Previous Events in which Our Club has Participated

THE H.C.V.C COMMERCIAL VEHICLE DISPLAY,

SANDOWN RACECOURSE, MELBOURNE,

Sunday, 22^nd November 2009.

During the first two weeks of November, we had had a heatwave here in Melbourne, with records being shattered left right and centre (our members in South Australia had it even worse!). But you could be sure that the weather broke a couple of days before this event, and on the day of this show, it persisted down – in fact we had a month’s rain in a day, according to the Weather Bureau.

However, it takes a lot more than a few drops of the wet stuff to put us hardy souls off, and we still managed to muster 12 Ford light commercials – a record for the Southern Hemisphere. No less than 8 of those vehicles were provided by our members: a 1929 Model A roadster ute; a 1936 Model CX roadster, well-sided ute; a 1948 A54A Anglia coupe ute; three 1949-53 A493A Prefect coupe utes; a 1954 103E Popular coupe ute and a 1960 100E Escort wagon. Invited guests brought along a modified A494A Anglia coupe ute; a modified 103E Popular coupe ute; another A493A Prefect coupe ute (brought all the way from Bendigo on the back of a historic Ford truck) and a 300E Thames panel van.

Luckily, our run coordinator was there bright and early and obtained some undercover space for us, where we could install the BBQ and place our seats out of the rain. His brother-in-law did a wonderful job as chief chef, keeping us all supplied with fresh snags and onions.

In the main display area there were around 250 trucks and buses, including a very early Thornycroft and a few early Chevrolets. There was even a Leyland National single-decker bus which had been imported from England.

We would like to thank all those who turned up, despite the atrocious weather.

THE EAST GIPPSLAND GALLOP,

30^th October to 3^rd November 2009 inclusive

Twelve F.O.R.D.C.A. members from Melbourne joined two in Bairnsdale for the East Gippsland Gallop, a hub rally held in and around Bairnsdale over the Melbourne Cup Weekend, lasting from the Friday night through till the following Tuesday morning, organized by the East Gippsland Historical Auto Club (E.G.H.A.C.). Our contingent of 5 “oldies” (a 1936 Model CX sedan; a 1936 Model CX Roadster, well-sided utility ; a 1936 Model CX roadster; a 1950 A494A Anglia tourer; a 1960 107E Prefect sedan and a 1950s Humber Super Snipe) joined 50 more historic cars and light commercials of all different ages and makes on the rally.

We had daily runs through magnificent scenery to places of interest like Buchan Caves and the seaside resort of Lakes Entrance; a miniature railway; and three huge but well-organised sheds belonging to members of the E.G.H.A.C. in which military vehicles, stationary engines and historic cars were displayed. We had pre-paid for all our meals and the only free time we had was on the Sunday night, when our Bairnsdale members held a BBQ at their home for all the F.O.R.D.C.A. members. It was a very pleasant evening.

The whole rally was a great success and very enjoyable. One of our members won the “Rally Director’s Choice” award with his red 1950 A494AAnglia tourer. It was one of only three awards given out at the rally (the others were for “People’s Choice” and “Furthest Distance Driven to the Rally”), so you can imagine how chuffed he was to get his award!

THE MARONG PICNIC WEEKEND,

29^th to 31^st August 2009 inclusive.

Organised by the Federation of Veteran, Vintage & Classic Vehicle Clubs, the Marong Picnic has become an important part of a long weekend which is the highlight of our Central Goldfields Group’s annual calendar. They (the Group) do a very good job in providing entertainment for other members who have travelled from all over Victoria for the weekend, which has become an important source of funds for the club, which is paid to provide the manpower to marshall (on behalf of the FVV&CVC) the incoming display vehicles at the Marong Oval on the Sunday morning.

We are very lucky if we have a dry day during this weekend, which is in the depths of winter in these parts. This year we had rain on the Saturday and the Monday but, thankfully, it remained dry but cold on the Sunday.

