Octagon September, 2016

Official Journal of the MG Car Club of Queensland Inc. 

ctagon 

The 

No. 5 September 2016 

WHITSUNDAYS CHAPTER ABOUT TO TAKE OFF 

Photo taken by Beryl Doyle at the Mackay Aero Club on the afternoon of 

Saturday 20 August: the Whitsundays Chapter was officially launched that night. 

(Insets from left) Whitsundays Chapter Coordinator, Cathie Merewith with her husband, Wayne, 

and their MGB on the first Club run on Sun 21 August and COVER GIRLS - Cathie Meredith 

(3rd from left) celebrates with Brisbane ladies (L to R): Margaret Mattea, Jan Burke, Pat 

The Octagon - September 2016 1Walker, 

Wendy Hoger and Joyce Tebbutt. Inset photos by Shez Letten.

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 

Name Phone Mobile Email 

PRESIDENT 

Richard Mattea (Carly) 3325 0409 0488 224 105 richard.mattea@yahoo.com 

VICE PRESIDENT 

Vacant 

SECRETARY 

Malcolm Spiden 3266 6350 spidenm@yahoo.com.au 

TREASURER 

Carly Mattea (Richard) 3325 0409 0410 310 452 moffmat@bigpond.com 

COMMITTEE 

Don Webster (Ann) 3379 2566 0439 526 060 donweb@bigpond.net.au 

Ken Wasley (Barbara) 3378 6202 0423 152 723 wasmg11@gmail.com 

Neil Lewis 3807 6273 0417 773 425 neil.lewis@clarkslogancity.com.au 

Dean Tighe 0419 774 441 sales@tighecams.com.au 

Steve Price 0448 325 247 sjp61@internode.on.net 

OFFICIALS 

Position Name Phone Position Name Phone 

Event Secretary Fred Sayers 3359 2623 

Annette Truscott 0407 494 867 

Ev. Sec. Asst. David Robinson 3255 9037 

Richard Mattea 3325 0409 

CAMS Delegate Gary Goulding 3351 3506 

(Alternative) Ann Thompson 3378 1368 

Chaplain Ken Trudgian 3886 3409 

Club Captain Don Webster 3379 2566 

Canteen Convener (Mt C) Vacant 

Special Interest Vehicle Paul Strange 3398 1993 

Concession Contract pstrange@bigpond.com 

Webmistress Glenda Crew 3341 4397 

Clubrooms Max Johnson 3201 5826 

Regalia Shaun Rankin 0402 450 290 

Library David Robinson 3255 9037 

Point Score Ian Fettes 3803 3858 

Membership Sec. Peter Rayment (Delia) 0407 693 947 

National Meeting Noeline Johnson 0437 220 602 

Co-ordinator 

nlj52@bigpond.com 

Chapter Liaison David Miles 3892 2699 

Far Nth Qld Chapter John Fransen 0458 658 830 

Wide Bay Chapter David Hall 0490 363 889 

Darling Downs Chapter Gary Lawrence 4696 8314 

Capricorn Chapter Gurney Clamp 4939 4760 

Whitsundays Chapter Cathie Meredith 0427 392 829 

Octagon Editor Elaine Hamilton 3893 2438 0418 870 782 vprojects@internode.on.net 

All enquiries to the secretary: 

C/o GPO Box 1847 Brisbane 4001 

2 

The Octagon - September 2016 

Headquarters: 8/16 Collinsvale Street, Rocklea 

E & OE Hillclimb: Gramzow Road, Mt Cotton 

The opinion of the editor, correspondents and advertisers expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the management 

committee of the MG Car Club of Queensland Inc. and as such the club accepts no responsibility. Published six times a year members 

personal advertisements are free. Club constitution available in clubrooms. Copyright 2013 MGCCQ.

President’s Report 

By the time you are reading this report, the 

Annual General Meeting will have taken place. 

This important event provides the perfect 

opportunity for members to review how the club 

is going and to offer constructive advice. At 

the time of writing we are still well short of a 

full committee, this means that more work will 

have to be done by a small group which leads to 

burnout, which in turn leads to a smaller group… 

I think you get what I’m driving at. If you would 

like to join us and be an active member of the 

committee please contact any one of the current 

members. 

As you will read in ‘The Octagon’ the club 

continues to offer something for everyone. I’m 

truly amazed at the range of activities that 

members are involved in. It would certainly be a 

huge effort to participate in all of them. Perhaps 

I’ll make an attempt to participate in a full 

calendar of events in my retirement. Well done 

to all those who give up their time to prepare and 

run these events for members. 

The recent gathering in Mackay was, from 

all reports, a tremendous success. I was 

disappointed not to have been able to participate 

the event, but work and family commitments 

kept me away. Congratulations to Cathie 

Meredith who has agreed to act as the inaugural 

Whitsunday Chapter Coordinator. Cathie 

has already started to get things moving and 

has produced a report for this Octagon which 

appears on page 54. My thanks to Cathie for 

taking on this very important role. 

It was great to see so many MGCCQ members 

competing in Round 3 of the Queensland Motor 

Racing State Championship. There is a nucleus 

of members who keenly contend the four rounds 

of the Championship, held at Warwick’s Morgan 

Park Raceway each year. I think it’s fair to say 

that despite some of the inevitable woes that go 

with motor racing we all had a great time. And 

congratulations to Bradley Smith who is leading 

the MGCCQ Racing Driver’s Championship by 

two points with one round to go. 

Round 4 of the Carric Accounting & Business 

Services – Tighe Cams Mt Cotton Hillclimb 

Series had a good number of competitors 

and two records were broken, one was Alan 

McConnell’s long standing record from 1991 for 

two litre Sports Sedans. All drivers behaved and 

competitors had 10 runs over the weekend. The 

intensity of the competition on the track versus 

the relaxed social atmosphere in the pits is one 

of the great features at Mt Cotton, everyone 

always seems to be smiling so we as a club 

must be doing something right. Also I’d like to 

give a very big ‘thank you’ to those who jumped 

in and helped over the weekend, especially in 

the canteen. We are desperately in need of a 

canteen coordinator to take on this important 

role; if you can assist could you please contact 

me. 

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see a number 

of MG6s on the road in recent months. After 

a difficult and delayed start it looks as though 

MG is back and here to stay! Ken Wasley has 

established links with the Norris Motor Group 

and we have agreed to work together wherever 

possible to promote and support each other. 

This means that we should see the cars at some 

of our major ‘display’ events in 2016 such as All 

British Day and the club’s Concours. 

The recent Noggin ‘n’ Natters have provided 

something a little bit different with a visit from 

the Ballistic Beer Co. who are a new craft beer 

brewer in the local area. Their samples were 

well received by members and guest alike. The 

night was from all reports a great success. 

By the time you are reading this All British Day 

will have come and gone for another year. This 

is a huge event and takes many months of 

planning and organising to ensure its success. 

We were thrown into a little bit of turmoil in 

recent months with the very late withdrawal of 

our major sponsor. Many thanks to Phil Ross of 

Shannon’s for stepping in at the last moment to 

help to ensure that the event could still happen 

in a similar style to previous years. And a big 

‘congratulations’ to Max Johnson and his team 

for ensuring this events success despite all the 

late difficulties thrown in your way. 

To end this report I would once again like to 

thank all of those members and club supporters 

who have helped out in recent months when the 

call has gone out. Remember this is your club 

and to continue to survive and grow we need 

input and support from all. 

- Richard Mattea 

The Octagon - September 2016 3

Some words from Elaine 

The big news since the publication of the July 

Octagon is the establishment of a new chapter, the 

WHITSUNDAYS CHAPTER. The importance of 

this is reflected in both the cover and contents of 

this issue. 

The cover photo was provided by Cathie Meredith, 

the inaugural Coordinator of the Whitsundays 

Chapter, along with the information that the 

pictured MGB is owned by Kevin and Beryl Doyle 

of Walkerston. The Healey in the photo is owned 

by Bradley Short who will probably also be a 

member of the Club by the time you read this. The 

Tiger Moth pictured is one of two in the Mackay 

Tiger Moth Museum; the other in the museum was 

built in Cowley by Morris Motors in 1943! How is 

that for a happy coincidence! 

Inside is an article by David Miles, our Chapter 

Liaison Officer, giving his “official” report on the 

weekend and the success in forming the new 

Chapter while each of the Chapters attending 

has included their perspective of the weekend 

in their reports. Everything written about the 

weekend is filled with positivity and with reports of 

happy events which will live on in the participants’ 

memories for a long time. Well done, David! 

For those new to the Club, one of David’s many 

achievements during his second Presidency of 

the Club (2004 - 2008) was the introduction of 

Chapters to the Club, an innovation which helped 

our Club membership to soar from fewer than 500 

to more than 800 during that period. 

Due to a strange circumstance of programming 

competition events in our calendar, our Ace 

Reporter who generally provides reports of 

competition events was left with nothing to report 

on! This did, however, allow space to finally 

publish Part 5 in his well-researched ‘History of 

Motorsport in Queensland’ which has, for too long 

now, been held over until the next issue and then 

the next etc ... but at last it is here! Parts 1-4 have 

previously been published in earlier Octagons but 

are still available for reading on the website at 

http://www.mgccq.org.au/nostalgia7.htm. 

Following the publication of the July issue 

featuring Dean Tighe in his Dallara-Judd hillclimb 

special, I received a request for an article to be 

published about the car. This is the first time in 

my 10+ years of Octagon editorship that this has 

ever happened. I contacted Dean who was happy 

to oblige and all of you, hillclimb enthusiasts 

and otherwise, will find the story of ‘The JuDDi’ 

excellent reading. Maybe there are others who 

secretly also wish for a particular article to be 

published - let me know if you do! 

The National Meeting is now a few months in the 

past but the stories of the long trips there and back 

still make great reading. This time you can read Pt 

2 of the Rayments’ trip to Perth and the full story of 

Ian and Karen Fettes trip there and back (the long 

way!) along with Malcolm Spiden as their shadow 

in his 

MGB GT. 

“Chapter Chatter” is now enhanced with five 

Chapters reporting on their events. Full credit 

goes to Cathie Meredith of the new Whitsundays 

Chapter who produced a report and photos for 

this issue when the Chapter was barely a fortnight 

old and she and her husband, Wayne, were busy 

with moving both house and business and fulfilling 

commitments to another Classic car club of which 

they are members. She is living proof of the adage 

- “If you want something done, ask a busy person!” 

Sadly, Russ Geraghty’s bucket of tales is now 

empty with the publication of the final of this 

‘series’ - I live in hope of more to come! His 

inimitable writing style never fails to bring a smile 

to the reader’s face. Thanks, Russ. 

Unbelievably, the next issue, the November one, 

will be the final one for 2016. Please have any 

items for it to me before the end of October. 

- Elaine 

4 

The Octagon - September 2016

Notice Board 

The Clubrooms are open on the first and third Friday nights of each month with hot food starting at 6.30 

pm priced as low as $3. The goal will continue to be to have something special happening on the first 

Friday of each month. Your suggestions are welcomed. 

(P) indicates that the event is pointscoring for Club trophies. The rules for pointscoring for trophies can be found on the News page 

of the Club website. The pointscore is updated throughout the year by Ian Fettes so you can see how competitive you are. Please 

contact Ian with any queries you may have. 

OCTOBER 

DECEMBER 

1/2 Sat/Sun: Mt Cotton Hillclimb series Rd 5 (P) 

2 Friday: Noggin ‘n’ Natter 


14/15 Friday/Sat: poss MR2 club Interclub Observation Run (P) TBC 

16 Sunday: MGCCQ Concours and car display at Ormiston House 


26 Wednesday: Mid week run with overnight option organised by 

Allan Tebbutt 0408758523. Meet at Pioneer park Landsborough Cnr. 

Glass House Mountains Rd and Caloundra St (UBD Sunshine Coast 

map 86 K18) at 9.45am for BYO morning tea BYO. Full details are 

on the calendar page of our Club website. 

30 Sunday: 

MGCCQ Day run (Pointscoring) Details to come 

NOVEMBER 


6 Sunday: HSCCQ Khanacross/ Come and Try motorkhana 

at Driver Training Centre Willowbank 

18 Friday; Noggin ‘n’ Natter 

3/4 Sat/Sun: Mt Cotton Hillclimb series Rd 6 (P) 

9 Friday: Hillclimb Series presentation 

11 Sunday: MGCCQ Christmas Party at MGCCQ Clubrooms 

New members 

We welcome the following new members and wish 

them a long and happy association with the Club. 

Keith Brodie 

John Hallett 

Cathie Meredith 

John McGregor 

David Carlisle 

Andrew Gardiner 

John Hallett 

Lyn Hallett 

Wayne Meredith 

FOR SALE 

1991 Suzuki Cappuccino. Very clean, very 

tidy. Possibly most original available. 

Very sought after by collectors. 

Reg until 7/2017. $13,500. 

Contact Chris 0411 759 385. 

19/20 Sat/Sun: CAMS State Championship races Rd 4 

Morgan Park WDSCC (P) 

23 Wed: Mid week run organised by Trevor Mills 

3886 1549 - Christmas run to Bribie Surf Club 

27 Sunday: INTERCLUB HSCCQ Motorkhana (P) 

Driver Training Centre Willowbank 

Ross Kelly 3352 4151 

0407 364 543 

MG ZR, ZS, ZT Ken Wasley 0423 15 27 23 


Bits’n’Pieces 

Pictured is Katie Emmert of the Capricorn 

Chapter with her new MG. Kate has been 

a social member ever since her mum 

Jo joined the Club in the early days of 

the Chapter. She has now fulfilled her 

ambition of having an MG of her own even 

though she is still on her learner’s licence 

and looking forward to the day when she 

can drive it to school with a big smile on 

her face. Kate is an Australian out rigger 

champion, a sport in which she represented 

Australia in 2014, she is also a keen netball 

player. 

Eric and Janelle Beckman displayed their 

MGB for a week at Autobarn Bundaberg in 

early August. It was displayed in their show 

room along with advertising material from 

MGCCQ. Thank you to them for this great 

initiative. 

With 2017 being the 50th anniversary of 

the MGC, there is now a serious attempt to 

establish an MGC Register of these cars. 

One of the cars already on the register is 

Mark Wellard’s which is pictured here - to 

help identify the ‘non-B’ features of these 

cars. 

The Register currently has 72 known cars 

with many yet to be identified. 

It is hoped to get all cars on the register 

where they are currently registered, off the 

road or being restored. Information sought is 

- Model, year, car #, engine #, colour, where 

sourced and when etc. 

Would all members who own one of these or 

know of someone with an MGC please send 

the cars details to: 

John Craven [MGCC SA]; phone: 0412 919 

040; email: johncraven@hotmail.com 

6 


Pictured at the car show at Peak Crossing on August 28 are some of the participants from 

our Club. Thanks go to Grahame Amy for taking the photo which shows the range of MGs 

which were there and a number of participants enjoying a social chit-chat. 

The Noggin ‘n’ Natter on September 2 

featured a sampling of beer from a new 

boutique brewery, The Ballistic Beer Co. 

Pictured are John Walker (left) and Peter 

Gannon (right) who were just two of the 

many who came along and enjoyed the beer 

and the usual Noggin ‘n’ Natter company. 

The above photos show some of the diversity experienced by midweek working bee helpers 

at Mt Cotton. TOP: Ian Fettes is shown using his car trailer to deliver a huge pile of cane 

mulch to be used to protect the slopes from erosion; Jim Heymer took time off from working 

to record the picturesque sight of a duck enjoying the tranquility of the dam. BELOW: The 

inside of the first loop after a huge effort to remove all the undergrowth; No, the nuts at the 

hairpin were not on fire - on a day of mixed weather, steam rises from the nuts after rain. 


TICKING OFF THE BUCKET LIST – MG 

by Russ Geraghty 

No trip to England is complete without a 

visit to the MG Owners Club Showroom in 

Swavesey outside of Cambridge. Warning, 

if you are driving, watch the Satnav advice 

because the first right is the new dedicated 

busway, take the next drive... it could have 

disastrous results as I nearly found out. On 

my right just inside the door is a stunning 

black MGA, photos don’t do it justice. 

MGA on show at MGOC 

We had picked a bad day as the two 

showroom staff who normally man the shop 

were both away so parts interpreter Andrew 

came to our help – I had actually conversed 

with Andrew when ordering some parts last 

year and he was again as helpful... we made 

our souvenir purchases and were invited to 

tour the workshops out back...don’t walk I 

am told, drive as it is quite a way...he was 

right, they have a big operation there. 

I was greeted by Ian Wallman, the 

Workshop Manager. Ian has been with 

the MGOC for a period approaching 20 

– 25 years after having a stint at another 

organisation prior to returning here in 2000. 

