News of OGG - December 2021
Thursday, 16 December 2021
News of OGG’s Dianne Blood née Boddy (Elford, P'51), Lyndsay Sharp (McKendrick, The Hermitage '75), the late Sam Smith (Cu’89), Harley Manifold (M’00), George McFarlane (M'12), Tarryn Love (A'17) and Nina Morrison (A’18) is featured this month.




Dianne Blood née Boddy (Elford, P'51)

Dianne was asked to write a chapter for the recently released book Mallacoota’s Memoirs of Recovery by Dr Mubashar Sherazi. Dianne, a retired, esteemed mechanical engineer and Mallacoota resident, spent a harrowing month during and following the 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires. An 87-year-old evacuee caring for a 92-year-old husband; her experiences were extremely confronting and alarming but serve to highlight gaps in planning for the elderly as well as demographic considerations of a township during bushfires.

“The oval was a ridiculous area to take a 92-year-old mobility impaired resident to locate during the impending likely fire storm. A resident queried the safety of the oval should the fire reach the surrounding forest. The answer was to re-locate to the beach on the shoreline (which did in fact occur). Anyone knowing the terrain from the oval to the beach would be well aware that it is not negotiable for the elderly.”

Dianne and her husband were evacuated by Black Hawk helicopter to Sale where, upon landing, Dianne was medically checked and taken to Sale Emergency. All other evacuees, not requiring hospital, had accommodation arranged for them but it seemed there were no procedures in place for evacuees taken to hospital. “Upon being declared fit for discharge we had no idea whatever as to where to go or what to do. Imagine our reaction on being told very late that night “You can go home now.”

Ultimately, hospital staff assisted and were able to arrange a hotel through one of the agencies. Accommodation was arranged for two different hotel stays during their time in Sale, neither being located close to services. With nothing more than a handbag in her possession, Dianne had to face the challenges of feeding and caring for them both. “Absolutely no way of caring for ourselves. It is no fun being in a strange place without transport and the means of conveniently getting the essentials of life.”

Dianne did note though that the treatment they received at the Sale Emergency Centre was exemplary within the constraints they were subjected to.

After weeks of moving from place to place, relying on friends for arrangements, Dianne and her husband ended up in Wodonga staying with her twin brother Hugh Elford (P'48). “When we had been away approximately a month our problem was how to get home, by what route could we get home? We seemed to have slipped off the emergency records somehow and I had become increasingly anxious as to being home but understood we were not in a category warranting our return.”

Brick wall followed brick wall for Dianne trying to contact the right authority for information. Eventually someone was able to provide a contact means. “I pleaded “When can we get home? How do we get home? By what route do we get home?” I was utterly desperate.”

Dianne describes the response to this contact as ‘beyond belief”. A phone call asked them to be at the Albury airport the following morning. From there they were flown directly to Mallacoota by Ambulance Victoria aircraft. “It seemed that the Victorian Emergency Authority, along with Ambulance Victoria and possibly The Red Cross all decided to rescue us.”

It’s uncertain whether the visits to Dianne’s home from the Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner and then the CEO and Deputy of Ambulance Victoria were to collect information as part of the de-brief or to make up for the way that Dianne and her husband had literally fallen through the cracks.

Dianne had already lived an extraordinary life prior to the bushfires but she had not expected her late 80’s to include such a traumatic chain of events.





Lyndsay Sharp (McKendrick, The Hermitage '75)

Lyndsay has recently joined the Board of the Geelong Football Club as an appointed director. With extensive experience in journalism, marketing and public relations, Lyndsay is the co-owner and director of the Sharp Group, leading all marketing, sales and customer experiences of four businesses on the Bellarine Peninsula – Jack Rabbit Vineyard, Flying Brick Cider Co, Leura Park Estate and Curlewis Golf Club. She is also a director of the Geelong Cats Foundation. 

“Lyndsay has a strong track record of success in business, and is a passionate Cats’ member and supporter,” Geelong president Craig Drummond said. “Lyndsay has contemporary business acumen and knowledge, and will bring new ideas and perspectives to the board. She is also a strong supporter of the greater Geelong region. We are looking forward to Lyndsay making an outstanding contribution to our board and the club.”

“I have long admired all that the club stands for and supports in the local community and beyond. The joy, connection and inspiration Geelong Cats bring to so many people, on so many levels, is tangible within our community’s DNA. To have the opportunity to give back and make a small contribution to the future of Geelong Cats is truly humbling and exciting,” Lyndsay said.

Described as one of the Geelong region’s most successful business leaders, Lyndsay holds a Master of Professional Communication from University of Southern Queensland and Bachelor of Arts from University of Melbourne. She has extensive experience, having worked as senior consultant with the Clemenger Group (HOLT PR), journalist with Reed Publishing and lecturer at RMIT and Deakin University. She also served as inaugural publicist of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.





Sam Smith (Cu’89)
The legacy of Sam Smith (1971-2020) will live on in a scholarship in his name. At the recent Ashton Media Agency Leaders Symposium, OGG Tiffany Damm (Ga’86) announced the Sam Smith Scholarship through UnLtd. partner The Pinnacle Foundation.
 
The scholarship will be awarded to LGBTIQ+ students wanting to study in the fields of marketing, advertising, technology or communication. The scholarship will help fund students' education whilst providing additional support by matching them with a mentor in the industry and offering them employment opportunities to complement their studies.

