The Victorian reunion was again held at the Duke of Wellington Hotel on a fine Melbourne afternoon. Unfortunately our numbers were down this year but what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality. The shock of the day was to hear that Dennis McSparron has stopped drinking beer. He still enjoys a Red though so all is not lost.

It was a pleasure to meet a new member in Stan Bennett who was accompanied by his lovely wife Betty. Betty, aged 82, came along so she could help pick up Stan, aged 84, if he fell over! Fortunately her services in that regard were not required. Stan is a veteran of 76 Sqn. There were plenty of 76 Sqn lads there so he had an immediate connection. Our other WW2 stalwarts, George Moore, Greg McGregor and Tom Klein were all in fine form.

We had a couple of visitors from Sydney. Len Gacka was attending his third reunion for the year and is going to front up at Penrith as well. Jerry White the AAA Secretary happened to be in town on a family visit so he also joined us. He was able to provide some information about the association, which assisted me in recruiting a few more members. Bob Bartlett made a late but welcome appearance. Al Hobby, who we have not seen for some time, joined the usual suspects for a good natter. The hardcore of Al, Peter, Ken, Dennis, Pete, Steve, Bill, Greg, George and Jack kept the conversation moving along.

Paul Dilks came down from Bendigo. He had a good time and just made it to the last train after a nice feed at Little Malaysia. Ted Maxwell again made the journey from Metung "Hippy" Akers from Moonambel was subdued this year, at least up until I left him at about 9.30 in a noisy bar. He, Len Gacka, Geoff Goss and Bill Riley were still going strong.

All in all, despite the unusually high number of apologies, it was another successful day. I look forward to next year.

Graeme Monkhouse.