50 Clubs in 50 Weeks Part 2: Find a community club in the Mackay, Whitsundays and Isaac region for you
Bryan Lavarack came to sailing late in life and he says emphatically it is never too late to experience its grandeur. Read about his and 50 other clubs we’ve features in 50 weeks.
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50. ‘Become one with nature’: A sailor’s pitch for weekends on the water
By Duncan Evans
South African-born Bryan Lavarack began sailing with Mackay Sailing Club in his 50s.
“I have always been an outdoorsy sort of person,” he said.
“Always mucked around in boats but only got into it in my mid 50s.”
His story shows the welcoming, inclusive nature of the club which offers anyone free lessons in how to sail, even providing the boats.
The club holds two basic sections, namely the yacht section for larger boats and the dinghy section for smaller boats, which includes catamarans, lasers and sabots.
The dinghy boats go out into the ocean but also go to Kinchant Dam every second weekend for calmer waters.
“We do not have these things called sharks and stingers and really bad currents,” Mr Lavarack said with a laugh.
“It is a lot safer to learn and it’s a lot more relaxing.
“Parents can sit down and just relax.
“It is a really nice environment.”
Mr Lavarack, who himself learned how to sail through the club, said sailing pushed people to become “one with nature” and this was one of its central attractions.
“You have got to harness nature, you have got to work with nature,” he said.
“You have to be able to read the weather and read all the signs of the water.
“You have to become one with nature, you have to start where the wind is blowing.
“You have to look at what’s out there and read that environment.”
He said sailing offered people a healthy physical pursuit in addition to its intellectual demands, but emphasised the physical aspect was not the most important thing.
“Some of our best sailors are actually in their 60s and 70s,” he said.
“You do not have to be a super athlete.”
Mr Lavarack also said sailing was “almost gender neutral” because excellence in the pursuit was about so much more than just physical strength.
“The ladies can compete with the men very easily,” he said.
Mr Lavarack encourages youngsters to get involved and advised parents sailing would help their children develop “resilience”.
“The youngsters have got to learn everything about that boat, the good points and the bad points,” he said.
“When things break on a boat, you have got to then start doing things to fix it.”
The Mackay Sailing Club has a rich history that goes back more than 100 years, operating under different names at various points.
Mr Lavarack’s passion for sailing suggests the club could continue for many years into the future to help people experience the joys of the water and the humbling power of the ocean.
“Every day is different on the water,” he said.
“No two days are the same.
“You are living a little bit more on the edge.”
49. ‘Easy to make friends’: Meet the man keeping the art of darts alive in Mackay
By Duncan Evans
Mackay Dart Association president Kevin Brown immigrated to Australia from England at the age of 23 and even now, his childhood accent comes through.
He fell in love with darts growing up in England though he only started playing the game himself eight years ago.
“I have always been a dart follower,” he said.
“I have loved following darts in England and Europe.”
His love for the game has even taken him to Dubai, where he watched the World Series of Darts at the tennis centre.
“It is the only event that was held out in the open air,” he said.
“Everything is airconditioned, you move out of airconditioned into airconditioned shops.
“At 5.30am, it is already 31 degrees.
“The pros found it pretty hard, there is a bit of a breeze in the tennis centre.”
Mr Brown says his sport has a lot in common with golf.
“It is repetition,” he said.
“You have got to practice, you have got to have the same throw.
“It is you on your own, exactly like golf.”
Mr Brown is semi-retired and says darts was a good way to keep the mind “active”.
“I enjoy the competitiveness of it and it’s good to keep the mind active, scoring and all of that,” he said.
“The scoring is just mathematics, some people get it, some people don’t.
“It keeps your brain going.”
He said it was easy to make friends at the club and it boasted a wide variety of members, from DIDO miners and the unemployed to pensioners and people who work in mills.
“A broad spectrum of people,” he said.
At present, the club has 22 female members and almost 70 male members, with different skill levels.
Donovan Lottering, a member of the club, travelled to England to compete in the world championships.
“We’ve got many different grades of player,” Mr Brown said.
“Don’t feel fazed by it, we’re very welcoming.”
He added the pub and drinking culture long associated with the game had fallen away in recent years, though Mackay Darts still allows punters to have a drink while they play.
“The old darts, going back to Eric Bristow type era, they had a pint and they were smoking on the stage,” he said.
“Queensland Darts now, you are not allowed to be drinking while you are playing.
“We are a little bit more lax on that rule.
“At the end of the day it is still a social event for a lot of people going out.”
48. ‘There’s nothing like it’: Crafters share their passion with Pioneer Valley kids
By Zoe Devenport
Margaret Borg has been sewing, knitting and crafting since she was a child, and now she wants to share her skills with a new generation.
Her club, the Valley Spinners and Craft Group, will host their first craft workshop for Pioneer Valley children in September.
Mrs Borg remembers learning how to sew from her mother while growing up in Habana with her sisters.
“When we were kids living at home we always sat around the kitchen table with our mother and she was crafty,” Mrs Borg said.
“We learnt even to dressmake very early, because way back then we were living in the country (with) nothing much else to do but enjoy our sewing.
“(We) couldn’t wait till night time to sit together and do it.
“It’s my life actually.”
Mrs Borg has been involved with the club for more than 35 years and became president in 2011, while her sister Connie Muscat was one of five founding members who began craft lessons in August 1975.
“It began with the five foundation ladies,” Mrs Borg said.
“They were actually tutored by the minister’s wife who was in Gargett at the time.”
Connie Muscat, Helen McEwan, Lillian Norman and the late Val Denning formed the Valley Spinners when Jeannie Jeffrey taught them how to spin wool.
“They were a very strong group and they’ve created an even stronger group,” Mrs Borg said.
“We do spinning and weaving and we teach both of those crafts, but a lot of ladies knit and crochet and do sashiko stitching.
“We meet at the Gargett CWA Hall (and) have a parade of our work, whether it be a pair of socks to a shawl or whatever.”
Mrs Borg said there were about 35 to 38 members “on the books” with about 18, who “turn up at every meeting”.
“We meet twice a month on the first Monday and the third Saturday of each month,” she said.
“It’s friendship, you know, that’s what it’s all about.”
Mrs Borg said there was “not a day that goes past” without working on some kind of craft, but the community of the club meant the most to her.
“It just brings everyone together,” she said.
“It’s very sharing (and) it’s very lovely to do together with friends.
“A very, very wonderful group.
“It’s a treasure to go to it.”
On one memorable occasion around 2011, she recalled an agricultural trade show where the group made a jumper entirely from scratch.
“We had the challenge of knitting a jumper from fleece,” she said.
“From shearing to fleece to spinning to knitting to the final garment in that one day.
“That was really fun.
“One of our highlights.”
With any luck, Mrs Borg said, the Crafty Hands Holiday Workshop next month would be another highlight in the club’s long history.
She said the group had received a Mackay Regional Council grant and sponsorship from her son at Richglen Maintenance Services to run the workshop.
“We’re going to be teaching children from 10 years up from the Valley schools,” she said.
“So Mirani High, Mirani, Gargett, Pinnacle, Eungella, and Finch Hatton (state schools).
“We’re going to be teaching (them) knitting, crocheting, sashiko stitching (and) also weaving with fibre (like) raffia.”
The workshops would be held on September 19 and 26.
Some members of the group have been pushing for more youth programs, and Mrs Borg said she had noticed “some very crafty children” become involved at previous open days.
As someone who grew up with craft, Mrs Borg said she was keen to pass on her passion to children in her community.
“A lot of children learn from their (family) and maybe that doesn’t always happen these days,” she said
“We just feel, as a group with all our knowledge, that we want to share it with them.
“There’s nothing like sitting with a little box and doing some knitting or stitching, and creating something.
“There’s nothing like it.”
