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2019 Guests of Honour
Peter McAuslan and Ellen Bounsall
Peter McAuslan
Peter McAuslan graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Sir George Williams University in 1972. He then worked for the Montreal Y.M.C.A. as a community organizer and at Dawson College where he held various administrative responsibilities over thirteen years. He held the position of secretary-general when he left the college in 1987.
In 1988, he founded the McAuslan Brewing Company, a groundbreaking and internationally respected small brewery that he led as president until the sale of the firm in 2013. Peter has served as president and vice president of the Quebec Microbrewery Association and as a director of the Brewers Association of Canada. Peter is a past president of the Concordia Alumni Association and a previous member of the Concordia University Board of Governors.
Along with his brewmaster wife Ellen, Peter received a McGill Management Award in 2002. He was named a fellow of the Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies at McGill in 2003. In 2004, he received the Award of Distinction from the John Molson School of Business of Concordia University.
In 2003 and 2012, Peter was awarded the Queen's Jubilee medals. He was named Scotsman of the Year by the Quebec Thistle Council in 2001 and Personality of the Year in the category of Business and the Arts by the Conseil des Arts de Montréal and Le Devoir in 2008. Peter was awarded the Order of Canada in 2018 for his pioneering work in the development of the small brewing industry in Canada, his commitment to the support of the arts, and his leadership in establishing the Chair of Canadian-Scottish Studies at McGill University.
Peter is a past president of the St. Andrew's Society of Montreal and has been a life member since 1985.
He is the founder and president of the McAuslan Malting and Distilling Corporation which owns and markets spirits in Quebec. Currently the company offers Peter's own brand of gin, and has both rye whisky and single malt whisky quietly aging in oak casks. Peter and Ellen share their Sutton home with four dogs and spend most of their time in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.
Peter is proud of his Quebec Scottish heritage, having roots in Quebec going back to 1772 on his mother's side and to 1920 on his father's.
Ellen Bounsall
After completing a BSc in Science, Ellen Bounsall began her career at Dawson College as an academic adviser for science students. She held a number of administrative positions at the college and was registrar when she left in 1989 to help her husband Peter found Brasserie McAuslan. Ellen took charge of production and was the brewmaster until the company was sold in 2013. During these years she learned the art of brewing while running the production facility and managing the packaging and quality assurance departments with upwards of eighty employees. In 2002, she oversaw the acquisition, installation and commissioning of a new brewing facility. Her beers won numerous awards and worldwide acclaim. In 2002, Ellen was awarded jointly with Peter the 22nd Annual McGill University Management Achievement Award, and in 2012 at the AMBQ Congress Gala she received the award "Bâtisseur" to recognize her role as a pioneer in the micro-brewing industry.
Ellen has been a member of the Scholarship Committee of the Pink Boots Society, a group formed to encourage women brewers. She served on the organizing committee for the St. Andrew's Ball and worked to create and run for several years the silent auction held during the ball. In August 2016, Ellen joined the Board of Trustees of Stanstead College, and in 2018 she was named a director. As a member of the Property and Environmental Committee, she oversaw the design and construction of Cowen House, the new residence for senior students which opened this fall.
Ellen is proud of her paternal Scottish heritage (Clan Cochrane), and her maternal Québécois roots have been traced back to the 1690s.
2018 Guest of Honour
Ronald Munro Ferguson
Born in 1955, Ronald Munro Ferguson was brought up at Novar, in Ross-shire the family home of the Munro's of Novar since 1589. He was educated at Stowe and the University of Texas at Austin where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration. He obtained a pilot's licence while at university and flew across America.
He worked for a Saudi Arabian Bank in London before returning home in 1985 to focus on enterprises at Novar. Ronald is the 15thhereditary laird of Novar and has maintained the traditions of the estate while creating a vibrant, modern business with interests in renewable energy, forestry, sawmilling, property development, farming, tourism and most recently the creation of a single estate cider alongside his son, William.
The 8th Laird, Sir Hector Munro was colonel of the 42ndHighland Regiment of Foot (The Black Watch) from 1787 – 1805 and was presented with the Regimental Colours in 1803. He laid them up in the gallery of Novar, 'never to be removed from it so long as one stone of the house remains above another'.They are the oldest surviving colours of the Regiment.
Ronald is a member of the Northern Meeting, a Highland society founded in 1788. He was Convener from 2012 – 2015. During his convenership and together with the secretary Nigel Campbell, they instigated the creation of The Northern Meeting Charity with objectives to help support social interaction through music, dance, sport and outdoor activities in the seven Northern Counties of Scotland.
