After migrating to Australia in 1952, John Karlik found a job as a food scientist at the Streets ice-cream laboratory where he developed the chocolate Paddle Pop.
During his working life, he was always busy. But in retirement, he found more time to give.
For the past 16 years, he has helped deliver food to people's homes around Sydney as part of the Meals on Wheels service.
Karlik, now 85, says he was too busy working in the ice-cream laboratory to do any volunteering work.
"It only became possible after I retired. The charity work came up, I had a car and it suited me," he says. 
The Meals on Wheels service at Ultimo Community Centre is near his Pyrmont home and takes just a few hours of his time, three days a week. Karlik is just one of the tens of thousands of Australians who help the nation rank among the top countries when it comes to charity work and giving.   
Natural disasters seem to bring out the best in Australians when it comes to giving.
Within 72 hours of the 2010 Queensland floods washing away homes, possessions and in some cases, lives, 67,000 people had put up their hands and volunteered to help.
"That was the highest number ever for people to register to volunteer after a natural disaster anywhere in the world," says Debbie Haski-Leventhal, an associate professor from Macquarie University's graduate school of management.
Late last year, the Lindt cafe siege prompted Sydneysiders to ride on public transport with their hijab-wearing neighbours in a bid to shield them from retribution. It demonstrated a choice to help strangers, instead of hating them.
"Australians respond more positively to negative events than any other country I have ever seen," says Haski-Leventhal.
Australians also tend to trust non-government organisations and charities to do the right thing with their money.
"Australia has high levels of social trust compared to other places around the world and you need to trust people in order to give them money and volunteer," Haski-Leventhal says.
"In some places around the world, if there is a disaster, it is every man for himself. In Australia, people tend to reach out to the community."
But the numbers of Australians who volunteer is falling. Australia ranks 6th in the world according to the World Giving Index, which measures whether people have volunteered in the past month, whether they have donated to charity and whether they have helped a stranger.
The 2014 survey puts New Zealand in 5th position and the United States, equal with Myanmar, in No.1. Four years earlier, Australia and New Zealand were ranked equal first and the US was No.5. 
Sweden is ranked 40th, way behind its Nordic neighbour, Denmark, in 18th.
So has Australia hit the sweet spot between a welfare state and a society that is reliant on charity? 
There have been two traditional positions. One is the cradle-to-grave welfare system of the Scandinavian countries, where higher taxes deliver quality health, education, pensions and benefits for the unemployed. 
The other model has been the more spartan American one with limited welfare for the jobless, precarious healthcare for the sick and the quality of public education determined by the taxes paid in cities or towns.
America has offset this narrow public system with generous private philanthropy and strong citizen action, especially through churches and faith-based charities.
Researchers suggest Australia may have struck an imperfect but viable balance between the two models.
Swinbourne University Professor John Fitzgerald, director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy, says while there is little to distinguish countries within the top 10 of the World Giving Index, the comparison with Sweden is significant.
"What this is telling us is that we sit somewhere in between the United States and Sweden in balancing the safety net," he says.
"Countries on the whole that have a strong safety net are not generally the most generous. If you asked someone in Sweden why aren't you giving more, they say 'I'm giving a lot in taxes and that is going to support people in an equitable model through the state'."
When it comes to giving for disaster relief, national character and notions of civil society come into play.
"On the whole, Australians contribute to charities such as the Red Cross and international disaster relief as well as anyone. That doesn't have anything to do with the safety net," Fitzgerald says.
While trust plays a big role in whether people donate to particular organisations, it is not something that international comparisons measure.
"In the United States it is fair enough to say there is on the one hand a distrust of the government and the state and a strong commitment to local neighbourhood and community giving and participation," Fitzgerald says. "In the Nordic countries there is a relatively strong commitment to the state. The ethic of self help is not as great."
Haski-Leventhal says some people believe it is the government's job to fix social problems.
Americans are happy to give through churches or credit cards online - but they are not generally willing to open their doors to strangers. The Dutch and Australians are more willing to answer a knock at the door from charity.
"People are more willing to help one another and trust one another and that is more of the reason why we have high levels of volunteering in Australia as compared to some of the Scandinavian countries," Haski-Leventhal says.
Even so, the participation of Australians in volunteering decreased over the past 25 years, partly because people are finding less time to give.
