Stace and Hall family histories

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Details: Written by: Richard_McKie; Parent Category: History; Category: Recollections; Published: 04 April 2014; Hits: 222449

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The following family history relates to my daughter Emily and her mother Brenda. It was compiled by my niece Sara Stace, Emily’s first cousin, from family records that were principally collected by Corinne Stace, their Grandmother, but with many contributions from family members. I have posted it here to ensure that all this work is not lost in some bottom draw. This has been vindicated by a large number of interested readers worldwide.

The copyright for this article, including images, resides with Sara Stace.

Thus in respect of this article only, the copyright statement on this website should be read substituting the words 'Sarah Stace' for the words 'website owner'.

Sara made the original document as a PDF and due to the conversion process some formatting differs from the original. Further, some of the originally posted content has been withdrawn, modified or corrected following requests and comments by family members.

Richard

Stace and Hall family histories

a summary

Stace Lucas Bannister Fawkner Peed Hall Venables Mears Cutbush Nairn Pontifex

Compiled by Sara Stace, 2013

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Travel

China

I first visited China in November 1986. I was representing the New South Wales Government on a multinational mission to our Sister State Guangdong. My photo taken for the trip is still in the State archive [click here]. The theme was regional and small business development. The group heard presentations from Chinese bureaucrats and visited a number of factories in rural and industrial areas in Southern China. It was clear then that China was developing at a very fast rate economically.

Fiction, Recollections & News

The Book of Mormon

Back in the mid 1960's when I was at university and still living at home with my parents in Thornleigh, two dark suited, white shirted, dark tied, earnest young men, fresh from the United States, appeared at our door.

Having discovered that they weren't from IBM my mother was all for shooing them away. But I was taking an interest in philosophy and psychology and here were two interesting examples of religious fervour.

As I often have with similar missionaries (see: Daniel, the Jehovah’s Witness in Easter on this Website), I invited them in and they were very pleased to tell me about their book. I remember them poised on the front of our couch, not daring or willing to sit back in comfort, as they eagerly told me about their revelation.

And so it came to pass that a week ago when we travelled to Melbourne to stay with my step-son Lachlan and his family and to see the musical: The Book of Mormon I was immediately taken back to 1964.

Opinions and Philosophy

Manufacturing in Australia

This article was written in August 2011 after a career of many years concerned with Business Development in New South Wales Australia. I've not replaced it because, while the detailed economic parameters have changed, the underlying economic arguments remain the same (and it was a lot of work that I don't wish to repeat) for example:

between Oct 2010 and April 2013 the Australian dollar exceeded the value of the US dollar and that was seriously impacting local manufacturing, particularly exporters;
as a result, in November 2011, the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) reduced the cash rate (%) from 4.75 to 4.5 and a month later to 4.25; yet
the dollar stayed stubbornly high until 2015, mainly due to a favourable balance of trade in commodities and to Australia's attraction to foreign investors following the Global Financial Crisis, that Australia had largely avoided.

2011 introduction:

Manufacturing viability is back in the news.

The loss of manufacturing jobs in the steel industry has been a rallying point for unions and employers' groups. The trigger was the announcement of the closure of the No 6 blast furnace at the BlueScope plant at Port Kembla. This furnace is well into its present campaign and would have eventually required a very costly reline to keep operating. The company says the loss of export sales does not justify its continued operation. The remaining No 5 blast furnace underwent a major reline in 2009. The immediate impact of the closure will be a halving of iron production; and correspondingly of downstream steel manufacture. BlueScope will also close the aging strip-rolling facility at Western Port in Victoria, originally designed to meet the automotive demand in Victoria and South Australia.

800 jobs will go at Port Kembla, 200 at Western Port and another 400 from local contractors. The other Australian steelmaker OneSteel has also recently announced a workforce reduction of 400 jobs.

This announcement has reignited the 20th Century free trade versus protectionist economic and political debate. Labor backbenchers and the Greens want a Parliamentary enquiry. The Prime Minister (Julia Gillard) reportedly initially agreed, then, perhaps smelling trouble, demurred. No doubt 'Sir Humphrey' lurks not far back in the shadows.

So what has and hasn't changed (disregarding a world pandemic presently raging)?

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