Ronald is a keen collector and is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars in the City of London.
Ronald enjoys travel. He is a skier, mountain-biker, gardener, outdoorsman and skied the last degree to the South Pole in December 2016.
Ronald has three children with his first wife. He married Erica, a veterinary surgeon in 2002.
Ronald and Erica have been responsible jointly for many of the recent improvements at Novar including the creation of Ardtalla, a luxury lodge, converted from the 18th century stable square.
Sir Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor Bt.
Sir Malcolm MacGregor of MacGregor is the 24th chief of Clan Gregor and Chieftain of the Children of the Mist, the most romantic title in Scotland.
Born in 1959, he spent his early life travelling the world with his parents as his father was a serving officer in the Scots Guards. He grew up in Malaysia, Greece and the USA. From the USA the family returned to Perthshire in Scotland and lived at the family home in the heart of MacGregor country, near Balquhidder. Having been educated at Eton College, he worked and travelled in the United States for a year.
On return, he joined Scotland's Regiment of Foot Guards, the Scots Guards. He served in the Middle East, SE Asia and Europe, interspersed with operations in Northern Ireland. He was assigned for two years to 6th Gurkha Rifles in Hong Kong and Nepal. His final appointment was Chief of Staff of 51 Highland Brigade, descendants of the famous 51st Highland Division, based in Perth. From there he went to Cranfield University attaining an MBA.
He then spent many months in Oman photographing for his book 'Wilderness Oman' and completed additional photographic projects in the country. Other work has taken him to Iceland and France. Photography in Scotland has been marked by two books: 'The Outer Hebrides' and 'Mull, Iona and Staffa'.
In 2008 he was assigned to the HALO Trust, a humanitarian mineclearance charity, photographing their dangerous work in countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Somaliland, Cambodia, Georgia and Kosovo. He returned to Helmand province in Afghanistan to photograph the Scots Guards on operations. Currently, he is a features photographer and writer for Scots Heritage, an online magazine.
Sir Malcolm is a member of the Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers. He is a fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Photographic Society. He is Convenor of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, representing the worldwide clan network on various bodies in Government and tourism.
He is married to Lady MacGregor whose professional name is Fiona Armstrong. She is a well-known broadcaster with Border/Tyne-Tees TV, ITN and the BBC. Additionally, she writes about Scottish history and current affairs in Scotland for various publications in the UK and the USA. She has recently received a PHD from Strathclyde University on the subject of Highlandism in the Victorian era. She was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Dumfries, by Her Majesty the Queen in 2016. They live in Dumfriesshire.
Ian Skone-Rees
Ian was born in Swansea S. Wales. His maternal grandfather was a Scot (MacColl) and his paternal grandmother (Currie), which clan he represents as Commissioner for the Pacific Region of the United States.
Ian and Eileen married in Los Angeles in 1972 and then returned to the UK where Eileen continued her education at University of Birmingham. Ian was working for the Shell oil company and they lived in Stratford-upon-Avon. Following Eileen's graduation they decided to move to
Los Angeles, where Eileen's parents lived, for two years while Ian attended university. Now 41 years later, and two children they are still in LA. During this time Ian worked in the aerospace industry as director of marketing for a components manufacturer; this required frequent travel to the UK, France and Germany. Following one of the cyclical aerospace downturns Ian established his own marketing communications company, initially providing services to the aerospace industry and then concentrating on public education promoting the successful strategies of school districts throughout southern California.
Following retirement Ian further immersed himself in the British community, serving as Vice President in various capacities for the British-American Chamber of Commerce. In 2005 Ian joined the St. Andrew's Society of Los Angeles and in 2014 after serving as Director of Communications was elected President. Ian has also served on the Executive Committee of the British United Services Club (BUSC).
Ian's father served in WWII in RAF bomber command and in 1943 was transferred to RCAF 428 Ghost Squadron flying Avro Lancasters. In honour of his father's service Ian is currently in the process of establishing a branch of the Royal British Legion in Los Angeles.
Charles Kinnoull
Charles Kinnoull is a Crossbench (independent) member of the House of Lords.
He was educated at Eton College and at Oxford University where he was an open scholar and read Chemistry. He went on to read law at the City University in London and was called to the Bar in 1990.
From 1990 to date he has worked at Hiscox, a specialist insurance group with offices in 12 countries. For 10 years until 2014 he was a member of the Executive Committee that ran the group and is now in a non-executive role.
