Have you ever seen a ‘Dahlek’ ? This what was presented to the Orbost Probus Club members at the last meeting when the guest speaker Jed Crouhan exhibited some of his extensive collection.
Jed fascinated the members with his variety of items collected over the years beginning in his birth place of Broken Hill where he began collecting Levi Jeans, just new in the fashion world.
Broken Hill was a city where everyone wore white clothing from top to bottom and suddenly there were blue jeans everywhere with a white shirt.
One of his first items of collecting is a painting in the Hans Heyson style of gum trees, blue sky and red rocks of the inland areas painted by an artist from the Hermansburg school.
When Jed moved to Melbourne he began his hobby business by repairing anything and everything especially toys and slot car items, gradually building up a collection of things as well as selling toys and indulging in slot car races.
Through this business he organised clubs for slot car racing for adults and family days.
He loved motor sports and frequented the motor cycle races and swap meets in Adelaide and Sydney while going to galleries and toy fairs to look over the latest inventions and novelties.
When there was a bit of time off he would visit a friend in Bendoc and thus became familiar with the Orbost area, so when he retired it was natural to drift to Orbost to find a home for all his collection plus whatever was leftover from his hobby business.
This took 18 trips and two months to complete.
Jed has become a familiar figure around Orbost with his help at the Orbost Exhibition Centre, where he has shown special work of science fiction characters made by an Adelaide friend including the Dahlek figure.
The profile speaker for the day was vice-president Lorraine Joiner who spoke about her upbringing in the Preston area of Melbourne (co-incidentally where Jed had his hobby business) went to Coburg High School and to Coburg Teachers College, gaining her primary school teachers certificate.
As Lorraine had an aunt living at Newmerella she applied to come to this area but on arrival found she was needed to teach at the Orbost High School in maths and science.
After Lorraine and Gavins’ last child began prep school Lorraine rejoined the teaching profession and became a relief teacher.
In 1990 Lorraine decided to resign and get on with the rest of her life.
Lorraine has been a probus member for about 10 years and has taken on the role of president during that time and now vice-president.
The Probus Friendship Day held last month at Redcourt hosted by the Bairnsdale Probus Club was a great outing for the Orbost Probus Club members, who met many friends from other clubs and made some new ones.
They will be meeting the Lakes Entrance Club at Marlo for lunch this week and early in October will meet with the Bairnsdale Mitchell River Probus members for a day of Fun at the Lakes Entrance mini golf.
The next general meeting is Thursday, October 17 at the Senior Citizens Club rooms.