He showed me around their facility and what 

I saw was about 10 cars there from Sprites 

to MGBs and a couple of MGFs over in the 

corner all in various stages of work. Beyond 

that is a full body shop and specialised paint 

booth and there are three large warehouses 

full of parts, Heritage Body shells and more. 

British Car Specialist & Rover T4 Diagnostics 

2 Trade Street 

Ormiston Q 4160 

8 


OWNERS CLUB – CAMBRIDGE UK 

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the red 

nose of a very non-MG car outside not too 

well hidden in an opened container. 

“ Oh we work on many types of cars...that’s 

a Lancia Fulvia coupe we are restoring for 

a customer; in fact, all of the cars in the 

holding yard are customer cars ready to be 

worked on.” (There were at least 20 cars 

ready for work). As I had explained about 

my own MGB GT, he showed me a pristine 

white 1971 GT they were fully restoring for a 

client, Heritage shell and all. 

Ian explained there appears to be two 

categories of MG enthusiast, the purists who 

are passionate about keeping the marque 

strong and are not prepared to deviate 

from the original theme and these generally 

cover any MG up to the MGA (and many 

with earlier or special MGBs) and then the 

MGB onwards crowd who have no objection 

to bringing their 60s or 70s models up to 

date in performance, handling and comfort 

like their compatriots with RV8s and MGFs. 

MGOC cater to all their needs. 

I hit Ian up about my MGB GT automatic 

and did he have some experience about 

them... Oh yes, we have handled a few 

but mainly Roadsters. The T35 automatic 

transmission was also used in the MGC GT 

of which there a few getting around. 

“Ian,” I ask, “what can I do about the gearing 

for highway motoring?”... his response was 

wide... (1) swap the rear end out for a V8 

rear end with different gearing and don’t 

forget to recalibrate the speedo, (2) swap 

the box out for an early 4 speed BMW auto 

box pre-electronics with a bit more work (3) 

drop in an electric overdrive as well... you 

end up with a ridiculously short tailshaft but 

it works, we’ve done one for a client or (4) 

go up to 15” rims and therefore a higher 

profile tyre, remember to recalibrate the 

speedo and make sure you have enough 

wheel arch clearance... now which way to 

go? Thanks Ian and all at MGOC. 

Just as a side-story or two, after 

enjoying September’s Goodwood, I was 

accompanying my wife through the shops 

in Nice in the south of France (appearing 

to be very interested in things I knew 

absolutely nothing about) when I happened 

upon a little Art Gallery that specialised in 

Auto Art. I was inside like a flash asking 

in my worst schoolboy French if he had 

any artwork on an MGB GT, in his slightly 

better English he said “Oui, en rouge”... I 

said “No, Blue s’il vous plait.” He said he 

had a Midget... I again said “No, MGB GT 

in Blue”... he said “No monsieur, I own an 

MG Midget and I rally as often as I can”. 

Car talk can cross many boundaries and we 

agreed to exchange emails – hopefully I can 

understand his French. 

We were also able to take advantage of a 

€1.50 bus fare from Nice to Monaco to see 

how the top percentile lives. The Casino was 

literally surrounded by Bentley convertibles, 

new Rolls Royce with highly polished silver 

bonnets, literally dozens of those Porsches, 

Ferraris and an SLS Mercedes or two but 

the car that drew as much attention as any 

other was that of the Italian pair who parked 

their red MGA just around the corner... 

shopkeepers came out to give assistance 

to park here. How fitting in amongst the 

Rich and Famous that an MGA can draw a 

crowd... good on you MG. Now what’s next 

on the Bucket list? 

The crowd-drawing MGA outside the casino 


The Nullarbor Nym 

(Or what we experienced in our MGY on our way to the Easter 2016 MG National Mee 

Ceduna – Half Way on our trip! Yippee. 

1745 miles. 

All of these little towns we were going 

through now have somewhat changed 

since we travelled here 21 years ago. 

The beautifully kept green grass on the 

beachfront near the jetty made a welcome 

sight after some of the arid region between 

Cobar and Ceduna. The frequency of 

dumping points for RVs was good, if you 

wanted one. Considering they never used to 

have such things, when we went across in 

1995. 

Penong – “The town of windmills” and 

they certainly are making a big “todo” 

about them. As we left, this tidy little town, 

Karen, our Navman made a profound 

statement.”Straight Ahead for the next 200 

kilometres”. This wasn’t the first or the last 

time that we would hear such an instruction 

as we headed off across the Nullarbor. 

The Nullarbor –Every time we have 

traversed the Nullarbor we are enthralled 

by the changing vegetation and it has been 

different each time. A lot of it might only be 

low growing but it depends on the time of 

the year and whether or not there has been 

rain. This time on the way over it was the 

greenest we have ever seen it, and when 

one looked closer one could see some small 

flowers with buds forming on a lot of the 

vegetation. 

Some areas reminded me of Africa, as the 

acacias presented silhouettes unlike the 

ones in South Africa with their leaf clustered 

head, often times blown sidewards. 

The Baxter Cliffs, which run over 120 

miles across the western end of the Great 

Australian Bight are just magical. One could 

sit at the edge of the cliffs for hours just 

10 


ph strikes again! 

ting in Perth, Western Australia) by Delia Rayment with sneak-ins by Peter - PART 2 

watching the ever changing colours in the 

ocean and the sky, taking in the beautiful 

fresh air at the same time. 

Access to the ”official” viewing points, we 

are sorry to say, are now being limited owing 

to the way the world has gone regarding 

suing etc. and people’s inability to be 

responsible for their actions. Also there is a 

money making point just back in aboriginal 

land that has a lookout with a good bitumen 

road to it. Certainly the grey nomads have 

found tracks to cliff edges to camp with their 

monster vans. What a place to stop on the 

edge of the world. 

The Roadside Rest Areas across the 

Nullarbor on the Western Australian side 

have now become somewhat civilized, to 

years ago. Not so on the South Australian 

side where designated rest areas are few 

and far between and when one does stop, 

one has to fight your way through used 

tissue paper etc behind the nearest bush to 

do what you have to. Navman “Karen told 

us a few times across this stretch that we 

needed to stop, that we had travelled over 

2 hours and could she find us a Rest Area or 

Café – “Not so out here lovey, I am afraid.” 

we more or less said together. 

Peter thought that he saw the Nymph late 

one afternoon as we drove into the setting 

sun towards Border Village, after travelling 

336 Miles that day. I looked quickly to where 

he pointed but I just shook my head and 

said “I think the fading light is playing tricks 

with your eyes, darling!” “Kangaroos yes but 

no Nymph. Time we were off this road as we 

don’t want to hit any kangaroos.” 

Madura Roadhouse-We had to stop at 

every Roadhouse along the way as we 

had to buy petrol, as the Y only has an 8 

gallon tank, and if we didn’t refuel then we 

would run out before the next roadhouse. 

This was one of the things we had factored 

into our trip before we left. Firstly, checking 

that we would be able to go the distance 

between roadhouses and secondly allowing 

extra time each day, for refuelling. We didn’t 


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ealise how much extra time to what we had 

thought we would need however, because 

every time we stopped, people would want 

to talk. This didn’t worry us at all but a 

15 minute stop often extended to a three 

quarter hour stop. Madura Roadhouse was 

no exception. 

We pulled up for fuel, Peter had not got 

out of the car when a head popped in 

the window with a voice saying “I used to 

have one of these!” plus a long history of 

when, where etc. No problems. Peter got 

out refuelled and went to pay. Whilst he 

was doing that I was finishing writing up 

the details of our purchase in our log book, 

when a head came in my door saying “I 

used to own one of these!” Different person, 

different story – but still very interesting. 

Fraser Range Station – We camped 60 

miles east of Norseman that night to check 

the place out for our return visit. On our way 

back we were going to be accompanied 

by two New Zealanders, Warwick and 

Juliana Protheroe in their MGB and they 

had expressed an interest in staying at the 

property. A very interesting place, a working 

sheep station that provides a welcome 

stay for travellers. Some of their workers 

come from different parts of the globe. One 

couple we met from Germany, had come 

for a night’s stay and were still there, now 

working, a month later. They were having a 

ball. Who needs the big cities! 

We were now three quarters of our way 

across to our destination, having now 

travelled some 2656 miles. 

Esperance - Esperance is one of my 

all time favourite places in Australia. I 

guess it must be the BIG granite outcrops 

everywhere and the wonderful bays, and 

islands made of the stuff. Guess it reminds 

me of when I was a kid and the odd holiday 

we had on Magnetic Island off Townsville in 

far north Queensland. Whatever, this area 

always makes me feel free and that I would 

like to go exploring the archipelago out 

there in the Great Southern Ocean. One can 

conquer up dreams of explorers or pirates 

when one looks at some of the names of the 

islands, as there has been many a foreign 

sailor here. 

Ongerup - Malleefowl Research Centre - 

One of many interests in our life is birds. We 

love them. Mind you we are not Birdos or 

Twitchers. We just appreciate birds for what 

they are and what they do and yes, we have 

a little refuge at home as we are “Land for 

Wildlife” people. 

Anyway when the opportunity presented 

itself to visit the Yongergnow (easy for you 

to say that) Malleefowl Centre. We were 

the first customers through the door the day 

of our visit. What a wonderful Education 

Resource. We thought we knew about the 

fowl, but this visit gave us a much broader 

understanding of the Malleefowl’s needs. 

Needs which are similar to our “big foot” 

bird – the Scrub Turkey at home here. It 

also gave us the opportunity to see them up 

close and personal. 

Stirling Range - After all the flat, plain areas 


across the bottom of Australia, the Stirling 

Range was a sight for sore eyes. The 

geology of the range is quite spectacular. 

The biodiversity within these ranges is 

internationally recognised as one of the 

world’s top 34 hotspots. It was added to the 

Nation Heritage list a decade ago. We were 

in luck throughout this region as were able 

to see some wildflowers in bloom. We must 

come back during spring one year to see it 

in its full glory. 

Bridgetown - As we headed into this 

beautiful little town in the Blackwood Valley 

our first port of call was the Blackwood 

Valley Cidery, as it was lunch time. Our 

visit was well timed as with the lunch came 

free entertainment with soothing jazz in the 

background. 

A shame for the town though that timberjinkers 

start roaring past at about midnight 

and continue into the day. We weren’t able 

to have too much sleep that night as they 

sounded like they were driving through the 

tent! 

The towns people are certainly friendly 

enough as we had to have a tyre looked at 

by a young fellow (about 40) as it started 

going down slowly. On investigation it turned 

out to be what Peter had suspected it to be 

a pinched tube. And so several of patches 

later, the tube talced and fitted correctly 

into the tyre and onto the wheel, we left for 

Perth. We had new tubes fitted into new 

tyres before we left home, but obviously 

they hadn’t been fitted correctly. Peter had 

unfortunately not been present when the 

tyres and tubes were fitted to the wheels. 

Obviously the fitter!! did not know how to fit 

tubes. Like making sure the tube is blown up 

in the tyre before the tyre is finally fixed onto 

the wheel. Talcing the tube lets it move more 

easily in the tyre to get rid of any wrinkles in 

the tube. If these wrinkles are not removed, 

they rub and wear holes in the tubes. 

Not good. Peter certainly does not let any 

tyre fitter refit a wheel to the Y or the Midget. 

If they use an air rattle gun (Spanner) they 

will break the wheel studs. The original 

14 


wheel braces with their small leverage only 

let the correct torque to be applied to the 

nuts. 

Whilst waiting for the young tyre fitter 

to look at our tyre we headed south just 

south of Bridgetown to look at a collection 

of old cars some one in the caravan park 

had told us about the night before. What a 

sight. Old Mercedes, Citroens, Borgward 

Isabellas, Pioneer buses etc all housed in 

old double- decker sheds. But no MGs. The 

owner Scotty was “home” and took us on 

a personal tour of his collection. For this 

is what he called it. He said he wasn’t a 

hoarder- there is a difference! 

Donnybrook - Our visit to this town was 

made interesting as we chose to go to 

a solar farm where the owners have 

developed, over the last 20 odd years, a 

method of drying stone fruits grown on 

their farm such as peaches, plums by 

the sun. Solarfruit have a comprehensive 

range of products which make ideal healthy 

and convenient snacks for travellers. 

Useful particularly as one travels around 

the country where there is the likely 

hood of having to go through Quarantine 

checkpoints, as we did both coming and 

going to Western Australia. We had to 

make sure we were NOT carrying any fresh 

vegetables or fruits, which can be hard to 

monitor at times when you are unsure of 

your next stop. 

We had actually been doing less and less 

miles in the 4 – 5 days leading up to us 

travelling into Perth. But at least we didn’t 

have to rush any more every morning to 

hit the road. We had left a few days up our 

sleeve in case of a break down or whatever. 

We had wanted to make sure that we would 

be well and truly in Perth for the National 

Meeting, which was the main objective of 

this trip. 

We now had the task of cleaning the 

car, as we had gone through a few lots 

of grasshoppers at different times that 

had embedded themselves into hidden 

nooks and crannies. Plus there was dust 

throughout from the odd side roads we had 

driven to lookouts. 

Everything had to be removed from the car 

so that we had free access. All the dirt had 

to be removed in readiness for the Concours 

set down for Easter Saturday when the 

judges would be giving the car a thorough 

going over for any faults etc. 

With all our efforts of travelling all this 

distance and cleaning, will it be worth while 

at the National Meeting events!! Stay tuned 

for our report on the National Meeting and 

going home. 

Perth - We finally arrived one day early than 

planned, with 3421 miles under our belt - 

YIPEE 

Fact Sheet to Perth 

17 days travelling 

covering 3421 miles 

consuming - 2.5 litres of oil 

using - 131.93 gallons of fuel 

fuel costing - $765.50 

Cheapest - $1.08.9 per litre 

Dearest - $1.70.0 per litre 


RACQ Motorfest 2016 

by Don Webster 

RACQ Motorfest was held on a beautiful 

winter day at Eagle Farm Racecourse. This 

year the featured marques were BMW, 

celebrating 100 years since inception, and 

at the other end of the spectrum the humble 

Corolla with 50 years. The Corolla has 

notched up more sales than the Volkswagen 

Beetle, and it seems that almost everyone 

either had one, or knew somebody with 

one. It’s a bit like ABC’s Playschool which 

is also celebrating 50 years, and most of us 

watched it at some time. Or knew someone 

that did! 

While Corolla has always been just a 

small mid-priced car, BMW has produced 

a range of options, from aircraft engines, 

motorcycles, mini cars, luxury cars, 

sports and racing cars, and had over 100 

examples of different models on display. 

For a while they even owned MG in one of 

its recent incarnations. 

MGs were well represented with 25 cars on 

display, and at least 15 MGCCQ members 

displayed their cars. They ranged from a 

1931 M type to a 2003 Z2, and included 

MGTDs, MGTFs, Magnettes, MGA, MGBs 

and an RV8. Overall there were 550 cars of 

different marques on display. 

Although this was not a formal MGCCQ 

Participants: 

Kerry Horgan 

Zimmer 

(complete with Uncle Sam costume) 

Neil McCorkingdale 

TF 

William Carroll 

TF 

David Miles 

Magnette 

Ray Chappelow 

MGB 

Darryl Roberts 

MGB 

Grahame Moore 

TD 

John Cicchiello 

MGB 

Andrew Manfield 

MGB 

Geoff Wigg 

M type 

Peter Sellars 

MGB 

Steve Hodgson 

ZT and RV8 

Don Webster 

TD 

event, it was gratifying to see the support 

that our members gave to this worthy 

cause, because all profits go to RACQ 

Careflight. 

The event was well organised (as usual) 

with defined entry points and times, and 

MGs and the other British cars were all 

on site by 9.00am. This gave the entrants 

an opportunity to look around before the 

gates were opened to the general public 

at 10.00am. Also on site were the very 

popular Eagle Farm Markets, providing an 

additional drawcard for the event. 

16 


Historic Ormiston House 

overlooking Moreton Bay 

Historic Ormiston House - 277 Wellington St, Ormiston, 4160 

The MGCCQ Display Day 

& 

The Gearys Sports Car Annual Concours 

Sunday 16th October 2016 

A Social Day for all MGCCQ Members & Friends 

Access from 08:00am 

Judging commences at 9:30am. 

Presentations from 1:30pm. 

Adult Entry to the grounds $5.00. Children $1.00 

Enter the Concours 

Display your pride and joy, 

or arrive in your daily driver. 

Enter the Non MG Marque Class with your 

special vehicle. 

Trophies for 

- The Concours 

- Daily Driver 

- Non Marque Vehicles 

- Race Cars 

Classic Motorbikes Welcome 

Enjoy a Devonshire Tea $5pp on the 

verandah of the historic house, or 

Rotary Club Sausage Sizzle 

Entry Forms 

These can be downloaded from the Entry forms page of the Club website at 

www.mgccq.org.au/entry.htm. 

