Upcoming Speaker

Tuesday 16 June 2026

Carol Mazzella is the owner of Deliciously Yours artisan chocolate. This female led chocolate business is based at Garfield St in Five Dock.

Past Speakers

Tuesday 19 May 2026

     Paul Kearney

The History Of

Australian Early 1960’s show

Paul will present the history and a selection of great old Aussie Rock & Roll songs and Video clips from the early 1960’s

Featured Artists Include:

21 APRIL 2026,  MICHAEL PYNE

Michael’s PHD was on the ANZAC history and he will be talking to us
about the evolution of the ANZAC legend over the decades.
The legend has gone through several phases from post-war attempt to
justify the terrible losses of WW1 to the reinforcement of the legend in
WW2, virtual extinction in the1960s, the rebirth in the 1970s, Howard’s
jingoism of the 1990s to family remembrance today.

17 March 2026, David Jones

David Jones — Journalist

David is a Walkley Award-winning journalist with a distinguished career spanning more than half a century in print, television and radio journalism, political and corporate affairs and high-level media relations including incident and issues management.  He began his career in 1964 as a Saturday copy boy and then cadet shipping reporter at the Sydney Sun newspaper. During his media career, David was The Sun’s North America correspondent based in New York where he covered everything from the death of Elvis Presley in Memphis to the signing of the Middle East peace treaty at the White House in 1978, and later as London correspondent for Australia’s Seven Network.  He worked as a political reporter in Canberra and in Macquarie Street before becoming press secretary to NSW Premier Nick Greiner in 1990. Since then, David has specialised in corporate affairs at Austrade, private health insurer Medical Benefits Fund of Australia (MBF), and, most recently, corporate communications manager for 13 years at Australia’s largest cruise organisation, Carnival Australia. He was closely involved in the campaign for the resumption of cruising in Australia in 2022.

David has not retired and now works part time as media and policy manager at Business Sydney, a leading voice for the Sydney business community. He also devotes time as a volunteer on heritage rail excursions with Transport Heritage NSW. David has a keen interest in Australian history including Sydney’s maritime history. He is married to Anne with whom he has three children and two grandchildren. 

18th November 2025, Perry Celestino

We welcome Perry back to speak to Abbotsford-Chiswick Probus. Perry came to Australia in 1973 after being recruited in the States as a Social Science teacher. In 2000 Perry began offering music appreciation courses with the WEA. These have covered the soundtrack to most Baby Boomers lives. Course have been offered on Blues, Early Rock, The British Invasion, Soul, Surf Music, and biographical respective on artists such as Aretha Franklin, Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King, Chuck Berry and others. In 2024 he received the Public Service Medal for his contributions to Education and Teaching.

“Be My Surfin’ Baby” Two Sub-Genres of 60s Music.

In this talk, we will sample two of the most interesting musical styles of the 1960s. The Girl Groups appeared in the late 1950s and developed into many popular acts in the early 1960s. They were mostly black teenagers from the east coast urban environments. They were young 13-25 and mostly school friends. They developed into the soul, R&B and disco groups of the 70s and beyond. Typical examples were Martha and the Vandellas, the Shangri-Las, the Supremes, the Marvelettes and the Ronettes. Surf Music started as instrumental music in California in the early 1960S and developed with the help of the Beach Boys in vocal harmony groups that blended Barbershop, rock and jazz into wonderful songs about the teenage experience. We will hear the Beach Boys, the Venture, the Chatays, Dick Dale and other exponents of the Surf Sound. There will be many memories.