This was a wonderful presentation  at last week’s zoom meeting . The speaker was Julian Mather. He entertained us with a long detailed list of personal experiences .  He has written many books . The book “ The second best job in the world “  was the heading of his address. Many of us wondered which job was regarded as the best  job in the world . We agreed with his choice of  David Attenborough who surveys the  animal and plant life on Earth
Julian shared some adventures from his 25 years on the job. For as long as he could remember Julian Mather wanted to be a photojournalist, then he got side-tracked. Wry humour infused his engaging talk to us from Brisbane via Zoom.  Julian told us how he was blindfolded in a helicopter and taken to the secret location of the Woolemi Pine in Queensland, and the scary abseiling to reach the bottom of the gorge, how by chance he missed a flight that crashed, maiming and killing people he had recently met, and about people who had influenced his life.
He described three wrong assumptions that many make about their own lives:             
1.that being taught and learning are the same thing,                                                         
2.that you can win the new game by playing with the old rules,                                         
3. that you are "not good enough".      Julian told us how he overcame these assumptions. 
Julian  has seen the world through many lenses: 
  • Through a telescopic sight as an army sniper
  • Through the TV lens as a globe-trotting cameraman for ABCTV, National Geographic and  BBC Discovery
  • Through smoke and mirrors as a professional magician
Julian has earned his living and excelled in all three. But he didn’t do it alone. 
His ringside view of life had him literally falling into the arms of murderers and rapists, following base jumpers on their quest to launch off the world’s highest cliffs and hanging out with the world’s happiest man.
Julian spoke  to us from Brisbane where he lives and he joined us slightly late not having realised that Melbourne is now on daylight saving time
Julian Mather has seen the world through many lenses: 
  • Through a telescopic sight as an army sniper
  • Through the TV lens as a globe-trotting cameraman for ABCTV, National Geographic and  BBC Discovery
  • Through smoke and mirrors as a professional magician                      
  • Julian’s address could be summed up as follows :
  • Why it's important to adopt a learning mindset.
  • Why you are 100% responsible for your life.
  • How change is a process and not an event
Unfortunately Julian stopped addressing us having reached the end of our meeting. We could have listened to him for another hour