Entries are preferred prior to the day but entries will also be accepted on the day. 


18 


July Mid Week Run 

by Jeff and Pat Heslewood; photos by Malcolm Campbell 

It was quite a cool start to the day when 15 

cars including 8 MGs set off from Springfield 

Lakes. I often think that the hardest task 

for organisers is to break up the various 

discussions and get the briefing under 

way prior to departure. Unfortunately Brian 

Purvis & Di Robinson were unable to join 

us until the lunch stop. In spite of the cool 

morning, Denis decided that “top down” was 

the way to go. 

We travelled through some beautiful 

farming country, crossing the Cunningham 

Highway at Warrill View and continuing 

through Harrisville then along a couple of 

narrow country lanes. This certainly got us 

up close and personal to some Fassifern 

Valley farmers and their crops, but we finally 

arrived at Lake Moogerah for morning tea, 

with “Top Down Dennis” looking a little 

frosty. The view from the picnic area is 

wonderful, but the winter breeze and low 

temperature had everyone ready and willing 

to move on after a warm drink and a quick 

chat. 

Participants: 

Allan & Joyce Tebbutt 

Audi 

Errol & Wendy Hoger 

MGB 

Malcolm Campbell & Kathy Burford VW Golf 

Jeff & Pat Heslewood 

WRX 

Bruce & Tip Ibbotson 

MGC GT 

Kerry & Dane Horgan 

Ford Mustang 

David Miles 

MG Magnette 

Denis Thomas 

MGB 

Rob Grant 

Pajero 

Shaun & Phillis Rankin MGF 

Gary Lawrence 

MGB GT 

Ian & Kay Wells 

Honda 

John & Glen Boyce 

MGF 

Jan Burke 

MGB 

Brian Purvis & Di Robinson MG TF 

Bruce Mutch & Ross Brunckhorst SUV 

set of traffic lights which certainly made for 

more enjoyable driving and kept the group 

together. The usual socialising continued 

until it was time to head home after another 

day of great motoring and great company. 

The farming country and spectacular 

mountain backdrop made for another 

enjoyable drive as we looped around Mt 

Alford and through Boonah, Roadvale 

and Peak Crossing before arriving at 

Johnston Park in Rosewood for lunch. 

There just happened to be a pie van at 

the car park and I am sure that we made a 

healthy contribution to the day’s profits. We 

managed to do the whole run with only 1 


20 


August Midweek Run 

by Barry Lutwyche; photos by Elaine Hamilton 

A WET WEDNESDAY RUN 

Ten enthusiastic starters set off from 

Bunya on an overcast morning, travelling 

across Clear Mountain with misty but still 

spectacular views to the North East across 

Lake Samsonvale and then proceeded to 

cloud-covered Mount Glorious, by-passing 

Samford village on roads unfamiliar to 

many. 

Wet driving conditions began to slow 

progress on the way into Somerset Village; 

however, the light rain eased as we arrived 

at Lake Somerset for morning tea where we 

were joined by Barry and Lorraine Bauman 

from the Gold Coast MG Car Club. 

The now increased group of eleven vehicles 

left for the second stage of the run and 

encountered heavy rain as we approached 

Kilcoy resulting in a minor change of route 

to Woodford. Several MGs pulled out of 

Participants: 

Barry Lutwyche 

MGB 

Jan Burke 

MGB 

Gary Lawrence & Mike MGB GT 

Owen Mc Neil & Ron Clydesdale MGB GT 

Bruce Mutch 

SUV 

Ray & Sue Edwards 

Outlander 

Vern & Elaine Hamilton MGB GT 

Dane & Kerry Horgan 

Lamborghini 

Val Horgan 

MX5 

Neil & Jenny Summerson Colarado 

Barry & Lorraine Bauman MGF 

the run at this stage, no doubt due to the 

weather but nine vehicles continued over 

Mount Mee, by-passing Dayboro, to our 

lunch venue at McGavin View on the North 

side of Lake Samsonvale. 

On arrival the rain cleared enough for us to 

huddle together for lunchtime “cheers and 

chatter” at the end of the run. A damp day 

but enjoyable. 


The 2016 W 

Introduction 

We decided to attend the 2016 MG National 

Meeting in Perth with our 1955 MG Magnette 

and to transport the car there on a trailer 

behind the motorhome that we had discussed 

and wanted for a number of years. 

Because the bus when loaded weighs 4.5 

tonne and the trailer and car combination 

another 2 tonne, we were not certain as to how 

well it would handle major hills with that load. 

While we knew there were few of these hills on 

the planned trip, there were some that might 

have proved a challenge. As a result, at the 

beginning of March we decided to do a test run 

of the motorhome with the car on the trailer. 

A no problems run down to the Gold Coast at 

110kph on the highway and a drive up the 13% 

grade to Mount Tamborine would be a good 

test. An earlier run without the trailer to the 

same area showed that while the bus climbed 

the hills OK it did slow down a lot to around 

35kph. 

The Coaster bus was well setup and most 

problems had been resolved in the prior two 

months of test running. We did carry a 2.4 

kVA generator on the trailer to give us air 

conditioning power when needed outside 

caravan parks. 

As it turned out, the vehicle handled the grade 

very well, but slowed down to 20kph at the 

steep points, with still one gear to go. This 

was very encouraging as it meant we could 

22 


do the trip to WA as planned and not need to 

send the car by truck transport as many of our 

MG friends were doing. 

When we asked around the MG club as to 

how people were getting to Perth, there were 

a variety of methods and timings involved. Our 

friend Malcolm Spiden said he was taking 

the long way round to get there by visiting 

Port Lincoln in South Australia on the way. 

We thought this was a great idea as Karen’s 

parents have travelled around Australia 

numerous times and Karen wanted to trace 

their footsteps wherever possible. 

We then said to Malcolm that we would 

like to do that part of the trip also and if we 

accompanied him he would be able to use the 

part-time bed in the motorhome with us and 

so save money on motels. Malcolm being a 

thrifty type thought that was a great idea and 

so the arrangement was made. 

This year the National Meeting organisers 

provided an optional Post National Meeting 

Tour to give travellers from other parts of 

Australia and Overseas an opportunity to 

check out the features of the South Western 

part of Western Australia over another six 

days. We thought this was a great idea and 

booked in. As it turned out, so did Malcolm in 

company with another friend. 

This meant that after the tour both Malcolm 

and ourselves would still be in Perth ready to 

return home. In discussions with Malcolm he 

provided a throwaway line that said, well you 

could always return home via Darwin instead 

of tracking back across the Nullarbor Plain.

A trip by Ian and Karen Fettes 

Karen immediately said YES as this fitted in 

with her plan to see where her parents had 

been. And so the plan was set again - we 

would have the company of Malcolm for 

another five weeks! 

This arrangement had a slight twist as we 

did not really want to lug the Magnette all the 

way on the trailer via Darwin, so organised 

to send the car home on truck transport from 

Perth and continue on with an empty trailer. 

Again, this suited Malcolm who had a question 

mark over the reliability of his 1976 MGB GT 

in such a long trip, and the availability of the 

trailer should he break down and be stuck 

was a godsend for him. As it turned out, 

despite several problems with his car, the 

trailer was not required for that purpose. A bit 

disappointing really! 

A rough map of the trip shows the outward 

journey, the Post Nat Meet tour and the return. 

Outward Trip 

The plan was to use free camping areas 

where practical but caravan parks when we 

needed power and water. 

Initial part of the trip saw us in the Pilliga 

Scrub for the first night 

after seeing Brian and 

June Phillips turn off in 

their RV with trailered 

MG at Moree. Next day 

we continued south with 

a couple of hiccups. 

First was the Jerry can 

containing spare diesel 

parting company with 

the trailer, being held 

on only with a security 

strap. It was relocated 

into the Magnette and 

we carried on until 

Parkes where we then 

discovered that the 12V 

supply on the dashboard 

was overloaded and we 

needed an alternative 

power source to keep our 

GPS going. Finally found 

another free camp at 

Yalgrogin for the night. 

Onward from there saw 

Malcolm, who started a 

day later, catch us at Gooloolin, whereby we 

continued in convoy to a lovely scenic spot 

on the Murray River at Bottle Bend for the 

night, some 20km short of Mildura. Malcolm 

pointed out to us that the indicators on the 

trailer worked opposite to that of the bus. 

Oops! Did a quick rewire of the trailer plug and 

left the problem until later. The indicators had 

worked properly at home when the trailer was 

connected to our CR-V, so the problem lay 

with the bus. 

Mildura came and went the next day and after 


24 


a lunch stop with delicious Cornish Pasties 

at Burra and tolerating the rough roads, we 

stayed overnight in a Caravan Park at Port 

Pirie. We think the water we topped up with 

there was bore sourced as it had a funny taste 

and suspect it was the cause of tummy upsets 

for the majority of our trip. 

From Port Pirie we travelled through Port 

Augusta, Whyalla to Port Lincoln where we 

again used a caravan park. We spent two 

nights there catching up with a friend of Ian’s 

and visiting Coffin Bay. Of course the local 

oysters were sampled and enjoyed. Port 

Lincoln we found a bit cold, with a nasty 

southerly wind requiring more clothing than 

that previously in use. One interesting side trip 

we made there in the Magnette was to visit the 

beach where Gallipoli was filmed, surprising 

some 4WD folk by taking the Magnette up the 

rough rocky track to the top of the cliffs. Also 

saw a heap of dolphins swimming past - quite 

a sight. 

Next day was a short trip to Ceduna where 

we again used a caravan park for the night. 

Another gremlin was found to be inhabiting the 

system though. When pulling up on gravelled 

verges we found the left side electric brake 

on the trailer was locking up. Then realised 

it also locked up at low speed on bitumen. 

Another oops! For the Nullarbor crossing we 

disconnected the brake and later solved the 

problem 

. 

The trip across the Nullarbor was uneventful, 

with a stop at Madura. Karen loved the 

lookouts to the Great Australian Bight we 

visited along the way. Did not find the trip 

across the Nullarbor boring, as some folk 

suggested, and I think this view was shared by 

many of the other MG folk who made the road 

trip. Longest day on the road to Madura so 

far, 691km and eight and a half hours driving. 

From Madura we trekked through to Kalgoorlie 

where we stayed two nights. The trip from 

Madura to Kalgoorlie was 708km, another 

long one and nine and a quarter hours 

travelling. 

While there we caught up with Karen’s niece 

who drives a ‘little’ haul truck at a gold field. 

We had a great day there, as she gave us a 

royal tour of the site and showed us the inner 

workings of an open cut gold mine. Brilliant 

colours in the earth where the pits were. Also 

the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie itself was worth an 

inspection. 

From Kalgoorlie we planned a stop at Toodyay 

where Karen’s niece has a small property 

that she and her husband visit every two 

weeks. Both of them work on mine sites and 

only get together fortnightly. There we left the 

trailer and bus and travelled on to Perth in the 

Magnette easily. 

Post Nat Meet Tour 

After an enjoyable National Meeting, 

dampened only by the light rain on Concours 

day, Easter Saturday, we commenced the tour 

after the excellent Tuesday breakfast. 

The tour provided an optional route itinerary 

from Point A to Point B. Detailed route 

instructions were provided that one should be 

able to follow. Participants proceeded at their 

own pace with Happy Hour the enticement to 

arrive early at the designated and pre-booked 

destination. 

First day - off we went then to Busselton, but 

wrong turns and a delaminated tyre soon 

made us a bit testy. Ian claims to be a nonnavigator 

and this was proven. We finally 

stopped at Bunbury to find new tyres - no 


such luck for the size on hand - but new ones 

promised the next day. Overnight was at the 

splendid Bayview Geographe Resort. Crossed 

over the Murray River many times and lovely 

to see the houseboats floating and people just 

chilling. 

Needed to return to Bunbury first thing next 

morning to get five replacement tyres. Ian did 

not trust the old ones any further. Luckily we 

got them OK and only found one brand that 

still makes the size needed - Maxxis. Our 

day’s trip then took us to the Cape Naturaliste 

area - very beautiful and from there we 

checked out some boutique galleries. Kept 

the credit card in check at the jewellery gallery 

though. Saw a lovely painting at the next one 

- about the size of a bedroom wall - but the 

price tag of $38,000 and lack of space in Tilly 

put us off. 

From there we overnighted at Margaret Beach 

- another splendid destination and one we 

would love to revisit. 

Next day as we entered the proper Margaret 

River wine area we decided to stop at the 

fourth winery we came to - Island Brook 

Estate it turned out to be - why not? Lovely 

place and owner - Evan - chatted for ages with 

him. Distinctive truck out front. Great wine too! 

Have purchased some via the Internet since. 

The overnight stop was then at Pemberton 

after having travelled some very scenic roads 

where access to caves and giant trees is 

available. Along the way we earlier bought 

some lovely cheeses and some crisp breads 

to go and with that we had pre dinner drinks 

and the Verdelho from Evan. 

The area we travelled through is all beautiful 

forestry. Valley of the Giants, for example. 

Exciting tree views everywhere. Many of the 

group did a treetop walk thingy - perhaps we 

will do it next visit. Also, in Gloucester there 

is a special Gloucester Tree. This is one you 

can climb up - all 56 metres of it. Perhaps next 

time... 

Finally we travelled to Albany from Pemberton, 

again seeing some wonderful country along 

the way. Had a good feed on the road and 

found a lovely woodworking craft place 

offering local work before Denmark that 

encouraged us to use the credit card at last. 

Albany was then a two night stop as there is 

a lot to see in the area. 

The next day at Albany we did the Whaling 

Station tour, went up to the Anzac Memorial 

and generally soaked up the ambiance of this 

historic place. The replica of the Brig ‘Amity’ is 

an interesting display also. 

Next morning started the trip back to Perth. 

Up early and off to Perth, did a few scenic 

drives too, but Tilly was getting a bit hot, so 

we pulled over a few times to cool the old gal 

down. 

Overall, the Post Nat Meet Tour was a great 

success, with both the overseas visitors and 

the Aussie component lapping it up. The tour 

concept is a great one and gives visitors an 

opportunity to see the local sights in a more 

relaxing and friendly atmosphere. 

Return trip 

One of the complications of the initial return 

trip was that while we had left the bus and 

trailer at Karen’s niece’s place at Toodyay, 

there was confusion over the location of the 

bus keys. As it turned out these had been left 

inside the property house to which we had no 

access and no-one else was there. 

As we could not pick up the bus from the farm 

at Toodyay due to key confusion, we ended up 

staying at an old pub in Toodyay itself for two 

nights. This itself was very nice, albeit with a 

mix-up with of rooms. Malcolm got our room 

and vice versa. Never mind, all in the spirit of 

the trip. 

When we arrived on the outskirts of Toodyay 

Malcolm rang (mobile phone coverage flaky 

in remote areas)... he has broken down, his 

car at a servo in nearly town - he borrowed 

26 


a phone to make the call. Luckily Ian was 

able to help by picking Malcolm up with the 

Magnette and leaving the GT to the tender 

mercies of the local garage. 

Next day we find that the garage suggests 

Malcolm’s problem is a blown head gasket. 

Luckily Malcolm has such spares with him, so 

therefore organised a tow back to our hotel 

car park to perform a miracle repair while Ian 

and Karen tripped around. 

The latter went off to visit the special town of 

New Norcia. This is such a beautiful place and 

Karen, treading in the steps of her Mum and 

Dad, found it quite special. 

back in the bus! Ian took Tilly to the truck 

transport place in Perth for return to Brisbane 

the next day and then we could concentrate 

on solving the minor bus problems with both 

our hosts back at the farm. Great hospitality 

from that pair! 

In checking out the bus problems, we found 

that the indicator wiring was stuffed up at 

the 24V to 12V convertor. Fixed that OK and 

put the trailer plug back to normal again. 

Similarly, found that the trailer braking problem 

was caused by a poor clip-on connection on 

the right hand trailer brake - new soldered 

connections have now stopped that problem 

from recurring. 

Took the opportunity of adding some 

additional support brackets to the Jerry can 

holders on the trailer, but working outdoors 

with unfamiliar welding equipment and 

marginal grinding of existing broken brackets 

meant that it was going to be a temporary 

repair only. And that it certainly was. 

Finally we leave Toodyay and head off to 

Green Head. Along the way stopped at The 

Pinnacles at Nambung NP, did a good walk 

around them and were really impressed. 

Whether one is religious or not, it is quite a 

revelation to get an insight into the origins of 

the Abbey there and the work done over the 

years to help the local community. 

It still operates as a school and the monks 

beaver away at their various tasks including 

providing some delectable ale, wines and 

ports. Very nice too! 