47. ‘Play for life’: State champion advocates for Mackay’s hidden gem
By Max O’Driscoll
Fresh off winning the Queensland Over 30s Table Tennis title, Mackay’s Emma Widdup wants people to know about the hidden gem of the Mackay sports precinct.
A keen junior player, Widdup returned to the sport through the Mackay Table Tennis Club.
It is a decision she is grateful she made.
“It is a lovely vibe,” Widdup said.
“There is a really nice community, everyone is really friendly and welcoming and it is one of those games you can play for life.
“We have people that are over 80 in there at this tournament, it is fantastic.”
She said the club had come a long way in becoming more professional in her time involved.
Widdup said there was plenty of time to access the club facilities and “everyone is really friendly” so finding a partner to train with was easy.
Another step had been the introduction of a professional coach, the idea of a late, great club stalwart.
“There is a coach now who is a Chilean champion, South American champion who lives in Brisbane but comes up once a month to coach us,” Widdup said.
“That was thanks to one of our wonderful member Steven Morgan who unfortunately just passed away recently from a tumour.
“He started something amazing in this club and it has brought about learning and high performance to the area, which we didn’t have before.
“It is a real testament to him actually, how well I’ve done and a lot of the other players as well.”
While there was plenty of competition on offer, there was also the option for those just wanting a social hit.
“We cater for all different reasons why people might want to come down,” Widdup said.
“They might just want to have a hit with their friends or come in and join with the groups that we have.
“We have different competitive levels and we also have just social for people that just come together and just laugh, it is just a lot of laughter.”
For Widdup the message to the community was simple.
“Come and have a go,” she said.
“I don’t think many people have actually been inside the hall and it is really inviting, and one of the best in Queensland.
“Our floors are amazing and the whole space is really just purpose built for fun.”
Widdup said the great thing about table tennis was newcomers could start at their own pace but also improve quickly.
The club hosted Queensland’s Veterans Table Tennis Championship last week.
Widdup was thrilled with how the action-filled week had panned out.
“This tournament is so fantastic for table tennis, for Queensland and really good for regional areas and is a chance for all of us to play each other,” she said.
“We only usually get to see each other once a year so it is great to catch up.”
46. ‘Best adrenaline rush you can get’: Inside the club indulging speed demons
By Duncan Evans
Mackay Powerboat Club president Brad Nelson has been on the water racing boats since he was 12 and he started the Mackay club to satisfy his “need for speed in a boat.”
“It is the best adrenaline rush you can get,” he said.
For Mr Nelson, the adrenaline really gets going in the heat of a race with another boat “two feet away from you”.
“They are pushing you hard and you can’t make a mistake.”
In his life on the water, Mr Nelson has notched 200km/h at full speed.
“If it wasn’t scary, there wouldn’t be much point doing it,” he said.
“It’s the fear that makes you pay attention.”
The club meets at Kinchant Dam with courses set out much like sprint car or motocross bike races, but on water.
The speed junkies will also set out to Barcaldine to race on the town’s new $5m purpose built waterski lake.
The races the club runs are classified by speed, not engine power.
The speed limits are controlled in turn by GPS, so that anyone who goes above the speed set for a particular group is disqualified.
“It’s all about drivers controlling themselves, teaching them to be in control of their boat,” he said.
Mr Nelson added winning was not the prime goal of club members, but rather pushing each other to achieve their best.
“You don’t need to beat other people to have a good time,” he said.
“It’s always fun to do with another half-dozen like-minded maniacs.
“It’s a drug that you can get anytime once you get into a boat.”
Mr Nelson also stresses the family aspect of the club and notes it was his father who turned him onto powerboating.
“It is completely and utterly my father’s fault that I have to do this,” he said with a laugh, adding his own children are now beginning to discover the joys of the powerboat.
“We do it as a social group, as family members.
“We are all about family and getting people together and having a good time, looking out for each other.”
The club caters to different skill and age levels and the elders will coach youngsters how to race.
For kids driving their own boats, speeds are scaled down to 30-35 km/h.
“The kids love it, they absolutely love it,” Mr Nelson said.
“We educate them – we have safety boats out on the course.
“We coach the kids before they jump put there.”
Anyone can join the club, but to compete on the water, some kind of boat is required.
Mr Nelson emphasises however that you do not need a custom speed boat to race.
“You do not need a custom race boat to come and compete,” he said.
“You can use your weekend social ski boat.”
45. ‘Not toys’: Miniature club like a family but loco about safety
By Janessa Ekert
Ooralea father Simon Hamelink can trace his interest in miniature trains back to the look of pure joy on his children’s faces over the tiny locomotives.
The 35 year old is probably one of the youngest members of Miniature Trains Mackay and he said there was really no other group like it in the sugar city.
The club operates at its own custom track at Ooralea.
Mr Hamelink said although he worked in the rail industry, his interest in the miniature locomotives began with his children.
“It was the smiles on the kid’s faces,” he said.
“The enjoyment of the kids following Thomas the Tank Engine, coming down with their little hats on.
“I developed an interest through them.
“They loved the trains.
“So I went down there and I actually filled an application in and joined.”
From there, he applied for a licence to be able to drive the locos.
This involved theory and lessons on how to drive the mini train and being signed off to operate the train from start to finish, including setting up, driving and packing it away.
Mr Hamelink said then he had to be a learner driver with passengers on the back before he was signed off.
He said there were three grades.
“One is a petrol-driven loco, the other is a steam-operated loco, the third tick is people able to operate either of them with passengers,” he said.
Mr Hamelink said he did not hold a steam licence.
“They are an actual steam train on a miniature level,” he said.
“So you can really damage them if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Mr Hamelink bought his own miniature train – it was an electric loco modelled off a QR train and worth about $7500, but he said he had since sold it.
He described the club as “like a little family”.
“We’re a little tight knit community, we’ve all got one passion and that’s trains,” he said.
It was also important, Mr Hamelink said, to keep the club alive.
“And maintain the track, our own locos, problem solve … to be able to have an outcome of getting some sort of revenue to keep the club going,” he said.
Its main revenue came from parties held on a Saturday.
Mr Hamelink said it was a great option for kid’s birthdays – the cost was $90 for two hours for a group up to 50 people.
This money was went towards paying the not-for-profit club’s annual insurance costs.
He described racing around the track as very satisfying.
As part of the club, he and his family were also able to go to the club’s track outside public hours and “just play trains”.
“There’s really nothing else like it in Mackay,” he said.
“You’ve got the wind in your hair. Just driving trains.
“You kind of just zone out and become that driver … even though it’s only a little train.”
However safety was key, he said.
“Because you do have members of the public on the back of it, who do … play around so you’ve got to be cautious of that,” he said.
“You’ve also got to be mindful that even though it is a miniature model rail, they still do hurt.
“People think they’re toys, but they’re not.”
Mr Hamelink said the club had 27 members and they were always keen for more – you don’t even have to have your own mini loco as the club had three options members could access.
Membership is $170 annually but the club subsidised $70.
For more information contact the club via their Facebook page Miniature Trains Mackay.
44. Rebels with a chord: Meet the music behind the MUGs
By Tara Miko
Julie Williams’ impulse buy at a festival a few years ago very nearly became a discarded trinket that would have denied her countless hours of pleasure.
A $30 item, one many regard as a toy or a novelty, has instead inadvertently opened up a world of music, performances and friendship.
The humble, often misunderstood, ukulele is enjoying a resurgence of late, its simplified strings, smaller size and neck making it an instrument of choice for a surprising cross-section of musicians – both beginners and experienced.
Falling into the latter category, Ms Williams also plays keyboard, guitar and percussion and it was when she was introduced to the Mackay Ukulele Group that she found a new passion.
“The ukulele is a fun instrument. Guitars tend to be a bit more serious,” she said.
“People quite often think the uke you play is a toy but it’s not.”
