Once again it was an absolutely packed Christmas Luncheon venue for Shipping Australia’s New South Wales Luncheon!
Held this year at the Hyatt Regency, it was a fun afternoon of catching up with industry friends, superb food and top-rated entertainment.
NSW State Chair Bill Rizzi opened the event with an Acknowledgement of Country and then gave a short “State of the Union” type address.
“Australia is a nation that trades. According to the Federal Department of Infrastructure, Australia exported over one-and-a-half billion tonnes of exports valued at four hundred and sixty-seven billion dollars. We also imported one hundred and eleven million tonnes of goods valued at three hundred and thirty-seven billion dollars. That is a lot of trade! It supports jobs, and families, and businesses, and Australians right across this nation. And it would not have taken place without all of you. Congratulations to you all on a great job…. Well done !!!,” he told our guests.
Adding that, earlier in the year, Shipping Australia played a part in bringing a long-running and disruptive strike to an end and also in helping fend off a potentially difficult policy in the automotives shipping sector, Mr Rizzi told guests that we are in a programme to make it easier for ships to comply with local safety rules.
Mr Rizzi thanked our generous sponsors for their support:
- the CEO & Managing Director of The MCC Group, Mr. Roger Weiller
- the CEO of OneStop, Sam Askin,
- the CEO of AMS Group, Glen Marshall,
- AUSPORT Marine’s Managing Director, Capt Anil Bhatia, and
- Carolina Henao, the founder and owner of BE4U.
Pictured: Shipping Australia’s Chair, Philip Holmes, and Shipping Australia’s CEO, Capt Melwyn Noronha, together with several of our generous sponsors.
As is traditional, we held our famous Lucky Door Prize raffle! A range of prizes were raffled including two wine cases generously provided by MSC, an overnight stay for two at the Hyatt Regency, and a pair of tickets for the Andrew Lloyd Webber masterpiece, The Phantom of the Opera!
We were honoured to receive speeches from the CEO of the MCC Group, Mr Roger Weiller; from OneStop CEO Sam Askin, and from AMS Group’s CEO, Glenn Marshall. The Rev Un Tay from the Mission to Seafarers said the Grace prior to the serving of lunch.
A chicken tikka, cucumber-onion slaw, creamy tomato sauce alternating with roasted duck agnolotti, shimeji mushroom, creamy hoisin sauce was served for entree. Mains were a choice of pan-seared sirloin, candied onion, vine-ripened tomato, orzo, warrigal green, and gremolata, or, alternatively, Barramundi fillet with kaffir lime and ginger dressing, egg noodles and bok choi. Dessert was a limoncello deconstructed tiramisu, lemon myrtle gel, and cocoa dust, or, alternatively, pandan leaf panna cotta, coconut sago broth, and coconut chips.
Shipping Australia would like to thank our sponsors!
Thank you for your support!


