Retirement

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Retirement
I was featured on the cover of the Probus magazine (43,000 qtly) in 2014 as "Frank Sinatra"???

For most people, a lot of their life social interaction revolves around work and work colleagues. Retirement comes as shock when that interaction is gone. It is critical to a happy and healthy retirement that pro-active steps are taken to create new social interactions. This takes a bit of effort. Options include volunteering, joining clubs which interest you, becoming a sporting club supporter, group travel, attending classes or talks in a subject of interest, public speaking etc. A bit of self analysis is needed.

Volunteering

I spent 2015-2018 volunteering with the Sydney Heritage Fleet (formerly the Sydney Maritime Museum) which specialises in restoring and operating historic vessels. During that time I crewed on the historic tall ship SV James Craig 1874 doing numerous offshore day cruises and short sea voyages to Jervis Bay and Broken Bay. A fantastic experience. For more see Sports/sailing.

I met a guy on a walk who volunteers with the Australian Museum. He has become an expert on molluscs which includes oysters. If you have an interest in astronomy, NASA has a large group of volunteers helping with the analysis of their enormous volumes of space data. Then of course there is social volunteering like "Meals on Wheels" or volunteering in hospitals or patient transport. One of our neighbours is a rotating vessel guide volunteer at the National Maritime Museum. Another is a guide at the Sydney Opera House. A former advertising agency colleague runs Marine Rescue NSW at the Spit in Sydney https://www.marinerescuensw.com.au/

To get started, find an organisation or institution you would be interested in joining and supply the with your interests, qualifications and abilities. Interested in helping your community? NRMA has an Australian Resilience Corps https://tinyurl.com/yc3bbfh3. Interested in gardening? Try a garden club https://gardenclubs.org.au/locate-a-club/ and so on.

Local Councils

Contact your local council. The Northern Beaches Council, for example, provides several online resources to find community organisations, charities, and groups. You can locate specific services using the following Council directories:

Conferences and Meetings

I attended a conference at the National Maritime Museum about NSW Marine National Parks sussing out volunteering opportunities.

Franchising

You can always buy a franchise and get someone to run it if it is any good. There are franchising consultants who might be able to help with this.

Commercial Recruitment Services

Some of the commercial recruitment services have specialised volunteering services https://www.volunteer.com.au/

Probus

A Probus Xmas lunch at Manly Golf Club

Probus is the retirement version of Rotary but you do not have to have been in Rotary to become a member of a Probus Club. Probus is a fantastic retirement option for creating new social contacts, meeting new friends and discovering new activities. My Probus club has recently introduced Pickle Ball which has become very popular. Probus is a large organisation with over 1400 clubs in Australia and NZ with 100,000+ members. It is celebrating its 50th anniversary in Australia this year (2026). https://probussouthpacific.org/find-a-probus-club/ See the central column of this blog for current examples of my Probus club activities.

Manly Probus Club (Sydney)

I spent 18 wonderful years in Manly Probus Club, Guest Speaker 4 years, President (2010) when I drove the process for MPC to change from a Mens' club to a mixed club. I developed the club's first web site in 2008. Many of our members were ex WW II war veterans. Our Treasurer was in the Australian Army Signals Corps and was one of the first Australians into Japan after the surrender. He went to Hiroshima one month after the bomb had been dropped. Another member was a navigator on the mosquito pathfinders leading the bomber fleets into Germany. Amazing welcoming people.