Local Groups

Leyon has been a sceptic ever since he attended his first Sunday School class at the Moss Vale Presbyterian Church when he was 6 years old.

He did not fully realise it of course until he was about 14 and gave up attending church to join that other great Australian Sunday tradition, laying on the beach with his mates at his local surf lifesaving club in the Southern suburbs of Wollongong.

As a teenager his irreverence for authority extended beyond the ecclesiastical and into the political realm, not that he was successful in getting Gough elected in time to keep him out of Vietnam as a conscript.

Being born with bent towards rational thinking he eventually graduated in Civil Engineering from the NSW Institute of Technology and a few years later he and his wife, Kim, traded in the congested lifestyle of Sydney for the mountains and rivers of Tasmania where he has since fathered two Tasmanians. Leyon has been working for the Hobart City Council since arriving in Hobart in 1982 where he helps to take care of the City's roads, traffic and parking assets.

Leyon is an avid reader of books by free thinkers and identifies Charles Darwin as his most admired man in history.

He rates the book "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan as having influenced him more than any other.

When Leyon is not relaxing tasting the delights of the world's best pinot noirs(Tasmanian of course) he can be found at any number of coastal locations along the East Coast of Tasmania diving for his daily quota of Tasmanian abalone which he claims is the real reason he chose to come to Australia's South Island".

Immediate Past President: Dr Bryan Walpole

Bryan is a most amiable bloke, charming even - on a good day. He is unaware of what I have written about him. So, as I do not owe him any money, what I have to say is unadorned. He is a highly skilled surgeon and specialised for years in emergency medicine. Nowadays he has less pressure in his life, but he still patches up the ailing or injured citizens of Hobart who need a little surgical re-arrangement. He also helps to train medical students and does other worthy work.

Bryan has visited all manner of remote places like Pitcairn Island and the North Pole by working Ship’s Doctor on various vessels. (Bryan has been to more places than anyone I know, except the bloke I met in Moscow who travelled the world working as a “money washer”. Ed.)

Bryan was our President for several years and thus has the emeritus role of Immediate Part President. Bryan’s other skills include being the kind of gourmet cook that most women dream of knowing: and he brews the best home brew I have ever drunk. So we not only get the benefit of his advice and – if we remain lucky – he may keep providing wondrous meals for committee meetings. Bryan is indeed a man of many talents.

Vice-President: Alan Bottomley

Alan Bottomley was born on VE Day (8 May 1945). He studied Science at the University of Tasmania, graduating in 1968 (BSc (Hons)). Since then he has pursued a successful career in Electronics, Engineering and Inventing.

Alan is fascinated by science and loves its power to give us an understanding of Nature, the World and the Universe. He joined the Skeptics in about 1990 as he was increasingly becoming aware of the need for an organisation that could talk sense about the world and counter a lot of very silly beliefs about the paranormal, superstition, UFO's etc.

More recently he has become interested in WHY humans seem to have such a predilection for believing in paranormal things in the face of there being absolutely no solid evidence for anything of the kind!

Alan likes to think that humans, as a species, will gradually overcome this predilection which seems to be a defect that has evolved into our psyche. Possibly one of the best ways to address this problem is to teach critical thinking skills in schools.

Treasurer: Prof Garth Paltridge

Used to be a physicist until he became corrupted by climate science (sic?). He was conned into the Skeptics after giving a talk to the annual convention in Hobart. He is Treasurer because he is supposed to be able to add up (or is it to take away?). Garth spent a lot of his life in the CSIRO Atmospheric Research Division flying silly looking instruments on more-or-less anything that flies. Spent another slab of time with IASOS (what IS that??) at the University of Tasmania trying unsuccessfully to look wise about things Antarctic. Went mad after retirement and started to take piano lessons. Suffice it to say that electronic pianos with earphones are a boon to the surrounding personnel.

Secretary: Fred Thornett

Fred Thornett J.P., Retired Gentleman. Born Cunderdin, W.A. 28/11/38. Teacher's Certificate (Claremont Teachers' College), B.A., Dip.Ed., (UWA), M.Soc.Sci. (UTAS). Sometime soldier, salesman, teacher, psychologist, management consultant, personnel manager and federal official. Last full time employment was Director (Benefits and Health) for Dept. of Veterans Affairs in Tasmania. Former teacher at Hobart TAFE, the Shanghai University of Science and Technology and at the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages. Currently part-time member of the Mental Health Tribunal. Former sidelines as Army Reserve officer and importer. Currently voluntary Bench Justice in traffic, bail and committal courts. Regular Tutor at U3A – mainly about things Russian and the philosophy and history of science Convenor of the MX5 Club of Victoria (Hobart Chapter). Bush Stroller (with a very small pack). Senior Fellow of the Tasmanian Order of Chastity (Second Class).

Sceptical interests: trying to understand why most people do not believe that the scientific method is the true Holy Grail which has delivered us the modern world for good and ill. He is currently listed on the IPCC’s Most Abhorred list as a “Climate Change Skeptic” for suggesting that global warming and its solutions are less well understood than is asserted by many politicians - and others who should know better.

Douglas Beath - Committee Member for the North

Douglas is a retired engineer of Scottish provenance and wide intellectual interests. Douglas is a good chap who has a most impressive Scots accent. Rumour has it that he refused to emigrate until he had perfected it. He now resides in Burnie region. No other information has penetrated the North-South divide.

Chris Sharples – Committee Member

Chris Sharples is a Tasmanian-born geologist cum geomorphologist who actually believes that the scientific method of testing hypotheses against the evidence is the only means we have of obtaining reliable information about the world and the nature of things. Chris is consequently both appalled and fascinated by the bizarre social phenomenon of religious belief, and as a result of this fascination he has in the past spent altogether too much time having futile conversations with creationists, Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Apart from religion, his other main pet hate is writing bios like this. As far as his professional interests go, you can find out all he would want you to know by Googling him.

Paul Turvey – Committee Member

Paul works for “The Hydro”. So here is a photo from his collection. It shows him watching the first half a dozen wind generators on the job. These were installed at Woolnorth near the very windy NW tip of Tasmania to produce cleaner, greener, all-naturaler electricity. (A pity about the occasional wedge-tailed eagles, orange breasted parrots and such that get minced by the fast rotating blades.)

(I have been informed by spies in the Environment Movement that within 50 years “The Hydro” hopes to cover the entire island with wind generators. Pity about the forests, but protecting the environment has to have the occasional small downside. Ed.)

For many years the thoughts of Philip Adams, Dick Smith and other skeptics who professed wisdom made sense to Paul. These guys spoke the truth, it was logical and it was easy to follow. If that was what being a Skeptic was all about then that’s what attracted him to join. His current views are wider far.

As a growing lad he often assisted his grandfather, a conjurer and magician, as he entertained and mystified audiences. It was this privilege of seeing how easily people were conned into believing what could not possibly be true that convinced Paul that no matter what you see or hear, “It ain’t necessarily so”!

The search for the reason why things work the way they do and a suspicion of fortune tellers, clairvoyants and other purveyors of wisdom has been answered by the opportunity to congregate with the wise members of the Tasmanian Skeptics. At last, life has meaning!

When not sending out invitations to ‘Skeptics In The Pub’ evenings or looking for the truth on the internet, Paul is active in the Hobart Computer Users Group, West Hobart Neighbourhood Watch and obeying the wishes of his wonderful wife, Vicki.