December 2024 Newsletter

Dear Members and Friends,

We are very much looking forward to seeing many of you at our fabulous Christmas Carols (followed by a festive mince pie!) at St Mary-le-Bow at 4.30pm on 5 December. This joyous occasion has been a B-AS fixture for many years and rounds off what has been a spectacular year for the B-AS.

It is an exciting time of year with seemingly endless Christmas parties and year-end receptions but, just to get us excited about what’s coming up in January, last week the indomitable Aussie, Prue Freeman, and husband Tom Onions, hosted an outstanding dinner (plus lots of cocktails) for the sponsors of the Australia Day Gala to preview the menu at their brilliant restaurant, Ziggy Green, near Piccadilly Circus. Senior representatives of some of our fabulous sponsors attended including National Australia Bank, QANTAS, BAE Systems, Macquarie, EY, CT Group, Rio Tinto, Hilton Food Group, SIA Partners, Captain’s Choice, MarGin and Yalumba. Prue is the executive chef for the Gala. Other sponsors - Worley, Arup, BHP, Deltroit, BMD Infrastructure Group, Anglo American, RM Williams, BUPA and ANZ – could not make it but their contribution is hugely valued and we look forward to seeing them at the Gala. The Australia Day Gala is a Celebration of Australia and all Australians and it would not be possible without the generosity of our sponsors and partners.

As an aside, and speaking of Prue Freeman, cocktail afficionados need to visit the Colony Room under Ziggy Green and Larry’s Bar under the Audrey Green restaurant at the National Portrait Gallery. B-AS CEO, Louise Mulley, and I were thrilled to attend the party for the 10th Anniversary of the Daisy Green group at Larry’s a couple of weeks ago. What a party…

Back to business… November was a very busy month. An enormous amount of work is going into the organisation of the Australia Day Gala on 25 January. We also have planning well underway for an exciting array of other events for 2025. Full details will be released in the coming months but we have some key dates for you to save now for two of our extremely popular annual events - International Women's Day on 5 March and the Summer Party (again in the glorious gardens of the Royal Over-Seas League) on 11 June. Please mark these in your diaries!

We work to engage with all the Australian groups in London across the year and November was no exception. On 7 November, Louise Mulley and I attended the Australian Defence reception at the High Commission where there was a spectacular turnout including many senior members from both the Australian and British defence teams. It was also wonderful to see many of you at B-AS Charity Member, the Tait Memorial Trust's, Celestial Winter Prom on 20 November. The performances by Tait awardees were magnificent. Many B-AS supporters also attended the Royal Flying Doctor Service (Friends in the UK) biennial fundraiser on 14 November at the Dorchester Hotel which raised over £100,000 for this exceptional Australian charity. RFDS (Friends in the UK) Patron, HM King Charles, sent the team a lovely letter of congratulations. On 25 November, we held our last B-AS Board Meeting of the year and, finally, on 27 November, I was delighted to attend the biennial reception for the Institute of Engineers Australia in the Downer Room.

We have a special offer for all B-AS supporters this month. Young Australian producer, Maryann Wright (who incidentally is producing some of our spectacular talent at the Australia Day Gala), is helping Broadway producer, Charlie Stone, to promote the London production of "The Happiest Man on Earth". The play tells the remarkable story of famous Australian Eddie Jaku OAM who survived the Holocaust then emigrated to Australia, living until 101! Having survived seven years of horrors during the war, Eddie made it his mission to smile every day. The play is running at the Southwark Playhouse (77-85 Newington Causeway SE1 6BD) until 14 December and all B-AS supporters are being offered 20% off the ticket price with the special code AHC20. Please click here to book and add the code at checkout.

As our Carols round out our year, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our Members and friends a very happy and safe Christmas and New Year break wherever you may be. We look forward to seeing you all in 2025!

And of course, thank you again to the sponsors of our various events and a very special thank you to our Corporate Partner, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, for their support of all our activities.

To become a Member of the B-AS and to support the work we do, please click here.

Best wishes

Damian Walsh

Chair