Yes, it was time again for my yearly pilgrimage to the TR Register of Australia's annual get together. This year it was held at Bendigo, which was famous last century as a gold mining town. Today, Bendigo is a thriving centre of about 80,000 people.
For the first leg of the journey in my Doretti, I travelled the 220 kilometres to Junee alone. There I met up with Chris Olson from Bathurst also in a Doretti, Alan Mitchell from Orange and John Buck from Brisbane both in TRs. Then we drove in convoy to Deniliquin and on to Jerilderie - famous for its bushrangers (highway men) in the 1880's. Well we always were a lawless mob out here, being originally a penal colony for Mother England.
We stayed overnight in Jerilderie before travelling on through Euchuca and then eventually to Bendigo. I suppose these names are meaningless to you over there but you can get out your atlas and look them up. Total distance was about 700 kilometres, so the total return trip plus the after concourse tour was about 1800 kilometres. Not as far as last year but a great drive nevertheless. The concourse was a great success, as always. These events are run by the TR Register of Australia and are always brilliantly organised.
The "after tour" went around the surrounding districts over two days, so we were away for eight days overall.
Needless to say the Dorettis (and the TRs) performed very well. Across the flat country the temperature on many of the days was about 38 degrees and the cars were running a bit hot. In some places the tar on the road was quite tacky (read melting).
Next years concourse is being held at Port Macquarie, a seaside resort half way up the east coast between Sydney and Brisbane, so another great drive to look forward to.
The very next weekend after getting home was the "Terribly British Day". This is a static display of all British cars and is always a good event. The variety of cars is amazing and is always a good chance to catch up with fellow enthusiasts, a lot of whom I only see once a year. Not only are the cars getting older, so are the owners! In fact the cars are looking better than ever, not so the owners! Myself included.
Paul McEwen
Ken Yankey © 2006