Tell us a bit about what that looks like and what your motivation was there, and maybe a bit of the goals historically, and then I know it's kind of shifted recently for the council.

Yeah, I've been on the...

Dairy Council of California for several years, my father was.

It was kind of ironic, that was the only board he encouraged me to get onto, because he was for many years himself also, because he said, boy, this is really a good board to see what they're doing as far as staff programs, identifying the things with schools and consumers about the nutritional advantages of dairy and how it's so beneficial.

So it has been one of those probably more enjoyable boards to see what we're doing as the industry.

Once again, you have those who are talking negative or once again, don't have the true facts or the science behind things.

So being on there, of course, they're over 100 years old now.

And can you talk a little bit about some of the team that they have and the messages that they're carrying ahead?

Were you blindsided by this?

I suppose I was, yeah.

I, I mean, I, I, um...

We're going through a difficult period, clearly.

Um, and so...

But it hadn't, hasn't felt any different to, to, um, other weeks.

And again, I, I've, I've been r- really well supported over a long period of time with, um, with a plan that we put in place.

When you get word from the board that this is gonna happen, and Andrew Welsh and Tim Roberts, that this is the way going forward, how do you respond after them being so publicly backing you, behind you over the last and, and first six weeks and then the, the 12 in total?

When you get word from the board that this is going to happen and Andrew Welsh and Tim Roberts that this is the way going forward, how do you respond after them being so publicly backing you, behind you over the last and first six weeks and then the 12 in total?

Well, pragmatic, I think is the word.

I mean, I accepted this challenge at Essendon because it was such a challenge.

I knew it was going to be a really hard job, and that was part of the appeal.

I feel a bit sadistic saying that, but that was the appeal.

I was really... about the opportunity to try and turn around a great club that had been starved of success for a long time.

But after about round 16 or 17, when we were top four on the ladder, and I knew we weren't a top four side, we had a lot of work to do.

So do you take any responsibility and do you think it was the right decision to sack you?

Monitoring volcanoes must have really changed in the 50 years you were involved with it.

Uh, yeah, big, some big significant changes.

Um, the real key, um, time that's moved it forward was the science reforms in the early 1990s, um, the creation of the CRIs, and that's when different parts of DSIR were brought together into, um, GNS Science.

And that brought the chemists, the geophysicists, the geologists, um, brought us all together in one organization instead of working across multiple organizations, and that ultimately led to the, the creation of the volcano, the Volcano Monitoring Group.

Um, and that's, yeah, really the, one of the things I'm really proud about, um, is the formation of that group and what we've been able to achieve in the 30 odd years since.

So I presume a lot of your work is in the office at a computer modeling and so forth, but have you got up close with volcanoes and erupting can- uh, volcanoes yourself?

Yeah.

Um, in fact, a lot of my career was the other way around.