Speakers

Speaker	Date	Topic
Rex Booth	Jan 22, 2019	Angel Flight Australia Angel Flight Australia is a charity which coordinates non-emergency flights to assist country people to access specialist medical treatment that would otherwise be unavailable to them because of vast distance and high travel costs. Rex Booth is a volunteer pilot who spends much of his time in the air carrying hundreds of patients around Australia. He picks up patients in remote areas and flies them to the city for non-emergency treatment.
Lynette Dawson and Wazih Razib	Jan 29, 2019	Learning for Employment Adult Migrant Education Program Ms Lynette Dawson and Mr Wazih Razib will present on the Learning for Employment Adult Migrant Education Program. They provide English language classes for newly arrived migrants and refugees through the Wyndham Community and Education Centre in Werribee. They also run a program where members of the community spend an hour a week with newly arrived migrants or refugees, helping them with their English and assisting them to connect with their local community.
Ian Guss	Feb 05, 2019	Converting Waste to Energy in the West Ian Guss is a director of Recovered Energy Australia, a company which is proposing to build a gasification plant in Laverton North for the purpose of converting household rubbish to energy. Melbourne’s western suburbs have long been blighted by stinking rubbish tips. However, the plan is to convert their waste to energy that would convert household waste into enough electricity to power up to 20,000 houses. The $100 million plant would take up to 200,000 tonnes a year of residual household waste which is currently sent to landfill. This is the equivalent of household waste from three to four councils. Using a process known as gasification the waste would be heated at a very high temperature where air is limited to ensure it doesn't burn. The waste is converted into a gas that is then used to heat water into steam and drive a turbine to produce electricity. Ian hoped it would be operating by 2021.
John Forrester	Feb 12, 2019	Werribee River Association John's role as the Werribee Riverkeeper is to champion the river. This means speaking up for the river using action, advocacy and education to raise people’s awareness about the needs of the river. He has been involved in education for many years, and has transferred many of the skills learnt in that field to his lifelong interest in natural resources and the environment. He is a great believer in the health-giving services of the natural environment.
Monika Schott	Feb 19, 2019	Cocoroc Monika Schott is writing her thesis on the social history of Cocoroc, an abandoned town in the middle of Melbourne Water’s sprawling10,500-hectare western treatment plant. This ghost town was the largest of four towns where Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) employees were offered rented accommodation while working on its sewage farm at Werribee.
Jackie Wrafter	Mar 05, 2019	Kianh Foundation Day Centre for Children With Disabilities in Vietnam Jackie established the Kianh Foundation Day Centre for children with disabilities in Vietnam 10 years ago. She continues to be the key person at the Kianh Centre, which provides a diverse education program to over 100 disabled children and support for their families. In December 2018, she was at Buckingham Palace to be presented with the MBE by the Duke of Cambridge for her work in Vietnam.
Justin Giddings	Mar 26, 2019	Avalon Airport Justin is the CEO at Avalon Airport. In his six years in that role, he has overseen a major transformation of the facility. Thanks to Justin's management, JetStar now conduct regular flights to and from Avalon and, in recent times, AirAsia has become the first international carrier at the airport to carry passengers to and from Kuala Lumpur.