Monthly newsletter of the Mitsubishi 4WD O wner ’s Club of Western Australia Inc. 1985 December 2014 Issue 336
Trip Notes: Visitors Day Lancelin Wandoo Woodlands 2014 Awards Goodchilds Open Day Xmas Dinner
Proudly sponsored by
Mitsubishi 4WD Owners Club of Western Australia Inc. PO Box 655 South Perth WA 6951
Meetings: 1st Wed of each month except January Manning Senior Citizens Centre 3 Downey Drive Manning www.mitsubishi4wd.org.au email: secretary@mitsubishi4wd.org.au Publication issues:editor@mitsubishi4wd.org.au President: Peter Cole Vice President: Craig Perry Secretary: John King Treasurer: Bridget McPherson Editor: Martin Archer IT Officer: Rob Nankiville Environment: Stephen Kalynuik WebMaster: Michael Gilbert Trip Coordinator: Pat O’Dowd Training Officer: Richard King Membership Officer: Peter Fry Insurance/Propoerty: Glen Bignell WA 4WD Assoc.Delegate: Linda Bickerdike Social Chairperson: Vacant
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A link to the form is available through the member’s area on the club’s web site, or by clicking this text
As demonstrated and kindly donated by Shai at our December meeting. Congratulations Linda our lucky recipient of the prize. For more information on Blubag go to www.blubag.com.au or email shai at shai@blubag.com.au
Simple to use Supplied with standards connections – just unfold, connect and fill Zero maintenance required and no need for cleaning – just replace the inner liner when required Folds away and requires very little storage space, unlike traditional hard-body tanks Reusable – easily restored to full functionality after use Food-grade inner liner keeps water tasting fresh and free from any chemical/plastic flavours for long periods of time Easily transportable and can be moved from place to place
P
resident’s Report
December 2014
We have had a couple of wonderful member’s meetings to round out the year. For November we held a club sausage sizzle at the Manning Centre and it was a fantastic social event for over eighty people. Without the normal presentations and reports it was an excellent time for everyone to catch up with people they may not have seen for a while and as everyone seemed to linger a bit longer at the end of the meeting the social format was well appreciated. Definitely something to include on the meeting calendar for next year. The success of that meeting was partly due to the high number of members who, on arrival, rolled up their sleeves and helped setting up and also cleaning up at the end. Of great importance was the willingness of the Morrison’s, Nankivilles, McPhersons, and Stephen K in running the catering side of things so that supply and demand matched pretty well perfectly. A very well appreciated team effort from them all. There was a very minor complaint from the Membership Team that due to the whole casualness of the evening they had a dickens of a time recording attendance and running the door prize! I can see a request for “barcoding” members coming in the New Year! Following on from the success of the November meeting, our December meeting was attended by a similarly high number of people who though they may have been disappointed not to have had another free sausage sizzle were full of enthusiasm and good humour particularly towards the amazing winners of the Club Annual Awards. It has been a few years since the awards were presented at the December meetings and the change back really seems to suit the concept of them being “annual” and for the calendar year as it were. The process of selecting our award winners always brings home to those involved that we have an outstanding quality of membership within our club. It is an amazing thing to observe the responses of all our winners who come along without any idea that they are about to receive an award, and to share in their joy and achievements which benefit everyone in this wonderful club. One change to the awards policy that was put in place earlier in the year was to allow for the Ian Lockhart Memorial Award to be presented to a “membership” as well as an individual, and how insightful was that to prove! Well done John King. Read more about those winners later in this magazine.