Late on Saturday afternoon, members who had travelled from Bairnsdale, Melbourne and Wandong who had gathered at the Marong Caravan Park for the weekend, made the 45km trip to Castlemaine to join two more from Melbourne who stayed the weekend in a Castlemaine caravan park, and the “locals” from the Central Goldfields Group. We made a quick visit to a private shed in Castlemaine to view the progress that had been made on the restoration of an ex-G.P.O. (U.K) 1930s Morris Z post office van since we were there last year. Then it was back to a member’s house for the first course of the progressive dinner – a choice of three varieties of soup. Then we all drove to the opposite side of Castlemaine for the second course (a choice of several dishes) at another member’s house. We were also able have a sticky beak at that member’s shed and view the fantastic progress he is making on his A493A Prefect coupe ute. We all drove out to Newstead to yet another member’s home for the last course (again, a lot of choices) and a most entertaining talk by John Fisher, who had flown a De Havilland Tiger Moth biplane single-handedly from London to Australia in 1996.

On the Sunday morning we set up our stand just inside the main entrance to the Marong Oval. Our display this year consisted of a 1946 A53A Prefect sedan from St Arnaud; a 1950 A493A Prefect coupe utility from Newstead; an ex-P.M.G. 1954 E83W Thames 10cwt panel van from Castlemaine; a 1959 100E Anglia 2-door saloon from Wandong; a 1960 100E Escort wagon from Boronia and a 1950s Humber Super Snipe sedan from Kilsyth. All the fellas took a spell on marshalling duties, which lasted till lunchtime. Those of us there early enough were also rewarded by the Federation with a free cooked breakfast. We were kept busy on the stand, answering questions from the public about our cars, and talking to some potential new members.

Because of the fine weather, it is estimated that there were around 800 historic vehicles of all types on the oval this year.

On the Sunday evening, those of us staying at the Marong Caravan Park enjoyed a meal at the local pub, before retiring to the new meeting room on the caravan park for a nightcap.

Once again it had been a very successful weekend and our thanks go to the members of the Central Goldfields group for laying on that superb progressive dinner and the guest speaker. Our thanks also to the Federation for the generous donation to our funds!

THE WERRIBEE CRUISE,

Sunday, 16^th August 2009.

This terrific day was the idea of two our members who live in Hoppers Crossing, referred to in this report as “our hosts”. They did all the organizing and provided afternoon tea for us.

The day began with very high winds, forcing a speed restriction of 40kph to be imposed on the West Gate Bridge, which some of us had to cross to get to our rendezvous point – the UltraTune premises on Millers Road, Altona North. Here we met up with club members from the north and west of Melbourne and eleven Austin A30s of various types belonging to members of the Australian Austin A30 Club and a Land Rover and miscellaneous cars belonging to members of the MG Car Club (the only MG cars present being those belonging to our hosts). In addition to our hosts, another 9 FORDCA members and 4 children participated in 5 “oldies” (a 1947 A54A Anglia tourer; a 1950 A494A Anglia tourer; a 1951 A494A Anglia tourer, a 1954 103E Popular ute and a 1960 100E Escort wagon).

Shortly after the prescribed time, we set off in convoy for the cruise round Altona and Werribee. We proceeded down Millers Road to the bay, thence along a promenade which was more befitting of the likes of the Sunshine Coast, with its imposing properties with views of the bay. We passed through an area famous for its market gardening and crossed the Geelong Freeway to reach our first port of call, a large hangar on the old airfield at Laverton, where the WWII B24 Liberator bomber was housed.

The aircraft was huge – so big in fact that it has outgrown its existing hangar and is due to be moved to a much larger building next door where, along with a few smaller aircraft, it will become the main attraction in a new museum. At the moment, its wingtips and tailplane are detached and stored nearby in the same hangar – they cannot be attached, otherwise the aircraft could not be moved out of the hangar! The gun turrets have yet to be installed and tour guides demonstrated how they worked.

Whilst we had been in the hangar, the wind had dropped but it had rained, and it stopped soon after we all emerged and made our way to Werribee Zoo, where the skies cleared, we had glorious sunshine, and everybody had lunch before joining the special tour bus for a circuit of the safari park. We saw a hippo; several species of antelope and buffalo; zebras; camels; giraffes and rhinos from the comfort of our seats. The tour lasted about 45 minutes and was very enjoyable, and worth the $22 admission fee on its own!

