Noel Bluett

Noel Bluett (1930 - November 21, 2014) was a Baháʼí who served on the National Spiritual Assemblies of Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Background[edit]

Noel lived in Sydney in his youth and became a Baháʼí while living in the suburb of Earlwood in 1949.^[1] He pioneered to Leeton in 1951, joining the Leeton chess club that year,^[2] began to give piano accordion lessons,^[3] and also joined the Apex Club of Leeton.^[4] Margaret Mason had also pioneered to the town and they married in 1952.^[5] He performed accordion at several concerts in Leeton in the early 1950's,^[6]^[7]^[8] and eventually became bookkeeper of the local newspaper.^[9] In November 1954 Stanley Bolton visited Leeton and showed a slideshow of his travels for the Intercontinental Conferences of 1953 at the Bluett's home.^[10]

In December 1954 Noel and his wife moved from Leeton to Canberra as he had received a position with the accounts department of the National University of Canberra.^[11] He began studying accounting in Sydney in 1955,^[12] and completed his studies and became a qualified accountant in 1957.^[13] He also performed music in Canberra at restaurants and events throughout the late 1950's.^[14]^[15] By the early 1960's Noel was serving as foundation secretary of the Civic Co-operative Building Societies group in Canberra as of 1964,^[16]^[17] and by the mid 1960's he had a public accounting company called Noel Bluett & Co.^[18]

Noel served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia from 1959 to 1965, and as of 1960 he was serving on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Canberra, and filed the Assemblies application for incorporation that year,^[19] and the following year.^[20] He attended the World Congress in London in 1963.^[21]

In 1964 he was appointed as the first executive officer of the Papua New Guinea Coffee Marketing Board responsible for marketing the expanding industry in the country and he moved to Papua New Guinea in 1965, arriving in February settling in Goroka with his wife and five children.^[22] He was elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of Papua New Guinea formed in 1969 and served on the body for nine years.

In 1969 Noel traveled extensively to study coffee marketing abroad, visiting the British Isles, Europe, America, Mauritius, Kenya, Uganda, Turkey, and Israel, accompanied by his wife and two youngest children.^[23] In 1971 he began working directly in Coffee exporting, being appointed as managing director of New Guinea Coffee Brokers.^[24] In 1973 he moved to Lae and founded a commodity exporting company, Anisa Commodity Traders. At some point he started a dry cleaning business in Lae with a business partner, but he assumed full ownership of the business with his wife, Margaret, in 1978.^[25]

He continued his pastime as a chess player while in Papua New Guinea, serving as contact person for the Lae Chess Club from at least 1975.^[26] As of 1977 he was secretary of the Papua New Guinea chess federation,^[27] and he competed in the Papua New Guinea chess championship in 1978.^[28]

In 1991 the Bluetts returned to Australia moving to Cairns.^[29] Noel passed away in Cairns in 2014.

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

[1] ttps://bahai-library.com/shoghi-effendi_messages_antipodes&chapter=all#n106

[2] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/205359013

[3] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156135106

[4] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156093205

[5] ttps://bahai-library.com/shoghi-effendi_messages_antipodes&chapter=all#n106

[6] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156090917

[7] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156094786

[8] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156090106

[9] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156089136

[10] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156095491

[11] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/156089136

[12] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91200580

[13] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91243817

[14] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91591139

[15] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/91223630

[16] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/131746056/14518154

[17] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105827984

[18] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105843076

[19] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105902370

[20] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/103115398

[21] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/104254388

[22] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/105827984

[23] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250292131

[24] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250350204

[25] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250403363

[26] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250392128

[27] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250161307

[28] ttps://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/250339728

[29] ttps://bahai-library.com/shoghi-effendi_messages_antipodes&chapter=all#n106

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

[26]

[27]

[28]

[29]