2024 Guest Speakers

Colin Lund

February 2024    Colin Lund - Photo restoration

Colin has had a varied career in aviation, public relations and event organization, starting in the United Kingdom and within New Zealand since 2000.

Photography has long been a major interest for him, but his interest in digital photo and document restoration began when in 2021 Colin was commissioned by the Helensville Museum to create a 2022 calendar from their collection of heritage photographs.

Aided by an investment in state-of-the-art software and equipment, the calendar’s success brought him to the attention of Muriwai college for a further commission.

Now with interest centered around Browns Bay Torbay and Long Bay, Colin’s expertise has extended from the restoration, printing and framing of damaged and faded photographs to the recovery of very delicate valuable drawings, each commission with its own story. His talk will discuss the techniques and some of those stories.
Additional information on web link below:
https://www.clc-photographic.com/photo-restoration.html 

Commander Larry Robbins

March 2024   Commander Larry Robbins OBE FNI JP RNZN  (Retired)
The year is 1994 and Larry Robbins Commander of the HMNZS Monowai, a ship whose primary role is Hydrogeography, becomes a participant in searching for and the ultimate rescue of 21 persons from 7 yachts caught in extremely heavy seas.
Born in Southern England, Larry Robbins joined the Merchant Navy straight from school. He gained his Second Mates Certificate and later Emigrated to New Zealand and was commissioned into the Hydrographic Surveying Service of the Royal New Zealand Navy.  In a career spanning 26 years, he rose to the rank of Commander and the position of Hydrographer in the RNZN,  His presentation includes the account of the largest search and rescue operation ever mounted out of New Zealand and with him receiving the OBE.

Dr Graham Cowie

April 2024   Dr Graham Cowie

Dr Graham Howie teaches in the School of Clinical Sciences at AUT (Auckland University of Technology).
This presentation brings together two key interests for Graham. Firstly, his maternal grandfather died of
wounds in June 1917, shortly after the Battle of Messines. The Great War had an immediate and lasting impact on his family. That loss is the origin of his interest in World War One.

Secondly, his lifework / career has been with the Ambulance Service – as a front-line on-road paramedic tending the sick and the injured, as a teacher in the National Ambulance School, and currently as a researcher at AUT’s Paramedicine Department.

These two strands came together when Graham came across the letters and diaries of a stretcher-bearer with the NZ Medical Corps in WW1 France and Belgium, a young man called Leo Bestall. (Stretcher-bearers are the early forerunners of today’s paramedics.) Grahams presentation concerns Leo Bestall’s account and experience of army life, of army food, and of his search for friendship and love in war-torn France.

Frances Walsh

May 2024   Frances Walsh  -  Tough Men, Delicate Handiwork

Frances Walsh has had a long career in journalism, including writing for Metro magazine where she was also Books & Art Editor. Past books include her 2011 social history Inside Stories:-
A History of the New Zealand Housewife 1890-1975, and Endless Sea:

Stories told through the taonga of the New Zealand Maritime Museum "Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa" published in 2020. She has also worked as a teacher and trade unionist.

Frances is currently the inhouse writer and researcher at the NZ Maritime Museum.
In this talk she discusses the embroideries stitched by merchant seamen in the Victorian era.