Malcolm still at Toodyay with car - he has 

replaced the head gasket so now hopefully 

things will proceed as planned. 

Next day we finally get to Karen’s niece’s 

property. At long last we got to spend a night 

The night was spent at Billy Goat Beach, free 

camping with lots of like-minded folk. This is 

a beautiful spot, but it just really poured rain, 

so now a bit muddy under foot. The weather 

has been cool, and overcast so not surprised 

about the rain, everything is fresh and clean. 

Leaving Goats Head Bay and headed off 

to Geraldton. Shops here are closed on a 

Sunday, so we had great difficulty getting fuel. 

Endless queues of cars, we drove around and 

queues everywhere... finally got some out 


of town. Could not find a fresh water supply 

though, and we knew we need it for further 

north. 

Had hoped to get to Denham for the night, but 

found a far better place to say - the Hamelin 

Station Park, oh heaven, just had a shower oh 

bliss. This station has recently been well set 

up for campers. Great showers and facilities. 

Finally got some good water in Denham, the 

first we had to pay for - $1.00 for 20 litres, but 

then found that the bus water tanks were not 

taking their nominal capacity. A bit of a worry 

and another gremlin. 

We spent two nights at the station, and went 

to see the Stromatolites, wow mind blowing, 

always wanted to see them, and now we 

have. The tiny shell beaches are amazing, 

millions of tiny white shells make the sand...! 

in fact the paths here for the camping are all 

made of the shells. 

Rain and thunder in the early morning, next 

day, a cooler day, overcast and bits of rain. 

Malcolm trying to fix a new problem - manifold 

leak on his MG, begged cover so in a shed, 

with assistance from the on-site maintenance 

man who provided some good sealant. 

Denham is a small spit of a place, definitely 

a holiday town only... went on to Monkey Mia 

on the return trip where the ranger let us in 

for free, seeing it was late and the feeding is 

in the morning... talk about a clip joint, and 

as Karen surmised her Mum and Dad saw 

the best for free... tourist trap now, even the 

caravan park was a clip joint... so much, so 

many. 

From Hamelin on Tuesday, 12th April, day 31 

of the trip, we headed off to the Blowholes, 

Point Quobba via Carnarvon. Karen quickly 

took advantage of the empty beach and 

popped in to the water for a skinny dip... ah 

bliss. Ian went in later with togs on. 

The bus was serviced in Carnarvon early pm 

but seems we were on the end of a queue, 

and left quite late in the afternoon. Karen has 

made great use of our Dream Pot, a utensil 

where you cook on heat for 10 to 15 minutes, 

then it continues to cook for hours on that 

stored heat in the outer container. No further 

heat or power needed. We always enjoyed the 

meals from it. 

Quobba is the most beautiful place pretty 

remote, has a dump site, no water, no bins, 

but oh the water, a bit of surf on the reef and 

then still lagoon water, just heaven. Ian skinny 

dipped this morning, and enjoyed it, but he 

may have scared the local fish. 

In earlier planning we were going to visit 

Exmouth and Onslow, but this trip decided to 

leave them to another time. Accordingly, from 

Quobba beach we travelled to Yannarie River 

and thence to Karratha over the next two 

days. 

However, a new gremlin appeared in the bus - 

the electric water pump that supplies the sink, 

shower and toilet refused to work. Needed 

to use our supplementary water supply in 10 

litre plastic drums. Perhaps it was the heat, as 

when we stopped late afternoon it was 57ºC 

outside. Used the generator to power the air 

conditioning at our free camp throughout the 

night until it ran out of fuel. 

Onwards to Karratha, hoping that we can 

get things fixed there, do a wash, find some 

28 


shops with supplies and maybe get a good 

shower??? 

Karratha is lovely town with everything, big, 

big houses... good shopping and apparently 

the fishing is great. We also had a look at 

Dampier, just a quickie, same as Karratha, but 

with all the bits to go with the port. While Ian 

has done the bulk of the driving on the trip, 

today he had a bad headache so Karen took 

over the driving for most of the day. Oddly 

enough, the water pump decided to work 

again, so that made life a bit easier. 

Next stop on the trip was Port Hedland. Of 

interest in this area of WA is the countryside 

you pass through. In some places it is similar 

to the Nullarbor but other ones are more 

desert like. Still others show peculiar rocky 

ridges with hills and small mountains, but all in 

all what is evident is a lack of wildlife, or any 

animals for that matter. But the flies though, 

they are everywhere, not game to open our 

mouths. 

From Port Hedland we travelled on to Broome 

stopping at Stanley free park overnight along 

the way. Very, very hot and dry, the roadside 

vegetation changes from Spinifex to low green 

shrubs, then some rock or hills, long, long 

stretches of it. Just passed a station that was 

green, obviously they have artesian water. It 

was grand to see. We needed to be near the 

sea to get any cool breeze, last night’s came 

up in the early hours. 

Off we went to Broome not Derby and what 

a pleasure it is, so green, yes, it is hot but so 

many shady trees. We booked in at Cable 

Beach Caravan Park for two nights and then 

went to local market where Karen bought a 

very nice silver and pearl ring, we had ice 

creams, she had the homemade mango, OMG 

it was to die for, not sickly sweet, just perfect. 

Our second day in Broome is good. Off to 

Chinatown, lighthouse and other bits, Ian 

swam yesterday, it was warm tropical water, 

Karen paddled. Bit disappointed in Cable 

Beach. Malcolm checked out the camel 

rides on the beach but declined to ride. Was 

surprised to see a large cruise ship in port 

in Broome, but was clear that tourists spent 

money in Chinatown on pearls. The best are 

local saltwater ones but the bulk of sales 

actually imported fresh water type. 

Karen’s camera died as we arrived. Could not 

find a replacement in Broome after trying in 

various shops and also through the Internet. 

Finally got a hint that we might find one in a 

new shop in Derby, of all places. 

Next day, yes, we got a camera at a Derby 

shop that only opened the day before. Derby 

itself does not have a lot to commend it, but 

the jetty is interesting. In stark contrast to 

Broome, the Derby water is murky brown. 

Derby also seemed to be the start of the 

distinctive boab trees. 

When buying the camera we parked next 

to another Coaster motorhome. Its owner 

explained that he was about to travel the Gibb 

River Road to Kununurra on what is known 

as a 4WD route. He was quite confident that 

his vehicle would make it, so we filed that 

information away for another time. 

The variety of termite mounds also attracted 

our attention. Their colour varied with the 

earth but the styles changed throughout WA. 

Another hot day, cannot believe how hot it 

was, then looked at the map and realised we 

were close to Marble Bar the hot spot... go 

figure. 


From Derby the rest of the day was travelling 

to Fitzroy Crossing. Stayed at the caravan 

park there in a drive through park with 

Malcolm opting for a tent night in a grassed 

area some 50 metres away. 

Next morning before we left we spotted a local 

old aboriginal sitting under a tree close to our 

camp carving boab nuts. Of course we just 

had to buy one as a souvenir. His smile made 

it all worthwhile though. 

Onward again, this time to a free stop at 

Durham where we met up with some other 

campers we had met before. Halls Creek 

seemed somewhat feral as we passed 

through. Would not want to stop there. 

The area we travelled through is in Bungle 

Bungle territory and so beautiful, green and 

fascinating. 

Now on day 40 of the trip. Up fairly early 

and on way to Wyndham, then to Kununurra 

and finally Lake Argyle. Road to Wyndham 

a bit lumpy, but oh the scenery. Wyndham 

was really interesting, a bit like old Broome, 

not touched up and touristy, fascinating, we 

bought some salt water barramundi (tastier 

than fresh) for a meal along the way. 

Great lookout at Wyndham where five rivers 

exit and onward to the lake. 

Kununurra was interesting as it is a NEW 

town only built in the late 60’s. We stocked 

up on water, milk. A surprise to us in getting 

this far were the strict alcohol purchase 

arrangements in North Eastern WA and the 

Northern Territory due to the situation with 

the local indigenous people. Restrictive bottle 

shop hours and need to provide ID for the 

purchase. 

Lake Argyle at last though - heaven on a 

stick. Such a stunning oasis in the middle of 

the Bungle Bungle’s desert, but, man, what 

a desert, we are stunned by the beauty, and 

here at the Lake, we are perched right in the 

middle of it. Spent two nights here. Had hoped 

to do a day cruise on the lake but ended up 

doing an afternoon/evening one the next day. 

The cruise was gob smacking, we took so 

many photos that Karen’s camera has to be 

charged. Tracey our captain and dogs body 

was wonderful. What a scream she was, her 

commentary was to say the least original. 

30 


Loved it. At the end of the day not only did we 

have a glorious sunset on one side of the boat 

but a moonrise on the other. 

We had two opportunities to have a swim in 

the warm lake water. The first at the deepest 

point of the lake where brave people can 

jump in off a rock ledge - we did not jump 

of course. The second at the end of the day 

where Tracey threw cans of beer down to the 

floaters in the water and also tossed a can for 

two brave guys that jumped in off the roof of 

the boat! 

We all jumped in and had a swim around, with 

Malcolm here using noodles, looking angelic 

and waiting for his beer, not beatification. 

While the lake has crocodiles, these are fresh 

water, not salty, and harmless. 

However the day had to be the best and worst 

of our trip... after a glorious cruise on the lake 

and swims we came back to the shrieking 

alarm of the battery management system. It 

was no longer charging the batteries despite 

power available from solar, mains and vehicle 

when running. In order to keep the expensive 

storage batteries alive we rigged up a direct 

battery charger from the mains supply when 

in camp. 

However, the next day when travelling to


MGCCQ 2016 Calendar 

Affiliated with the Confederation of Australian Motorsports 

GPO 1847, Brisbane Q 4001 

OCTOBER 

1 Saturday Mt Cotton Hillclimb series Rd 5 (P) 

FNQ 

Gordonvale Markets and Fishery Falls 

2 Sunday Mt Cotton Hillclimb series Rd 5 (P) 

WBC 

(HB): EMR to Alan Cunningham’s collection with lunch at Grand Hotel Biggenden 

3 Monday CC Mystery Tour, A short but interesting trip to somewhere!!!; 

7 Friday MG Noggin N Natter; 

DD 

Mt Tamborine, Weekend Overnight run 2 nights, Gary Lawrence; 

8 Saturday DD Mt Tamborine, Weekend Overnight run 2 nights, Gary Lawrence; 

9 Sunday DD Mt Tamborine, Weekend Overnight run2 nights, Gary Lawrence; 

12 Wednesday DD Rudds Pub Nobby, Lunch run, Ron and Judy Gillis; 

WBC 

(HB) EMR for breakfast at Boat Club followed by run 

14 Friday poss MR2 club Interclub Observation Run (P) TBC; 

15 Saturday poss MR2 club Mid afternoon to Mid evening Interclub Observation run (P) TBC; 

16 Sunday MGCCQ Concours and car display at Ormiston House 

CC 

Capricorn Coast, Option 1 – Day trip to Great Keppel Island, Option 2 – Lunch – Keppel Bay Marina; 


23 Sunday WBC (HB) TLR Drive the Esplanade, fish and chips at Urangan 

WBC 

(B) EMR M/T Cancer Council at Johnsons home 

26 Wednesday Mid week run with overnight option organised by Allan Tebbutt 0408758523 

29 Saturday Australian Hillclimb Championships at Haunted Hills, Morwell, Victoria; 

WBC 

(HB) EMR to Coffee Central on 7 for Breakfast 

30 Sunday MGCCQ Day run (Pointscoring) Details to come 

Australian Hillclimb Championships at Haunted Hills, Morwell, Victoria; 

DD 

Oakey air museum 

NOVEMBER 


6 Sunday HSCCQ Khanacross/ Come and Try motorkhana at Driver Training Centre Willowbank 

WBC 

(HB &B) EMR with M/T Childers and lunch at Woodgate Bowls club 

9 Wednesday DD Leyburn Hotel, Lunch run, Ron and Judy Gillis; 

13 Sunday FNQ Jaacques coffee - Tolga hotel 

WBC 

(B) EMR to Elliott Heads bowls Club 

16 Wednesday WBC (HB) EMR with M/T at River Heads Cafe 


32 


19 Saturday CAMS State Championship races Rd 4 Morgan Park WDSCC (P); 

20 Sunday CAMS State Championship races Rd 4 Morgan Park WDSCC (P) 

CC 

Capricorn Coast, Breakfast at Deganis Bakery, Emu Park; 

23 Wednesday Mid week run organised by Trevor Mills 3886 1549 - Christmas run to Bribie Surf Club 

27 Sunday INTERCLUB HSCCQ Motorkhana (P) Driver Training Centre Willowbank; 

DD 

WBC 

TBA, Breakfast run, Guy and Pam West; 

(B): EMR to Biggenden 

DECEMBER 

1 Thursday WBC (B) TLR Pageant of Lights 


3 Saturday Mt Cotton Hillclimb series Rd 6 (P) / Interclub Presentation at Cars and Coffee Coorparoo 7am – 9 am Z Car Club; 

CC 

Capricorn Coast, Christmas Dinner TBA; 

4 Sunday Mt Cotton Hillclimb series Rd 6 (P) 

WBC 

WBC 

(HB) TLR Esplanade run, fish and chips takeaway or BYO 

(B) EMR Planning day at Alexander Park M/T 9.30am 

7 Wednesday DD Picnic Point, Breakfast run, Ron and Judy Gillis; 

9 Friday Hillclimb Series presentation; 

10 Saturday FNQ Christmas breakfast 

11 Sunday MGCCQ Christmas Party at MGCCQ Clubrooms; 

WBC 

WBC 

(HB) Noon - Christmas party at Sticky Fig - Fraser Shores shopping complex 

(B) Noon - Moore Park Tavern 

14 Wednesday final working bee for 2016; 

WBC 

(HB) EMR finishing at Homemade Cafe, Pt Vernon 

CC = Capricorn Chapter of MGCCQ DD = Darling Downs Chapter 

FNQ = Far North Queensland Chapter 

WB = Wide Bay Chapter; HB = Hervey Bay Section of Wide Bay Chapter 

B = Bundaberg Runs - meeting place Public Car Park Quay Street, Rowers Club 

end opposite Walla Street 

EMR = Early Morning Run – Sundays 9 am start D = Display event 

MWR = Mid-Week Run –Wednesdays 9 am start unless otherwise advised 

# # = Attendance Numbers will be needed 

TLR = Twilight Run – 5 pm start LTA = Long Trip Away 

TBA = To be advised P = Towards Annual MGCCQ Point Score 

More details and information on our website mgccq.org.au 

Working bees are held every Wednesday at the hillclimb plus others as per the calendar and 

on Wednesdays as needed at the clubrooms. Contact Malcolm Spiden re hillclimb and Max 

Johnson re clubroom working bees. 


34 


Katherine, we set up the generator on the 

trailer with a lead taped to the side of the 

bus. Despite being a stationery generator 

it performed perfectly on the moving vehicle, 

albeit attracting attention when we passed 

through a town or stopped for fuel. Passed 

through Mataranka Springs (next time for 

sure). 

Stopped in a caravan park in Katherine for 

the night and changed our plans for visiting 

Darwin. With it being Anzac Day weekend, 

uncertainty over the battery system and 

wanting a major town to find a solution, it was 

considered prudent to cut a week off the trip 

and head for home. 

The next overnight stop was Renner Springs 

with a noticeable change in temperature - 

cooling down a lot now. The Springs have 

seen better days but it was somewhere to 

stop. Finally had the storage batteries up to 

full charge but resolved to power them up via 

the generator or mains whenever possible. 

Next stop was Avon Downs at a free stop 

opposite a Police Station. The road to there 

was interesting in its own way with dressed up 

termite mounds catching the eye, but a long 

way with nothing much else to see. 

After refuelling at Camooweal - another odd 

place - we headed on to Mount Isa where we 

planned to stay for two nights. At last there 

we were able to get in touch with Redarc 

who provided advice on how to reset the 

battery management system (BMS). Only 

problem with this was that it needed a Torx 

(tamperproof) screwdriver to undo the screws 

that held a plug in to the unit. 

Without the right tools all Ian could do was to 

perform some requested electrical checks, 

dismantle the battery and BMS system, undo 

the wiring from the plug and hope that the 

unit would reset. Nope, it did not. Conclusion, 

return the BMS to Redarc after back home. 

Just to round things off, found one inner rear 

tyre without air - but helpful Bridgestone 

in Mt Isa found the valve extension loose, 

fixed it and would not charge us. Great 

service. Subsequently have purchased a tyre 

pressure and temperature monitoring system, 

so should be OK in future. 

Karen had not been in the Isa since working 

there in the 1970’s and barely recognised the 

place. 

