The Mount Gambier Veteran and Vintage Car Club hosted its “Not the Australia Day” tour recently, following COVID disruptions earlier in the year.
Normally held on the Australia Day weekend, restrictions prompted members to postpone the run, which has been held annually since 1965.
The club’s major event was instead run last month, attracting 53 entrants with vehicles ranging in age from a 1925 Dodge Buckboard up to almost modern vehicles.
American. French, German and Australian makes were represented in the list which included sedans, convertibles, roadsters and a couple of trucks.
Those taking part travelled from intrastate and interstate clubs with Strathalbyn, Milang, Goolwa, Adelaide, Riverland, Portland, Casterton and Hamilton joining many local members.
The tour visited a local truck repair workshop, the Kalangadoo Farmers Market, Kalangadoo Railway Station Museum and then held a public display at the Lady Nelson Discovery Centre before leaving for a tour of a Mount Gambier Stone quarry.
A barbecue lunch and presentation of Shannons Insurance Awards topped off the great weekend.
The awards, voted by tour entrants, included several fun trophies, as well as three special awards.
Dennis Lynch of Mount Gambier was awarded the Mount Gambier Veteran and Vintage Car Club presidents award with a 1961 Holden EK Special Sedan; Mount Gambier’s Neil and Christine Flay’s 1969 Holden HK Brougham Sedan was awarded the Shannons Insurance award chosen by local Shannon’s representative Leah Baudinette and the Bendigo Bank Award – chosen by the branch’s Mark Fullford was awarded to Mount Gambier’s Graham and Sonya Hosking for their 1956 Ford Thunderbird Convertible, which was also recognised as the car people would most want to steal.
Driving all the way from Port Turton on the Yorke Peninsula and awarded for their efforts was Peter aand Ann Krichauff in the couple’s 1967 Ford Cortina Mk2 Sedan, while Adelaide residents Brian and Diana Triplow claimed the hard luck award in their 1938 Morris 8/40 Tourer.
The ride with the most stylish wheels was Geoff and Hellina Barnes of Adelaide in their 1939 MG TB Roadster, with Mount Gambier’s David and Helen Carlyle’s 1935 Buick 840 Sedan boasting the most stylish grille and fellow Mount Gambier residents Ryan, Kirsty, Flynn, Blaise and Max Turner were given the best car emblem award for the family’s 1926 Pontiac Tourer.
