People Helping People
I've always been active in helping people to help each
other. After all... "People are people through
people." And, as anyone who gets actively involved in
community and other activities learns, you get back much more that you put
in. Some of my activities over the years have included:
YMCA and Spartans Basketball Clubs
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YMCA Basketball Club Logo. |
At the tender age of 16, I took on the job of
secretary of the YMCA Basketball Club in Whyalla, South Australia.
I was a key part of us merging merging with another club to form
the Spartans Basketball Club. I came up with the name and the logo.
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Spartans Basketball Club Logo. |
I also played in the A-grade side,
coached the under-16s and C-grade teams and was an active
referee. My younger brother, Kym "Stork" Borrett, played
in the NBA for the Adelaide 36ers and for Australia.
Audio Recording Engineer
For a year or so I spent most of my weekends and many
evenings at "Mixmaster Recording Studios",
a small 8-track recording studio in Glenhuntly Road, Glenhuntly.
Engineering demo tapes for bands was fun, especially if they could
tune their instruments!
It was simply fabulous to work with some of the leading session musicians as the
recording engineer and/or producer of many commercial
recordings. I have some tapes stashed away that would
cause severe embarrassment to some of Australia's top
musicians.
Magazine Columnist
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Your Computer. |
Some early Australian PC users may remember me from
the first IBM-PC column — "Your IBM Computer"
— in Your Computer magazine which started in
early 1983. Later, I became a columnist for Today's
Computer magazine.
I was also editor and main contributor for the Melbourne PC User
Group magazine PC Update in its early years. I
have also written for a few other prominent publications
from time to time.
You can find some of the articles I've
written over the years online here.
PC Connection Australia BBS
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PC Connection Australia BBS Logo. |
I started Australia's first MS/PC-DOS based Bulletin
Board System in 1984 on an original IBM PC with 256KB of
RAM, a 10MB hard disk drive and a Sendata 300 baud modem.
Over time, PC Connection Australia grew into a
multiuser system supporting 12 lines at 9600 baud and
over 2,500 regular paying users. (For someone who's been
into PC communications for so long, I was a bit late
coming to the Internet and the World Wide Web in
1995.)
Melbourne PC User Group
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Melbourne PC User Group Logo. |
Many Victorian's may know me as the founder and
inaugural President of the Melbourne PC User
Group , at one time the largest such
group in the world.
I floated the idea for a Melbourne IBM-PC user group in
my September 1983
column in Your Computer magazine.
The initial growth of this group was amazing. Some 60
people attended the first meeting at Computer Power's
offices in November 1993. About 150 people attended the
second meeting at IBM's offices in February 1994. The
group then moved its meetings to Clunies Ross House where
it was typical to have 400 plus people attend the main
monthly meetings. At its peak Melb PC had more than 12,000
members.
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Lloyd Borrett "At The Helm" of the Melbourne PC User Group. |
In November 1987, my article A History of Melb PC first appeared in PC Update magazine.
It's a history of the first four years of Melb PC.
In May 2000, after a long period of inactivity in
group affairs, I was invited to join the Ethics
subcommittee. The purpose of this subcommittee is to
resolve possible conflict arising from strong
differences of opinion amongst members. Selection
criteria for this subcommittee included that the people
be "of high standing within the group, perceived to
be persons of high integrity, to be wise, level-headed
and impartial." Now that's something to live up to!
Waikerie Gliding Club
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Waikerie Gliding Club Logo. |
In my twenties I took up gliding (soaring). No,
not hang gliding, but real gliders. Proper aircraft, without engines.
My home club was the Waikerie
Gliding Club in South Australia, one of the
world's leading centres for cross country gliding. Over
the years I gained my Silver and Gold badges and a few
Diamond badges.
The first competition I entered was an
International one and I won it! I haven't flown in a
competition since. Why spoil a perfect record!
I soon concentrated on passenger flying and instructing instead.
It's simply great introducing people to something as
wonderful as the sensations of soaring in a glider.
Glenaroua Rural Fire Brigade
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Glenaroua Rural Fire Brigade. |
Now this was a pretty laid back brigade in my time there, but none
the less got the job done. I was as active in it as
most members, which isn't saying a lot! But, we all would do
our regular rostered duty.
My most memorable experience
was a day spent burning off fire breaks at the
Puckapunyal Army Base. Care had to be taken not to drive
over any unexploded shells for as the army adviser put
it, "The explosion won't just give your truck a
puncture, it'll wipe out the fire truck and everyone
aboard!"
I served as Secretary of the fire brigade and built a database
of members, plus landholders and residents in the area.
Having this resource made notifying people of events and fundraising
much easier.
Victorian Sub-Aqua Group (VSAG)
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Victorian Sub-Aqua Group (VSAG) logo. |
In mid 2006, I joined the Victorian Sub-Aqua Group (VSAG),
the world's second oldest non-commercial scuba diving club.
I soon established a website for the club (see www.vsag.org.au)
and joined the committee in 2007.
Bass Strait Aquatic Club (BSAC BSAC)
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Bass Strait Aquatic Club logo. |
In 2007, I helped to co-found the Bass Strait Aquatic Club (BSAC BSAC) as
a branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC).
I served on the committee and established a website for the club.
Victorian Artificial Reef Society (VARS)
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Victorian Artificial Reef Society (VARS) logo. |
In 2007, I joined the Victorian Artificial Reef Society (VARS)
and soon established a website for the society.
Later I created the HMAS Canberra website to promote temperate water
diving in Victoria, Australia. In 2009 I became a member of the VARS committee.
Local time: 11:03 pm Monday 17 November 2025
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