That was something Ms Williams first thought when she bought her first uke at the festival but she now proudly – and loudly – plays it for fun, and even collects them.
“Anyone can play it, it has only got four strings and there’s four different types or sizes,” she said.
“The baritone is the largest of the family and you play guitar chords on it, it’s a very easy transition for someone who wants to play the guitar.”
The four ukes – soprano, concert, tenor and baritone – are each unique in their sound but Ms Williams believes each could lead budding musicians to develop what she calls “ukulele acquired syndrome”.
“What that means is you can’t stop buying them once you start,” she said with a slight chuckle.
“Currently I have 10; I sell a few and then I buy a few more, but I have only got two hands.
Her collection ranges from those she lends to students to others she performs with as part of the Rebel Ukes, a musical group which performs around Mackay at various events and gatherings.
From a $50 uke she snapped up from a buy, swap and sell site to others worth more than $2000, it is a fine and diverse collection but one she willingly parts with when her students develop ukulele acquired syndrome.
And that is a love she has enjoyed watching grow, from her first time being introduced to the MUGs and meeting members of other ukulele groups including the SLUGs (Slade Point Ukulele Group) and the BUS (Beaconsfield Ukulele Strummers).
It was at the first MUGs meeting Ms Williams learned the $30 soprano was too small for her, swiftly swapped out for another and she was hooked.
“I fell in love with it, I couldn’t put it down,” she said.
And as the humble uke enjoys a resurgence in popularity and demand, so too does the Rebel Ukes, the band Ms Williams is a member of and which proudly performs across the region.
Each performance’s music generally has a theme such as Australiana for Australia Day events where the four-string sound is applied to Aussie songs by icons such as John Williamson and Slim Dusty – and ACDC.
But for other events, like the recent Wintermoon Festival, it’s the more up and thumping tracks.
“That was a bit of rock and roll, Hound Dog and the Twist, a bit of boppy stuff,” Ms Williams said.
“But we will play whatever.”
And that is how it all starts, a love of music and a desire to enjoy the chords.
“Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister, between her and ScoMo, they both play their little bit and it makes people realise it is a fun instrument, it’s not just kids playing it,” she said.
“You see a lot of artists who play the guitar will also play it – like Missy Higgins.”
And because it is smaller, the strings are softer and the neck more narrow, it means less nimble hands can still produce music.
“A guitar has six strings and is cumbersome so for somebody who may have arthritic fingers or for whatever reason, the uke is compact, small and portable,” Ms Williams said.
“Because it only has four strings, you don’t have to push as hard because they are nylon so it is softer on the fingers.
“The neck is also finer so people who are having trouble making the chord … It’s easier as they’re not stretching as far.
“A lot of chords on a uke use one or two strings and that makes it very easy.”
As for her own personal preference, Ms Williams loves to play mellow tunes the likes of Rod Stewart, the Beatles or general easy listening.
The Mackay Ukulele Group meets every second Thursday at 60 Wellington St, Mackay.
The next meetings are on July 7 and July 21.
The first meeting is free but $5 thereafter.
Contact the group via Facebook.
43. Calling out for pop cultures fans to help bring event to Mackay
By Janessa Ekert
Stepping inside Matthew Perna’s Marian garage you won’t spot any type of vehicle – instead you’ll find the partially completed replica body armour of Captain Rex.
To the uninitiated, Captain Rex is a commanding officer from Star Wars The Clone Wars.
When it comes to pop culture, Mr Perna laughingly described himself as “a big geek”.
Sitting on his book shelf is a model DeLorean, one of his favourite possessions is a signed Stan Lee poster and May the 4th holds extra significance.
“I have created my own Captain Rex costume,” he said.
As well as the body armour, he’s made the helmet and a replica blaster from a 3D printer.
“We’ve also launched a Star Trek chapter in Mackay as well,” Mr Perna said.
“There is an international Star Trek fan association called Star Fleet International.”
The Mackay chapter launched on June 12 and is one of six in Australia.
Mr Perna has even had a number of memorable celebrity run-ins at various conventions.
One that stood out for him was Jim Beaver who played Bobby Singer on Supernatural, who he said was “absolutely lovely”.
Mr Perna said the meeting had occurred about the time Beaver’s character had died on the series.
“I sort of asked the hard questions, are we going to see Bobby again,” he said.
“He said, well you just never know what could happen’.”
Mr Perna also met Tim Rose, who played Admiral Ackbar in a number of the Star Wars films.
“Another nice guy as well,” he said.
From Game of Thrones to Dungeons and Dragons, Supernatural to Back to the Future, and of course Star Wars to Star Trek, popular culture brings “a world of fantasy that we either love or hate”, Mr Perna said.
“And if we love it, then we want more of it,” he added.
“If it’s through movies and TV shows we can only get it through that.”
However Mr Perna said fans could also “take it to the next step” joining together as a collective interest and dress up and perform at community events.
“Just to give the community something outside of the norm,” he said.
These groups also allowed those fans who might be more introverted a safe space to meet like minded people, he said.
In fact Mr Perna wants to bring a pop culture event to the region in September – and with the looming deadline he is pushing for anyone interested to jump on board.
Mr Perna said he and a group of others have been trying to make Mack Pop Con a reality since 2019.
He said their “grand plan” included celebrity guest appearances; artists, writers, illustrators, novelists in an area called artist alley; local, state and national vendors and exhibitors.
“It’s why we’re doing a hard push for numbers to get people to help out,” he said.
There had previously been an event like this called Sugar City Con, Mr Perna said, but something since about 2014.
“We took up the idea of trying to get it going again,” he said, adding, there was a lot of interest, but he needed bodies to help bring it all together.
“We’re after people that want to jump on board with the idea and the passion to bring this event to Mackay.”
This included talking to celebrity guest’s agents, Cosplay groups, organising sponsorship and more.
“We have a date in September,” he said.
“We just need people (or) pretty soon some hard decisions will have to be made.”
Anyone interested helping out with Mack Pop Con or learning more about the Mackay Star Trek Chapter is urged to email Mr Perna at info@mackpopcon.org.au
42. ‘No one even remembers who has won or lost’: Club’s social appeal
By Duncan Evans
Most of us have all thrown about a frisbee with friends at some point in our life, but few would know it is also a sport?
Ultimate Frisbee Mackay is dedicated to frisbee’s elegant manoeuvres while maintaining a completely open, sociable atmosphere in which anyone can join in and immediately have some fun.
Jake West organises the meet-ups for Mackay and he loves the social aspect of the game.
“It’s completely social,” he said.
“I kind of started it (the club) but it just runs through a Facebook page that notifies when it is going to be on and if we’re going to have the numbers we need for a game.
“It’s just a really great sport and it is so easy to run.
“It is a game of very little rules so anyone can basically turn up and within a couple of minutes you will have worked out what the game is.
“As soon as the game is over, no one even remembers who has won or lost.
“Everyone has just had fun participating.”
The sport is like netball in the sense that players cannot run with the frisbee.
Players link up with teammates via passing and score by entering the end zone.
“It can get pretty spectacular,” Mr West said.
“Dives for the frisbee in the end zone for a try.”
Mr West has been playing the game for five years and fell in love with it while living in Darwin.
“It was thriving up there and it was a lot of fun,” he said.
“It is always played in really good spirits.”
He and his wife have three children and the family moved to Mackay for work.
“I love Mackay, it is a great place to explore,” he said.
The club is in its infancy at just six weeks old and only about 40 people know about it.
But the limited numbers do not crimp Mr West’s ability to put on a game, with just six players required for a game, three on each side.
“Another great thing is you can shorten or lengthen the field based on the amount of players you have,” Mr West said.
So if you are looking for an easy way to make new friends and decompress from work, there is always a spot open for you in a frisbee game.