Charles and his wife Clare live in Perthshire with their 4 children where they farm organically, producing vegetables, beef and lamb for the major UK supermarkets. Clare, who before marriage was the marketing Director of Mont Blanc UK, has on more than one occasion bought their own carrots at a supermarket in London.
Charles is a Captain in the Atholl Highlanders, the Duke of Atholl's private army, and is a member of The Queen's Bodyguard for Scotland (the Royal Company of Archers). He was with the Atholl Highlanders when they visited Montreal in 2000. In a very happy co-incidence Clare's Grandfather, Mervyn Crawford DSO, commanded the battalion designated the Atholl Highlanders from D-day until the end of the Second World War.
Charles is also President of The Royal Caledonian Charities Trust and Chairman of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust among various voluntary sector roles.
He was elected to the House of Lords in February 2015 and sits on the Select Committee on Social Mobility among other activities. He is a passionate unionist.


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Oakridge Redevelopment Explained In Infographics
By Nicole Soloveoff Oct 8, 2013, 12:30pm PDT
We're likely not the only ones who are bit perplexed by the the mega redevelopment plans for the 28-acre site at Oakridge Centre. The City nixed developer Ivanhoe Cambridge's first set of plans from last year and those guys just don't quit, do they? They are back this year with a revised set of plans hoping to get approval from the City this time around. The proposed 2013 rezoning shows an additional 25,000 square feet allocated for the civic centre which includes a community centre and childcare centre. There are also 130 more social housings units which is sure to make the City happy. · Revised Oakridge Centre proposal moves closer to public hearing [Vancouvermarket.ca]
· Oakridge Centre has some mega redevelopment plans [Curbed]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home/World News/Middle East/Iran/Vienna talks: Iran says no interactive, flexible attitude seen on other side
Vienna talks: Iran says no interactive, flexible attitude seen on other side
The spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry has said that while Iran entered talks in Vienna on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal with an interactive and flexible attitude, "this was not the case for the other side."
Saeed Khatibzadeh made the remarks at a weekly presser on Monday, adding that the Vienna talks have not been halted and that the next round will kick off later this week.
The exact date will be determined by Iran's chief negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani and the European Union's Deputy Secretary General Enrique Mora soon, the spokesman said.
The seventh round of high-level talks between Iran and the other parties to the nuclear agreement was held in the Austrian capital between Monday and Friday last week, after a five-month hiatus.
High on the agenda of the talks was the removal of US sanctions against Iran that would pave the way for the US return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, three years after it unilaterally left the deal and reinstated economic sanctions on Iran.
At the talks, the first under President Ebrahim Raeisi, the Iranian delegation presented two detailed draft texts: one on the removal of US sanctions and the other on Iran's return to its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA.
The participant JCPOA parties then asked to return to their capitals for further consultations.
Meanwhile, the US, which is not directly involved in the talks, blamed Iran for the pause, threatening once again to pursue "other options" if the talks turn out to be a dead-end.
"Iranian believe that the US is still the Great Satan," The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei
Iran Commemorates 29th Anniversary of Demise of Imam Khomeini (RA)
Imam Khomeini (r.a), "Keep Quds Day Alive"


The Land for Wildlife Top End was successful in receiving a grant from the NT Government's Department of Environment and Natural resources to carry out a project to allow landholders in the program to monitor wildlife using nest boxes that have been installed for arboreal mammals. With this grant we have purchased 12 motion sensing cameras, and a further 6 with our own funds. These are the Reconyx Hyperfire 2 newly released model!
We have been working with RIEL scientist Leigh-Ann Woolley to choose the best cameras and set up, to record nest box use and arboreal mammals and develop a citizen science style project. The project aims to engage landholders and allow them to know more about arboreal mammals on their property but also add to data and understanding of nest box use and mammal presence in the Top End.
We will lend the cameras in rounds, 3 months at a time to landholders that have installed nest boxes. Once we have captured photographs from the cameras we will have an intern opportunity for a university student to collate and interpret data.
After the first year we will have the cameras as an asset to our program which can be lent to landholders to monitor targeted wildlife species in different ways.
We invited our first group of landholders to a workshop at Riyala in Noonamah to learn about how to install and use the cameras.
We were joined by both Leigh-Ann Woolley and Jenni Risler, who have been studying the Black-footed Tree-rat. Leigh-Ann specifically has been studying nest box use on Coburg Peninsular and helped come up with bracket designs to hold cameras by nest box entrances. Jenni is has been researching the best camera trapping methods- so the perfect combination of assistance for us and our members!
Treenie at Land for Wildlife had made brackets for the cameras, with some landholders keen to try out some other versions.