We rejoined our cars and retraced our steps towards Laverton, before picking up Derrimut Road and then Morris Road in Hoppers Crossing, finally arriving at our hosts’ for afternoon tea and a sticky beak at their interesting collection of mainly English cars. The food was delicious and I don’t know why we bothered to use plates – you could have eaten the food off the garage/workshop floor – it was spotless! Whilst we there, we had a hailstorm – just to remind us that it is not unusual in Melbourne to have four seasons in a day!

We would like to thank our hosts for their hospitality and for organizing such a wonderful day. We shall always remember their excellent printed instructions telling us to “leave the roundabout at X o’clock” – a great way to avoid confusion when following such instructions!

THE RUN TO EASTERN BEACH, GEELONG, Sunday, 28^th June 2009

DISPLAY AT THE FORD DISCOVERY CENTRE, GEELONG, 28^th June to 26^th July 2009.

F.O.R.D.C.A. has been privileged to be one of the car clubs given the chance to mount an annual display lasting one month at the Ford Discovery Centre, Geelong. We usually celebrate some important part in the history of our little cars and provide different vehicles each time, giving all our members the chance to display their vehicles at some stage.

In 2009, we were allowed to display our vehicles for the period 28^th June to 26^th July inclusive. We made the theme of our display “75 years of the Coupe Utility”, and were given space to exhibit three coupe utilities. The museum already has on display a replica of the very first coupe utility, designed by Lou Bandt and based on the 1934 Ford V-8 chassis. The three coupe utes chosen for our display were a 1948 A54A Anglia from Dandenong, Victoria; a 1949 A493A Prefect from Beaconsfield, Victoria and a 1950 A494A Anglia from Mount Gambier, South Australia (yes – even our inter-state members are given chance to display their vehicles!)

To get the display vehicles to the museum and at the same time make a day of it, we had a club run to the Eastern Beach at Geelong on Sunday, 28^th June. We were blessed with fine weather, but unfortunately the day did not get off to a good start for some of us from the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. First of all an accident on the Monash Freeway meant that there were horrendous tailbacks on the freeway and it took around 25 minutes to cover the short section from Burke Road to Toorak Road, making us late for the rendezvous at Todd Road Services. At least two of us who had not used those services for some time missed the turn-off for them because of bad signage on the freeway (since rectified)! An instant decision was made to re-muster at the Ultra-Tune premises on Millers Road, Altona North and after a few calls on the “mobile”, most of us met there before proceeding down the freeway to Geelong.

Apart from the coupe utilities previously mentioned, we had three more Small Fords turn up for the run – another A493A Prefect ute; a 1960 107E Prefect and a 1960 100E Escort wagon – plus a few “moderns”. We were joined by a local non-member in his E4930A/B Anglia 10hp Tudor, which was in very original condition.

Altogether we had 11 members and 14 guests/children participate on the run – another very good turn out.

THE 12th NATIONAL SIDEVALVE RALLY,
Saturday, 23rd May to Monday, 1st June 2009 inclusive.

Wappa Dam Park 25th May	Morning muster at the PCYC 26th May
Cars from Bli Bli Castle ramparts25th May	Small ford commercials at The big Pineapple 27th May
100Es and their owners at The Big Pineapple 27th May	Pausing on top of the Blackall Range27th May
Lunch at the Ginger Factory Yandina, 30th May	Pre-war cars at Cooroy, 30th May
Tourers at Cooroy, 30th May	Maroochy Bushland Botanical Gardens, 31st May
Morning tea at Maroochy Botanical Gardens, 31st May

The most challenging, if not the biggest event in the F.O.R.D.C.A. calendar is undoubtedly the biennial National Sidevalve Rally, which is held in the “odd” years in a different Australian State, on a rotational basis. For example, in 2005 it was held in Tasmania and in 2007 it was held in New South Wales. In 2009 the rally was, for the first time ever, held in Queensland and hosted by the Ford 8 & 10 Sidevalve Club of Queensland Inc. (colloquially known as FEATS). They chose to make it an 11-day hub rally based upon Nambour, the administrative capital of the Sunshine Coast.  They called it the “Sunshine Coast Rattle & Roll” and it was held in two parts: the “Pre-amble Rally”, 23rd May (pm) to 29th May (am) inclusive and the “Main Rally”, 29th May (pm) to 1st June (am) inclusive.  Most of those who attended the “Main Rally” had also attended the “Pre-amble Rally”, with just a few more participants from Queensland and South Australia joining us for the former.  In total, there were 84 participants attending from five States in 38 Small Fords, ranging in age from a 1933 Model Y roadster to a 1959 100E Prefect sedan.