I think I managed to thank all those involved in organizing the December meeting on the night, however I would like to make special mention here of a few people whose contributions helped make the presentations even more memorable. Firstly to Martin Archer, who patiently and skilfully worked on the actual designs of the fantastic award images and also worked his way through his own Editor’s presentation of the POTY award. Many thanks to our “life members” John Bromberger and Stella Weldon for announcing and presenting awards, it really adds a great deal of extra meaning for the recipients to receive the awards from our very own “living legends”. Many thanks also have to go to Michael Gilbert for his efforts in gathering continued sponsor support for the club particularly in terms of the rewards for both members and the club at a very significant meeting of the year. There were certainly a lot of very happy faces during the raffle draw at supper. On behalf of all members I would like to thank supporting sponsors ARB, Goodchild Enterprises, Adventure Off Road Training, De Rosa Auto Repairs, and the John Hughes Group of Companies for their contribution to another outstanding year for the Club. As many head off for the holiday period, particularly those heading to Cheynes Beach, please take the utmost care and stay safe on the roads. Enjoy a very Merry Christmas and celebrate well on New Year’s Eve but come back safely and full of enthusiasm for the start of the club year on February 4th at our next member’s meeting. Peter Cole President
Up The Murray March 29, 2015
Trip Leader's Name
Paul Ryan
Terrain being driven
Hills and bush
Trip Grade
Trip duration
Level 2
Maximum number of vehicles
1-day Overnight 2
15
or 3 nights Extended Participants
Members Only Visitors Welcome
Meeting time
9.00am
Meeting Location
Pinjarra Bakery 2-6 Peel Street Non-Members Must attend the club to Pinjarra
register for trips
RSVP by: Trip Leader e-mail Contact phone
22/03/15
Non-Members
paul@rycom.com.au Must attend the club to
register for trips
0427192735
NEWS BEHIND THE MEETING DECEMBER 2014 Meeting came to order.. eventually... with harassment for President Peter striving to achieve clear sound to the back of the room through his chest mike. He gave a brief rundown of the expected activities for the night. Attention was brought to the multiple Prizes piled up on the table to be won in the raffles and draws during Supper. Raffle prizes were donated by ARB (John Ludlam, WA Sales Manager) and Goodchild Enterprises (Roger & Rex Goodchild) Prizes were also donated by Blubag Australia. A presentation was made by Shai, from Blubag to demonstrate the versatility of the water carrying bags. One lucky person at the meeting was sitting on a seat under which a prize ticket was attached. A mad scramble by everyone to look under their seats saw Linda Bickerdike come up trumps. With the night’s special door prize to be a FULL DAY’S TRAINING (valued at $300) with Adventure Offroad Training, our sponsor and member , Richard Nicholls. Training Day prize was won very happily by member Stephen Delides. There were to be no Committee Members’ Reports this night. TRIP REPORTS.. Martin began with his review of the recent Big Valley yearly event. 23 Caravans. Hmmm ...tents and camper trailer numbers reducing. Vans increasing.. Are we getting soft?? Responsibilities, as numbers are growing too many for one trip leader, are being shared with other members by their organizing side trips for the days.. or nights. Saturday, Sam & Richard ran a Navigation Rally.. 25 vehicles are too many for 4WD trip, so ‘soft’ but very entertaining option provided. Even 25 vehicles can be stopped by one eco
minded, very large python demanding his right to sun bake in the middle of the road. Wouldn’t move so Martin donned his Superman cape, picked it up and placed it in the shade. Martin’s not sure why it didn’t bite Karen as she was doing all the screaming. Margaret River environs was the route with GPS’s not required. One of the questions to be answered was to count the number of tines on a particular hay bailing machine. Farmer came out wondering why so many people were interested in his equipment. Craig, Trevor and Elaine won the distance and questions component. Even won the prize for only one to damage their car. Dint pushed out easily. Next was Pizza night provided by a mobile, come to your venue, pizza oven. Michael was sitting outside his tent waiting for his number to be called...or maybe for Home Delivery? Next day was the yearly Golf very handicapped competition. Martin showed last year’s old photos as no-one put any photos up on the Drop Box !! Next years dates for Big Valley 13 - 16th November 2015. Michael then reported on the VISITORS DAY TRIP following the 4WD Show potential member interest. It was good to see many with us at the December meeting who had gone along on the day. There were 69 registrations of interest at the Show though the orientation trip numbers were reduced this year to make the visitors day more manageable. Just as well, as the Land Cruiser Club and another 4WD Club all chose the same day, same meeting point, same time. But we got there first ..! Air down was satisfactory and proved that all visitors listened and complied with the tyre pressure advice. In past trips, the first to bog are the ones who don’t reduce tyre pressures to levels requested, and required, for the sand. All made it to lunch at Guilderton. Michael thanked his Team Leaders: Troy, Richard, Peter, Murray and his Tail End Charlies: Craig and Trevor CLUB AWARDS Piston Broke ... for bringing humour to club events Photo of the Year .. selected by Editor from photos uploaded to DropBox during the year. Club Member of the Year ... Non arbitrary. Achieved by scoring points for their year’s involvement. Ian Lockhart Memorial Award .. upgraded from this year on to “an individual or a family” Piston Broke 4 Nominations Lyn Fry: For clever observations/ comments during Warriedar Trivia Night.
