Our September was a wet one but very busy, beginning with celebrations for 70th anniversary of the ARDC over the Fathers’ Day weekend.
We set the scene in the main marquee at the pits, all the competitors and guests going to and fro saw the superb display of Australian-built heritage cars that were gathered in by Rod Chivas and his team. The Buckle coupe, the Standard Vanguard, the Chrysler Valiant, the P76, Jack Brabham’s speedway racer ….. “what great cars!” … “and the kids love it so much!”
Brian Caldersmith displayed a marvellous PowerPoint show in the marquee, flipping slowly over memorable moments during the decades from 1950. Our history and heritage was displayed in its social context. This show attracted everyone who passed through, it will be a permanent record now on our YouTube channel: https://studio.youtube.com/video/ABS-YKxByWA/edit.
We were there to explain what our heritage movement is doing for enthusiasts’ clubs around the nation.
And the AMHF team were up for it all weekend, with the likes of Peter Robinson, Spencer Martin, Geoff Piggott, John Murn, Pete Eppel, Rod Chivas of course, occasionally Brian Goulding taking a break from the race control duties in the Control Tower, our mates from the clubs …. Not just your average talking heads, and no ‘pointy-heads’ either, but our keen and committed heritage and historic motoring experts.
A great way for us to celebrate the ARDC and its achievements over seven decades. Our home base, visible through the drizzle just across the straight attracted our supporters and guests throughout the weekend. A short walk and they could take a long look at our collections and have a chat and a coffee break with AMHF enthusiasts.
After that good start we were glad to host the annual national general meeting of our colleague organisation the Australian Historic Motoring Federation over the weekend of 16-18 September. Along with our handyman Peter Williams and Geoff Piggott, our Ambassador Terry Thompson OAM and Kay De Luca OAM put in the hard yards in organising that. We welcomed the delegates over drinks on Friday evening, then they got to work. We understand Terry is now the AHMF Vice-President and we will enjoy growing this important connection.
At month’s end we brought together a group of invitees in our conference room, the principal stakeholders supporting the AMHF’s upcoming economic study of the historic and heritage motoring sector in Australia. The busy impressive participants understand that this professional impartial study by experts is unprecedented in Australia and is clearly overdue. Our supporters agree that the AMHF is the right body to sponsor the study and to gather the information in its name. Our newsletters will carry reports on progress each month now, until the report can be published in 2023.
Hugh King, Chairman AMHF
1st October 2022
