This week President Andrew enjoys a trip to the cinema with the Bookworms, reminds us about the Camcare Food Project, and reflects on the life of a convict in Van Diemen’s Land.
Thirty-two Club members and guests met by Zoom today and heard a fascinating talk by historian, Emeritus Professor Janet McCalman AC. Janet is the author of Vandemonians: The Repressed History of Colonial Victoria and she spoke about the research she and her colleagues conducted into the social and economic conditions in the UK and Ireland in the first half of the 19th century that drew women, men and children into crime, leading to their conviction and transportation to Van Diemen’s Land. The origins, physical characteristics, and lives of these convicts were uniquely well documented for people living in those times. The records enabled researchers to identify factors that led them to criminal offending, events during their incarceration, and in 50% of cases, what happened upon release or escape when many settled in Victoria. Particularly interesting were parallels with many present-day offenders who typically have backgrounds characterised by poverty, unemployment, homelessness, lack of family support, and addiction. This toxic mix of vulnerabilities, or ‘toxic stress’ as it is called, that led to crime in those days, is still a major cause of crime today.
Another interesting fact emerging from the research was that while physical cruelty, such as flogging, had little effect on a person’s longevity, there was a direct correlation between mental harm caused, for example, by solitary confinement, and a shortened lifespan.
See the report on Janet’s talk below.
Zoom donations
Thank you to those members and guests who made voluntary donations totalling $315 at today’s Zoom meeting.
Bookworms turned film buffs
Having recently read Delia Owens’ novel, Where the Crawdads Sing, the Bookworms took themselves off to the Lido cinema in Hawthorn last Friday to see the recently released film of the same name. The verdict was that the film followed the book fairly accurately, was well acted, and beautifully photographed. However, as I discovered later, while the book was set in the North Carolina wetlands, the movie was filmed in the wetlands on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain, Lousiana and in the neighbouring towns of Mandeville and Madisonville. 
Forthcoming Salvo Hawks home matches
The Salvo Hawks have two home matches at the Victoria Road Reserve in August - on the 3rd and 17th - and we have an urgent need for volunteers to help with lunch and someone with IT know how to work the electronic scoreboard.
If you are able to assist on either of those dates please contact David McNamara.
A couple of reminders:
The Camcare Food Project whereby we donate non-perishable foodstuffs to Camcare for distribution through its emergency Food Relief program continues through August. Please remember to bring some non-perishable food products to our next Kooyong meeting on 2 August. The response from members at the last meeting at Kooyong was remarkable with 105 items donated at an estimated value of $300. When Pam and I delivered those items to Camcare there were two people waiting for food parcels, which brought home to us the value of this project in helping local residents who are struggling to afford food for themselves and their families and rely on services like Camcare.
Please don’t delay booking for the ‘Lift the Lid’ on Mental Illness lunch on 7 October. This is the Club’s major fundraiser for this year and the more tickets we can sell the more money we will be able to raise for worthy causes.
Avenue of Service Update
The Community Service Director, Katrina Flinn, gave the meeting an update on the Club’s current and planned community service projects. See details of Katrina’s report below.
Next week’s meeting
Next week’s meeting is at Kooyong. Our speaker will be Dianne Sides, President of Boroondara Family Network who will talk to us about their work supporting parents with babies and very young children who are suffering stress in parenting.
Until then, have a good week and stay safe, well and warm.
Thought for the Week
Given our talk today touched on the lives of women transported as convicts to Van Diemen’s Land, I’ve chosen as this week’s reflection an extract from a convict ballad from that time.
The verses are from the ballad, ‘Female Transport’ which supposedly tells the story of Sarah Collins who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land as punishment for highway robbery.
They chained us two by two and whipped and lashed along
They cut off our provisions if we did the least thing wrong
They march us in the burning sun until our feet are sore
So hard's our lot now we are got to Van Diemen's shore
We labour hard from morn to night until our bones do ache
Then every one they must obey their mouldy beds must make
We often wish when we lay down we ne'er may rise no more
To meet our savage Governor upon Van Diemen's shore
Every night when I lay down I wet my straw with tears
While wind upon that horrid shore did whistle in our ears
Those dreadful beasts upon that land around our cots do roar
Most dismal is our doom upon Van Diemen's shore
They cut off our provisions if we did the least thing wrong
They march us in the burning sun until our feet are sore
So hard's our lot now we are got to Van Diemen's shore
We labour hard from morn to night until our bones do ache
Then every one they must obey their mouldy beds must make
We often wish when we lay down we ne'er may rise no more
To meet our savage Governor upon Van Diemen's shore
Every night when I lay down I wet my straw with tears
While wind upon that horrid shore did whistle in our ears
Those dreadful beasts upon that land around our cots do roar
Most dismal is our doom upon Van Diemen's shore
Source: Taken from Geoffrey C. Ingleton's True Patriots All: Or News from Early Australia As Told in a Collection of Broadsides in the Mitchell Library, Sydney. Nearly 25,000 women and girls were transported half to NSW and half to Van Diemen's Land. About half of them were from Ireland. The women were often transported with their children. https://folkstream.com/038.html