it lets the light in. It can either make or break you. Bill Sutcliffe is a wonderful example of how healing this light can be.’ Reverend Bill Crews

Bill Sutcliffe is an ordinary man with an extraordinary story to tell. Coming from a childhood of poverty and abuse, Bill is a remarkable example of how seemingly insurmountable obstacles can be overcome with faith and a belief that anything is possible and achievable.

As a youth, Bill found himself falling into bitterness, violence and petty crime, but his life was turned around at the age of nine by the kindness of a stranger who encouraged and believed in him. This belief in Bill’s potential was reinforced by one of his teachers who said, ‘I reckon what you’ve got to do, more than anything, is to prove people wrong. All those people who have put you down over the years and said you’ll never amount to anything-prove them wrong! Otherwise you’ll play into their hands.’

Driven | Pastor Bill Sutcliffe

Bill attended a theological college at the age of twenty-one. Two years later, he was appointed Assistant Manager then Manager of a drop-in-centre and alcoholic rehabilitation centre in Melbourne, and subsequently became the youngest Superintendent of the Ballarat City Mission in its 100-year history. His mission of helping and inspiring the disadvantaged to realise their own potential has led him to work with prisoners and those with special needs for many years.

Today, Bill has helped literally thousands of underprivileged Australians find hope with the simple belief that when you realise someone else thinks you have potential, you’ll start believing in yourself. He knows that to be true because it’s the story of his own life.

Driven is a compelling memoir about the exceptional power of love, forgiveness and encouragement.

 

Session 2:

 
Wednesday 6 March | 5.30pm | Humffray Room
 

Ballarat Doctors & Nurses in World War One

Speakers:

MH 74 | Ballarat’s First Hospital Ambulance, Model T Ford, used WWI (detail) 

Image Collection

Dr Jean Douglas
 
Subject: Ballarat Doctors in World War OneThey Answered Their Country’s Call.
 

Jean Douglas MBBS. FRACGP. Diploma Obstetrics (Auckland). Master of Medicine (Melbourne).
Jean has been a general practitioner working with her husband Dr Havea Tamanika in Bendigo for over forty years, retiring in 2015. After a stay in Melbourne, they moved to Ballarat two years ago to be close to family.

During her years in Bendigo, she was involved with various community agencies such as Breastscreen, CASA and Loddon Mallee Integrated Cancer Service, Bendigo Hospital Aged Care and St John of God Medical Advisory Board.

After retirement she has renewed her interest in History and Family research. She is a member of the Heritage and Archives Committee of Australian Medical Association Victoria.

During the last six years she has researched the seventy-nine Victorian Doctors dying in World War 1 and World War 2 culminating in a Memorial Service in November at the AMA Headquarters in Parkville Melbourne last year.

Garry Snowden
 
Subject: Stories of WWI nurses with Ballarat connnections

Garry Snowden, a former school teacher, has a deep interest in Ballarat’s connections with the First World War. He has made numerous visits to the battlefields of Gallipoli, France and Belgium, researched and authored a book on WW1 soldiers and nurses buried or commemorated in Ballarat’s cemeteries and is president of Ballarat’s Arch of Victory/Avenue of Honour Committee.

Session 3:

 
Wednesday 13 March | 5.30pm |  Humffray Room

 

BMI Stories

Speakers:

Rex Bridges
 
Subject: Renovations of the BMI
portrait of speaker
Rex Bridges

Rex will talk on the renovations undertaken in parts of the BMI. Specifically, he will talk about the problems with the original 1859 building, including the ceiling and the roof, and how they were addressed. He will talk about the problem of defining the wants and needs of the members during the renovations. Rex will also talk on the preservation of the collection, archives and artifacts.

 
photo of ceiling collapse
Neil Leckie
 
Subject: History of the building of the BMI
 

Neil will talk about the history of the three stages of the BMI buildings: the original (rear) two-storey building, the front five-storey building and the Mining Exchange. This will lead into a talk on tours of the BMI, in particular the basement, which then leads into the story of the Misses R & L Nicholls Florist sign.

 
Neil Leckie

BMI news

Views: 527

BMI Fundraiser

Featuring:
The Hideaways,
The Harmonies &
Surf Shadows. 

2 course dinner & lots
of dancing