41. ‘Go with the flow’: The craft where things just work out ... sometimes
By Duncan Evans
Human beings have crafted clay for thousands of years.
Pioneer Potters Mackay secretary Jeanette Harwood has been at it for just 10, but the feeling of creating something through touch has never waned.
“I started doing pottery before I retired so I’d have something to do when I finished work,” she said.
“I just wanted to try something and I loved it.
“Just the feeling of the clay and being able to make things.
“It’s really hard to describe.
“Everything about clay work is tactile.
“The feeling, the different textures of clay, the way you can mould it, especially when you are working on the wheel.
“You can create so many wonderful things.”
She said she tended to specialise in more “functional stuff” such as mugs and bowls.
Pioneer Potters was the first pottery club Mrs Harwood attended and she has been with them ever since.
“We all get along and help each other out,” she said.
She emphasised the club was open to everyone, young and old alike, and anyone who joined would be able to make something on their “first visit.”
“We do beginner lessons and I actually do the beginner lessons,” she said.
“But they don’t have to come to the lessons, they can come along anytime we are open and someone will help them make something.”
Mrs Harwood has lived in Mackay for most of her life and she has three grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
She hopes to pass on the tradition and sees potential in one of her granddaughters.
“She plays a little bit with the clay when she comes over,” Mrs Harwood said with a chuckle.
“Not actually making anything with the clay yet.”
Mrs Harwood has some advice for anyone thinking about immersing themselves in this ancient custom.
“Go with the flow,” she said.
“Sometimes nothing will turn out right and other times you touch the clay and it does what it is supposed to do.”
40. Not an ‘old people’s sport’: Why croquet is such a hit
By Max O’Driscoll
Anne Clutterbuck was at a friend’s engagement party on a croquet field in Brisbane a few years ago.
She watched on as an “80-something year old woman” impressed with her skills as she was teaching a party group how to play.
“She was jumping balls and had mad skills, it was unbelievable,” Mrs Clutterbuck said.
It was her daughter who was left blown away by the skill and finesse needed in the sport, and who delivered the push to her mum to give it a try.
Mrs Clutterbuck began with the Mackay Croquet Club and within six months she was club secretary, in a story all too familiar to those involved in volunteer-driven organisations.
“They told me they needed a secretary and asked if I could do it and I told them I was hopeless but they said it didn’t matter and I’ve been doing that ever since,” she said.
“I might be stuck with it for 30 something years yet but hopefully I’m better at it by then.”
She said the beauty of croquet was the ability to exert yourself to whatever level you see fit.
The sport’s different formats ensure people of all abilities and mobility can play.
“In the harder games you are much more active physically, in the easier games you’re not so much,” Mrs Clutterbuck said.
“If you want to come and have a nice afternoon and a really casual game, then we accommodate that as well.”
It is for this reason she can play alongside her husband Joe, unlike the other sports she is involved in.
Mrs Clutterbuck stressed “it is never too early to start”.
“It has this reputation that it’s an old people’s sport probably because it is a gentle thing,” she said.
“I’ve played a whole heap of sports in my life and croquet is just about the best of the lot.”
The Mackay Croquet Club was founded in 1908 and lies within the McDonald’s Mackay Multisports Stadium and Harrup Park at 105 Juliet Street.
Mrs Clutterbuck wanted to thank Harrup Park for their work on the croquet fields which she said were superior to the fields she had seen in the other regional centres of Queensland.
She said while 20 years ago the club had about 40 members, today’s group was down to 14.
The club is always eager for more members, as long as you are willing to stay for afternoon tea, so get in contact today.
39. ‘They help you live in the moment’: Finding freedom in a saddle
By Duncan Evans
Roxy Aprile fell in love with horses as a young child and got her first horse, a brown and white pony, when she was 12.
“I was the only horse-mad person in the household so it was a matter of pestering my parents,” she said with a laugh.
“It was amazing.”
She saved up to buy her own saddle by collecting horse manure and selling it at $2 a bag.
“It was a lot of shovelling,” she said.
She purchased a $120 saddle and keeps it with her still.
“It’s like your first guitar – you can’t sell your first saddle,” she said.
Mrs Aprile has been riding ever since and now leads the Breakaway Horse Riders Club, a Mackay-based trail-riding community with some 100 members.
The club’s members go on day rides together as well as longer moving camp rides, including the 140km ride from Collinsville to Eungella and the 128km Nebo to St Lawrence ride.
For Mrs Aprile, it is a joy to be out in the bush with her friends.
“I love the camaraderie of being in the bush with my friends,” she said.
“You can see koalas, the wildlife is beautiful and the bush is very varied, rainforest and grasslands.
“It’s about the friendship that we have sitting around the fire at night-time, telling jokes.
“We all help each other if anyone has a problem.”
The club’s members are diverse in their ages and abilities, but all are connected by a shared love of horses.
Mrs Aprile has two, one a 19-year-old quarter horse mare named Slippery and the other a four-and-a-half year-old Appaloosa gelding named Carlos.
She said horses “gave a lot back”.
“Something about their attraction to start with – their eyes, their smell,” she said.
“They are actually very therapeutic.
“They help you live in the moment and help you forget the stresses in your life.”
Mrs Aprile rides every week.
“Those days just put you in a really happy place,” she said.
She said Breakaway Horse Riders was a community-minded club that regularly put on fundraising events.
In July, the club will host a charity ride to raise money for cancer research and heart disease.
The club will also donate a percentage to the Mackay Base Hospital oncology unit and This Strong Mum Foundation.
The club’s Facebook page states the ride will start at 107 Brand Road near Mirani and finish at the Dows Creek Hall, where spectators, family and friends will await the arrival of more than 100 horses at the Dows Creek Bush Muster.
The club is open to everybody, but some skill and ability in horse riding is required.
38. A photographer’s life
By Duncan Evans
Mackay Camera Group veteran John Blessas has been taking photographs since he was a boy growing up in the 1960s.
In his 40 years with cameras, he has travelled all over Queensland and all over the world to capture the moments that strung together make up a life.
“There is a saying, ‘life is but this instant, and all memories’. We capture instants,” he said.
The Mackay-born photographer lists an ‘instant’ in Hamburg, Germany, as one of his most striking photographs.
The photograph captures his wife’s sister and husband standing together in the main railway station as everyone else in the image moves around them.
For Mr Blessas, it’s an unforgettable image.
“A one-second shot, taken on film,” he said.
He has taken photographs in China, Germany, England, France and the United States and the passion began in Central and North Queensland.
But he said the photos he took of Queensland in the 1960s were tragically lost in a flood in Walkerston.
“I always took photos, travel photos mainly. I had a serious accident and my wife enrolled me in a camera class and I wouldn’t go unless she came, which was a mistake because she always beats me in competitions,” he said.
Mr Blessas said Mackay had a way of surprising photographers.
“There’s nothing left to photograph in Mackay,” he said.
“And yet the photos you can pull out of Mackay are still quite spectacular.
“You’ve just got to see them.”
He noted the city’s nearby landscapes, including Eungella and Boulder Creek, offered photographers their shot at catching beauty.
“Everything’s there, you’ve just got to see it,” he said, referencing his pride in a photo he took of a model at Boulder Creek.
He said the Mackay Camera Group had a great ethos of encouragement and sharing and the members did not jeer at others’ photos.
Mackay Camera Group president Sue Miller confirms his account.
Mrs Miller joined the club in 2018 as a relative newcomer to the art form and said she had “learned so much” through the club.
“We cater to everyone,” she said.
37. Archery becomes a family affair for the Lambs
By Max O’Driscoll
It is a sport that stands the test of time.
Once an ancient war method, archery is becoming increasingly popular within the region, with 126 active members on Mackay and District Bowmen Club’s books.
Club president Debbie Lamb became involved with the club around nine years ago when a teacher at her son, Tremain’s school recommended he give the sport a go after he became disenchanted with limited playing time on the football field.
