Hi all,
I was able to catch up with the Victorian goldfields tour for the last couple of days in Bendigo last weekend. It was great weekend - beautiful warm weather - and I enjoyed meeting some of our forum members that I hadn't met face to face before, as well as seeing some old forum friends.
There were quite a few vans already set up when I got there late on Friday afternoon, including...
Marjie2's Chesney...
Yellowspinner's Valiant and single spinner Ford utility...
Webrake4bricabrac's 1959 Coronet...
Firefighter's Roadhaven...
Ralphndi's Looz-a-bago...
Prem's Vacation (and Premier!)...
...and of course then there was the Shesgotthelook family who solved their accommodation problems by bringing their two V V's - the Globetrotter "Winterwood" with their EJ wagon:
...and their Viscount "Veronica":
A few others V V'ers also turned up later on Friday arvo or Saturday morning after having spent the week at work...
Skyline59 with his recently acquired Franklin Futura...
Sportsman1's Clipper and Vagabond (that's the Vauxhall not Sportsman1
)...
Brenten's amazing pneumatic pair...
On Saturday morning we had a visit from some of the people from the Bendigo Veteran, Vintage and Classic Car Club. But it was also great to welcome and finally meet the Seeshell family, who left home at the crack of dawn to spend the day with us:
The Seeshells checked out all the vans, including the Scots neat little Country Club:
We all also had the opportunity to admire the very original and beautifully maintained Roadhaven owned from new by Bendigo locals, Gordon and Alvis, who stayed with us overnight:
Meanwhile Firefighter was constantly on the move making sure that everyone was having a good time (or was he was just trying to avoid the camera? Answer: He was trying to avoid the camera!):
Mind you, you don't want to stand in the roadway admiring the vans for too long - you're in danger of becoming Firefighter's roadkill ;D ;D ;D
On Saturday afternoon we had the privilege of visiting Austin125 and checking out his collection, which was just amazing. We started off with Austin125 telling us about how his interest in cars and caravans had developed...
...followed by a bit about the history of some of his prize exhibits - the Austin homebuilt motorhome...
1940's Don 140 and Austin Princess...
And 1938 Paramount...
Then Austin125 took us for a tour of his sheds...
...and out into his back paddock:
During the afternoon, a few of the ladies had a deep and meaningful about the best way to go about restoring this Austin Princess:
On the way through we admired Mrs Austin125's recently completed MG Y sedan...
...and a 1930's bow fronted Covered Wagon style caravan which in fact strongly resembled a...covered wagon:
There was a bit of a scare at Austin125's when one of the kids on the tour checked out the suspension on the Austin motorhome and got his head stuck under the mudguard:
Fortunately, Austin125 was able to pull out his oxy acetelene kit to cut a hole in the mudguard to let the little bloke out! Firefighter was on hand to make sure Austin125 didn't start a grass fire...
;D ;D ;D
Saturday night saw us enjoying the hospitality of the Bendigo Veteran, Vintage and Classic Car Club at their fantastic club rooms and workshop. The evening began with Club President, Clive Bennett, telling us a bit about the history of the Club...
...and a tour of the workshop area:
Meanwhile, some of the other Club members were preparing our dinner...
...which we all enjoyed:
There was much talking and discussion. Here Seeshell is explaining to Sportsman1 and Mpower some of the intricacies of something or another:
One of the thrills of the weekend was to have Mark T's father Ray travel to Bendigo to join us, and to represent Mark who was stuck in Perth with work commitments. Ray has built a few vans in his time, and Mark has stated that his happy memories in his dad's vans provided a lot of the impetus for starting vintagecaravans.com and the forum - so we have a lot to thank Ray for. Here Ray (second left) is shown with (L to R) Mr Marjie2, Firefighter, Seeshell and Austin125:
Ray was pressed into service to draw the tickets for the prize draw, which was arranged by the Bendigo Car Club:
Here Barbara - wife of forum member Frank - is presented with her prize:
Prizes were donated by 'the Federation' and were much appreciated.
Two of the Bendigo Car Club members very kindly brought their rigs down for us to look at during the evening. Forum member Mpower's 1940's homebuilt...
...and Rex's spectacular pre-WWII SS vehicle and teardrop, which we also saw at the 2010 Mildura V V Nationals:
Sunday morning saw a few of us visiting the Bendigo market before heading home...which provided a photo opp for a V V line up:
I couldn't resist taking the Don down Don Street on the way home!
Unfortunately the placement of the road signs didn't allow the photo I wanted, and the best I could do was:
I also stopped to check out this building in Bendigo which
I think was once a
pretty fancy garage (ie petrol station) doctor's surgery but is now a restaurant (thanks to Seeshell for the correction
:
And I took the opportunity to take a shot of these two Art Deco beauties together:
The house was built in the 30's by George Pethard, the founder of the Tarax company. Remember Tarax? The house is actually a wonderfully preserved example of Streamlined Moderne styling, a later variation of the Art Deco style.
It was a great V V weekend, and by all reports the preceding week was even better for those that were able to be on the tour. I'd like to add my thanks to Firefighter, Austin125 and his family, and the Bendigo Car Club for putting it all together. Superb effort folks!
It was good to see the vintagecaravans.com flag flying proudly for another Victorian V V event...
Don Ricardo