Roger Freegard: Who calls his new caravan a comfortable TOW. Toilet on Wheels ..! September Meeting Supper Team: Leader that night Sue Bromberger. Savoury Muffins story when we all scoffed the dozens of lovely muffins left in the kitchen.. Only to find later they were meant for the next day’s Senior Cit’s Club. Michael Gilbert: Big Valley Pizza Night. Tickets given out for each pizza order for collection from the Mobile Pizza Oven Chefs. Michael, starving, long ready for his number to be called, forlornly still waiting while all others eating..He just needed to turn his ticket upside down. 99 became 66.. and he
was fed.! Winner Sue Bromberger on behalf of her team, who advised she would pass the award on to each team member month by month as a reminder ..so no one ever does that again ! Presented by Peter Cole (President)
Archer, Editor of the Magazine) Member of the Year:
POTY nominations: Martin gave a visual presentation of the many photos he perused. Winner: Jon Standen (presented by Martin
Awarded to Richard King. An active member for 10years. Training Officer and Trip Leader for many years.. Richard averred that the members were the reason he is so active. The Award is not his motivation, but he is honoured to have been awarded it. Presented by Life Member John Bromberger Ian Lockhart Memorial Award: Awarded for doing something special. Nominations go to a sub committee for consideration, and final selection by the President Nominations: Rick and Sue Irvine. Though times were difficult for him, Rick, ably supported by Sue, organised a comprehensive trip to Lorella Springs NT and back by tracks distant and varied. Pat O’Dowd. Contributing relentlessly in so many positions..trip coordinator, shop convener, social coordinator. Stella opened the winners envelope, and named Rick and Sue Irvine. Rick’s response was that he hopes he can live up to the standard. President Peter exclaimed..”Rick, you are setting the standard..!” Members Forum: Jon Standen advised he, Kath and Jacob are returning to the UK for the New Year....and offered to give away an oil filter and a Pioneer car stereo. His parting gift? Really sorry to see them go. Murray announced he was selling Lions XMas cakes down the back of the hall. Pat announced an Australia Day Sundowner at Wungong. Raffles Drawn. Many draws and winners until the final two prizes.. the ARB recovery bag and the Training Day with Adventure off road. Photos of some of the lucky people are shown on the next page. 2 Announcements: Jan 28 Committee meeting. Feb 4th next Club Meeting We hope to see many of the visitors who came tonight to came back to join us at the next Club Meeting. Written by Judith Brinkley
Easter Weekend
Trip Leader's Name
PAT O'DOWD
Trip Title (Location)
HOLLAND TRACK 2015
Terrain being driven
Hills and bush
Trip Grade
Level 2
Start date
03/04/15
Trip duration
1-day
End Date
07/04/15
Maximum number of vehicles
Overnight
7
2 or 3 nights Extended Participants
Members Only Visitors Welcome
Meeting time
RSVP by: Trip Leader e-mail
10:00
03/03/15 Non-Members
Meeting Location
Must attend the club to
tripleader@hotmail.com register for trips
Non-Members
Pioneer Villagethe Armadale Must attend club to
register for trips
Club Visitors Day 2014
This year was the third consecutive Visitors Day I had organised, although the first two years had been very successful they also had been a very long day. For this reason I decide to shorten the event to run from Seabird down the coastal track to Guilderton for lunch, missing out Wilbinga completely, and limiting the quantity of visitor cars from 25 to 20, cutting the overall convoy to 27 cars. The result of these two changes made the whole event much easer to handle for myself and the team leaders. The trip started by meeting all the team leaders before all the visitors started to arrive at 10th light horse car park at 8.00am. This was our first challenge, it turned out at least three other 4WD clubs were also meeting their visitors gathered from the 4WD show that morning, this was going to be fun! However being there early allowed us to obtain the prime spot in the car park so at least we were ready for our visitors. This year the team leaders were Troy, Richard, Peter, Murray and two tail end Charlie’s Craig, Trevor and Elaine, there was just about enough time to do the trip briefing before our visitors started to arrive. Cars started to appear from all directions as each of the clubs visitors pulled into the car park, we had Elaine with her clipboard meet each of our visitors as they arrived, then direct them to the their team leader. This system worked well allowing all 20 visitors to be quickly moved into the car park behind their correct team leader. I like to get everyone off by 9.00am, all visitors and team leader were gathered at 8.45am at the front