He joined with a few friends from school but it was not long before the Bowmen Club became a family affair.
“After that the daughter joined and the husband joined, and at that stage I was just in the kitchen helping out, I wasn’t shooting,” Ms Lamb said.
“My family bought me a bow a couple of years ago, so I’ve started shooting now. It’s become a real family oriented sport.
“Everyone ended up deciding they would join up, even my grandson is shooting as well.”
Today, there are eight members of her family spanning three generations involved in the sport.
The youngest member of the club is four years old and the oldest is 83.
Ms Lamb said the ability for people of any age to play archery was what made it so special.
“I think that is why I like it so much because it is all on the one day, we’re all there together and it doesn’t matter if you’re good or not good, we can all enjoy it and have a shot at the same time.”
While mostly a social sport, the club does occasionally travel for invitationals where they take on other clubs.
One downside of her whole family being involved in archery, she joked, was how the cost of buying everyone bows had added up for the grandparents.
36. Bleating awesome: New kids on the block meet other bucks and doe
By Max O’Driscoll
In the age of smart phones and video games, Pinevale goat breeder Dee Matthews there is still a place for good old country fun.
Relatively new to the scene, the Matthews family of four decided to begin the family business.
“We breed mini goats and because I’m registered as well, I breed them to improve the quality of their bloodline and crossing different bucks with different does,” Ms Matthews said.
Ms Matthews says the family simply adores their goats.
“I just love their personality. They are funny little characters, they really are,” she said.
“They can be really loving if you get the right goats with the right nature.
“The minis, for example, have a beautiful nature and they are just really friendly all the time but you could totally just waste a full day watching and playing with the babies.”
While there is not a particularly renowned goating community locally, the Matthews clan has found great advice through the Mackay and District Goat Club.
“It’s just about finding out what’s available in the area because a lot of the goats, especially with my minis, there is not a lot that you can get,” Ms Matthews said.
“We are going down to New South Wales just to get a small herd of females to bring up because with minis it is really hard to find them and to find them registered is even harder.”
She estimates there would be more than 20 people with all the different breeds in the 500-person strong group, but not a lot of minis.
One of her favourite things about being a member of the club is that she gets to learn about the other breeds and what works best in raising each type of goat.
The Goat Club also offers training and seminar opportunities for its members which Ms Matthews wishes could happen more often.
35. Film buff bringing the big screen to Mackay
By Duncan Evans
We live in the age of streaming. With Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Optus Sport and all the others, there is a world of almost limitless entertainment available in the home.
But for Film and Arts Mackay president and long-time film buff Sally Marsden, the experience in the lounge room cannot compete with the full scope and grandeur of the big screen.
“Watching something and really being able to appreciate the colour, cinematography, the scenery, the acting, I think you do lose a lot on the smaller screen,” she said.
She also believes the communal experience of watching a film on the big screen with others elevates the art of film.
“They are made to be shown on big screens,” she said.
“That’s where you’re going to get the best value out of an experience like that.
“I actually think for a lot of people it is a collective experience.”
Mrs Marsden was born in Kenya and has lived all over the world, including in Israel, South Africa, Spain, Greece and New Zealand.
She settled in Mackay 17 years ago.
She listed Amadeus and the South Korean film Parasite as two cherished films.
Film and Arts Mackay hosts a monthly film night CQUniversity’s Conservatorium of Music and Mrs Marsden says the get-together offer people a chance to see films that might not get any play in the regular cinemas in town.
She also curates the club’s film festivals, putting on a range of international films.
“I like escapism,” she said.
“I like the feeling of being in another culture.
“It is a bit of a window to the world.”
In addition to screenings, the club puts on workshops on all things film, including a collaboration with the Noosa Film Academy.
“We try and push anything film related,” she said.
The club’s main film festival will take place on August 5-7.
A pre-festival screening will take place on July 30 at the Pinnacle Playhouse.
The club will also put on a film in Sarina on August 13 and in Proserpine at the end of September.
When asked to cite her most powerful experience in the cinema, Mrs Marsden listed the drone photography in an Italian film called The Truffle Hunters.
“It’s just so effective,” she said.
“The use of drones and the effect of drones, even just setting out a village or a location, or even just a desert or a sea, the use of drones is incredible.
“It really takes into that space.”
34. ‘Time disappears’: Artist wants you to get lost in painting
By Duncan Evans
Susan Gee first started painting when she became pregnant 47 years ago and she has since produced hundreds of paintings.
“I decided to be a stay-at-home mother and that’s when I decided I would start painting,” she said.
Her parents and grandparents painted and Mrs Gee reasoned if they could do it, then so could she.
“If they could do it, and they were just ordinary people like me, then I could do it, and I could” she said.
“I always went to class with an oil painter here in Mackay.”
She credits French artist Claude Monet’s ‘water lilies’ paintings as a key source of inspiration.
Mrs Gee coordinates workshops at Mackay Art Society, a club for artists and newcomers to connect and learn about the joys of painting and fine art.
The Cape Hillsborough woman says painting offers everyone a potential “outlet” or “men’s shed” for life.
“Time disappears, that’s why I teach it all,” she said.
“A lot of people need an outlet and once they start painting, they just lose time and time seems to just go away.
“It’s just a really great way to get lost and enjoy friends.
“It’s a bit like a men’s sheds but it’s for artists.”
Mrs Gee works with watercolours, oils and acrylic paint.
She describes her style as “contemporary impressionist”.
Mrs Gee is also a resident artist on Hamilton Island.
The scheme has 10 artists who each share time on the island, where a room is allocated for them to stay in.
She has put on exhibitions in Mackay and Hamilton Island, though she says Mackay can be tough for artists.
“Art isn’t really supported as in people buying art in Mackay,” she said.
She said artists often needed to make their living by supplementing sales with teaching work.
For anyone interested in learning to paint, Mrs Gee has some simple advice:
“Just contact Mackay Art Society,” she said.
“And come to see us on a Tuesday or Wednesday or come to our workshops.
“You don’t have to be a pro artist.
“We cater to all of them in that respect.”
The club can supply paint and material until a learner decides he or she wants to continue with the hobby.
The club will hold a mother’s day market on April 29 and May 1 with a gold coin entry fee.
33. ’We’re just aiming to bring people together’: Unity is choir’s crescendo
By Janessa Ekert
Music has a special way of bringing people together from all walks of life and for Jennifer Bee, when she is singing, nothing else matters.
Musician, choir director and vocal teacher are among the hats the 38 year old from North Mackay wears each week.
Her bright hair and clothes match her bright and bubbly personality, which hits the right note among her musical students and peers.
Glasses fitted with special lenses are perched on her nose as she reads music while her fingers, fitted with gloves to help with her tendinitis, move smoothly across the keyboard.
Ms Bee heads up Mackay’s With One Voice program, an “un-auditioned, all ages, all abilities choir” that aims to bring the community together.
“The idea is not to be perfect,” she said.
“We’re literally just aiming to bring people together to have some fun, do some performances out in the community so we can get other people interested in coming to join us.”
There were about 20 With One Voice programs across the country and hers was the second in Queensland.
A group called Creativity Australia began the movement, which has since spread.
“The whole idea is based around the research and understanding that singing is an incredibly fast way of bringing communities together,” Ms Bee said.
“There’s something in the act of singing and what it does to all the dopamine centres in the brain that just makes it one of the fastest ways to bring people together to a common goal.”
Her love of music stretches back to her younger years when she began learning piano at age six.
Her lessons extended through to the end of high school where she also picked up percussion instruments, which she continued through to university studying a music degree.
While at university, Ms Bee said she took on some singing electives, but did not really embrace her voice until she moved to Mackay in 2012 and joined the Choral Society.
