WELCOME
The Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers was formed in 1962 to promote the art of change ringing in our two countries. There are currently around 350 members who ring at more than 70 bell towers throughout Australia and New Zealand.
Non-ringers might like this introduction to bellringing.
Ringers and potential ringers can contact our association's office bearers or local towers and ringers.
NEWS and ANNOUNCEMENTS
Updated: 28 October, 2024
Diana Bleby
Diana's funeral service will be at St Peter’s Cathedral, Adelaide, on Thursday, 7th November at 2:00pm.
2024 Sydney Ringing School - A Participant's Perspective 
For me, the Sydney Ringing School started at St Mary's Cathedral. The first challenge was the 100 steps up the tower, followed by a short traverse across the roof (with marvellous views of Sydney Harbour) before entering the ringing chamber. Compared with our tiny tower in Darwin, the ringing chamber is enormous, with plenty of seating and running water! After ringing, we headed up to have a look at the very impressive bells and then we headed off to the pub to join the other group of ringers for dinner.
We worked a lot on Plain Hunt over the weekend, focusing on exercises to improve our rope sight and timing and we all made significant progress.
The weekend was of enormous benefit to us. We left Sydney with our brains buzzing and felt like we had crammed a year's worth of learning into a long weekend! We have a number of new exercises and ideas to share with our tower back in Darwin.
It was wonderful to meet other regionally based ringers and hear their ringing journeys. Ringing at a wide range of different towers was also a novel experience for some of us new ringers and a good way to develop our skills.
A longer report and more and photos are available here.
Jo Cruickshank
St Mary's Star of the Sea, Darwin.
Sydney 12-Bell Weekend
Over 30 ringers took part in the annual ANZAB Sydney 12-Bell Weekend, 11-13 October.
The weekend commenced with 10 bell ringing at Christ Church St Laurence on Friday afternoon including a quarter peal of Grandsire Caters - a first of Caters for Inga Griffiths-Hunt, Patrick Meyer and Luka Sostarko. Inga and Patrick were the recipiants of this year's Young Ringers Scholarships and it was great to see them (and other young ringers) making the most of the opportunities.
Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday saw 10 and 12 bell ringing at St Mary's and St Andrew's Cathedrals, and an excellent workshop: "Stedman Cinques - calling positions, touches and peals, course ends and what to look out for when conducting" led by Thomas Perrins.
Both Inga and Patrick conducted 10-bell quarter peals (see here and here), and Luka rang Cambridge Maximus very capably. The weekend finished ten minutes early in a spectacular manner when the clapper of the 11th at St Andrew's broke.
See a more detailed report, including on the pre-weekend ringing at Goulburn, here.
Put next year's 12-Bell weekends in your diary (June in Adelaide and October in Sydney). If you're under 30, consider applying for a Young Ringers Scholarship of $500 towards travel and accommodation costs for next October's weekend. All ANZAB members can apply for subsidised accommodation for the weekends.
Phil Goodyer
Hoskins Day Ringing 2024
The Saturday band: Greg, Catherine, Tony, Marianne, Alan and Hannah
For Hoskins Day this year we rang before and after the 11am service, joined the lunch provided by the church and then rang a quarter peal. The day before was a Parish open day to celebrate 100 years of the Parish Centre. We were asked to ring for that and six of us rang for an hour from 10am - and we might have a new recruit from the people who came to watch and listen.
For the quarter peal, local ringers, Hannah Musgrove and Tony Pipe, were joined by four ringers from Turramurra in Sydney, including Jeff Price who conducted the mixed doubles. One method Hannah had never rung and one she had rung only a few plain courses 35 years ago! It was Tony's first quarter covering for doubles.
It is 25 years since the first ringing of the bells, which also involved a quarter peal that Hannah rang in.
Thanks to Elaine, Colin, Stephen and Jeff from Turramurra for joining other locals on the Sunday, and Marianne from Katoomba for joining us on the Saturday.
Hannah Musgrave
17 October 2024
ANZAB CPR Training and First Aid Assistance
ANZAB offers funding to all towers for ringers to train in Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and First Aid, to a maximum of two ANZAB members per tower. Each tower is also being offered a free poster providing details of CPR.
Read more about the Assistance scheme, and how to apply, by following this link.
in brief
Updated: 15 October 2024
There are no in brief items
anzab diary
Updated: 26 October, 2024
2024
25-28 October
Wellington. Wellington Ringing Festival
Register here
Contact:
10 November
NSW-ACT Branch Quarterly Committee Meeting
Contact:
16-17 November
Bathurst-Lithgow. Intermediate Ringing Course
Contact:
or
22-24 November
Armidale 28th Anniversary Weekend
Contact:
news archive
latest first
2024
Sydney Ringing School - A Participant's Perspective - 26 October
Sydney 12-Bell Weekend - 20 October
Hoskins Day Ringing 2024 - 17 October
Goulburn Extension - 11 October
Sydney Ringing School Interim Report - 7 October
Useful Publicity Resources - 26 September
Central Council of Church Bell Ringers AGM - 17 September
Ringing Towers
Latest issue:
vol.78, no.4, Spring 2024
Download the electronic version
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Deadline for next issue:
31 December 2024.
Early submissions appreciated,
and essential for longer articles.
Daylight Saving Time (DST)
New Zealand and Australia
New Zealand: DST commenced on 29 September 2024 (UTC +13 hours) and will cease on 6 April 2025 (UTC +12 hours).
New South Wales, A.C.T., Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia: DST commenced on 6 October 2024 (UTC +11 hours, South Australia UTC +10.5 hours) and will cease on 6 April 2025 (UTC +10 hours, South Australia UTC +9.5 hours).
Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory: No DST.