Kim Durban – training actors of the future in Ballarat, a multiple award-winning theatre director

John Welford –The Road to Nakuru, born in Kenya just after WW2. John has had many unique experiences.

David MacPhail – the plight of the Hazara Afghani refugees in Ballarat and more particularly their relatives left in Afghanistan dealing with famine and persecution this winter.

Jeremy Bannister – talking about his time as a professional rock’n’roll photographer in the 70s and 80s in London.

Fed Uni based track and field coach Neville Down has coached world competitive athletes and his coaching philosophy. One of personal integrity, hard work.

Mark Dorrity – Meltdown man whose body collapsed due to heat stress. The effect on his body and brain was like having a stroke. He confounded the doctors by teaching his brain and body to work again.

Wil Comiskey the Qld cattleman who competed in the world’s longest horse race twice – 1000km across Mongolia on a different horse every day. He came equal first on his first attempt.

Gary Charnock was blown up by a car bomb when serving in Norther Ireland in the British army. He now supports returned servicemen suffering from PTSD.

Seka Sumonja grew up in Yugoslavia during the nazi occupation, coming to Australia where she went from working as a barmaid to owning her own pubs in Melbourne.

Andrew Walsh has extensive experience creating, directing and managing large-scale events in Australia and throughout Asia, North America and Europe.

Kate Smyth Olympic marathon runner told us how she overcame illness and how she prepared physically and mentally for peak performance on race day.

Zavier Anderson told us of the challenges of a person living as transgender in Ballarat.

Dean Mighell ex-union boss now rescues people with mental illness using horses for equine therapy.

Luke Hura, animal trainer extraordinaire trains animals for TV, movies, commercials and theatre.

Musician Geoffrey Williams talked about growing up in Britain with serious racial discrimination. He has several albums to his name.

In 2013 Patrick Jones and his partner Meg took a road trip from Daylesford to Cape York and back with their 2 young kids and a Jack Russell ………. on two bicycles.

Grigory Torgovnikov emigrated from Russia after Peristroika to work for Melbourne Uni researching the use of microwaves for drying timber.

Mary O’Brien told us the Ballarat story of Andy who was abandoned by his parents and became institutionalised where he was abused and really didn’t stand a chance.

Lawrence Richmond told us about how he was managing a huge grain farm in the Ukraine.

Steve Davies from IBM in Ballarat told us of his life growing up in Swaziland and going to school with Nelson Mandela’s kids.

David Waldron told us stories of the dark side of Ballarat’s gold rush days.

Janice Newton told us about the story of Mullawallah the last King Billie of Ballarat.

Luda Kedova told the amazing story of the attempted communist revolutio0n in Tasmania in the early 20th century.

Jack Aghion has traced his family history back to the 15th century. As they were of the Jewish faith the family was persecuted during the Spanish inquisition.

Rita Holt told us stories from how she joined her new husband Rick in Moscow during the cold war as a junior diplomat.

John Smyth told the story of Ballarat’s wild Main Road during the gold rush days – full of hotels, brothels and gambling dens.

Lawrence Richmond told us bout his work running huge grain farms in Ukraine and Romania before and during the Russian war.

David Holmgren spoke about his life as an innovator and as one of the developers of the Permaculture system of sustainable food production.

Padma Giri spoke about Ballarat Future Shapers, a program for aspiring community leaders. She talked about her group’s project called ‘Life after Release’.

Bill Sutcliffe shared how he went from being seriously abused as a small boy to lead a life of contribution to our community.

Michael Akinedju is a consulting process engineer at MKPro Engineering, based in Ballarat and an associate professor at Fed Uni.

Craig Whiteford works for the Melbourne Zoo and spoke about the changing role of the zoos in Victoria in working to avoid any more extinctions of our native species.

Mike Stephens told amusing stories from his life as a farm manager and farm consultant.

Annie DeJong CEO of the Ballarat General Cemetery Trust talked about death and dying and funerals – something everyone must face but few plan for.

Rose Bygrave member of the famous Goanna Band from the 70s and 80s talked about her musical journey and performed some of her own music.

Barry Johnson explained AI and the pros and cons of using it.

Elena Polevaya, Russian born opera singer who now lives near Ballarat tod us stories of growing up in Russia the daughter of a soldier.

Historian Ann Beggs-Sunter told the story of James Oddie one of Ballarat’s founding fathers and philanthropists from the days of our Gold Rush.