We had a test camera up on one of the boxes at Riyala, to show everyone the installation set up. After just 3 days there was plenty of possum action caught on camera!
Landholders will install cameras for 3 months at a time and with assistance check that they are working. Some landholders attended and received new nest boxes and will set up cameras later in the program.
Ian Morris, who is one of the land managers at Riyala spent the afternoon showing interested landholders around the property an dhow he had restored areas to rainforest from flogged out pasture land.
Here's hoping that we capture some Black-footed Tree-rats on camera!
It's Threatened Species Day! Here is a wonderful (stylized) painting of the Black-footed Tree-rat which has been gifted to the Land for Wildlife program from local artist Sandra Kendall. These native rats are often mistaken as non natives or it is not known they are threatened. We are lucky that there are quite a few in the Darwin region. If you see these beautiful natives out and about, upload your sighting to Wildwatch! http://root.ala.org.au/bdrs-core/nt-dlrm/home.htm Note the white tip tail!
Our newest Land for Wildlife members (today) are long time Territorians: Leonnie and Alan Norrington. They have managed their 20 acre property for nearly 40 years, the majority is wildlife habitat and connects to 8 other LFW members in the area. They also joined up to our Black-footed Tree Rat project and will install 5 nest boxes and then motion sensing cameras to see who is using them. They are also the second new member to recieve a sign with the Black-footed Tree-rat, a threatened species declining from our Top End Landscapes.THANKS to all our members for voluntarily conserving wildlife habitat in the Top End region and helping protect threatened species such as the Black-footed Tree-rat.
Exciting new signs now feature the Black-footed Tree-rat.
We now have the BFTR featured on our new signs. We hope to promote these beautiful native animals and that they are endangered by incorporating them into our signage and programs for landholders.
The scientists at RIEL helped us draw the BFTR, although this is hard to depict exactly on a sign in a simple outline (and yes they are a bit darker) – but look at that tail: how could you not know this cutie!
Pictured are our first new members to receive the sign- Emma and her daughter in Mcminns Lagoon who joined up this week.
Today 2 exciting things happened- our Reconyx motion sensing cameras arrived. These are to be lent to landholders to really check out if arboreal mammals are using the nest boxes we have out on properties. A workshop will run in August to assist landholders to set them up and collect photos that will hopefully build a better understanding of nest box use. They will be lent to landholders for 8 weeks at a time.
Also today we picked up 25 more nest boxes to add to the 150 out there on Land for Wildlife properties. These were made by Palmerston Men's shed.
We are excited to announce that Land for Wildlife Top End is working with Charles Darwin University to assist with re-vegetation projects around the university Casuarina campus that replenish areas as native wildlife habitat.
Charles Darwin University are in the process of joining Land for Wildlife as an educational member. This is wonderful news that will create a whole range of opportunities for community engagement, educational collaboration and learning as well as of course habitat protection.
The Charles Darwin University campus at Casuarina is in a unique position, nestled into the Casausrina coastal reserve, which covers an area of 13.6 square kms of land. The Casaurina campus is across 2 tenures of land (totaling 58 hectares), the most northerly borders on Mangroves communities of the reserve. The campus includes many university buildings and landscaped gardens but also includes 8 hectares of remnant vegetation. The endangered Black-footed Tree-rats have been recorded in an area of this woodland and research scientists have installed nest boxes to enhance the habitat.
In the wet season, the Green Army assisted with planting 800 trees in areas adjacent to the CDU campus that had been cleared of Coffee Bush by the CDU amenities team. Our Green Army team also watered the plants each week once the rain had stopped, until their graduation in May. Now the amenities staff are keeping the areas watered and weed free.
Included in these trees was also a planting that was carried out by Conservation Land Management students, as part of their "Restore Natural Habitats unit". The Land for Wildlife coordinator joined students to give a background to the restoration and enhancement program for the Black-footed Tree-rats in Land for Wildlife. Students will continue to care for the plantings they carried out.
More plantings will continue this wet season in previously disturbed areas and a weed management and sustainability on campus plan is being developed by university staff, with consultation with Land for Wildlife.
We have been members of Land for Wildlife for nearly 8 years and remain committed to the broad objectives of 'caring for country' (aspects of which I shall return to later in this article). Having the sign on our gate is not so much a badge of honour, although we feel privileged to be members; rather, for us at least, it is a statement that we consider wildlife conservation and the protection of habitat to be a responsibility we have in choosing rural residency and lifestyle in the Top End. Not that we would have taken our responsibility any differently had we not joined Land for Wildlife; weed eradication, toad control and general upkeep would have continued as before but shared experience and the enrichment it brings by being members would have been missing.