From Mount Isa we travelled on to overnight 

at Winton. Despite the loss of the Waltzing 

Matilda Centre to fire a few years ago, the 

townspeople are looking forward to the 

replacement. We browsed the town and 

enjoyed the stay in the pub’s new caravan 

park. 

However, the area has not lost its dinosaur 

attractions. On the road to Longreach we 

stopped at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs 

Museum. A corrugated dirt road leads to 

a Jump Up donated by a local farmer and 

comprises a workshop and museum. Both of 

these we visited and were greatly impressed 

with the work done and being done. The 

latter is mainly volunteers who spend several 

months a year chipping away the material 

around the bones that have been preserved 

after being dug up and awaiting restoration. 

They have countless years of work ahead of 

them. 

The highway to Longreach is a pitiful sight, 

nothing alive... lots of bones either side of the 

highway, highway of bones yes, it certainly is. 

However, a gremlin struck again. The 

reinforced Jerry can holder on the right hand 

side of the trailer must have suffered on the 

earlier dirt road, and decided to part company 

with the trailer. This holder held a 20 litre can 

of petrol for the generator. The can continued 

on down the road at 100 kph until stopped 

somewhere on the roadside. We stopped the 

bus as soon as we could and Ian walked back 

to try to find the can. 

The can was a Bunnings special in 


camouflage paint, and hid itself very well in 

the rough grass at the roadside. Malcolm 

picked up the remaining broken bits of the 

holder and eventually spotted the can. Luckily 

it was intact as we could visualise what might 

have happened had it spilt and ignited, not to 

mention the possibility of hitting an oncoming 

vehicle! 

Finally got in to Longreach where we spent 

three caravan park nights. First night we 

did the sunset cruise on the Thomson River 

and Karen partied hard, regretting it the next 

day. We were given a right royal meal after 

the cruise with our bus driver John Hawkes 

entertaining us. 

The next day was spent at the Qantas 

museum where we did the Jet Tour as well 

as the museum, of more interest to Ian and 

Malcolm than Karen. As there was too much 

to see in one day in the town, we did the 

Stockman’s Hall of Fame the next day. Was 

great, very interesting all round. Saw the 

horse and dog show, very entertaining, a good 

show. 

Finally, day 51 we head from Longreach 

to Charleville where we setup in the local 

caravan park as still needing external power. 

Countryside still showing signs of drought 

effects with almost no stock remaining. As 

we arrived Charleville seemed to have the 

drought broken as the skies opened up. 

Next morning it was Malcolm’s turn to have 

gremlins - his alternator had failed and the car 

would not start. As usual he was well prepared 

and in no time a new spare alternator was 

fitted. 

On the way to Roma we stopped off at the 

Charleville Airfield to view the WWII remains, 

including the ‘secret’ of the airfield. You 

need to visit to find out about this. There is 

a lot more needs to be done to complete 

investigations and to document the place. 

The penultimate stop on the trip was Roma, 

where the caravan park as usual was 

required. Of interest in the area was that they 

are growing cotton east of Roma. A surprise 

considering the drought that area of Qld has 

been through. 

Final trip home was via Toowoomba, and 

36 


looked at a few things there – the new airport 

at Wellcamp... and an old race track which 

couldn’t be found easily. Malcolm persevered 

and we went home. 

Took several days to clean up the motorhome. 

Outside had a collection of dirt and bugs plus 

after effects of having a power cord hanging 

off the side - gluey mess. Inside needed a 

good clean - dirt, stones and stuff needed to 

be tidied. 

All in all we travelled some 13,242 km in the 

vehicle, consumed 2,589 litres of diesel for a 

cost of $3,599. That meant we averaged 21.6 

l/100km, the low being 18.3 and the high 25.0. 

The latter resulted from headwinds and air 

conditioning running flat out.

THE OPENING OF A NEW CHAPTER 

The journey to Mackay by David Miles 

Thursday dawned with threatening rain-clouds, 

so the roadsters arrived at their designated 

starting points with hoods raised, whilst those with 

permanent tops appeared looking rather smug. With 

planned departure from Coles Express, Nudgee 

being 8.00 am, Peter Gannon (MGB), Errol and 

Wendy Hoger (MGB) and David & Meryl Miles 

(Magnette) met there, before moving on to the BP 

on the highway at Morayfield to join Don Webster 

and Ross & Shez Letten (MG TDs), Barry Lutwyche 

& Jan Burke (MGB), Dino & Margaret Mattea (MGA 

Coupe) and John and Pat Walker (Honda Jazz). 

Light rain began to fall as we left the A1 at 

Caboolture for what we expected to be a less 

trafficked road through Kilcoy, Burnett Highway, Ban 

Ban Springs then across via Biggenden to re-join 

the Bruce Highway just south of Gin Gin before 

reaching our overnight Motel just north of Miriam 

Vale. Seemed a good idea at the time, but a slow 

moving truck whose driver was under the delusion 

that there was no one else on the road impeded 

our progress until, thankfully, turning off onto the 

Brisbane Valley Highway. 

First stop, at Nanango 

Morning tea was at Nanango, where the rain had, 

perhaps, decided to follow the errant truck. Ever 

clearing skies were our companion for the next few 

days. The pre-arranged rendezvous with Allan & 

Joyce Tebbutt (MGB) successfully took place at 

Tanzy, from whence our convoy consisted of 9 cars. 

A clear run through cattle country of the Central 

and Northern Burnett districts had us at Ban Ban 

springs for our lunch stop, some fuel and a chat. 

Dino and Margaret, having arranged to meet a Mini 

enthusiast in Gin Gin, left early, but in the wrong 

direction, and were recalled by some desperate 

phone calls. 

Happy hour, Thursday, Moorawatha Homestead Motel 

Dallarnil / Booyal Rd, we rejoined the Bruce 

Highway for the last leg to our Koorawatha Motel 

overnight stop, with Dino successfully delivering 

Mini parts to his grateful recipient. 

The traditional “Happy Hour” was held on the 

expansive lawns in front of the motel units and was 

followed by a welcome dinner. 

Departing at around 8.00am, the journey took us to 

Rockhampton – fuel stop for many in preparation for 

the long haul north. A late morning tea stop / early 

lunch just south of Marlborough was a welcome 

break for fuel, food and a chat with the occupants of 

a lime green Holden Sports-wagon, a Queensland 

police “Q” car, bristling with all sorts of electronic 

gadgetry. Police were out in force, obvious and not 

so obvious along this stretch of highway. 

Our last fuel / food / comfort stop was at the very 

pretty seaside hamlet of Clairview, a most welcome 

oasis from the central Queensland cattle country 

through which we had passed. North of here, cane 

farms began to replace the open country as our 

destination drew nearer. Traffic lights replaced open 

road as we entered Mackay, with a relative easy run 

to the Windmill Motel and Convention Centre, our 

home and headquarters for the next 3 nights. 

The Brisbane convoy, Friday MT at Clairview 

It was another quite scenic drive from Ban Ban 

Springs, through Biggenden, then utilising the 


Combined Chapter 

By David Miles, Chapter Liaison Officer; 

photos by David Miles, Shez Letten, Cathie 

Meredith and Phil Henry 

Mackay August 19 to 21 - Welcome 

to the Whitsundays Chapter 

The first (of many, I hope) meeting of our 

regional chapters held over the weekend of 

19th to 21st August not only provided the 

opportunity for members to enjoy a weekend 

of social activity and an extended drive, but 

saw the establishment of a new chapter, the 

“Whitsundays Chapter.” 

The Windmill Motel and Convention Centre 

in Mackay was our headquarters for the 

weekend, providing excellent accommodation 

and venues for our activities, the first of which 

was our “Meet and Greet” dinner, a buffet 

BBQ, watched over by the resident possum. 

A beautiful Wide Bay Chapter T type at Mackay Aero 

Club (Photo by Lyn Hayward) 

Attended also by MG owners and enthusiasts 

from Mackay, the evening highlighted MG’s 

reputation as “The Marque of Friendship” with 

many new associations formed. 

Saturday morning, Mackay was treated to a 

procession of MGs travelling to the Mackay 

Aero Club, where locals joined us for a display 

of more than forty cars, mostly MGs, and the 

aero club provided an excellent morning tea 

and BBQ lunch. Fellowship and, of course, 

conversations involving MGs continued here 

with Mackay providing perfect weather for the 

occasion. 

Following lunch, another, but smaller convoy 

journeyed south to Hay Point for a look at the 

recently expanded coal loading facility. 

Our current Chapter Coordinators and local 

MG enthusiasts met on Saturday evening in 

the Longreach Room of the motel to discuss 

Cathie Merdith and the “Brisbane girls” kick up their 

heels. (Photo by Shez 

Letten) 

38 


Meeting 

the formation of a chapter in the area. 

Enthusiasm for this saw Cathie Meredith duly 

appointed as Coordinator of the Whitsundays 

Chapter of the MG Car Club of Queensland 

(Inc.) - “ icing on the cake” for the weekend. 

Cathie is the first lady to be so appointed! 

An early start on Sunday morning saw the 

cars convoy down to Mackay Harbour precinct 

for the unique “Covered in Chrome” event, 

with welcome coffee provided by the adjacent 

“Casu Jack” establishment. Open to all classic 

and muscle cars and motorcycles, MGs 

dominated the attendance on this occasion. 

Yet another MG convoy, lead by the lovely red 

Falcon Hardtop owned by Cathie’s husband 

Wayne, departed mid morning for lunch at the 

Pinnacle Hotel, with a short stop at The Leap 

for a brief history lesson of the tragedy that 

occurred there in our past, then on to the hotel 

and lunch on the famous “Pinnacle Pies.” 

The cars formed an impressive sight lined 

up around the edge of the adjacent cricket 

ground. Continuing on up the picturesque 

Pioneer Valley, the Eungella range was 

successfully negotiated and, after stopping at 

one or two lookouts along the way, the group 

arrived at Broken River for refreshments and 

some platypus spotting. 

The journey then took us back down the range 

to Mirani where the Pioneer Valley Classic Car 

Club had prepared (you guessed it) a BBQ 

which, sadly, was bypassed by a lot of our 

participants. It was another excellent meal, 

planned to raise money for their charity “bash” 

car which was on display. 

Overall, a very successful weekend away, 

and, hopefully, an event to be repeated on a 

regular basis. 

The venue all ready for us 

The influx begins 


40 


CHAPTER Chatter 

Capricorn Chapter 

by Gurney T Clamp 

Sunday 24 July - Farnborough School Fete 

& Byfield 

A number of members were disappointed that 

the planned trip to Many Peaks was cancelled 

due to heavy rain throughout Central 

Queensland so we agreed to seek support 

from our members to display their cars at the 

Farnborough School Fete instead. 

A great day was had by all who attended and 

found that, even in Winter, we had to find 

a shady spot to remain cool on a summerlike 

day. We parked our cars next to the 

Rockhampton Heritage car club who, like us, 

had a variety of cars for the visitors to the 

fete to view. Many thanks to Jenny Hill, Ian 

Carleton, Stuart & Ada Clark, Gurney Clamp, 

Trevor Andersen, George & Lyn Ganter, Garth 

& Leslie Barnes, Ian Henderson & Wendy 

Major for their attendance. At 12.15 p.m. we 

packed up our cars and headed off to the 

Byfield store for lunch and enjoy the usual 

club chatter over the usual good Byfield store 

lunch. 

Happy group at Farnborough School Fete 

Tuesday 2 August - Leinster Place Charity 

Event 

Coastal & Central Members Gurney Clamp, 

Terry Dwyer, Robert Holbeck and Neville 

Funch were the only members available to 

attend the annual Capricorn Chapter charity 

event at Rockhampton’s Leinster Place, an 

aged home facility in North Rockhampton. 

Under clear blue skies, we were met by 

Debbie Biles who organized our visit to the 

facility where we took very excited male and 

female residents on a short tour around North 

Rockhampton. Many took advantage of our 

presence and took rides in several different 

cars keeping our members busy for about an 

hour while they also enjoyed the experience of 

showing off their pride and joy. 

Sat 6 August - BBQ at Gary and Robbie 

Galloways 

A great night was had by all at Gary & Robbie 

Galloway’s Rockhampton property, enjoying 

what turned out to be a beautiful August night 

under the stars while having a couple of wines 

or beers. 

It all started when the coastal group of Phil & 

Margaret Henry, Martin & Narelle Adamson, 

Gurney & Gloria Clamp, Richard & Michelle 

Taylor met at the Oaks on the Yeppoon Road 

before heading off to the Lakes Creek Hotel. 

Enroute to the hotel it was realized that there 

were a couple of cars missing, only to find 

that Richard & Michelle Taylor’s 1975 Chevy 

Corvette came to a halt while trying to keep up 

with the MGs. Knowing what the problem was, 

Richard quickly replaced the damaged part 

in the distributor and was on the road again 

and now has made an entry into the annual 

Broken MG award. 

We met up with Jo & Katie Emmert in Kate’s 

newly acquired 1996 green MG F, Neville 

Funch, Robert & Yvonne Holbeck and Rosco 


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42 


James. On arrival at the Galloways property 

we found Gary & Robbie busy setting up with 

assistance from Stuart & Ada Clark. 

The afternoon started with the usual chatter 

while Gary saddled up one of their beautiful 

horses in preparation for members who 

wanted to experience riding a horse. Yvonne 

Holbeck dressed for the occasion and was 

the first in the saddle followed by Gurney 

Clamp, Neville Funch, Michelle Taylor having 

her first ride ever on a horse, followed by the 

experienced rider Stuart Clark. Katie Emmert 

also took to the saddle for the first time. 

It was around this time that Jim & Sandra 

Armstrong arrived. With assistance from Ada 

Clark and Yvonne Holbeck, Robbie started 

serving the beautiful hot pea and ham soup 

while Gary set up the fires under the B..B.Q. 

plates. Everyone enjoyed the music from our 

top musician and songster Phil Henry. After 

everyone enjoyed their own B.B.Q. dinner 

Robbie served everyone with trifle followed by 

the popular toasted Marshmallows, toasted 

by Jo & Katie Emmert on the ashes under the 

B.B.Q.s. 

Special thanks to Gary & Robbie for inviting us 

all to their property and providing all the tucker 

that they specially prepared for us. 

Gathering for the BBQ and Martin Adamson on horse; 

Gary Galloway leading 

19 - 22 August - All Chapter Meeting in 

Mackay 

The big August weekend started off with 

coastal members Phil Henry, Ian Carleton, 

Gurney & Gloria Clamp meeting at The Oaks 

before heading off to Rockhampton to meet 

up with other coastal members Rodger Warne 

with Phylis Davies and Trevor Andersen along 

with the lone ranger from Rockhampton Ian 

Wilhelmsen. Several members from the Wide 

Bay Chapter arrived and we all managed 

to start off on time heading north to have 

morning tea at Clairview. We were lucky 

enough to see a high tide with Clairview at 

its best. It was during this section that Trevor 

Anderson experienced electrical problems 

with his Daimler Dart but managed to get it 

up and going and headed the group off to 

the next stop for lunch at the Sarina R.S.L. 

Here we caught up with Cathie & Wayne 

Meredith, Malcolm & Kevin Brown of Sarina, 

and enjoyed one of the best lunches of the 

weekend. After lunch we headed off to our 

accommodation at the Windmill Motel in 

Mackay. 

Friday night we got our chance to meet 

members from Brisbane, Far North Qld, 

Wide Bay & Darling Downs Chapters and 

potential members from the Mackay, Sarina & 

Proserpine region at a meet & greet function 

on the Lake Deck of the motel while enjoying 

nibbles provided by the head office. After, we 

all sat down for a B.B.Q. dinner while we were 

entertained by Meryl Miles and Pat Walker 

with their efforts to try and sell some good 

quality MG Car Club items while handing out 

membership forms to the Mackay MG car 

owners. 

Saturday was a casual day with a 8.45 

a.m. start that saw everyone head off to the 

Mackay Aero club to display our MGs along 

with some unusual MGs and different types of 

sports cars. One unusual one was a Panther 

sports car. The Aero Club Tiger Moth was 

kept very busy doing joy flights over Mackay, 

with Gurney saying that it was something 

that he had always wanted to do. With 

encouragement from the Capricorn chapter 

members, he took up the challenge without a 

parachute and experienced a flight that he will 

always remember. Many thanks to the Aero 


44 


Club, who had heaps of volunteers on hand to 

provide an enjoyable B.B.Q lunch for us all. 

Saturday night saw Chapter coordinators from 

all Chapters attend a meeting chaired by MG 

Car Club of Queensland Chapter Coordinator 

David Miles in the motel’s Emerald Room. 

This saw the formation of a new chapter in the 

region called the Whitsundays Chapter, with 

Cathie Meredith being elected the chapter 

coordinator. 

