A NEW ADDITION TO THE CLUB LIBRARY - BMW CLUBS ‘THE BOOK’

We have received this impressive tome from BMW Group Classic where the responsibility for BMW Clubs internationally resides. The preface is written by Helmet Kas the Head of BMW Group Classic and supported by Scott Blazely the Chairman of the BMW Clubs International Council.

It is a heavy volume running to over 300 pages with impressive photographs and descriptions of many clubs and a list of all affiliated BMW Clubs worldwide, both car and bike. It is not a book you would sit down and read but a reference source if doing any research or as a contact when planning your overseas travels. A key statistic is that there were around 800 BMW Clubs in 78 countries with over 230,000 members when the book was compiled in 2022. My simple maths brain equates that to an average of 287 members per club placing the BMWMCQ quite squarely in the average size.

What is not average about our club is the year it was founded - 1958. This places us as one of the oldest BMW clubs in the World and from what is recorded in this book we would be the second oldest BMW Motorcycle Club in the World behind only the UK & Ireland Club founded in 1951. The South Australian Club was also founded in 1958 so one could assume there was some form of collusion in the foundation of our two clubs or it may have just been a co-incidence. There are three older clubs in Germany and one in Austria but these are all combined car/bike clubs. The car club of Great Britain is also older having been founded in 1952.

The foresight of our founders Hugh Yorston (First President) and Robin Palmer (First Secretary) should never be forgotten. Hugh was a native of the Orkney Islands off the Coast of Scotland and a Spitfire Pilot during WW2. He was a much travelled individual and split his life after the War between his homeland and Brisbane. Maybe the genesis for starting the club in Queensland was the knowledge of the club in the UK that had been formed seven years earlier. We may never know.