Retirement brings the advantage of more time at home to observe but, paradoxically it seems, less time for upkeep (falling energy levels!). We certainly saw new visitors to our place this year and our bird population was more diverse and greater (with the notable exception of magpie geese). Over the last 10 years or so, a section of our property has hosted hundreds of magpie geese generally from late October until late December which night roost in the tops of mature E.tetradonta and provide the safest spots. Watching them land in flocks at dusk is fun because it resembles a car dodgem show because it inevitably leads to bump offs and much noise. But there were much fewer this year and they left in late November. With the wetter start to build-up this year on top of our third highest annual rainfall last year, I suspect the floodplains have provided an earlier yield of wild rice and Eleocharis for grazing.
Amongst the newcomers was a pair of raptors and juvenile (grey wing feathers). One of these magnificent adults is shown in Photo 1 perched on our upstairs verandah rail. We think it is a Collared Sparrowhawk -can anyone confirm?
We have also been delighted to have a nesting pair of Rainbow Pittas for the first time. They seem to like the area around our pool which is densely shaded and has copious leaf litter under the tree canopy where they have built two nests (Photo 2). It's fun watching them hopping about collect sticks and leaves for nesting with the size of the bundle in their beaks often dwarfing their heads – or is it only the male that collects and builds the nest? – can anyone help?
At the bottom of our drive, last month, we saw the arrival of a flock of around 20 Crimson Finches which spent time alternating between pandanus trees and a conveniently located puddle that served as a bird bath. We haven't seen them for some years, so it was pleasing to have them visit us.
Dealing with weeds at near ground level might be relatively straight-forward – albeit hard work and, at times, back-breaking but what if the weed dwarfs all other surrounding trees rising to well over 30 m and throws out suckers which extend as far as 50-100 m from the parent tree. Yes, sounds like a nightmare and it has been with the presence of an African Tulip tree which was planted before we bought our property 20 years ago.
Not only does it have an incredibly high growth rate in the tropics (ie of up to 5cm in trunk diameter/year), their wood is spongey, weak, and prone to break in storms. There are also reports that the pollen of their attractive flowers is poisonous to wild bees. Under Queensland legislation (Biosecurity Act, 2014) the African Tulip tree is classed as a restricted invasive plant. If it has not been banned for sale or planting in the NT, it ought to be.
So, this year with time on her hands, we decided to act and were spurned on by meeting the tree surgeons who so aptly demonstrated their skills at the nesting box programme organised by Emma and Land for Wildlife earlier this year. The tree was duly felled in June and it was great to watch these guys working with crampons, rope, and chainsaws. All the wood was retained on site and placed to provide habitat/refuges for wildlife. The trunk was sawn to near ground-level and treated with glyphosate which has been successful in killing the root system of the parent tree. Before and after shots are shown in Photos 3 & 4.
I am sure I share the sentiments of Land for Wildlife members when I say that I was disappointed to learn about how devastating the fires around the Berry Springs/Darwin River areas were this year and how hard work in establishing and conserving habitat (and nest boxes) can be so easily destroyed and undermined by repeated annual hot fires. It is unacceptable that some members experienced damage to their properties and wildlife conservation by trespass. Likewise, it is intolerable that some cat owners should choose to allow their pets to roam freely with the resulting devastation to wildlife everywhere but especially on neighbouring Land for Wildlifeproperties. Lack of weed control by some land owners continues to cause problems to some of us but also to the greater environment.
I do not believe 'the voice' in support of wildlife conservation and everything associated with good decision making in land use planning, and sustainable practices in land management, is strong enough. However, I want to quickly add that 'the voice' should not come from Land for Wildlife itself, but from us……it needs to be 'our voice' as individuals, as an independent group, including non-members who also share our values and objectives. Land for Wildlife, as an organisation relying upon government funding, cannot do that job for us, and must not.
I have always been struck by how successful other interest groups such as the fishos and hunters have been, and continue to be, in putting forward their views and in fighting issues that might affect their lifestyles in pursuit of their interests. They gain media time and attention. We simply don't.
So, I would like to propose a meeting of like minds, should they exist! I would be delighted to organise a meeting in February/March 2018 at which we might discuss the concept of self-help and its development, but I suggest we would need a quorum of at least 10 attendees to get the ball rolling. If you are interested, or simply want to comment, please send an email to humptydooer@hotmail.com marked 'Self-help' in the message title.
Have a great holiday, and all the best in the New Year.