Sunday was an early rise for majority of the 

chapter members to allow them to go to the 

Mackay Harbour for breakfast and take part 

in the Covered in Chrome vehicle display at 

the Harbour car park. Once again there was a 

good variety of cars on display. Afterwards all 

chapters headed off to the Pioneer Valley via 

the Leap Hotel then onto the Pinnacle Hotel 

to experience their famous pies, which I am 

sure that everyone enjoyed. Most MGs took 

the challenge of the steep winding Eungella 

Range with no reports of anyone experiencing 

problems. Some of the Capricorn Chapter 

members got to see a platypus in the Broken 

River and also the Finch Hatton Gorge. 

Monday morning everyone woke to see a 

storm brewing in the southeast that was 

heading towards Mackay. That encouraged 

all to have a quick breakfast and quickly pack 

up to beat the storm with some being lucky 

enough to get away early enough and miss 

the storm while others were not so lucky. 

Being caught at traffic lights with the hood 

safely folded down was not fun!!! 

A very enjoyable salad was supplied to go 

with our cooked meat and after another drink 

and we said our goodbyes. The Woodgate 

members headed home via the Bruce 

Highway. We travelled some more MG 

friendly country roads and meandered our 

way back to Bundaberg via Wallaville and 

Goondoon. Everyone had a pleasant and 

very enjoyable MG outing many thanks to 

Allan Dansie. By Allan Dansie 

Wed 29 June - It was a very chilly morning in 

Paradise when 9 members in 6 cars met at 

the assembly area on the Esplanade Pialba. 

We decided to do a leisurely drive along the 

Esplanade from Gatakers Bay to Urangan 

Pier. It was a relaxing and very scenic drive 

indeed! Then taking a short run through the 

country side arriving at the French Bakehouse 

Airport shopping Centre Urangan. Where we 

were met by another member Warren Innes 

in his Motorhome.. We had a most enjoyable 

morning out and the fabulous food and coffee 

were a bonus. 

Mingo Crossing weekend - What a week 

end , Great weather ,Great friends, Great 

music and a fantastic camp site. 

Sunday 12th June – Run to Tirroan with Allan 

Dansie It was a chilly breeze that greeted the 

Bundy Crew at the RV point in the morning. 

After a quick hello to everyone and a brief run 

down on our proposed trip we mounted our 

trusty steeds and headed for Childers. 

At Childers we met up with our members from 

Woodgate and after our smoko break left 

Childers and headed towards Biggenden via 

the Isis Highway. Turning at the Paradise Dam 

turnoff we headed to Booyal turning on the 

Bruce Highway to Tirroan. 

Arriving a little earlier than planned we 

enjoyed a refreshing drink while waiting for 

our hostess to cook our steaks and sausages. 

Gurney with Cathie Meredith, Sun Pinnacle car park and 

Gurney ready for Tiger Moth flight 



Darling Downs Chapter 

by Gary Lawrence, DD Chapter Coordinator 

Another two months in the world of MG enjoyment 

have slipped by and once again we have we have 

taken the opportunity to exploit that enjoyment to 

the full. 

Our mid-week and monthly social runs have been 

well attended with our August monthly run being a 

standout attracting 15 cars and 27 participants 

The Frasers and the Lawrences ventured north for 

the combined chapters meeting in Mackay. This 

was a great weekend with plenty of time to admire 

the many members’ MGs and socialise with fellow 

MGCCQ members. 

As they say in the classics, it is not always about 

the destination but often about the journey. We 

turned this into a caravanning trip, taking the 

opportunity to explore a number of towns in central 

and west Queensland that have supported our 

history or are now an integral part of the mining 

industry. 

The first vestiges of spring are just starting to 

emerge from the chills of winter which is welcome 

news to the roadster owners in our chapter. Very 

soon the scarves, beanies and gloves will find their 

rightful places in the bottom drawer……..bring on 

summer!! 

This hotel, with a history dating back to 1857, 

typifies the rustic country Aussie pub. When you 

step through the front doors, it is like a step back in 

time with its wide floorboards and basalt open fire 

place. 

While the weather was rather brisk and not 

conducive to driving open topped MGs, the warm 

wood fire that greeted us made it trip worthwhile. 

Considering the weather, we had a reasonable roll 

up with everyone enjoying the jovial banter and 

good food. 

Participants: Greg & Beth Newey; Brian & June 

Phillips; Helen Goodfellow & Del Jensen; Rob 

Fraser; Ben & Angie Cain; Ron Gillis; Gary & Janis 

Lawrence; Odeh Habash. 

Jumpers & Jazz Festival 24 July 

When you put Jumpers, Warwick and 24 July in on 

sentence, the first thing that comes to mind is a cold 

winter’s day. 

Well, yes it was cold at 0645 as the Toowoomba 

group hit the road to join our with our Warwick 

group for the car display at the Jumpers and Jazz 

Festival. By the time we arrived in Warwick an hour 

or so later, the chill had left the air and we were 

welcomed with a beautiful sunny day. 

Lunch Run 13 July 

The venue for our Chapter’s July mid-week run was 

The Farmers Arms Hotel at Cabarlah, just north of 

Toowoomba on the New England Highway. 

The Jumpers and Jazz Festival is an annual event, 

this year running from 21 to 31 July. It features live 

street music, art displays, car displays and the very 

quirky but fantastic displays of trees and shrubs 

wrapped in various forms of knitted wool attire. 

This year the warm day added to the atmosphere of 

46 


pokies and keno tops off their visit to the club. 

Although the place was crowded, most of the group 

received their meals within a short space of time 

however a couple of our members had a rather long 

wait for their order to arrive. 

While waiting, we did have the opportunity to 

observe the methods of eating by some of our 

companions. Brian kept us entertained by creating 

all sorts of caricatures and effigies with his beans 

and corn……. let the imagination run wild. He did 

eat and enjoy them eventually. 

what is a great day out for our members. 

The MGs once again was given pride of place in the 

street display thanks to our resident MG member 

and chief marshal, Greg Newey. Our display 

included a few B roadsters, a B GT, a C roadster, a 

TC, a Jaguar Saloon, a couple of TR7s and a Mini 

Cooper S, showing the diversity of vehicles owned 

by our members 

Participants: Phil & Marilyn O’Brien, John Smith, 

Andrew & Susan Willesden, Greg & Beth Newey, 

Glen & Bev Hadfield, Kevin & Cheryl Jaques, John 

& Linda Aston and Gary & Janis Lawrence. 

Lunch Run 10 August 

Our visit to the Toowoomba City Golf Club 

Restaurant must have been put on Facebook as I 

think half of Toowoomba were there to dine with us. 

Parking spaces near the building were non-existent, 

and the ‘shuttle buggy’ just didn’t seem to go the 

right route to pick me up, so a fair walk to the venue 

was the order of the day. 

The Golf Club is a very popular lunch time venue 

for the locals as the range of meals is quite 

extensive while the chance for a social flutter on the 

It was great to see Graham & Lyn again as they 

passed through on a caravanning trip to north 

Queensland and to catch up with our regulars. 

Participants: Ron & Judy Gillis; Odeh & Helen 

Habash; Kev & Sylvia Johns; Gary and Janis 

Lawrence; Brian & June Phillips; Graham & Lyn 

Cope; Bob & Mavis Marsh 

Monthly Run 28 August 

Sunday 28 August highlighted a unique destination, 

where we were treated to meeting Ross Plant, a 

3rd generation cattleman turned horn and pewter 

artisan. Ross and his wife Barbara are long time 

personal friends of Susan and Andrew Willesden. 

It was a perfect day for the run, with the almost 

Spring weather bringing out a large MG contingent. 

Fifteen cars and twenty-seven people enjoyed the 

drive to Ross’s farm. 

We headed off from Toowoomba, skirting around 

Westbrook, Glenvale and Torrington to cross the 

Warrego Highway on the new flyover. The view 

from the bridge was stunning – you really get 

an appreciation for the vastness of the Western 

Downs. 

On the Highway for only a few moments, we then 

travelled through farmlands to Gowrie Junction and 

further North, enjoying the gentle rolling hills, warm 

sunshine and fresh country air. With Goombungee 


the morning tea destination, the farmland scenery 

was only broken by the few houses of Meringandan 

West. 

Morning tea was a relaxing 40 minutes. About half 

the contingent gave custom to the Goombungee 

Antiques and Café Store, the remainder enjoying 

BYO food and drink. This little country café is 

definitely worth a visit. Their slogan ‘Fine Old Wares 

and Scrumptious Country Fare” certainly proved to 

be true. The words, ‘this is the best coffee I have 

ever tasted’, were heard from several MG people. 

After morning tea it was again a scenic country 

drive along Peachy-Maclagan Road to the New 

England Highway. Three kilometres out from Crows 

Nest, we arrived at Ross’s farm, “The Croft”. 

The cars parked in front of the big shed that houses 

Ross’s horn and pewter workshop, providing an 

excellent photo opportunity. Ross was as excited 

about the MGs as we were about viewing his 

unique craft, so he was there at the ready to 

photograph the line- up. The picture was up on 

his Facebook page “Crofters Craft – Horn and fine 

pewter” before we got home. 

In the workshop, pieces of his work were displayed 

for sale, ranging from cufflinks, pots, kitchen knives, 

and spoons, to corkscrews and salad servers. Ross 

explained how he takes the raw cattle horn and cuts 

and moulds it into various shapes for assembly with 

the pewter, which he also moulds and shapes from 

scratch. The shaping and moulding is done with a 

range of wooden and metal moulds; a lathe and 

presses. Each piece goes through several polishing 

stages using different grades of sandpaper and 

brushing tools. 

After ‘The Croft’ we headed off to The Farmers 

Arms Hotel at Cabarlah for some enjoyable food 

and chitchat. 

Our Chapter would like to extend a huge thank 

you to Ross for allowing us to visit his home. Go to 

www.crofterscraft.com to view Ross’s fine artistry. 

Participants: John & Cheryl Smith, Glen & Bev 

Hadfield, Delia Morey, Ron Fraser, Ron & Judy 

Gillis, Alan & Deb Masking, Helen & Ian Goodfellow, 

Kevin & Andrea Ritchie, Michael & Marilyn Keating, 

Tony & Leigh Wright, Jim Carstens, Gene & Faye 

Lucas, Brian & June Phillips, Andrew & Susan 

Willesden, Gary & Janis Lawrence 

48 



Wide Bay Chapter 

by David Hall and Lyn Hayward 

Sunday 3rd July 

The day after election day 4 Cars and 7 of our 

members left Hervey Bay for Maryborough’s Anzac 

Park for morning tea. WOW! What a surprise when 

we turned the corner towards the park. There she 

was the most beautiful MG TD you have ever seen! 

John and Barbara Shields and their newly finished 

restoration. I am sure our Foundation Coordinator 

Ian Bryant would have been well pleased with the 

restoration that John has achieved with his old car. 

After morning tea and a lot of discussions about the 

restoration, it was fitting that we headed to one of 

Ian Bryant’s favourite spots, Teddington Weir. This 

was for a short comfort stop which turned out to be 

a very long stop as we chatted and looked again at 

John’s restoration. 

We discussed the Wondai Sprints and Show 

and Shine and definitely decided to put it on the 

calendar for next year. Peter Worland suggesting 

that a group from the Wide Bay Chapter travel over 

for the Sunday Show and Shine. Bill Manns thought 

his racing days were over but is now craving to 

renew his CAMS Licence and take the Porsche 

Boxer out for a spin and legally lift the aerodynamic 

fin at 140 kph. Lis, it sounds like you will have to 

hold onto your hat. 

Lyn who is always last to make a move looked at 

her watch and said we had better get going as we 

need to make our lunch destination by noon. So off 

we headed and crossed the weir making a majestic 

sight with an abundance of water spilling over the 

wall. We travelled through scenic country side with 

cane fields, cattle and Tuan Forestry to our lunch 

destination. 

We arrived at the Boonooroo Sandy Straights Bowls 

Club for a reasonably priced Roast Meal including 

Sweets and free Tea and Coffee for $10.00. What 

a bargain! Everyone enjoyed their meal to top off a 

relaxing day at a slower pace. We all agreed it was 

the most pleasant friendly and informative day we 

have had for a long time. 

( Photos 01 and 02 here please) 

24 July 2016 

Well ... we have all heard those urban myths about 

great car collections hidden in large sheds on little 

used back roads. This time though it wasn’t a 

myth and provided a great outing for the Wide Bay 

Chapter. And it may well have set a record for our 

run numbers! 

The Hervey Bay Mob headed off early (for us) at 

8.30 am and first stopped off at Howard to pick 

up a few more members. At this stop a couple 

of our passengers also took the opportunity to 

try something different and swapped into other 

cars, just for the fun of it. Our convoy of 12 

cars (including an unbelievably HUGE 1960 

Thunderbird) sedately headed on to the main 

highway before sprinting to Childers and then along 

the Goodwood Road to meet up with the Bundy 

Crew at 10.15 am. 

Well ... that was the plan! 

It appears that there was a little confusion about 

directions in the Bundy ranks but we all got together 

by about 10.30 and our group (now of 24 cars) 

were led along the roads amongst the Bundaberg 

cane fields. There we found a rather large shed 

with ... about 4 motor bikes, 20 or so immaculate 

stationary engines, about 25 fully restored tractors 

and somewhere around 40 to 50 cars. Putting the 

icing on the cake, so to speak, our hosts had laid on 

morning tea for our group of almost 50! And yes, 

the home made sausage rolls were delicious. 

The collection had a little of everything, some old, 

some new, some restored, some not. I noticed 

P76s, Morris Minors, Cortina GTs (including a 500) 

as well as a Vanguard, Morris 8, Standard 10 Panel 

Van, Valiant, Zephyr and lots of others ... including 

two MGs, one an MGB Utility. 


There was rousing applause as we thanked Coral 

and Barry Hoskins for their hospitality and for 

sharing their passion with us. We left them with 

good wishes, some photos of the day and an MGA 

to add to their collection (OK, it was only 1/43 scale 

but it is a start!). We will probably repeat the day 

again next year when Coral and Barry have the 

other half of their collection also on site. 

Our day finished off with lunch at the Spotted Dog 

Tavern in Bundaberg. Good food, served quickly 

and lots of loud, happy conversation. 

Sunday 31st July - The Bundy Crew had a great 

MG run today with a drive through the country side 

to Smiths Crossing for morning tea by the Kolan 

River. Then cruised on to the Sea Side Café at 

Moore Park Beach for a lovely lunch. There was a 

great turn up with eleven people and six cars. Tracy 

& Steve, Eric & Janelle, Judy, Peter & Margaret, 

Jacki & Leigh, Selwyn & Sue all enjoyed this day 

out. Contributed by Tracy & Steve Gable 

. 

Wednesday 3rd August - 21 Members and 11 cars 

had a short run along the Esplanade to Urangan 

heading through the countryside towards Torbanlea 

winding our way back to one of our favourite 

destinations for morning tea Arkarra Tea Gardens. 

This was a special occasion for our club as Helen 

50 


Bryant was taken for a run in the newly restored 

MGTD of John Shields that used to belong to 

Helen’s late husband Ian, our founding member. 

We were met there by Darrell and Jackie Martin 

who just wished to take the shorter run! 23 

members sat down for a very enjoyable morning tea 

with lots of jovial chatter and all having a great time 

in one another company what a fantastic morning. 

Saturday 13th August - Free Workshop Safety 

Checks by David Hall 

On Saturday the 13th we moved all the MGs out 

of the workshop, did a quick sweep and a wipe up 

of any oil spots and we were ready to go. After a 

quick check of Kevin Fairhall’s Toyota Celica Dave 

Roberts’ lovely little (Lowered) MGB roadster was 

next on the hoist after we had to jack it up to be 

able to fit the pads of the hoist under the car! As his 

car had an oil leak in the Gearbox, (That can’t be 

right it’s an MG!) we topped it up, greased the front 

suspension, fixed some problems with the left rear 

spring and made a check of the tyre pressures. 

It was great to see Bill Mann and Peter Worland 

and three visitors whose E type Jaguar had a 

massive fuel leak and didn’t make it past their 

driveway! Also Lance rocked up for morning tea 

thanks to Lyn. 

A good day had by those who attended; some 

members did send apologies and wished us well for 

a successful day which I consider we achieved. 

Sunday 14th August - Elliott Heads Barefoot 

Lawn Bowls - The Bundy Crew 

Another gathering of the Bundy Crew for a run to 

Riverview next to the Elliott River for Morning Tea 

then off to the Elliott Heads Bowls Club for some 

professional bowling - (well, we all tried) and then a 

well earned lunch and some liquid refreshments. 

The run was organised by Ron and Cherryl 

Johnston with eight cars, six MGBs and one MGF 

and one MGZR attending. 

