Dear Members and Friends,
It was great to see so many of you at our always sold out President's Reception with Lord Hague of Richmond on 17 September. Each year Lord Hague and the B-AS team produce the event in an exciting and varied format and this year was no exception. For those that missed it, Lord Hague joined me in conversation on a range of topical issues of the day, sharing his candid insights on the upcoming US election and its impact, current geo-political tensions, the challenges posed by AI and social media and the British-Australian relationship in those contexts. It is always a privilege to hear from Lord Hague who is widely regarded as one of the great statesmen of our time. We were also delighted that Lord Hague was able to stay on for the following reception and meet and chat with so many B-AS Members and friends. We look forward to our President's Reception 2025! For now, we have some wonderful photos of the event, a selection of which are here. The remaining photos will be uploaded to our website very soon.
On 9 October, 6-8pm we have the next in the series of our “First Eight” lectures where Dr David Headon will examine the intriguing life and times of Australia’s 6th Prime Minister, Joseph Cook - a political maverick who rose from the coalmines of Britain to become an Australian Prime Minister as well as Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. We have a new, more entertaining format for this event, with a discussion moderated by Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska, the Director of the Menzies School of Australian Studies at King’s College, to be held in the beautiful Downer Room at Australia House. This event filled up in a matter of days but we have opened a waitlist - please do click here if you would like to join it. We always try and accommodate as many people as possible. A big thank you to the Australian Studies Institute of ANU for sponsoring this event again this year.
Our final event of 2025 will be our fabulous Christmas Carols (and Christmas drinks!) at St Mary-le-Bow at 4:30pm on 5 December. While free to attend, booking will be required. We will send these details through in the coming days so please keep an eye on your inboxes! As you know, the B-AS is an inclusive and collaborative organisation and we love working closing with other Australian organisations in the UK who share our values and objectives. In the spirit of this collaboration, we are thrilled to report that this year we will welcome our friends at the Australian Women's Club to the Carols. We know many of our B-AS Members and friends are also supporters of the Australian Women's Club and we look forward to our groups coming together at this very special service. We have plans to reach out to other Australian groups in London in future years to grow our ever-popular Carol service. Watch this space! If you are involved with one of these organisations, do get in touch with our office team.
And on Monday night we held our AGM in the Australia Centre and were pleased a good number of our Members were able to attend and join us for a drink afterwards. We discussed a few interesting ideas in the post discussion. We always love to hear from you regarding any suggestions or offers of support you might have. Please do not hesitate to contact our CEO, Louise Mulley, at any time on ceo@britain-australia.org.uk.
On 25 January 2025 we are co-hosting the Australia Day Gala with the Australia Foundation with 400 guests at the brand new Peninsula Hotel in celebration of Australia and all Australians. This event sold out in a matter of seconds! We have a very long waitlist which we have been working through. We are thrilled by the response and will include as many people as the venue will allow. We are in discussions to see if some additional places might be available. If you would like to join the waitlist, please click here.
If you are not able to attend the Gala, please note that we have lots of other great things coming up in 2025 - we are currently in the planning stages and have some exceptional things in store!
I know many of you have met B-AS Board Member, Andrew Grill, and indeed Andrew has been a huge supporter of the B-AS and our events for many years. We were excited to learn that Andrew (aka the Actionable Futurist) has a new book out this month - "Digitally Curious - Your Guide to Navigating the Future of AI and All Things Tech" which went straight to number one on bestseller lists on launch! Andrew presented a signed copy to Lord Hague at our President's Reception and he was thrilled to receive it, particularly given his interests on the subjects covered. Andrew has very kindly offered to give away TWO copies of his book to TWO lucky B-AS Members this month. For entry details please scroll down. Andrew's book contains over 200 easy to understand explanations of technologies you may have heard of - now you can understand a bit more about them...
To become a Member of the B-AS and to support the work we do please click here.
Finally, we were thrilled to learn that this month sees the 15th anniversary of the Aurora Foundation/Chevening partnership. Up until 2010, there had never been a First Nations Australian student at a leading UK university. The Aurora Education Foundation launched the Charlie Perkins Scholarship in partnership with the UK Government's Chevening Programme (later bolstered by the Roberta Sykes Scholarship). Since that time, more than 60 inspiring individuals have undertaken postgraduate degrees at a range of top UK universities (with 48 at Oxbridge). Our CEO, Louise Mulley, will be attending the 15th anniversary celebrations at Lancaster House in London on behalf of the B-AS.
I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming events.
Best wishes
Damian Walsh
Chair
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