Information for Mosman Probus Club members

At this month's meeting, members were treated to a wonderfully colourful account from Emeritus Professor Michael Atherton AM, composer, performer, author and one of Australia's most versatile musical figures, sharing stories from his life and career, timed with the release of his latest memoir.

Michael's story began in working-class Liverpool, he spoke of a Welsh, Irish, German and Viking heritage a childhood in Liverpool and his first exposure to musical instruments- a piano in his family home. At 15, his family emigrated to Australia as "Ten Pound Poms," a move he says changed the course of his life. From there, a series of unlikely jobs, including hospital cleaner, office boy and refinery hand, eventually gave way to university, the 1960s counterculture, and a guitar he could barely play at first.

What followed was a career most of us could only dream of: touring the world performing music drawn from Balkan, Middle Eastern, Turkish and medieval traditions, cultural exchange trips to China, and years spent as a music therapist teaching guitar and songwriting to intellectually and psychiatrically challenged students. He later founded ensembles blending Irish, Middle Eastern, Balkan and Indigenous Australian musicians, a fitting reflection of his belief that "there is one race, a human race," expressed through music.

Michael closed with a fascinating detour into the social history of the piano in Australia, touching on its role in nation building and manufacturing, its presence in WWI hospitals for wounded and blinded soldiers, and its quiet but powerful role in women's history, before rounding off with a performance on his hurdy-gurdy, a medieval instrument that combines elements of a violin, a keyboard, and a bagpipe into one.

A rich, thought-provoking session. Our thanks to Michael for such a generous and moving talk.

The rain held off until we arrived by bus at Paddington and set off for a 15-minute walk up Green St to the convicts’ entrance (the visitors’ entrance) to Victoria Barracks. Then the heavens opened and it rained heavily until we arrived at the entrance.

 Fortunately, the rain eased and allowed us to head off on our tour. Our guide was very knowledgeable and passed on lots of interesting information.

Victoria Barracks in Paddington, built between 1841 and 1848 from convict-quarried Hawkesbury sandstone, is one of Australia's finest surviving examples of Georgian military architecture. Originally housing British troops until 1870, it later became a hub for colonial and Australian forces, and briefly hosted the Royal Military College during the Depression. Today it remains an active Army base, home to Headquarters Forces Command, with an on-site museum open for public tours.

We had a wonderful tour behind the scenes of the glasshouses storing orchids and other wonderful tropical plants that the public never see. And we learnt some amazing facts.

Orchids grow on every continent except the truly frozen or barren, and Australia has its own odd take — while tropical orchids cling to trees, ours mostly grow in the ground. Every orchid has a cleverly shaped petal called the labellum, a built-in landing pad engineered to attract one specific pollinator. That riot of colours and forms isn't just pretty; it's advertising.

The Titan Arum, or corpse flower, is even more dramatic. It can grow over three metres tall, wait up to a decade between blooms, and then put on a 24-to-48-hour display that smells strikingly like rotting flesh to attract carrion flies as pollinators. Theatrical, but effective.

Among the surprises: dragon fruit and agave are both succulents, hiding in plain sight. Ant plants, native to Southeast Asia, create hollow chambers for ants, which return the favour with protection and fertiliser — a fair exchange.

It quickly became clear to all in our group that nature has been running some very creative experiments for a very long time.

 Fun fact: Not all flowers attract pollinators with sweet fragrances. Some use scents ranging from honey and fruit to dung and decaying flesh, proving that what smells terrible to us can be irresistible to insects. 🌺🪰🌵🐜

Alan Barr — "The Invasion of the Vikings"

Alan Barr gave one of the most memorable presentations seen at Mosman Probus for a long time — enhanced with remarkable AI recreations that brought the Norse world vividly to life.

He opened with a firm correction for fans of Viking TV dramas: those horned helmets are complete fiction. The Norse — never a single nation, but tribes spread across Norway, Sweden and Denmark — raided and explored for just 273 years, from the sacking of Lindisfarne monastery in 793 AD to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. A short window for such an outsized impact.

The key to everything was their ships — shallow-drafted, flexible longships that could cross the Atlantic, sail up rivers, and beach silently at dawn. They reached North America, Constantinople, North Africa and Paris. Navigation relied entirely on nature: sun, clouds, birds, and a crystal that could locate the sun even through heavy cloud cover.

Viking society was more sophisticated than its reputation suggests. Women held real authority — running farms, managing households, and initiating divorce. Their craftsmanship was exquisite. And their conversion to Christianity? Entirely pragmatic: they simply found they could strike better trading deals as Christians.

Alan closed with the Norse legacy hiding in plain sight — Tuesday through Friday are named after Norse gods, thousands of English words are Old Norse in origin, and Bluetooth technology takes its name from Harald Bluetooth, the Viking king who united Denmark. His runic initials form the logo on your phone.

As Alan put it — they've left us quite a legacy.

We had a really excellent presentation from Charles Fellner (retired IT professional) on Scam Awareness at our April Meeting. .There was a very useful handout with the talk. Click here to download.