After a few years Ms Bee said she was ready to “do her own community service” starting Circle of Song in the Pioneer Valley in 2019 and With One Voice in August 2020.
“I’ve always loved being in ensembles,” she said.
“The parts becoming a bigger whole that really does it for me.”
Ms Bee said she loved that choirs could strengthen community bonds, “particularly for those who are elderly, disabled, un-homed”.
“Bringing them in with people who have the privileges that they don’t,” she said.
Ms Bee faces her own daily struggles.
She suffers ADHD and a connective tissue disorder resulting in chronic pain.
“I’m fortunately on the milder end,” she said.
“It still just affects my ability to stand and walk without extra effort to do things.
“Everything is harder, it takes more effort and that leads to fatigue issues as well.”
She also has to wear special lenses for photosensitivity and special gloves because she has tendinitis in her thumbs “so they don’t do basic things like griping”.
But when she sings she says it feels “like there isn’t anything else apart from doing that”.
“It’s a great way to de-stress or take my mind out of whatever problems that I have and give myself a little bit of joy,” she said.
“I will sing literally anything that’s thrown in front of me. The trickier the better to be quite honest.”
With One Voice practises weekly with members ranging in age from nine to 90 covering a variety of songs. And new members are always welcome.
“We’ve got a high tea performance coming up soon and we’ve got some songs which lean towards the more classical genre, we’ve got songs that lead towards more standard classics like Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong, but we’ve also done a fair amount of folk music,” she said.
They even sing songs dating back to the 1200s.
With One Voice Mackay runs out of the CQU Sydney St campus every Thursday, 6.30-8pm.
Afterwards there is a supper, which is provided.
For more information visit www.creativityaustralia.org.au
32. ‘To move to music is so special’: How a single woman found love, twice
By Lillian Watkins
John Paul Young, Bay City Rollers, Status Quo and Smokie sang the soundtrack to Debbie Wookey’s Mackay adolescence — and she can still pick any of their tunes from the very first bar.
“I can remember back to when I was a teenager, I loved learning every lyric to every song,” Ms Wookey said.
“Back in those days it was all on tapes, you had to stop it and write it down.
“I don’t have those scribbles anymore, but I still know the words to all the songs.”
“I just love music.”
It was about 30 years later when Mrs Wookey was 48 years old that she fell in love again — twice.
Ms Wookey said she had been single and was feeling “in the dumps”.
“I was at a certain age, and it’s hard to find people at that age,” Ms Wookey said.
“But someone told me, ‘go and do something that you enjoy and you’ll find someone who likes what you do’.
“Well, what I wanted to do was learn to dance.”
Ms Wookey said she, like most people, knew how to dance in a club or bar, but she was determined to learn to dance properly.
So she signed up for a rock and roll class and fell in love — with both the movement and her dance partner, Ian.
“I said to Ian one night, you’re nice and tall so I’m going to dance with you,” Mrs Wookey said.
“We connected through something we both enjoyed.”
The couple has now been together for more than a decade, and Mrs Wookey has been dancing ever since.
During her rock and roll lessons, Mrs Wookey was able to try out line dancing, a form of choreographed country western dance where no partners are needed.
“I started teaching lessons myself, and I enjoyed it so much, I had a knack for being able to explain things,” she said.
Moving from the Gold Coast back to Mackay in February, she wants to share the joy of the dance world with her hometown.
“I noticed there is a Queensland Line Dance Association, they list every line dance studio in Queensland, and I noticed there was nothing at all in Mackay.
“All the lovely people in Mackay were missing out,” Mrs Wookey said.
So Ms Wookey began teaching at the CWA Hall twice a week with a new class expected to begin at the Walkerston Tommy Webster Memorial Hall on April 27.
Mrs Wookey maintains anyone can line dance, regardless of whether they think they have two left feet.
In particular, she is passionate about teaching older dancers.
“It is so good for the mind, and keeps Alzheimers at bay,” she said.
“It seems to expand and open up a whole new world you didn’t even know existed.
“To move to music is so special.”
31. ‘Imperfections are perfections’ in delicate art process
By Matthew Forrest
For most it is just a decorative piece of wood that might sit in the corner of the room or on a bench top, but for Terese Madam it is a lifelong obsession she and her husband share.
Wood-turning is an “art form” that has captured the attention of Mrs Madam’s husband, Rodney, for more than 35 years and she fell in love with the craft too.
Mrs Madam said her husband’s obsession led to Mackay Woodturning Club’s inception.
“Some people saw wood-turners as just a backyard hobby where people made rolling pins and things like that,” she said.
“Rodney saw it as an art form, where you could make anything and you were only limited by your creativity.
“There are all these amazing sculptures and pieces that get made, the sky's the limit.”
The couple started the club in 1987, when they discovered international wood-turners were travelling to different clubs around Queensland.
Starting in a humble cottage in Fairleigh, Mrs Madam said Mackay now boasted one of Queensland’s top facilities.
“We’ve had Australian wood-turners come to visit Mackay, whether from Western Australia or Sydney, maybe Melbourne,” she said.
“We’ve been exposed to lots of good turners in Mackay, and a lot of them have always been so impressed with what we have to work with in Mackay.
“Our facilities are really the envy of Australia.”
Mrs Madam said it was a delicate process, and not one that could not be rushed.
But there was a certain flow to the motion of turning wood which appealed to like-minded people and offered them peace for a few hours a week.
“There are a lot of women who come through the club and say wood-turning has saved their husbands from insanity,” Mrs Madam laughed.
“Everyone has their own style and rhythm to it, you can walk in and instantly know who has made what, it’s so distinctive.
“But it can be frustrating, like life, because you can get really close to a perfect piece and it breaks or cracks.
“Some people start over, some people work the mistakes into the work because it adds character, the imperfections are perfect on the pieces, that’s what is beautiful about it.”
Mackay Woodturners
• Meet every Sunday – Wednesday, 8am – noon at Snow Wright Court, opposite Wake House Australia.
• Find them on Facebook: Mackay Woodturners
• Phone: Frank on 0417 625 818
30. Why young boy who never spoke at school came out of his shell
By Madeleine Graham
It touched Rebecca Sharp’s heart when she observed a young boy who never spoke at school come out of his shell when he got on a horse.
He not only spoke but sang and laughed.
Mackay Riding for the Disabled is not only a haven for its riders, but for the passionate volunteers who devote their spare time to keeping the organisation afloat.
Mrs Sharp and Ros Ferguson spend a large amount of their week looking after horses, fundraising and supporting horse riding lessons for people with disabilities.
Mrs Sharp, the group’s president, said she felt lost when she moved back to Mackay in 2015, after living in Glenden for nine years.
She began volunteering at Mackay Riding for the Disabled with the hope she would meet people and for the opportunity to work with animals she had always loved.
“I came down and walked away and thought that was hard work, but I really enjoyed it,” Mrs Sharp said.
“I’m going to be honest I was a bit scared about the disability side of it, and I did not know how to handle it or what to do if something had gone wrong.
“Six months later I was the vice president and I did that for four years before becoming the president.”
A well as her volunteering, she and her husband run their business Glenden Hardware.
Mrs Sharp said it was her during her volunteering experience she discovered her love for working with people with disabilities, and how it spurred her decision to work as a casual teacher aide at the Mackay District Special School.
“You look at your face sometimes and you realise my smile is out ‘here’,” she said.
“A lot of them are non-verbal, like this young boy who comes from the school and he does not say anything and then he gets on the horse and he starts singing and talking, you would not believe it.”
Mackay Riding for the Disabled vice president Ros Ferguson said she had loved horses since she was a young girl.
When she moved from Victoria to Mackay, she was forced to sell her horses, and she said it left her “crying for years”.
She was only planning to help out the riding school with a painting job, but seven years later she was still volunteering.
Ms Ferguson lives with a heart condition and said her volunteering was the centre of her wellbeing and social life.