"Every time the ABS collects data on how much we volunteer there seems to be a decline," Haski-Leventhal says.
"A lot of young people feel volunteering is an old-fashioned thing to do and like to see an instant impact. They don't want to volunteer for years and years for four hours a week like their parents did."
Among those bucking this trend is 28-year-old Nick Drabble, a Meals on Wheels volunteer since 2012.
As a musician and DJ, he has Mondays free and feels comfortable financially.
"It was the one day of the week I felt like I could contribute a little bit. I feel pretty fortunate being able to do something I love every day. I thought I would donate some of that free time," he says.
The Smith Family also raises concerns about the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing a national decline in volunteers for the first time in 20 years. Three quarters of people in the survey say they feel rushed or pressed for time.
"We live in an increasingly time-poor world, meaning fewer people feel they can take on regular commitments," the Smith Family's National Manager of Volunteering, Lauren Stocker, says.
The Smith Family has close to 8000 volunteers who last year gave 463,000 hours of their time to help support disadvantaged children through school - either with money or as mentors. The value of the time donated is estimated at $13.4 million.
Danielle Meggos, 34, has three young children, yet finds time to volunteer for the rural fire service, as a Girl Guides leader and for her P&C in the Sutherland Shire.
The idea of "doing something for someone else" is one she learned growing up.
She joined her father as a fire service volunteer at the age of 17 and was introduced to the Girl Guides at the age of seven when her mother was a leader. 
WHILE SOME GIVE TIME, OTHERS GIVE MONEY ???
When it comes to financial donations, Australians give $450 on average in tax-deductible donations compared with Americans who give more than double. 
According to JB Were, the level of giving in Australia has been flat since the global financial crisis, despite signs of economic recovery last year.
Tax deductible donations have grown from $59 million to $2.4 billion since 1979, but the proportion of taxpayers who donate has dropped in recent years.
While males on higher incomes donate more dollars overall, females give a higher percentage of their income.
Charities had a total income of $107 billion, including 6.7 per cent  from donations, in 2013.
Religious causes led donations with $1.8 billion, followed by social services at $1.2 billion.
Despite the plateau in giving, there has been a continued stream of large gifts to education and medical research, totalling about $300 million in recent years.
A number of endowments and foundations have been established recently, including one following the death of Paul Ramsay, who bequeathed part of his $3 billion estate to a charitable fund. Westpac has established a $100 million education foundation.
The Crown Resorts Foundation and the Packer family are reported to have given $100 million each to a new National Philanthropic Fund for arts and Indigenous education.
Elizabeth Cham, who has worked in the philanthropy sector for 25 years including for Philanthropy Australia, says US research has found the assumption that philanthropy helps disadvantaged communities is not well founded.
She says charity in the US often funds elite institutions and the lifestyles of the rich instead of alleviating the poverty of the poor.
"Many philanthropists donate to big cultural institutions and Ivy League universities which are predominantly used by the wealthy," she says.
"There are complex motives to altruism and big tax benefits."
It is unclear what donations and an unknown number of foundations have achieved overall in Australia because charities are largely self-regulated. 
"These are private entities with a public purpose and they receive generous tax concessions. To maintain the public trust, they must tell the public what they do and where the money goes," Cham says.
Independent regulator the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission, established by the former government, has been threatened with disruption and closure.
"Given its uncertain beginnings, it is starting to do a job, but you can't go to any of its websites to find out that sort of information," Cham says.
Tim Dolan, vice-principal (advancement) at the University of Sydney, says Australians 
lag their US counterparts when it comes to making big donations of more than $1 million.
Even so, things are improving for the University of Sydney. About eight years ago it raised more than $30 million a year.
"This year we will raise over $130 million," Dolan says.
"Increasingly, fundraisers in Australia are getting better. As they get better, the gift totals are growing considerably.
"From my point of view, the generosity has always been there, it has just been untapped."
Dolan says he does not believe generosity is determined by a country's level of welfare or taxes.
"I think that is noise on the margins," he says.    
Dolan says big donations often have deep personal significance for families.
Earlier this year, retired financial services magnate Barry Lambert and his wife Joy gave the University of Sydney $33.7 million, its biggest donation for research, to develop pharmaceutical drugs from cannabis plants.
He says the experience of their granddaughter, who suffers from debilitating epilepsy, has opened his eyes to the "extraordinary possibility of cannabinoids treating not only her condition but a range of chronic illnesses that don't respond to conventional treatments".
