Book Reviews WITH KERRY…

from Tatura Bulletin October Edition 2022

THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE I NEVER MET

The Tiger Has Many Lives By Pamela Wells

Rod Wells enlisted in WWII, he served in Malaya and Singapore as an Officer with 8 division signals.

When Singapore fell to the Japanese in February 1942, he became a prisoner of war and was sent to Sandakan in British North Borneo.

Using his ingenuity and skill he built a wireless radio, and a transmitter, virtually from scratch. In July 1943, when the underground was betrayed, Rod was arrested by the Kempeitei and subjected to brutal torture before being tried and sent to the notorious Outram Road Gaol.

I’ve tried to write a review that would do this book justice and entice you to read it …. And you must read it.

All I can say is this book/story is about an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life.

Kerry Gardner

Rodney Cwa

Our October meeting is ‘Pink’, with guest speaker Michelle Parish, on Breast Care. Also, office bearers will be selected. On November 10, our Annual General Meeting will be held at the Tatura Bowling Club rooms at 1:30 pm. Competition ‘A Christmas decoration’. At Juniors Thursday night, October 6,, we had the theme of Footy and Pie night. The girls and the adult helpers dressed in their favourite footy team colours, whether AFL or local football. Supper was small pies, pasties, fruit platter and raspberry and apples pies with ice cream. The girls enthusiastically made pom poms out of wool in the colours of their football teams. The competition for the night was ‘Footy Outfit’ and it was decided that Lorraine Secomb (even though not a Junior girl!) deserved to win with her ‘scarf’ made out of teddies in all the AFL team colours. At the November meeting the girls will be making scones. We also welcomed two new prospective members to the Junior branch.

- Beatrice Greaves

Goulburn Weir

With the phenomenal amount of rain we had had over the past weeks many water storages are overflowing. Dartmouth Dam is spilling for the first time in 26 years and is a spectacular sight.

Closer to home is Goulburn Weir which is also sending massive amounts of water downstream.

The Goulburn Murray Water website gives the history of the Goulburn Weir which is situated on the Goulburn River about 8km north of Nagambie.

“The construction of a weir on the Goulburn River began in 1887, and was completed in 1891. The Goulburn Weir was the first major diversion structure built for irrigation in Australia and was considered very advanced for the time. Such was the regard for the structure, it appeared on the reverse of Australian half sovereign and ten shilling banknotes from 1913 until 1933.

Goulburn Weir is a concrete structure founded on bedrock, with its downstream face stepped with granite blocks quarried from the nearby Mt Black.

The metal superstructure of the original weir included 21 cast iron and wrought iron gates mounted between cast iron piers. The gates could be lowered into recesses in the weir crest to pass river and flood flows. Water driven turbines provided the power to lower and raise the gates. The structure also contained one of the first hydro-electric turbines in the southern hemisphere. The electricity was used to illuminate the weir and visitors came from all over Victoria to marvel at the steady bright electric light and floodlit water spray when the gates were operated at night. Goulburn Weir became an important venue for social and recreational events.

Works to stabilise the deteriorating weir structure were completed in 1983, and in 1987 a major refurbishment was undertaken. The work included advice on architectural and heritage matters from expert consultants, and the engagement of specialist contractors.

As part of the works, the main weir superstructure was replaced with nine steel radial gates mounted between concrete piers forming the new structure. Two of the original gates and lifting gear, mounted on the angled western abutment, were retained to preserve part of this unique piece of engineering history.”

Source: G-MW website.

Cwa Gv West Group

The members of GV West Group have been busy over the past few weeks. Mooroopna Branch had a ‘Spring into Spring’ afternoon tea on Sunday, October 2 at the Mooroopna Community Centre. Guests on arriving were able to browse the various stalls with ceramic garden ornaments, CWA goods and a plant stall bursting at the seams. Many boxes of plants which included annuals, succulents, cacti, daises to name a few, were cheerfully loaded into our car boots. We were treated to a delicious afternoon tea provided by the good cooks of CWA and of course, scones with jam and cream.

Michelle Banfield who has a garden/plant shop called Flourish On McLennan in the main street of Mooroopna, was the speaker and provided us with lots of information on the correct watering of plants, what suited our area and much more. The day was rounded off with the raffle and three winners were excited with the lovely prizes they won.

Those attending the September Group Craft which is held once a month at The Tatura Community House on the third Wednesday of the month, made pocket hearts to be donated to the Oncology Unit at GV Health and a cross stitch fridge magnet. October Group Craft is cancelled due to our CWA members attending a Social Craft Day on October 17 with Echuca Group CWA ladies. This is a craft day as well as a social day with members enjoying morning and afternoon tea and lunch together at the Echuca CWA Club Rooms.