Donations can be made via this link: https://lnkd.in/gS2MBmdw





Harley Manifold (M’00)

Warrnambool artist Harley Manifold was shortlisted as a finalist in the 2021 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, Australia’s richest art prize.  The prize invites entries of original works from Australian artists, capturing Australians from all walks of life, whether a public figure or not.

Harley’s life-sized portrait of actress Leeanna Walsman was one of 30 pieces in the running for the $150,000 prize.

The piece took almost two years after an immersive two days in the Australian actress' hometown of Sydney. "We hung out for two days and at the end of the two days, I did a two hour-long black and white study," he told Warrnambool’s The Standard.

"It's 195 centimetres tall - it's actually life-sized for her I believe, or just a little bit short of 168 centimetres.

"I started just before COVID so after the two years I've been adding bits to it and taking bits off... it's evolved a little bit since its first iteration."

"Generally in Australia artists are usually known as a portraitist or a landscapist, but there's a lot of people who cross that divide regularly," Manifold said. "There's two reasons I do both; one, I don't want to restrict myself into just being one kind of artist. I don't want to be seen as a portraitist or landscapist, I just want to be seen as a good artist.

"The other thing is my landscapes really, in essence, are all about people and the human condition.

"So for me, it's just it's another way of looking at people and the way we are, our intricacies, and how we think and that sort of thing.

"It's a different way to study people doing portraits. I wouldn't say it's sort of less metaphorical, so to speak, but it's more straightforward.

"I think with landscapes, the metaphors in there are all the objects that I use to replace humans."

Harley's latest show at the Warrnambool Art Gallery showed a series of landscapes across Warrnambool and the south-west. But portraiture is also a big part of his work.

Harley also had his portrait of Gareth Colliton selected in The Salon des Refusés of The Archibald and the Wynne painting prizes. The Salon des Refusés was initiated by the S.H. Ervin Gallery in 1992 in response to the large number of works entered into the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ (AGNSW) Archibald Prize which were not selected for display in the official exhibition.

The Archibald Prize is one of Australia’s most high profile and respected awards which attracts hundreds of entries each year and the S.H. Ervin Gallery’s ‘alternative’ selection has become a much-anticipated feature of the Sydney scene.





George McFarlane (M'12)

Deeply concerned about the effects waste generation has on climate change and the environment, Mindful Milk co-founders George McFarlane and Old Geelong Collegian, Tom Morrison were keen to promote a circular economy that works toward solutions rather than problems.

Mindful Milk provides that circular economy within the milk industry by distributing milk to cafés in reusable, plastic-free kegs, giving Melbourne’s bustling coffee culture a sustainable option.

The pair cite Australia’s growing crisis with waste management, detailing that on average, a café in Melbourne will go through approximately 200L of full cream milk per week equating to over 5,000 plastic milk bottles every year. They claim less than half of these are being recycled.

Mindful Milk’s social impact aims to eliminate the unnecessary production and waste created post use of plastic milk bottles. Their five-year goal is to eliminate the production of 1 million single-use plastic milk bottles every year.

Initially focusing on the full cream milk market, the most used variant, as they grow, they hope to branch out into alternative forms of milk, giving all coffee drinkers a plastic-free option.





Tarryn Love (A'17)

Platform Arts in Geelong will start their 2022 gallery program with a celebration of First Nations people, place and art. Opening on January 21 in Gallery One, Still Here, Now is a First Nations curated exhibition led by Gunditjmara Keerray Wooroong women and Koorroyarr Arts founders, Tarryn Love and Kelsey Love, alongside Naarm-based artist and researcher, Jahkarli Romanis, with Amber Smith of Platform Arts.

The exhibition captures what it means to be “still here, now” from a First Nations ancestral perspective. The range of cultural and creative practices included in this show celebrates diversity through demonstrating the narrative sovereignties present in each of the works. These sovereignties are informed and made known to the artists through their relationships with their ancestors. Including works from artists based on Wadawurrung Country, Still Here, Now is a celebration of the artists’ stories, experiences, connection to place, Country and family, and to each other.

Still Here, Now will host a special opening night event on January 21, 2022 from 6-8pm, presenting live First Nations performances and activities, as well as encouraging community gathering on Wadawurrung land. 

The exhibition will be available for public viewing from Monday to Friday from 9am-5pm until February 18. For more information about Still Here, Now, head to the Platform Arts website.

Tarryn also has artworks currently featured at the pakayn marree weerrath (bone, stone, string) Women’s Tools exhibition at the Warrnambool Art Gallery.

Maar Nation Gallery Guest Curator Dr Vicki Couzens brings works by Gunditjmara women artists together with selected artefacts from The Leonhard Adam Collection (University of Melbourne Art Collection) in collaboration with the Grimwade Centre, University of Melbourne.

Exploring socio-political perceptions about the ownership and artisanship of tools as well as gender protocols attributed in Aboriginal culture to the making and use of tools by women, for women, this exhibition offers a rethinking of the commonly understood term 'tools' through experimentation and discovery in contemporary practice.

The exhibition runs until Sunday 12 June 2022, 26 Liebig St., Warrnambool.





Nina Morrison (A'18)

Nina has been named vice captain for the Geelong Cats AFLW side for the upcoming season, recognition for her commitment and hard work as she looks to return after two seasons interrupted by serious knee injuries. Nina will line-up in her first game since March 2020 in a practice match for Geelong against Richmond on Saturday ahead of the kick-off to the AFLW season on January 8.