“Challenging” is the operative word, because just to participate on the rally, most of the 23-strong F.O.R.D.C.A. party who attended had to make a round trip of at least 4,000kms just to get to and from Nambour.  Our members took with them 11 Small Fords, one of them loaned to members of another club for the duration of the rally.  Most trailered (or trucked) their “oldies”, but two of our members were brave enough to accept the challenge to drive their little Fords all the way there and back – one couple from Hobart, Tasmania in a 1950 A494A Anglia sedan and the other from Melbourne in a 1956 100E Prefect sedan – and they managed to safely complete the round trip.

The journeys up to Queensland and back again were adventures in themselves.  Our members from Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania took from between two and seven days to complete the outbound journey, visiting many places of interest on the way, and between two and 12 days to complete the homeward journey (often by a different route to the outbound journey).  Most managed to escape the worst of the bad weather being experienced in south east Queensland in early and mid-May. 

The “Pre-amble Rally” commenced with a “meet and greet” at The Big Pineapple near Nambour (an Australian icon) on the evening of 23rd May, and over the next 6 days we visited places of interest within a 35km radius of Nambour, including Wappa Dam (a water catchment which was full to overflowing – a strange sight to Victorian eyes these days!); Bli Bli Castle (which would compare very favourably with many British castles) and a dairy farm at Maleny.   We were also to have an inter-state “bare foot bowls” competition (won by Queensland), followed by lunch, at the Yandina Bowls Club. There was a very enjoyable cruise down the promenades at Maroochydore and Mooloolaba on the 26th May, and the long climb up the Blackall Range to meet members of the Blackall Range Horseless Carriage Club at the Mary Cairncross Park (from where we had a wonderful view of the Glass House Mountains); the aforementioned visit to the dairy farm; lunch at Tranquil Park and the cruise through Maleny to the delightful township of Montville, renowned for its speciality shops, all on the 27th May.  The following day we visited an aircraft museum at Caloundra and the Ettamogah Pub on the Bruce Highway. 

After a breakfast kindly provided by the owners of the Nambour Rainforest Holiday Park (where most of us were staying) on Friday, 29th May, the rest of the day was free for participants to do their own thing. Most seized the opportunity to visit Australia Zoo (made famous by Steve Irwin, “the crocodile man”). That evening we had the “meet and greet” for the Main Rally and a BBQ at the PCYC (Police Community Youth Club) complex in Nambour.

On the Saturday (30th May) we visited the renowned Eumundi Markets and the Ginger Factory at Yandina, where we had lunch, before proceeding to the Cooroy premises of the Combined Coastal Car Clubs for a photo-shoot and a BBQ. The following day we visited the Maroochy Bushland Botanical Gardens and Sculpture Park, where we had morning coffee before cruising over to the Bellingham Maze, where the more intelligent amongst us bought a postcard to assist them to find their way round and out of the maze! That evening we had the rally dinner and presentations at The Big Pineapple.  The F.O.R.D.C.A. members from Tasmania were to win the “Longest Distance Driven to the Rally” award with their 1950 A494A Anglia sedan (they actually covered over 6,000kms on their round trip from Hobart!) and our President won the “Best Commercial Vehicle” award with his newly-restored 1936 Model CX De Luxe roadster, well-sided utility.  In the “Period Dress” competition, we were to win “Best Child (Male)”, “Best Child (Female)”, “Best Female” and “Best Family” awards.

The farewell breakfast on the last morning of the rally is always a sad affair, and FEATS decided to do something rather unusual, and hold it at Drysdale’s funeral parlour in Nambour!!  The reason for this becomes clear when you realize that Drysdales were one of several rally sponsors.

The rally was enjoyed by all who participated and we in F.O.R.D.C.A would wish to thank the members of FEATS for their efforts in providing us with an interesting itinerary and plenty of entertainment.  It was great to catch up with old friends and meet up with people who had simply been names on the bottom of an email or letter beforehand.  

The next National Sidevalve Rally is to be hosted by F.O.R.D.C.A  and based upon Castlemaine in Victoria in March 2011. For more details, watch this space!