of the convoy for a welcome and short trip briefing, ending with the words “above all have fun”, we headed of on time bound for Seabird. On arrival at Seabird we gathered the whole convoy on a small grassed area alongside the public toilets, were everyone lowers their tyre pressures down to 12psi, this is always met with surprise from many of our visitors who have never let so much air out of their tyres! The track down to Guilderton is a nice easy drive with Beautiful scenery of natural bush over looking the blue waters of the Indian Ocean. As the convoy approached Guilderton the track starts to change giving way to some nice dunes for visitors to have fun with, this always slows the convoy down as some of our visitors have a bit of a challenge getting up the first dune. As we were not going to Wilbinga this year I diverted the convoy up towards the Guilderton light house, which is on top of a large dune and usually quite rutted, just to give everyone a little more of a challenge. To my surprise most of our visitors managed to navigate this section of the track without two much problem, only the “whoo hoo” over the radio as some got to the top showed they were having fun. Directly after the light house the team leaders assisted each of their teams to air up their tyres to road pressure, and head down to the lunch area down by the river on the southern side of Guilderton. This year everything had gone to plan and with the smaller group had been much easier to handle. At the lunch area everyone gathered together at a very nice spot in a u-shape close to the river, this gave everyone plenty of time to eat and get to know the other visitors and team leaders. To officially close the trip all the team leaders gathered in front of the visitors to formally tell them about the benefits our club, and thank them for coming. I must say I personally enjoyed the day, with the day finishing after lunch it took much of the pressure off. Last but not least a personal thank you from me to all the team leaders and tail end charlie’s who made it all possible, thanks guys. Michael Gilbert Trip organiser
Trip Leader's Name
Pat O'Dowd
Trip Title (Location)
View the Australia Day Fireworks from Byford Hills
Terrain being driven Trip Grade
Hills and bush
Level 2
26/01/15
Trip duration
1-day Overnight 2 or 3 nights Extended
Participants
Members Only Visitors Welcome
Meeting time Special Requirements RSVP by: Trip Leader e-mail Contact phone
Meeting Location
1600 Bring A Picnic 19/01/15
Non-Members
tripleader@hotmail.com Must attend the club to
register for trips
0477035858
CaltexNon-Members Southwest Hwy Must attend the club to Byford
register for trips
On the morning of Sunday the 14th of December 2014, nine cars met at the Mon Petit Café on Brookton Highway at Kelmscott with Bob Gigengack (trip leader) and Peter Fry (co leader). There were vehicles from 7 club members and 2 visitor families. In addition Camilla’s Mum, Maria, was visiting from overseas and had the opportunity to see the local countryside. After some participants picked up some breakfast, the convoy departed at 9.30am for Wandoo and Mt. Observation. They travelled along Brookton Highway, turning off at Yarra Road to take a picturesque drive through the Mundaring State Forest and then the Wandoo National Park finishing at Mount Observation near the Great Southern Highway East of the Lakes. (See Map)
They stopped at about 10:15am along Yarra road to let their tyres down. Bob wandered off to see if he could find a Christmas Tree Spider which he had come across when he was doing the pre-trip two weeks earlier. Christmas spiders are called this as they are noticed around Christmas time and are also known as a jewel spider a member of the orb-weaver spiders (See http://www.spidervista.com/Christmas_Spider.html ). It wasn’t long before Bob found one and showed a few people the colourful arachnid.
Morning tea was about 11.15am however there was no bakery to be found in the bush after much speculation between Sue, John and Peter.
There were lots of different trees and plants to admire along the journey. There were lots of zamia palms around (See http://www.sercul.org.au/bushtucker/BushTuckerFactSheet_ZamiaPalm.pdf ) a number of beautiful banksia plants, yellow flowers that looked similar to a Wattle, plus quite a few purple flowers around that looked very similar to the Geraldton Wax flower, but much smaller. There were also some Wandoo trees that had lost their bark which exposed a beautiful smooth trunk. On mass these different plants looked very pretty.
After a bit more of a drive, the convoy stoped for lunch just before 1 o’clock for about 50 minutes and the group had a walk around the surrounding bushland looking for native orchids.
The second half of the track was a lot rougher due to wash outs and fallen trees. There were no incidents or damage to any cars. Near the end of the journey the track bordered on farmland with crops still needing to harvested. They arrived at Mount Observation at about 3:30 and aired up the tyres in order to head home on the bitumen. All in all was a great day.
Big Boys and Girls Play Day in the Sand Basin Trip Leader's Name
Neil HEWER
Trip Title (Location)
Wilbinga to Seabird
Terrain being driven
Beach/Sand
Trip Grade Start date
Level 3 End Date
15/02/15
15/02/15
Maximum number of vehicles Trip duration
12
1-day Overnight 2 or 3 nights Extended
Participants
Members Only Visitors Welcome
Meeting time
Special Requirements RSVP by: Trip Leader e-mail Contact phone Other comments
Meeting Location
McDonalds 973 Wanneroo Rd Non-Members Wanneroo, WA,the 6065 Must attend club to
register for trips
08:30
All the usual club's mandatory vehicle and recovery equipment 09/02/15
Non-Members
raynei@bigpond.com Must attend the club to
register for trips
94564009
Big Boys and Girls Play Day in the Sand Basin
Goodchild Enterprises Club Open Day December 2014 This was the first event from our club sponsor Goodchild Enterprises, I had been talking to Roger Goodchild for sometime about the possibility of running such an event, in the end it all came together very quickly deciding that just before christmas looked good.