“People often ask the volunteers, ‘why do you come here?’ and their response is quite often ‘I do it for the kids’, but mine is different,” Ms Ferguson said.
“I do it for me and I don’t mean to sound selfish, but it does a lot for me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
“It has been a good therapy thing for me as well and it gets us socialising and making new friends.”
Mackay Riding for the Disabled caters for people with all disabilities including autism, down syndrome, cerebral palsy and many more.
The riding not only supports their communication skills through the various games or activities, but it develops their balance and stretches their muscles.
On Tuesday, the group will launch a new hoist that will provide people in wheelchairs the chance to ride on horses.
“Sarina Crane Hire generosity donated this hoist and it is going to make a huge difference,” Ms Sharp said.
“One girl has been with us for a long, long time, she is in a wheelchair, and she ended up growing so nobody could lift her onto a horse anymore.
“So she has been waiting for a few years now to come back to us, as we could not risk our volunteers lifting her and injuring themselves.”
Ms Ferguson said they were aiming to start the riding lessons on April 26 but were in urgent need of volunteers since the vaccine mandate dwindled numbers.
She said the riding lessons were every Tuesday and were asking for volunteers to help in any way they could, whether that was looking after the horses during the week or helping in the lessons.
“If people are interested in volunteering we suggest they come down on the lesson day, and have a look at what we do,” Ms Ferguson said.
“Meet the volunteers and horses and have smoko with us, it will be a free feed.
“It is a good way to keep fit and there are many ways people can help.”
29. ‘No other game or sport’ like it: Chess guru’s Mackay gambit
By Duncan Evans
The Caro Kann, the Ruy Lopez, the Sicilian and the Queen’s Gambit may sound a little alien to unfamiliar ears, but these words are becoming widely known around the world.
They refer to opening moves in chess and this centuries-old game of strategy is going through a boom at present, with millions of new players going online to learn its intricacies.
It’s a development Mackay Chess Club stalwart and co-founder Dale Noack welcomes.
The former president of the club, the current iteration of which he set up in 2013 alongside Jashint Maharaj, says the game is great for people of all ages and abilities, but particularly so for children.
“Studies have shown where chess is offered as a subject, children who study chess as a subject in school, it lifts their overall performance in maths, science and English,” he said.
“It opens up pathways in their brain they didn’t think they could use.”
Stan Long Hong started the club as an informal, non-incorporated entity in the 1970s.
Mr Noack restarted the club in part to give his son, a gifted chess player, the opportunity to play against others.
“We got the club so people like my son Daniel, who was a good player, would have more competition,” he said.
Mr Noack has been playing the game since he was eight years old and says chess has a secret weapon that no other sport can claim.
“I think chess is the only game where you can actually recreate a famous game from the past,” he said.
“You can recreate each move because they are recorded.
“There’s no other game or sport really where you can recreate a famous match.
“People are referring to games even a hundred years later.”
Whether it’s the epic eight-hour Game 6 struggle between Norwegian kingpin Magnus Carlsen and his Russian challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021 or the 1972 ‘Cold War battle’ between Borris Spassky and Bobby Fischer in Reykjavic, chess junkies can go through each move and think about how they would have played things in each position. This is an impossible thing to do with other sports like tennis or cricket.
The sudden popularity of Netflix-hit The Queen’s Gambit has produced a surge of new players to the game and Mr Noack said he had felt the ‘Queen’s Gambit effect’.
“People know I was involved with the chess club and they would say ‘I didn’t realise there was so much going on with the games’.”
“Anything that can popularise chess is good.”
Netflix claims 62 million people have watched Kentucky orphan Beth Harmon’s rise to chess supremacy.
Mr Noack said there was something in chess for everyone.
“You don’t have to be physically fit to play,” he said.
“Disabled people can play.
“It’s an exercise for the mind.”
“I think people think it looks confusing.
“But once you explain how each piece moves and leave out the advanced strategy and let them play some games, it starts to unfold.”
Mr Noack said everyone was welcome at the club.
“I always encourage it to be for beginners right through to very seasoned players,” he said.
“Older people, younger people, women and girls, everyone gets a go.”
The club has boards and clocks. Coaching is also available.
The current president of the club is Ross MacDonald.
The Mackay Chess Open will likely be held on May 14-15.
Club: Mackay Chess Club
Meet: Tuesday 6pm-8pm (except for the second Tuesday of the month) at the Jubilee Community Centre, off Alfred St (opposite the MECC)
Email: mackaychessclub@yahoo.com
28. Weekends with Bernard: ‘Special freedom’ in a smooth ride
By Matthew Forrest
For some people, riding a motorcycle is a means to travel from one destination to another, but for Bernard Cannon it is so much more than that.
It is an escape, a way to find freedom and be alone with his thoughts.
The president of the British Motorcycle Owners Association in Mackay has been on a bike since he was a child, zipping through the cane fields across the region.
Mr Cannon said the club provided people around Mackay to find “like-minded people” to enjoy the camaraderie of a group ride.
“There’s a special freedom about being on a bike in the open air,” he said.
“I’ve ridden a bike all my life, starting with go-bikes as a little fella around the cane paddocks, I’ve always had a passion with motorbikes.
“It’s not for everyone, but those that do ride together understand the solitude, the escape and the comradeship because we are on the same page.”
It is not always smooth riding for members of the club, with dangerous highways in remote areas a difficult terrain even for the experienced riders.
Mr Cannon said he wanted the club to have a proud history supporting local charities and organisations, including RACQ CQ Rescue.
“We’ve had a couple of incidents out in remote areas where some of our members had a health issue, so we’ve organised to carry a locator beacon on those long-distance rides,” he said.
“If we’re going to be relying on that service then we’ve got to do our bit to keep them in the air, so we’ve become a Rescue 412 member.
“One of our members was flown from a bike accident a few years back, which led to us getting on board with them.
“We also support the Black Dog Ride every year they’ve been here, it’s about men’s mental health.
“As an ageing club with members who might not be able to ride anymore, rather than let them fade into history we want to keep them active and engaged and knowing that help is there is really important.”
While the title of the club is ‘British Motorcycle Owners Association’, Mr Cannon and the other members discarded the “hard and fast” rule of exclusively British bikes.
Mr Cannon said the passion was in the bikes themselves, and there were members with different makes and models from different countries around the world.
“There is definitely a preference for the British bikes at the club,” he said.
“But it’s no hard-and-fast rule, people get involved and stay in the club because of those friendships developed with other people that share the same passion.
“I’ve got three motorcycles of my own, each are different and they’re all much-loved by me, and there are a lot of members who are the same.
“The passion some people have for it is incredible, and it makes the club what we are.”
Details to join
■ Interested people are expected to attend three meetings or rides before joining
■ The club meets on the second Sunday of each month at 9.30am on Casey Ave, and hosts a two-to-five-hour club ride on the third Sunday of each month at 9.30am from Nebo Rd.
■ To join, phone Bernard Cannon at 0419 795 816 for more information.
27. Mackay teacher’s classroom helps him take aim at long-range hobby
By Matthew Forrest
The goal of any teacher is to educate their students in the classroom and give them an understanding and knowledge to use outside of it.
For Bevan Appleby, he is using what he teaches to heighten his enjoyment of his passion.
His role as a teacher at Mackay Engineering College has taught Mr Appleby to be precise with his measurements, advanced in mathematics, and able to adjust for change.
Mr Appleby said his dedication to his students helped him become a marksman with a rifle.
“There’s a fair bit of maths that comes into it when you’re working out how much wind there is, elevations and a number of other things that come into it,” he said.
“You can have the best gear in the world but you can turn up on the day when Mother Nature is playing hardball and it all becomes extremely difficult, so having that understanding of the science behind it definitely helps.”
