Ceylon Society - Melbourne Chapter

The Committee of the Ceylon Society of Australia recognised the enthusiasm of members residing in Melbourne and decided that it would be desirable to establish a Melbourne Chapter which could hold meetings with guest speakers.

Foundation Meeting

The founder members of the Melbourne Chapter were:

• Dr Srilal Fernando
• Shelagh Goonewardene
• Kyle Joustra
• Lal Karunanayake
• Melvin and Ruth Pinto
• Godfrey Perera
• Beverley Roberts
• Darnley de Souza

First Meeting 

The first meeting of the Melbourne Chapter was held on 19 March 2000. The speaker was journalist Teresa Cannon, who together with Peter Davies, co-authored the book "Aliya". Teresa and Peter made a joint presentation with slides on the "elephants of Sri Lanka".

About 60 people were present at this meeting including Hugh Karunanayake, Vama Vamadevan and the later David Goodrich from Sydney.

The Foundation Members in Melbourne were quickly augmented by:

• Cedric Forster
• Sarath and Rosalie Gunatunga
• Hemal and Ratna Gurusinghe
• Victor Melder
• Ayoma Perera
• Tilak Wijewardene
• Rodney St John

Guest Speakers and their presentations

The Melbourne Chapter thanks all the guest speakers that have made excellent presentations since that first meeting on 19 March 2000.