General News
4 July, 2023
Life membership honour
HELEN Langley has been honoured by the Timboon Field Naturalists with a Life Membership, in a first for the club.
HELEN Langley has been honoured by the Timboon Field Naturalists with a Life Membership, in a first for the club.
Helen has a keen interest in and extraordinary knowledge of the natural world.
Helen and the whole Bryant family joined the Timboon Field Naturalists club at its inaugural meeting in 1972, 51 years ago.
Since the 1990s Helen has consistently been an office bearer for the Timboon club.
Over many years she has organised a wide range of speakers for meetings.
Topics have included bats, ants, moths, frogs, cave diving, fossils, various types of birds including brolgas, various types of plants including orchids, climate change, history and changes to the coast.
Helen herself has spoken on the topics of leaches, fungi, spiders, ibis, sundews and the history of the Field Naturalists.
At almost every meeting in recent years Helen has consistently hauled a heavy microscope into the room to allow anyone with a specimen to examine it closely.
She has also lugged a small library of precious, often no-longer-in-print reference books to allow others to research their topic of interest.
The Timboon club’s monthly newsletter, providing a summary of relevant news and often highlighting seasonal and topical points of interest, was started by Helen about 20 years ago.
She also organised and contributed to the club's 50th Birthday Celebration Art Exhibition at Port Campbell in 2022.
Helen has also been the primary organiser of many outings and field trips enjoyed by club members and even bus trips to Geelong and Lake Condor.
Helen has also held committee positions at SEANA, the South East Australian Naturalists Association, who gather twice yearly for a weekend.
The latest was in April this year in Port Campbell which saw more than 100 people from across Victoria closely inspect the local coastline, including the National Park, and enjoyed evening talks at the Surf Club.
Helen has been a key organiser at the five SEANA gatherings hosted by Timboon Field Naturalists over the past 30 years.
No wonder Timboon Field Naturalists finally decided to honour Helen Langley with a lifetime membership.
Considering her long history of her outstanding contributions, it seems well overdue.
All are welcome to club meetings, held on the first Friday of the month, at 7.30pm, at the Timboon Senior Citizens Club.
For more information, contact Heytesbury District Landcare Network.