Wales/Westpac Ex-PNG/Pacific Staff Reunion
2016 Reunion
Our Inaugral PNG/Pacific reunion. A thumbs up for the night. A good crowd with 78 in attendance.
The Pacific's Chief Operations Officer Wayne Beckley was out guest and gave us an update on banking in the Pacific.
Of great news to our PNG attendees was the news that the bank has acted to ensure that the gravesite of Owen Cotter will be made good and maintained.
At the reunion:
- the earliest serving staff member was Jim Thomas who served in POM and Lae from 1956-58, followed by a stint in Port Villa 1973-75.
- the staff member with the most years service in the Pacific was Don MacKenzie who had five independent offshore postings totalling 15 years. While in country he also had a few inter-country postings.
- the members who had come the furthest were David "Peebs" Peeble and Steve "Mutha" O'Mara who both headed east from Perth.
Peter Sloane donated three Territory of New Guinea Shillings for auction, which were hotly contested (even by "Mutha" who thought he was just scratching his nose!). A huge thankyou to Ron "Bottlez" Gillespie, Dave "Mono" Monahan and Jo "TWK" Stewart who where the three successful bidders.
Bob Collins was present with a few copies of his excellent book "Keepers of the Gate".
While numbers of non PNG attendees wasn't as great as we would have liked, it was fantastic to see some new faces.
Peter Milburn has again done a great job organising the Melbourne reunion gathering with 33 attendees.