A great day was had by all and many stories told 

about too much grass, too fast too slow, why did it 

go that way? Contributed and photos by the Bundy 

Crew 

Wednesday 17th August - 9 cars left Hervey Bay 

RV1 and regrouped at Teddington Rd Maryborough 

berfore travelling through the undulating country 

side to arrive at the weir. Those who were topless 

could hear the sounds of tumbling water over the 

weir. 

After crossing and continuing on the scenic drive 

through Bidwill and cane fields that were ready to 

be harvested, we came across the Bidwill ladies 

playing tennis at their local club who stopped and 

waved to us. 

The chef at Muddy Waters café was baking 

fresh scones while we were travelling back to 

Maryborough. It was a beautiful sunny morning and 

we all enjoyed our scones, jam and cream. We all 

happily chatted away reminiscing on another good 

run thanks to Paul and Yvonne for organising. By 

Paul Overton. 

Report of WBC at Mackay event will be in next issue. 



Far North Queensland Chapter 

by John and Cherie Fransen 

Sunday, 26 June 2016 - Cairns Interclub Annual 

Sports Picnic Day held at Goomboora Park, 

Brinsmead. Photos by members Wayne and Lyn 

Morgan 

At our lovely spot at the end of this great park, there 

is a fast running creek along the side and our huge 

group took up most of the end of the BBQ area 

along with the four or five Clubs that get involved 

each winter. It is always a fun day to mingle with 

other like minded motoring enthusiasts, even if our 

classic cars are a little smaller than all the rest. It 

is not all about size as we all know. This year we 

were outdone again however by the Top of The 

State Hot Rod club in the games arena! 

Great fun was had by all and below are a few of the 

crowd and cars from the day. 

Saturday 9 July 

Strait on the Beach Cafe - Holloways Beach / 

HiTide Port Douglas 

Participants - Tony Basham (TD), John & Annette 

Collet plus guests, Kim & Fiona Halloran plus 

guests, Leon Johnson & Mum Zelma (Mini), Ken 

Spain (MBG), Tony Boland & Yanti (TD), John & 

Cherie Fransen (Midget), Steve & Maureen Girardi 

(MGB) 

We thought this coastal run might be a relatively 

quiet one with some of the regulars being absent. 

However it is pleasing to say we got a great turnout 

from those that didn’t head south for the Townsville 

V8 Supercars weekend, which proves to be a 

popular event for us North Queenslanders who like 

everything cars. 

The group may have been smaller in number, but 

we made up for it with good conversation and a 

great morning tea venue overlooking the Pacific 

Ocean at Holloways Beach, followed by a sunny 

beach side drive up to Port Douglas and then a 

tasty lunch. We were joined by a few extras who 

were visiting the area. It was lovely to have them 

join us. Another to join us was Leon’s lovely Mum 

who had a nice run being a passenger in Tony’s TD 

52 


on the way home. She was in her element and we 

waved her off like royalty. 

Kay’s ‘Supercharged’ TD joined us here and all 

were suitably impressed with the effort Harvey and 

his son had put in to get her on the road - today 

being its maiden voyage. The weather clearing, 

we drove 50 km west to Dimbulah township for 

lunch. With a population of about 1500 and a great 

community atmosphere, we stopped at Camp 64 

Cafe for home made burgers and sandwiches. We 

had a great time up there looking at all the local 

goods they sell. It has a unique shop front and 

coffee garden, where you can browse amongst old 

memorabilia and learn about the interesting origin 

of the name. 

Once bellies were full it was a leisurely drive back 

towards the coast, with most of the group stopping 

at the Speewah Tavern for a break in the trip. We 

were happy to discover the outdoor tables were in 

the shape of the mighty Octagon, who organised 

that before we got there? All in all it turned out a 

perfect trip and everyone arrived home safely, after 

our quite slippery start to the day. 

Sunday 7 August 2016 - Mareeba Coffeeworks / 

Camp 64 Dimbulah / Speewah Tavern 

Participants - Kim & Fiona Halloran (Merc), Leon 

Johnson (Mini), John & Cherie (Ford Ute), Steve 

& Maureen (MGB), Graham & Pauline Hepburn 

(Sprite), Wayne & Lyn Morgan (Cruiser), Brendon 

& June Hammersley (MGB), John & Annette 

Collet (MGA), Bob & Patty Ingram (MGA), John & 

Helen Honan (MGB), Harvey & Kay Williams (the 

‘Supercharged’ TD). 

Plans changed quickly today with what was 

supposed to be a drive south to Mission Beach 

literally turned on its axle, where we headed west 

into the hills instead. The southward weather 

looked dismal, so we agreed going inland was a 

better option. There was a variety of vehicles today, 

with deciding factors being mechanical/garage 

issues together with the prospect of heavy rain 

equalling potholes. 

The group at camp, Lunch at 

camp, Harveys TD and a wet 

start to the day. 

It was extremely slippery driving up the Kuranda 

Range in the drizzle and possibly due to spillage on 

the road a few lost grip, not to mention an oncoming 

ute sliding into the path of one of our members, 

thankfully being a near miss. That was enough 

excitement for the day so we crept cautiously onto 

the Mareeba Coffeeworks and sat down for a nerve 

settling bevvy and of course cake! Harvey and 



Whitsundays Chapter 

by Cathie Meredith 

Ed: With the Chapter being formed only days before 

the deadline for this issue of the Octagon, it is 

amazing that we are able to have this contribution. 

Many thanks, Cathie. 

What a wonderful weekend was had in the 

Whitsundays for the formation of a new chapter. 

It was amazing to see so many beautiful MGs 

in Mackay from all over the State for the first 

Combined Chapter Meeting. A big thank you to 

everyone who took so much time to travel so far for 

the event. 

On Friday I took the opportunity to have lunch at 

the Sarina RSL with some old friends from the 

Capricorn Chapter on their way north. Later that 

afternoon we passed many MGs from Brisbane on 

our way home from work, catching up with David 

and Meryl’s Magnette at the intersection just before 

the Windmill Motel. 

Friday night’s Noggin and Natter at the Windmill 

Motel certainly proved why the club claims to be the 

friendliest car club in Queensland. Everyone was 

so friendly and tables full of strangers were soon 

tables of new friends. 

Saturday morning saw 46 cars on display at the 

Mackay Aero Club. Some of the local cars gracing 

the field included a 1927 14/28, an Austin Healey 

roadster which posed for photos with the Tiger Moth 

biplane, an Austin ute, a showroom condition TF 

and a Panther Silver Lima which snuck in the side 

to join the show. 

After a delicious BBQ lunch catered by the Aero 

Club, some members took the opportunity for a 

drive to the Hay Point coal loading facility lookout. 

The facility provided lots of information about the 

dual Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay coal loading 

terminals, including where the coal comes from and 

where it goes. Five ships were docked being loaded 

with more than 30 ships anchored in the roads 

awaiting loading. 

Saturday night saw the official meeting to form 

the “Whitsundays Chapter” of the MG Car Club of 

Queensland. I was hoping that someone might put 

their hand up to be the Chapter Co-ordinator, but 

the consensus was that I was the best woman for 

the job. I will try to live up to expectations. 

Sunday morning saw an early start, with a massive 

MG presence at the Covered in Chrome Old School 

Breakfast at the Harbour. Many Mackay locals took 

the opportunity to appreciate the beautiful cars on 

display. From the Harbour we travelled through the 

city centre and then north on the Highway for a brief 

pit stop at The Leap Hotel before travelling on to the 

Pinnacle Family Hotel for a famous Pinnacle Pie for 

lunch. Andrew, the publican, couldn’t wait to take 

our lunch orders so he could take his camera out to 

the oval and take photos of all of his favourite cars 

visiting the hotel. 

After lunch we continued up the Pioneer Valley to 

the hill climb up the Eungella Range. At the top 

of the hill we stopped at the Eungella Chalet and 

were rewarded with a beautiful panorama of the 

54 


Pioneer Valley before us. A short drive further along 

to Broken River rewarded many, including me, with 

their first glimpse of a platypus in the wild. 

After negotiating the hill descent, the Pioneer Valley 

Classic Car Club House in Mirani was the next stop 

for an afternoon BBQ catered by Variety Bash Car 

626. After that, it was back to Mackay to prepare 

for the homeward journey. After enjoying beautiful 

weather all weekend, Monday morning dawned wet 

and windy. Even Mother Nature was sad to see all 

the MGs departing. 

Once again, thank you to everyone who travelled 

to Mackay for the weekend to make it such a great 

event. The Whitsundays Chapter should have 

plenty of opportunities for road trips, with offers 

of meetings in Townsville with FNQ Chapter and 

meeting in Rockhampton with Capricorn and Wide 

Bay Chapters. Looking forward to many motoring 

adventures to come. Cheers, Cathie 

Photos from the first Whitsundays Chapter run 

on Sunday 21 August to Pinnacle, Eungella and 

Broken River. 

Photos supplied by Chapter Coordinator, Cathie 

Meredith 


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56 


The JuDDi 

by Dean Tighe; photos by Steve Johns 

I must admit that opening the Octagon last 

month and seeing a picture of JuDDi on the 

cover brought a very large smile to my face, 

and I very much thank Elaine for selecting 

us for the cover. As a result of that she was 

asked by an interested reader if I would do 

an article on the car for the magazine. ‘Love 

to’, I said so here we are. 

Well , it all started in about December 1995, 

at the dinner table at Mum and Dad’s house. 

Paul Van Wijk was over for dinner - which 

happened a bit - and the conversation turned 

to dad’s B37 F 5000. ‘So what is happening 

with that?’ was the question. ‘It needs to be 

put back together’ was the answer. ‘ So.’ 

I asked, ‘If I put it back together, can I hill 

climb it?’ ‘Yes,’ was the answer. Woo hoo, I 

thought, this will be fun. 

Over the next few months I pieced the B37 

back together and went testing at Lakeside 

in about March the next year. Never have I 

ever got out of a car shaking so much. I had 

to sit down and calm my nerves, but back 

in I got and that year I was 3rd at Bathurst 

in the AHC. The next Year at Morwell I was 

2nd after a weekend where everything went 

wrong. 

Then work stepped in. We had to move 

Ivan Tighe Engineering out of West End. I 

made the decision to sell the B37 and build 

a building which has turned out, over the 

last ten years, to have been a very good 

decision. I kept the 6 litre alloy engine and 

put the cast iron 5 litre back in the car, and 

sadly said goodbye. But, from that time, 

I was determined to somehow build a V8 

powered hill climb car. 

Forward to a Wednesday morning some 

time in about 2007. I had been looking for a 

carbon tub to attach my 6 litre Chev to. The 

F3000 cars were too big, and the price for 

a car out of the UK was way outside of my 

budget. But then, fate stepped in. 

It was 6.30 in the morning, at Brisbane 

Airport, and I was heading to Adelaide 

via Sydney, and who just happened to be 

getting on the same plane? John Campbell 

and Stuart Hooper. ‘Where are you guys 

off to?’ I asked. ‘To Sydney to buy a 1995 

F3 Dallara,’ was the answer. ‘What are you 

going to do with that?’ I asked. ‘We are 

going to make a sports car out of it?’ Light 

Bulb moment!!….. 12 months later , John 

had finished with the tub and I had the next 

piece of the puzzle. 

We then forward to the AHC at Mt Cotton in 

2013. Dad and I were watching the quick 

cars going up the first hill. The Gould GR55 

heads up the hill and Ivan turns to me and 

says: “Your Chev isn’t going to be quick 

enough son, you need something faster.” 

The next day I found an EV Judd that Dad 

had been working on 5 years earlier, in 

Brisbane. It had a very large hole in the 

side of the block where a couple of con rods 

had decided to leave in a hurry. 

So the work began: 

I guess I am running a little late. The boys are hyped 

and ready to go 


To attach the engine to the back of the 

tub we made alloy plates to bolt on to the 

existing F3 mounts and there is a large 

alloy plate carboned into the area under the 

fuel tank for the bottom mount to attach to. 

This gets the engine as close to the back 

of the tub as can be -- about 1.5 mm to be 

exact. The fuel cell only takes up half of the 

area it did before, so all the ecu , fuel pumps 

, dash and whole heap of other electronics 

are all in the tub between the seat and the 

engine. The fuel tank is in an FIA approved 

bladder in the bottom half of the tank, about 

15 litres. We use a Holley Fuel mat for a 

pick up, works really well. If you haven’t 

seen one , Google it, it really is amazing. 

The tub itself is a 1995 Dallara F3 with 

1996 wide track front arms and 2001 front 

uprights. This uses a mono shock on the 

front and Bellville washers to control the roll. 

(I am still coming to grips with how that all 

works.) That is why you see the car carry 

the inside front wheel so much. 

The rack is standard Dallara, but I have 

shortened the steering arms to give it more 

lock. The brake callipers are the same all 

round with Performance Friction, basically 

an up-rated F3 brake. The Pedal box is a 

bit tricky with floating cylinders and an uprated 

alloy pedal with higher ratio, all from 

Tilton. (I wanted an AP, but man was that 

expensive.) 

The nose is an up swept type 1996 model 

Dallara F3 one and the front wing is a 

Sauber 2012 F1, Monaco spec, which we 

have just found out has 4 Kg of lead in it. 

(That is a job for Christmas - to get that out 

of there.) Wing mounts are a temporary item 

that have been there for 2 years; they are on 

the ‘to do’ list as well. 

The engine took a bit to repair. We welded 

up the block and sump, which still leaks 

a bit, but all worked out OK. We made a 

new crank in-house, STD is 58mm, the 

new one is 63mm and the bore is the same 

at 99mm, giving 3940cc. Con rods are 

Carrilo, pistons are JE, with a Nicoseal type 

aluminium linear. Valve closure is valve 

spring. I think these are the last of the valve 

spring engines of the era of F1. Valves are 

hollow steal and the buckets are std type , 

camshafts are very thin hollow tubes with 

an alloy tube inside so the oil doesn’t fill the 

whole shaft with oil - very tricky thinking - 

and driven from the back of the engine. 

The oil system is one pressure on the left 

hand side and 4 separate scavenge on the 

right hand side, gear driven from the front of 

the engine. 

One of the things I did change was to fit 

longer trumpets, by about 150mm, and 

move the injectors to shoot straight into the 

top of the open trumpet. Flat slides control 

the air. Air box is all carbon. 

The exhaust is Inconel and is a 4 into 2 into 

1 system, giving more torque on a wider 

power spread. 

Clutch is a Carbon/Carbon and the Flywheel 

is a 6 series hard anodised one we have 

made. 

ECU is M800 Motec and data storage is 

Motec as well. I don’t run a dash, as such, 

in the car , just have a MDD (Mini Digital 

Dash) on the steering wheel ( which we 

made) to show me the important stuff, which 

I never look at anyway. 

The most amazing thing about the engine 

is that, if I unbolt it from the tub and the 

gearbox, 100% complete with everything, it 

weighs in at about 120kg. 

The gearbox is a really nice piece of Kit, a 

TMT 200, which is only about 4 years off 

the drawing board at Hewland, 6 speed 

sequential, with full throttle up shift fitted. 

This is controlled though the Motec with a 

strain gauge in the gearstick. The gear ratios 

are all changeable, and the 2nd to 6th are 

all the same gear, which allows you to put 

them anywhere. At Mt Cotton I run a lower 

3rd than 2nd and use 3rd for the hairpin 

the second time. It has an all Magnesium 

case, and has a paddle shift option for the 

future (which costs almost as much as the 

whole gear box did). The diff is currently a 

Cam and Pawl type, not sure for how much 

longer, might have a Salisbury in it soon. 

The bell housing was made in-house and 

58 


contains the oil tank, 

clutch, water swirl 

pot and the swirl pot 

to de-air the return 

oil. ( That took a few 

redesigns! ) This is 

made out of 6 series 

and hard anodised. 

The odd thing about 

this area is that there 

is no room for a 

starter, so we use an 

external starter driven 

though the gearbox 

and clutch. 

The rear suspension 

was all designed 

especially for the car, by Ralph Bellamy ( 

ex F1 designer at Lotus , and lots of other 

places) and is pushrod design, with rockers 

and the shock absorbers going towards the 

rear wing. The rear wing is all carbon Gould 

attached by 6 series alloy mounts. The 

floor is also a custom design from Ralph; 

the mould and floor were made by Bruce at 

Lighting composites on the Gold Coast, and 

skirts are fitted, because we can. 

There is plenty more, and if you would like 

to know anything please come along to Mt 

Cotton and ask; Cheryl, Greg , Liam and I 

are always happy for a chat. 

At the last Mt Cotton, I went from a 37.94 

Outright Club record to a 36.99. This was 

not one weekend’s work but a combination 

of lots of weeks of running the car and finally 

have it all together at the same time. 

