History

We are based in Brisbane, which is in the south east corner of Queensland, Australia. Our meetings are usually held about every two months and take the form of either a picnic or a more formal lunch. Recently we have been meeting for lunch at Lennons Chifley in Queen Street, Brisbane.

On behalf of QMS members and committee, I would like to thank everyone around the world and from Australia for their well wishes and support. It is very moving to realise how many people are concerned for our welfare during these devastating floods.

Myself and several members of the committee have been contacting members in the worst affected areas and we are relieved there have been no fatalities or major injuries. With only minor damage to property and loss of electricity, we are fortunate our members have fared so well compared to others in the general community.

After being unable to contact members Ron and Betty Trute, I was informed their home was lost in the floods but they were safe with family. I later received the wonderful news the flood waters had stopped short of their floor boards. Unfortunately Ron and Betty were delayed in returning to their home as the house they were staying at was flood bound.

Our members at Toowoomba received no warning before an inland tsunami surged down streets, tossing cars about as if they were toys. Val Miles was out with her daughter when the water rushed down the streets with such velocity that it hit the gutters, curled in a massive wave and landed back in the centre of the road. David Kemp was on his way to visit his mother (both members) in her nursing home when his car broke down just before the flood hit and he was only one street away. His mother's nursing home escaped the flood by mere inches. Shown all over the world, footage of cars and cargo boxes being dragged away was filmed only a hundred metres or so from the home of LCDR John Lines.

There are many similar stories from our members and quite a few of them commented that these floods reminded them of the 1974 floods.

The strong Aussie spirit has shone through this catastrophe with the community banding together to clean up and rebuild our little pocket of paradise.

Our thoughts and hearts go out to all those affected by the floods as the waters washed through Queensland and then Northern New South Wales. As we start the long process of cleaning up, we are sympathetic to the Victorians and Tasmanians currently suffering flooding and our West Australian friends battling bushfires.

Jenny Blackburn

President

Queensland Manx Society

Webmaster musings

Many years before the world even thought about websites, Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase ‘the medium is the message.’ This has become a cliché that, at a superficial level, perhaps best explains why this Webmaster feels it is time to move on and leave our QMS website to be managed by more professional web designers and developers.

Websites have gone beyond being simple notice boards listing meeting dates and photos of picnics and functions. They are, to use another of McLuhan’s terms, ‘extensions’. We are a ‘global society’ - yet another clichéd expression coined by McLuhan - and websites have become an extension of who we are and, more importantly, who we want to be.

I feel our old ‘clunker’, developed by volunteer amateurs, should now be replaced by a slicker, sleeker model that will take our QMS into the twenty first century. That will require the services of a trained web designer rather than the time-consuming, learn-on-the-job efforts of a keen auto-didact.

Many thanks to those from all parts of the globe who have corresponded through and contributed to our QMS website.

Please watch out for a bigger and better website in the future.

Tony Ashworth.