The main idea of this event was allow club members access to Goodchild’s massive rage of batteries and related battery assessors, combined with professional expertise from Roger and Rex to test any of the members batteries on the day. We had a good turn out of 14 members for our first event, as you can see from the photo’s many heads under car bonnets enjoying other members company and learning something new. One of the highlights of the day was the tour of the massive warehouse facility from Rex, he
told us Godchild’s can sell up to 10.000 batteries each month! They have a fleet of 10 delivery vehicle supplying many auto electrical businesses throughout the Perth area. Personally I was very please with how the event went, as you can see from the list below our members snapping up the special discounts offered on the day, I know I did purchasing two items I had been wanting for sometime. Sales stats for Saturday: 5 batteries 2 clamp meters 3 chargers 1 volt meter 1 compressor 1 UHF radio kit Thanks to Rex & Roger Goodchild for their time and expertise, and all the members who came along on the day. Michael Gilbert Event organiser
Lancelin December 2014 Meeting at the Lancelin bakery at 9.00am the member only trip consisting of 5 vehicles, Rick, Michael & Mel, Trevor & Elaine, Craig, and myself. We had a couple of late cancellations, Richard King who had encountered some problems with his Landcruiser after mechanical work on minor oil leek, sorry Richard you missed a great day. Also a new member Bruce Davies who got confused about if the trip was being run, I gave him a call and sorted things out for next time. A perfect day welcomed us at Lancelin, most of the crew took advantage of the bakery for a quick breakfast treat before we headed off on time at 9.30am. The plan for the day was to see how far we could go down the beach to the North before the sand became too soft, then turn in behind the dues running parallel to the ocean back to the main Lancelin dune area. The beach drive just North of Lancelin is excellent a stunning part of the coast, to make sure everyone had an opportunity to get their feet wet I stopped the convoy for a while for a chance to have a paddle. I always feel it’s important to stop and appreciate the landscape you are travelling through, after all it was a stunning day to be at the beach! We continued heading North along the beach toward the next point, I could see in the distance that the ocean had eroded the lower part of the beach to cause quite a steep angle to the upper level, so being trip leader I took the lower option while all the other waited to see I would get on. I was doing okay for awhile but unfortunately the sand became very soft and became very tricky to get back higher up the beach again. By this time the others I seen the issue I was in and decided to take the high beach option, they were soon level with me, Rick came to the rescue and with a quick pull with the snatch strip I was out.
Heading off again we came across a lone motorcyclist heading south who had ran out of fuel, as a group it was decide to help him out, Rick kindly offered to turn around and take him back to his car in Lancelin where he had some fuel. The rest of the convoy moved on around the next point to wait Rick’s return, this gave the rest of us more time to enjoy the ocean. While we were waiting I noticed a well defined track going inland behind the dunes, because of the addition delay in waiting for Rick I decide to take this track and start our way back to the main dune area. On Ricks return the convoy headed down this track back towards the dunes, the track was well defined with a few dunes to climb, and occasional complaints from Craig over the radio regarding scratchy bushes. At last the convoy arrived on the main dune area, as trip leader Lancelin is always quite a challenge being no defined tracks to follow. On my GPS I had loaded a track guide, which I new I could always rely on to take me in the general direction I needed to go. As you can see from the photo’s we found some great dunes to play on, we spend a good part of the afternoon on the dues, I even managed to find a sheltered spot for lunch. Soon after lunch Craig & Trevor decided to head off back to Perth, leaving just three cars to slowly make our way over the dunes to the Southern end exit and the end of the trip. A good day was had by all, including myself appreciating the smaller group that could confidently drive on sand. Michael Gilbert Trip Leader
Christmas Dinner Mt Henry Tavern
Inc. 1986
WARNING
Members are advised to seek medical advice prior to undertaking prolonged exposure to high society living. Regular doses of ‘getting back to nature’ by taking ones vehicle beyond the kerb line is one method recommended to maintain normality. Should you persist with living in the comfort zone without taking natural remedies you may suffer the consequences of finding yourself walking a poor excuse for a dog wearing a pink coat.
7 Hayden Ct, Myaree