And, to be honest, a lot of the credit goes 

to Paul Masterton. He has been working for 

more than 3 years or so now on getting the 

car sorted. So as part of the Sunday’s runs, 

he asked me to do a run with the traction 

control on, OK. So run 3 was a 37.78. I 

said to Greg that we would turn the TC on 

for run 4. He asked the question - Why? 

The answer? Paul asked us to, OK? The 

result? Run 4 was a 37.08. Well, you don’t 

think I was surprised! Thanks Paul. The next 

was a 36.99. 

Hill climbing is a Family affair - Cheryl, Liam Price, 

Jeremy Mattea, Charlize and myself prepare for a Day 

At Mt Cotton. 

Where to now? Well, since Mt Cotton , we 

have been to Tamworth, we won there and 

were only 0 .3 off the record. Next we went 

to Ringwood and we won there as well, on a 

track that doesn’t suit the car. 

The car still has an understeer issue. Since 

the 36.99 , we have gone up 200lb in the 

rear spring rate, softened the front roll by 

50%, and - as I type this - we are increasing 

the rear spring rate again, moving the rear 

wing, and inventing a rear anti roll bar 

system. The next round at Mt Cotton is on 

the2nd week of September for round 4, and 

then it is off to Adelaide for the S.A. Title, 

(which we lost last year by 0.08 on the last 

run) and then Canberra for the next round 

of the NSW championship. Then back to Mt 

cotton for round 5. 

So is there a 35 in JuDDi? Yes 

Is there a low 35 in JuDDi? Yeah I think so. 

Is there a 34 in JuDDi? Not sure, but I am 

going to give it one hell of a go! 

It has been a very long time since a 

Queenslander has won the AHC at home, 

and I would like to think that where ever Dad 

is, he is having a quiet glass of red, and is 

proud of me. 

Watch this space…. 


A QUICK LOOK AT POST WORLD WAR 2 QUEENSLAND MOTOR 

(Part 5 in his series ‘A History of Motorsport in Queensland’) 

by Malcolm Spiden 

Victory in Europe (V.E. Day) was achieved in 

early May 1945, some state the 7th May others 

8th May. Within 6 months the first race meeting 

was held on 9 September 1945 in Paris’s Park, 

the Bois de Boulogne, with a lap of 1.75 miles. 

Enough racing cars had been carefully hidden 

during the war years from all advancing armies 

from different sides. Organised by the Independent 

Drivers’ Association it honoured the resistance 

fighters with the first race, the Robert Benoist Cup 

for 1500 cc cars won by Amedee Gordini. The 

Liberation Cup for the 2000 cc cars went to the 

Maserati of Henri Louveau with the main event, 

the Prisoners’ Cup being won by the Bugatti of 

Jean-Pierre Wimille. Some thought this event was 

frivolous and a waste of scarce resources however 

some 90,000 spectators attended this event.1 

Thus if people in Europe would attend then would 

the same not be able to be organised in Queensland, 

provided enough cars could be found and 

prepared for such an event. The first event was 

near Fahey’s Crossing with a motorcycle rally and 

a miniature TT event on Saturday 3 March 1946.2 

In Brisbane, Speedway was the first form to 

re-commence as there was an established venue, 

namely the Brisbane Exhibition. Saturday night 9 

March 1946 was a Motor Carnival which included 

bicycle racing (1/2 mile handicap), trotting, speedcar 

events (6 lap races) and a fireworks display. 

Of the speed car drivers in reports were Belf 

Jones, Fred Baker, George Bonser, Johnny Reid, 

Jim Cross, Bob Playfair and Ray Revell.3 

Prior to the 1939-1945 conflict, motor cycle races 

were able to be conducted on city and country 

showgrounds as well as on public roads such as 

at Kingston. Motor car races were not permitted 

possibly due to a fatal accident at the Deagon 

Racecourse (which still exists on Broad Street). 

During the All Powers Australasian Grass Track 

Championships on 26 January 1928 Edgar “Ted” 

Hanlon driving his 30-98 Vauxhall, on a practice 

run in preparation for a 5 lap handicap race for 

motor car, lost a tyre and crashed with fatal 

results. This occurred after the morning motor 

cycle races and during the lunch break. Thus 

no motor car events were permitted on Deagon 

Racecourse or any other venue.4 Motor car 

60 


events were confined to hillclimbs (at Mt Coot 

Tha, Mt Gravatt, and Whites Hill), acceleration 

tests (i.e. sprints at Coopers Plains, Myrtletown 

and Strathpine on South Pine Road) plus 

intrastate and interstate reliability trials. Finally 

in August 1939 motor car races were permitted 

on the Rosewood showgrounds promoted by 

Queensland Motor Sporting Club (QMSC). There 

was planning for the 1942 Australian Grand Prix 

to be held at Coolangatta which of course could 

not be conducted. QMSC was re-formed by pre 

war competitors Chas Whatmore, Keith Thallon, 

Snow Sefton and Theo Trevethan and QMSC 

would promote motor races, hillclimbs and trial 

events in the ensuing years. 

Post war a suitable venue was found. In the Pine 

Rivers region 3 airfields were in use during 1939 

– 1945. A1 and A3 fields used a grassed landing 

strip as the runway whilst the A2 airfield at 

Strathpine had a sealed landing strip. This was 

the airfield base of the 548 Squadron of Spitfires 

and today is the site of the Pine Rivers State High 

School.5 Until late 1959 this Strathpine airfield 

site was under the control of both the Commonwealth 

Government of Defence and the Department 

of Interior as it was then sold to developers 

with the final race meeting on 11 October 1959. 

The circuit was described as basically down one 

side of the airfield around some hay bales and 

44 gallon drums then back along the opposite 

side to form a lap of about 1.4 miles. The width of 

the airfield was some 150 feet with straights just 

about .6 of a mile long.6 

First motor car races (circuit) event post 1945 in 

Brisbane was promoted by Frank Arthur as the 

Victory races on 11 August 1946. A combination 

of 2 bicycle, 4 motor cycle and 2 motor car events 

formed the programme, with Grand Prix titles 

given to the cycle events (3.5 laps Junior GP, 7 

laps Senior GP); Motor Cycles (17.5 laps GP, 7 

laps Junior GP, 7 laps Lightweight GP, and 7 laps 

All Powers handicap) whilst cars held a 25 mile 

All Powers Victory trophy (18 laps of the approximate 

1.4 mile circuit) and a 7 lap handicap event. 

A reported 7000 cars brought some 40,000 

spectators to attended this meeting to see Frank 

Kleinig (Hudson Special) win the main handicap

SPORT HISTORY - THE 1940’s 

Chas Whatmore at Whites Hill in his 

Jaguar. (Photo from Trevor Chappell) 

event from John Crouch (MGTC), W. Mathieson 

(SS Jaguar) and Snow Sefton (Ford V/8).7 From 

the 1946-47 Commonwealth of Australia Year 

Book the population of metropolitan Brisbane was 

stated as 402,172, Redcliffe (8888 people) and 

Ipswich (26218 people).8 

A second event was held on 24 November 

1946 - the Queensland Airstrip Championship 

Speed Carnival, with races for Sidecar handicap 

(5 laps), for motor cycles a Lightweight Championship 

(5 laps), a Junior Championship (5 

laps), Senior Championship (10 laps) All Powers 

Handicap (10 laps) and for motor cars (handicap 

over 1500cc, Open All Powers (5 laps) and the 

main event, the Strathpine 20 car handicap (28 

miles) which won by Bill Murray in his Terraplane 

Special. With some 30,000 spectators attending, 

other competitors listed in the newspapers were 

Walter Mathison (Jaguar SS), Chas Whatmore 

(Ford V8), Brian Chatterton (Austin 7), John Nind 

(MG), Alf Najar (MG), Ray Revell (Speedcar), Bill 

McLachlan (MG), Snow Sefton (Ford V8) and 

Hope Bartlett (MG Supercharged).8aThe Strathpine 

circuit was also used for Sprints in those 

days and were just standing and flying quarter 

mile acceleration tests. 

Events at Strathpine continued in 1947 and as 

reported in the newspapers included QMSC 

sprints on 22 June 19479, Strathpine Speed 

Carnival on 10 August where Rex Law won the 

25 mile main race in his Austin Special in front 

of 25,000 spectators.10 Other events were at 

the Oxley Speedway on the western side of what 

is now Donaldson Road on 25 July 194711 and 

14 December.12 On 20 September QMSC held 

a night reliability trial which commenced in Brisbane 

at midnight to venture to Beaudesert then 

Coulsen, Ipswich, to Mt Crosby with a second 

division through Dayboro, Samford to Petrie. Results 

gave a tie with K Thallon (Hillman utility) and 

R Howlett (Ford utility) then Rex law (Chrysler 

sedan), L Lloyd (Morris Utility), Theo Trevethan 

(Ford Tourer), Miss Connie Jordan (MG) and B 

Ford (Chrysler).13 The first hillclimb after the war 

was at Whites Hill hillclimb on 6 December 1947 

where a thunderstorm stopped proceedings as 

the surface became slippery and very muddy 

but not before Chas Whatmore (Studebaker 

speedcar) set the fastest time.14 It was common 

for Speedcars to compete at the sealed surface 

Strathpine as well as on the dirt surfaces. Drivers 

such as Chas Whatmore and John Maxwell in his 

Riley Special appear in results. 

Events in 1948 saw Whites hill on 24 January 

where Chas Whatmore held the outright record 

at 32.2 seconds15, Strathpine sprints where the 

American and local Speedway drivers competed 

with Cal Niday, Perry Grimm, Johnny Peers, 

Bob Playfair, Chas Whatmore and Rex Law on 

Monday 29 March 1948 16; QMSC all day rally 

on 16 May won by Mrs Keith Thallon (Hillman 10) 

from K Saunds (Vauxhall V/8 special), B Dance 

(Oldsmobile) and C Bennett (Willys 77) from the 

start in Gregory Terrace to Fahey’s Crossing via 

Zillmere, Strathpine and Clear Mountain.17 

First race meeting on the Lowood airfield was 

held on Sunday 20 June 1948. Lowood was 

the home of Number 71 Squadron RAAF Avron 

from which conducted coastal patrols against 

Japanese submarines (Google search). The lap 

distance was 2.825 miles and the main event at 

the first meeting, the Queensland Road Racing 

Championships, was won by O A (Snow) Sefton 

in his Ford V8 (V8 engine on a Jeep chassis 

using a 4 wheel drive transmission) from Keith 

Thallon (Jaguar SS 100) and Chas Whatmore 

(Studebaker). Some 5000 spectators attended 

and the map of the circuit shows the Start/Finish 

line on the back straight between Castrol Corner 

and BP Bend not on the main straight as most 

associate with the circuit.18 

Strathpine on 8 August 1948 gave a mix 

programme of both motor car and motor cycle 

events as with all race meetings in this period. 

In the up to 1500 cc handicap C Anderson 

(Wolseley Hornett) won from D Forster (Wolseley 

Hornett) then Col Robinson (MGTC) and Miss 


Connie Jordan (MGTA). Short handicap saw 

drivers Walter Mathison (Jaguar), Doug McDougal 

(Riley Spec), J Howlett (Ford V8 Spec) and 

K Bailey (Ford A Spec). The Open handicap 

had Jack Wright (Ford Spec), Chas Whatmore 

(Studebaker), KeithThallon (Jaguar SS 100), and 

Rex Law (Austin).19 

On 26 February 1949 Chas Whatmore set a new 

record of 44.1 at Whites Hill hillclimb and again 

light rain made the surface slippery.20 QMSC 

had requested the Brisbane City Council, the 

owners of the Whites Hill site, to resurface the 

track. They cited that a lack of a sealed surface 

precluded the holding of the Australian Hillclimb 

Championships in Brisbane. The AHC would 

attract many thousands of southern visitors. The 

council estimated that this cost to seal would 

be approximately £2015 and advised that the 

expenditure was not warranted.21 

However the major event of 1949 was the Australian 

Grand Prix. On 21 January Lowood was 

selected to be the venue with the AGP on Sunday 

19 June subject to approval by the appropriate 

authorities.22 Strathpine was seen as too limited 

in length to hold a Grand Prix. It is reported the 

RAAF apparently refused to give permission and 

the newspapers suggested the local residents 

would not allow such an event to be held on a 

Sunday. However previous events at Lowood 

had occurred on Sundays. Then a search for a 

suitable site was undertaken where four sites 

being considered with Leyburn being selected as 

the only useable site although it had never before 

been used for racing. 

Previously a base for B24 Liberator bombers 

(Squadron 99) during WW2 it was now divided 

among three farming families, Hamblin, Porter 

and Backhouse. A basic triangular layout this 

circuit had a length of 4.3 miles and was approximately 

6 miles north of the town about where 

Liberator Avenue is today. The National Competition 

Committee of the Australian Automobile 

Association (AAA) which until 1953 was the controlling 

authority for Australian Motor Sport had 

set out new guidelines to raise the public status 

of this event. This included rotating the event to 

all States so it was truly a National Grand Prix, 

incorporating a massed or scratch race start as 

occurred with Grands Prix of other nations, over 

a substantial distance and only allow the term 

grand prix title. This was the first AGP held as a 

scratch race as previous AGPs were held under 

a handicap starting order of either one at a time 

on their handicap time or in engine capacity 

groups but not all together. The AGP was held on 

18 September 1949 where a crowd of between 

25,000 to 30,000 spectators watch the Grand Prix 

won by John Crough in a 3.5 litre Delahaye from 

Ray Gordon (MGTC), Arthur Rizzo (Riley Special), 

Peter Critchley (MGTB Special), Allan Larsen 

(Cadillac Special), Curley Brydon (MGTC), 

Irwin Luke (Bugatti Type 37), Theo Trevethan 

(Ford V8 Special), H McGuire (MGTC) and Col 

Robinson (MGTC).23 A handicap event was 

conducted in conjunction with the Grand Prix with 

the results Gordon from Luke, Brydon, Critchley 

and Crouch.24 

Final event for 1949 was a hill climb at Kenmore 

on 4 December. The only location found 

is a tricky course of 660 yards ‘on a property 

opposite the Kenmore Sanatorium’ and later ‘a 

Church was built in the middle of the hill’.25 The 

handicap section was won by J Hillhouse (MGTC, 

28.9 secs less 5.5 secs = handicap time 23.4), 

J McLennan (MGTC, 29.2 – 5.5 = 23.7), Allan 

Larsen (Cadillac, 26.4 – 2.5 = 24.8), L Austin 

(MGTC, 29.5 – 5.5 = 24.0), Jack Wright (Ford 

Special, 28.2 – 4.0 = 24.2), Chas Whatmore 

(Studebaker, 24.5 less no handicap time = 24.5), 

Rex Law (Cadillac Special, 24.8), Keith Saunders 

(Ford Vaux, 30.2 – 5.25 = 24.95), Theo Trevethan 

(Ford Special, 29.0 – 4.0 = 25.0), S James (Ford 

V8, 29.3 – 4.25 = 25.05), F Reid (Hillman Minx, 

40.6 – 12.0 = 28.6) and D Mason (Ford Vaux, 

34.4 – 5.0 = 29.4)26 

REFERENCES: 

1 Ludvigsen, Karl, “Classic Grand Prix Cars the Front-engined Era 

1906 – 1960” 2nd edition, p 107, Haynes Publication, 2006. 

2 Telegraph, 4 March 1946, p10. 

3 Truth, 10 March 1946, p9 

4 Courier Mail, 27 January 1928, p13 

5 Marks, Roger R., Queensland Airfields WW2 – 50 Years On, R and J 

Marks, Brisbane, 1994. 

6 Telegraph, 25 November 1946, p12 

7 Courier Mail, 12 August 1946, p8 

8 Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia no 37 1946-47, 

Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Canberra, 1949, 

pp708 -710 

8a Courier Mail, 25 November 1946, p3 

9 Courier Mail, 23 June 1947, p8 


11 Telegraph, 26 July 1947, p11 

12 Courier Mail, 15 December 1947, p1 

13 Telegraph, 22 September 1947, p12 

14 Truth, 7 December 1947, p20 

15 Truth, 24 January 1948, p10 

16 Courier Mail, 30 March 1948, p 

17 Telegraph, 17 May 1948, p 

18 Courier Mail, 21 June 1948, p5 


20 Telegraph, 26 February 1949, p26 

21 Telegraph, 9 July 1949 p13 

22 Telegraph 21 January 1949 p27 

23 The Official 50-Race History of the Australian Grand Prix, R and T 

Publishing, Sydney, 1986, pp 138-147 

24 Toowoomba Chronicle, 19 September 1949, p1 

25 Motorsport in Queensland, Vol 1, Number 3, 3 November 1953, p10. 

26 Telegraph 5 December 1949 p29 

62 



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