Mr Appleby is the treasurer of the Mackay Rifle Club, which is nestled in the base of Mount Vince at Marian.
The engineering teacher has also captained the club during the 20 years he has been firing his rifle at one of Mackay’s oldest clubs.
Mr Appleby said the club, which was formed in 1885, had produced some of Queensland’s top marksmen.
“I’ve been away four times with the North Queensland team, overall we’ve come third out of the six states but we also beat the Queensland team.
“The rest of Queensland has never beaten North Queensland in the open ranges, it’s a friendly rivalry between the two of us.
“We’ve got people in Mackay and some further north who have made the Australian team that have won the last two world championships as well, so the competition level is very high.”
Mr Appleby initially joined the club to maintain his firearms licence, but the community around the group of shooters and the competitive nature drove him to compete at a high level.
“Everyone loves the challenge because you’re shooting at a long range, there’s a lot of things going on like wind, bullet drop, mirages from the heat,” he said.
“The army first built the range and it was an army range until 2019 when it was sold to the council, and now we’ve got people from builders and tradesmen to teachers, to fishermen and retired people who love to the challenge of it.
“There’s a few of us who have been here a while and are very good shooters.”
THE DETAILS
- People wanting a casual shoot can hire a rifle and equipment from the club – consistent shooters are expected to get a membership for insurance purposes
- The club competes internally every Sunday at the Mt Vince rifle range, as well as travelling around Queensland to other ranges
- Memberships cost $300 to join, which covers public liability insurance as well as membership fees
- Phone Bevan Appleby to express interest on 0429 988 509
26. The good mail on philately – it will get you everywhere
By Rae Wilson
Ron Bassan is leaving his stamp on Mackay in myriad ways.
The keen philatelist arrived in the sugar city in May 1974 with the army, as a warrant officer in charge of cadets.
The army cadets were in the schools back then and Mr Bassan would visit them weekly, taking them out in the scrub, to the rifle range and once over to Brampton Island for a weekend.
His credentials as a leader were hard earned in the jungle during the Malayan emergency as a gunner from 1957 and as a regimental quarter master sergeant during a short tour in the Vietnam War in 1971.
He spent four years in total, over two stints, in Malaya during the emergency, a guerrilla war fought between communist pro-independence fighters of the Malayan National Liberation Army against the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth.
On the way there the first time, his ship New Australia ran into a Norwegian oil tanker named France Stove in the Torres Strait just south of Thursday Island.
“Our starboard anchor ended up on the bridge of the oil tanker,” he said.
“We were lucky it was only carrying crude oil. If it had been refined oil, we might not have been there for long.
“We sat there for days, it was all army and their families on the ship, waiting for repairs.
“I spent my 21st birthday at a jungle camp in Malaysia.
“We were part of the British Commonwealth Brigade; there were Kiwis, Australians, English, at one stage the Fijians, and Gurkhas – a special unit of the British army from Nepal.
“The first tour we were chasing the communist terrorists in the jungle – lots of firing in northern Malaya and down around Ipoh in the state of Perak.”
During his second tour in Malaysia, Mr Bassan spent most of his time around Malacca City at Terendak military base – the biggest he had ever seen.
After his cadet training years in Mackay, he later went on to become the groundsman at Slade Point State School for 21 years, winning the garden competition 18 years straight.
Labelling himself “almost a local”, the Beaconsfield father of six has 13 grandchildren and is expecting to welcome his 13th great grandchild this year.
He lost his wife Claire, known as Bonnie, 11 years ago.
As well as his big family, Mr Bassan has three other passions keeping him busy in retirement.
Stamps. Orchids. Model trains.
They say philately will get you everywhere and Mr Bassan certainly has his fair share of stamps from around the world — British, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, New Zealand among them.
“I started collecting stamps while I was in the army for 22 years,” the 85 year old said.
“I was in ‘A’ Field Battery, the oldest unit in the Australian Defence Force — which has been in existence since 1871 and is based at Enogera these days — and part of a British artillery regiment.
“When I was posted to Malaysia for two years, I started swapping Australian stamps for English stamps.
“I started collecting Malaysian stamps while I was there too.
“I just like doing it. I suppose it became a habit. Now it’s a passion.”
Mr Bassan is most passionate about his Australian collection which is stored in wooden cabinets with glass doors throughout his high-set home.
He has one album with Aussie stamps from 1913 to 1966 and then has 20 albums filled with stamps from 1966 to this year.
Fauna. Flora, Celebrities. Art. Fish. You name it.
“I have quite an extensive collection of Australian stamps,” Mr Bassan said.
“I think I’m missing about three from 1966 to 2021.
“When a new release comes out, my friendly post master lets me know.
“It’s not just the stamp itself; if sheets or booklets come out, there’s all these different ways you can get stamps.
“Some of the ones I’m missing are worth $20,000 a stamp.”
From 1901 to 1913, Australia used state stamps for postage until a competition to create a nationwide stamp.
“The one that was accepted was the map of Australia with the kangaroo on it,” he said.
“I have one of the original stamps that came out in 1840 – a Penny Black. It was the world’s first stamp, first issued in Britain.
“They thought up a better way to pay for their letters and that’s when they started producing sheets of stamps.
“When they first produced them, you had to cut them out. There were no perforations in them.
“It took off from there. Every country in the world has copied them and produced postage stamps.
“But they’re not as popular as they used to be.
“The prettiest is Papua New Guinea. They have a lot with orchids on them.
“But there has been a couple of really nice ones recently in Australia – we’ve had a set with the state fauna emblems on them and some beautiful banksias.”
To keep his stamps in mint condition, Mr Bassan has DampRid in each cabinet and he tries to turn every page on every album at least once every six months.
He is forever adding to his collection, though, usually through his Mackay and District Philatelic Society meetings or when his Mount Pleasant post master lets him know of new arrivals.
The monthly society meetings have dwindled in numbers these days as there’s no stampede for the hobby from young ones who prefer “everything electronic”.
Gone are the Ampol days in the 1960s when you got a package of stamps given to you with your fuel, he says.
But Mr Bassan describes a fun atmosphere at the monthly philately meetings as they pore over circuit books from stamp dealers from down south.
“You can take them out for your album and then give money to the treasurer to pay the dealer,” he said.
When Mr Bassan’s not admiring his impressive stamp collection, he’s out the back in his greenhouse.
After walking past a pink and white Major Mitchell cockatoo named Alfie, who asks how you’re doing, you enter the world of an avid green thumb – a skill he says came from his late mother Lorna.
Mr Bassan estimates he’s got 4000 orchids – some he propagated himself and some he sent away to be flasked.
The Catasetum, an orchid from Central and South America, is his favourite but there are lots of hybrids.
“It’s an unusual orchid. In the family there’s four; two of them have male and female flowers.
“The male flower is the pretty one. They are the only orchids in the world that have that.
“Every other orchid flower is bisexual with male and female parts on each flower.
“I have pink, I have pure reds, red that dark it looks black, green, yellow, there’s lots of different colours.”
Pointing to a stunning purple orchid, he says he won champion orchid in 2019 and again last year in the Mackay competition.
The model trains have a less vibrant story.
“They’ve been just sitting there since 2011 after we had 600ml in an hour here and my house, where I had it, got flooded,” he said.
“I just haven’t rebuilt it and I would like to sell it.”
Needless to say he’s also been involved in the Mackay Society of Model Engineers Inc (Model Railway) and Mackay and District Orchid Society Inc.
“They are expensive hobbies,” he said.
Mr Bassan cannot remember how long he’s been involved in the Mackay and District Philatelic Society but secretary Dawn McIntyre says she’s clocked up 25 years and her friend had been involved longer than that.
She says the society would love more people to head along to their monthly catch-ups where someone always tells a wonderful story about various collections, reminisces about collecting stamps as a boy scout or they go through correspondence from other clubs.
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