In recent months, the reclusive Chinese-Australian entrepreneur Chau Chak Wing gifted $15 million for a new museum at the University of Sydney.
The gift is one of the five largest donations given to the University of Sydney as part of its Inspired campaign, which was launched in 2008 to raise $600 million. 
It follows Chau Chak Wing's $20 million donation to the University of Technology Sydney to help fund its Frank Gehry-designed Business School building in Ultimo, which bears his name. The businessman, whose son Eric studied at UTS, also donated $5 million to fund Australia-China scholarships.
THE NEW SCHOOL OF PHILANTHROPY
Michael Gonski is part of a younger generation of emerging Australian philanthropists.
Unlike the older generation, known for ritzy sit-down fund-raising dinners, Gonski and his counterparts are embracing digital technology, innovation and collaboration. They have been known to settle for beers and party pies at more casual gatherings.
Philanthropy Australia has recognised Gonski's commitment to creating new initiatives to inspire a culture of giving in Australia. It has honoured him with an award of "emerging philanthropy leader" as part of its recent inaugural awards.
A partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, he did some pro-bono work with the Belvoir St Theatre and was later approached to help promote the Sydney Story Factory, a not-for-profit creative writing centre for young people.
When he was first approached by former journalist Catherine Keenan about the writing centre, he thought she had the "wrong Gonski" - a reference to his father, Sydney businessman David Gonski, who is also known for his promotion of philanthropy.
The younger Gonski says his generation are establishing a "new school of philanthropy".
Philanthropy Australia, which represents 800 trusts, foundations and other donors, is helping cultivate the new generation. 
It has formed a group of more than 70 people with surnames including Ainsworth, Balnaves, Myers and Fairfax.
"We are starting to see an unprecedented intergenerational wealth transfer," chief executive Sarah Davies says. 
"As Baby Boomers pass on their wealth to the next generation, that raises questions and opportunities about how wealth is used and how we as a society manage that well."
Technology and crowdfunding are increasingly being used to make giving more accessible.
Philanthropy Australia is also encouraging people to be "more visible" about their giving.
While many donors choose to be anonymous, Davies urges them to go public to encourage others to give. 
"That is really important," she says. "It's really about leadership and it is about demonstrating that type of contribution, celebrating it, which actually makes it more accessible for other people."
Brian Trudinger, a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Sydney, is among those less comfortable about discussing his contribution to charity.
After a string of smaller contributions, he donated $10.4 million to the university last year for research into reproduction to help more women achieve a healthy pregnancy. 
"The satisfaction you get is not the public attention - it is private," Trudinger says.
"It is a very individual thing."
But, a public profile for the research activity "is good".
Professor Trudinger is grateful for a successful professional career which allowed him to make a significant contribution to his chosen field of research.
"With the passage of time, your horizons rise and you can see you can make a bigger difference and see more and more opportunity," he says.
RAISING THE PROFILE OF GIVING
Federal MP and former Australian National University economics professor Andrew Leigh says he is sceptical of the argument "that if you want to make people more generous, you need the government to be really mean and the meaner the government, the nicer the people will be".
 "The US still has a system which spends more on healthcare and gets worse results," he says. 
"But their philanthropic sector is thriving and that is something to admire about the US.
"Bequests are more common in the United States than they are in Australia, a much larger proportion of tithes, which is something that has deep roots in religion."
Willingness to give is often related to whether people are asked.
"We need to raise the profile of giving in Australia," Leigh says.
John Richardson, the director of development at the Art Gallery of NSW, says his experience in the arts sector is that "Australians are generous".
"People feel strongly about the intrinsic value of the arts and are not only willing to invest in the sector financially, but also with their time and expertise," he says. 
The gallery's foundation endowment is valued at $35 million and has been used buy works by Kirchner, Twombly and Giacometti.
"The value of all the works purchased with income from the endowment is over $155 million," Richardson says.
John McLeod, a consultant at JBWere Philanthropic Services, says he usually comes back to the question of "where would I rather be homeless". 
"The answer is not in the USA, which is the home of philanthropy, or even the UK, Australia or Canada, which are reasonable in terms of giving, but it is the Scandinavian countries where higher taxes but low philanthropy provides the funding for the support system," he says. 
"There are many factors that combine to make a society a better place to be."