Meetings

General meetings, which feature an address from a guest speaker, are free and are held at the Burnside Community Centre at 7.30pm on the third Monday of each month. Members of the public are welcome to attend any of the general meetings.

View the full record of past meetings, including details of the talk and how to access recordings.

Upcoming Meetings

Monday 21 June 2021

Presented by Colonel Steven Larkins OAM (retired)

In 1998, I met a Belgian detective in Ypres.  We have remained in contact more or less continuously since.  These days we are both retired but work as Battlefield Guides.  In 2001 he showed me a photo of a Lancaster bomber crashed in his grandfather’s brickyard at Langemark north of Ypres and said it was Australian.  

More recently I picked up the story, accessing Conrad”s knowledge, research by French and Australian researchers and Virtual War Memorial to try to tell the story behind the picture.

Australia trained 27,000 aircrew during WW2 under the Empire Air Training Scheme for service with the RAAF.  This is the story of 33 of them lost in one raid, one night over the French city of Lille.  Two Burnside boys’ were among them.

 

Steve Larkins has lived in Tusmore for the past 17 years.  He had an extensive career in the Army, 20 years full time and 18 years in the Reserve at either end of is regular Army career, from Private to Colonel.  He is a self-confessed history tragic, particularly Military History.  Prior to COVID 19 he regularly conducted small group battlefield tours to France and Belgium.

All welcome. No charge. 

Location

Coralie Soward Hall, Burnside Community Centre (adjacent Burnside Library)

401 Greenhill Road, Tusmore SA 5065

Enter car park from Fisher Street, off Portrush Road

Monday 19 July 2021

Presented by Pam Rajkowski OAM

Over years researching the complex history of the Afghan cameleers, introduced to Australia by Thomas Elder, Pamela encountered an intricate wealth of unpublished, uncompiled information and photos on the private and extraordinary lifestyles of three visionary South Australian founders, Thomas Elder, Robert Barr Smith and Peter Waite.  Step with Pamela as she exposes the lavish estates and lifestyles and global connections of these families, and the colonial leadership and influence of these extraordinary entrepreneurs and philanthropists.

While a full time secondary teacher Pamela Rajkowski travelled Australia interviewing academics and Afghan cameleer and Aboriginal descendants.  Her first book, In the Tracks of the Camelmen, 1987, preceded three more books.  She worked with Australian and International media, organized national outback festivals and 3 cameleer memorials.  In 2009 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her community service too, and research on, the Afghan cameleers.  Her extensive research uncovered the extraordinary, lavish lifestyles and philanthropy of Thomas Elder, Robert and Joanna Barr Smith and Peter and Matilda Waite.

All welcome. No charge.

Location

Coralie Soward Hall, Burnside Community Centre (adjacent Burnside Library)

401 Greenhill Road, Tusmore SA 5065

Enter car park from Fisher Street, off Portrush Road