President  John Bolto welcomed Rotarians and our guest speaker to another Club  Zoom meeting due to the lock-down provisions of the current pandemic.

 

Hope you all have your beverage and appetiser ready to tuck into.

 

Pres John initially shared the ANZAC commemoration photos with us all.  They were previously emailed.  Thank you to all involved in putting it together.

 

Also, note that a new version of Zoom will be available shortly with enhanced security features amongst others.

 

Pres John welcomed Prof Peter Veth,  Director UWA  Ocean Institute,  Chair of Archaeology  UWA.

 

ATTENDEES: At peak time we had  38  participants including our guest speaker and Sonam.   Hence  36  members.

 

Sadly Neil Wilkie said goodbye to a close friend living in the UK  who succumbed to Covid 19  over the week.   

 

 

 

The portfolio is holding up as well as could be expected.

Some donations have been made.  Currently looking donations to the Bushfire cause.  Russell and Ken will liaise with Craig James who has the support of The Board to assess and nominate worthy recipients.

Russell has a couple of cases of white wine left.  The Red is all sold.  Please contact him.  Latest Marg River vintage has been very low yielding but quality should be great.

 

Donation to Foodbank has been made,  $2,500.  Thank you to all contributing members.

 

Planning has started on an expanded Cans for Xmas event this year.

 

A productive meeting was recently held going thru’ the major international projects,  namely, Nokor Tep,  John Fawcett Foundation and the Metso Concert introduced by Tony Chien.

They are also looking at a Book Donation Project into PNG  -  stay tuned.

 

Kim has been in contact with Shenton College in relation to the National Youth Science Forum project.  They are considering at the moment.

Kim welcomed Peter Veth,  who was a Wesley classmate a lifetime ago!

 

New member Jason’s Son was born very recently!  Well done and congratulations from all at The Rotary Club of Dalkeith. 

 

Trevor introduced a new concept of a couple of stories from Isolation or  Life in Lockdown!

 

Tony Chien:  Perth is already isolated!   He has kept himself isolated and in his own world -  Not all bad.

Peter Robertson:  With two very active boys (3 & 5 yo)  working from home can be challenging.  At one of his Zoom meetings his client complimented him the disciplining of his boys -  microphones can be very sensitive!  Be aware. Hence most of his meeting is from the deserted office -  peace and quiet.

Peter Marfleet:  In his neighbourhood, they have been having properly distanced drinks-on-the-front-lawn with 10 people. Now they are looking to have a singer on the back of a truck -  very resourceful. 

Kevin Jackson:  Sent his wife into Bunnings for a light globe amidst long lines -  after time trying to find her he asked a young Bunning’s girl to assist finding her- “Do you know what she looks Like?”  his response was that after 40 years of marriage he had a pretty fair idea !!

 

PRESIDENTS REPORT:  (Pres John Bolto)   

 

Pres John introduced Peter who will talk about  Seascape Archaeology.

Peter gave a very interesting talk about a topic most of us had no idea.  His presentation was recorded and hence may be put up on our website.  In any event, salient points from his talk are detailed below;

 

Peter’ study into seascape archaeology by him and colleagues around the world have provided a great new insight into seascape archaeology.  It is now obvious that people made marine crossings from the Indonesian area at least 50,000  years ago into Northern Australia -  particularly the Kimberley area.  We are talking about 100,000s of people, not just a couple making this crossing over the years.   Bear in mind that Sea Levels were a lot lower than they are now and one could see from Island to Island.  12,0000 years ago one could walk from Mainland Australia to Tasmania and also to PNG.

 

Hence the Northern Shoals 100,000 years ago were much more accessible.    There is direct evidence of fishing 50,000 years ago in the way of fish hooks,  spears,  beads and garments.  This is much earlier than anything within Europe.   Wallacea has the World’s oldest figurative Rock Art in the world. This is in the Borneo /  Sulawesi area and dates from  40 – 50,000 years ago!

 

It is interesting to note that this Rock Art has a lot of similarities to Kimberley Rock Art.  In Australia, the oldest art is in the Kimberley and dates from 40 -50,000 years old.  It shows very early maritime behaviour.

 

Because of this Peter and his team thought to look around this area for direct evidence and dating.  Due to know lower sea levels they concentrated on Barrow Island.  They found Boodies Caves which has huge deposits throughout!  This has been carefully excavated ad recorded.  The island was abandoned about 7,000 years ago due to rising sea levels when the island was cut-off.  Hence the cave has deposits from 7,000 to  50,000 years ago.  They have found 12,000-year-old beads which fit with recent ethnographic evidence from the early 1900s.   Plus enormous amounts of tools from Shell Fish.

 

Due to the change in sea levels which has only risen sharply from the last 7,000 years, there are a lot of underwater archaeologic sites.  It is now starting to become a thing.

There is an extraordinary record of human activity in the North of Australia and more particularly the North of WA.  The evidence is that it is far earlier than anything else anywhere in the World !!   Work has just begun.

 

Pres John Thanked Prof Peter Veth for an extremely interesting talk about a  subject which not many knew about and it is all in our backyard. Thank You.

 

 FUTURE EVENTS:  President John Bolto

 

 

President John thanked the Rotary Club of Dalkeith members who have made the effort to embrace a new way of doing things!   Keep safe and as this shows  Keep  Connected!

 

Recognise our very generous Sponsors;