The CWA Potters branch manned a stall promoting The Country Women’s Association at the Shepparton Show, and we are sure many CWA ladies also entered in the various classes at the Show and did well.

For all enquiries regarding joining a local CWA branch please contact our Group President: Mandy Perkins on 0419 210 149 or Group Secretary Janette Mason on 0408 194 638 and you will be most welcome to come along to a meeting at any one of our six branches in the Goulburn Valley West Group.

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Heteronyms

I was teaching English grammar to a student recently and was explaining the difference between a homophone and a homonym. For those of you who may have forgotten what these are, I’ll briefly explain the difference. A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but is spelt differently and has a different meaning. Some examples are: blue / blew, sail / sale, ate / eight.

Homonyms sound the same, are spelt exactly the same but have different meanings. For example: Weigh yourself on the scale / I will scale the wall, the price is fair / I am going to the fair.

During our discussion, I thought of desert (as in an arid piece of land) and desert (abandon). These words had the same spelling and different meanings which would have made them homonyms, but they also had a different pronunciation which therefore disqualifies them from being homonyms. “What on earth are they?” I wondered. Well, now I know. They are called heteronyms and for those of you who haven’t nodded off, I have a few examples.

Bass as in the fish vs bass as in music. Bow as in firing an arrow vs bow at the end of a performance.

Close as in it almost hit me vs close the door. Wind the alarm clock vs wind in the willows. Record the program vs setting a new world record.

Convict as in a criminal vs convict as in found guilty.

Minute, sixty seconds vs minute, extremely tiny.

Buffet, to pound or bump vs buffet, a place where you serve yourself.

Dove being the bird vs dove into the water. House being a building you live in vs house as in providing living quarters. Lead as in guiding vs lead as in the metallic element.

Moderate being keeping within reason vs moderate as in presiding over.

Sow as in female pig vs sow the seeds in the field.

There are many more in the list but I’m sure you have the picture by now. Having grown up with the English language, most of us are able to cope with this proliferation of words that are spelt the same while being pronounced differently. Breaking these down phonetically doesn’t work because unless you know the context, then you don’t know in which direction you need to break it. Lewis Carol, of ‘Alice In Wonderland’ fame, highlighted the lunacy of the English language during a lecture he was giving. He wrote the word ‘ghot’ on the board and challenged anybody in the room to pronounce it correctly. After several failed attempts, he announced that the correct pronunciation was ‘fish’. After the audience quietened down, he explained the following: ‘gh’ as in the word ‘enough’, ‘o’ as in ‘women’, and ‘t’ as in ‘station’. One can only imagine the mental anguish that new arrivals coming to our country experience as they grapple to make sense of our language. The problem for them is that it rarely makes any sense at all.

- John Kriesfeld

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Acronyms

The language of texting and computers use many acronyms in order to make life easier and quicker for the writer. The word ‘acronym’ is derived from the Latin ‘acro’ meaning beginning and ‘onym’ meaning word or name. It is usually a pronounceable word formed mostly (but not always) from the initial letters of a descriptive name or title. For example, ASAP = As Soon As Possible and RADAR = Radio Detecting And Ranging.

Contrary to what some of our younger folk believe, acronyms have been around for at least 2000 years and not something that has been dreamed up in the last few years. The Romans often used acronyms for inscriptions on stones. It not only saved a lot of space and time but also prevented repetitive strain injuries from too much carving. Instead of having to write Pia Fidelis, meaning ‘pious and faithful’, the stone carver only had to put the letters PF and everyone knew what it meant. One of the most famous acronyms in history, which was carved on many Roman monuments, and which adorned the Roman battle flags, was SPQR which stands for Senatus Popules Que Romanus, or the Senate and the People of Rome.

The early Christians used the acronym ICHTHUS to identify each other. It was made up of the Greek words Iesous Christos Theo Huios Soter, meaning ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.’ In this case the acronym also spelt out the Greek word for ‘fish’, which is why the fish symbol is still used by some Christians today. Here are some of the acronyms used in the world of texting and computers today. You may notice that most of them aren’t nearly as clever as the early acronyms which usually made a word of their own.

AAMOF – As a Matter Of Fact

AFAIK – As Far As I Know

AFK – Away From Keyboard

B3 – Blah, Blah, Blah

BFF – Best Friends Forever

BTW – By The Way

CTN – Cannot Talk Now

CWT – Complete Waste of Time

CYS – Check Your Settings

DGMW – Don’t Get Me Wrong

EOD – End of Discussion

Nepo Oiduts Dna Tra Elas

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F2F – Face To Face

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