Great line up of cars that attended the
2007 National Rally in SA.
ALVIS CAR CLUB of VICTORIA
ALVIS
NATIONAL TOUR:
South
Australia 2007
ALVIS
in the OUTBACK
-
21ST
TO 28TH
APRIL
(Click
on pictures to see a larger view)
The
peace and quiet of a Saturday afternoon in Port Augusta
was shattered as 47 Alvi arrived in town. The Standpipe
Motel was a wonderful location for the first few days
of the rally. The entrants were welcomed by smiling
faces, pink hare
ears, nibbles, drinks and lots of chatter on
the verandah of the original hotel dating from the
1870’s.
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Dinner that
night was a chance to renew acquaintances and
to hear the various stories of the trip over to Port
Augusta from Victoria,
NSW, Queensland, SA, WA and Tasmania.
For Frank Corbett his trip ended in Renmark with
a blown 12/50 engine. He and his passenger Henry Anderson
managed to get a lift with others to Port Augusta.
In fact Henry arrived with Richard Tonkin & Penn
Bradley in the Graber TA21- so he arrived in style.
A few others had
minor problems on the way over but all were
fixed. |
Sunday morning
saw the Alvi heading down to an oval at the
high school where all the cars could be parked while
their owners enjoyed
a trip on the Pitchi Richi Railway.
This is the original Ghan railway
line and the steam locomotives
and carriages all belong to the time when it was
a very busy railway serving the isolated towns and
pastoral properties
between Quorn and Alice Springs. We had
a steam loco to pull about 5 carriages, including the
Commissioner of
Railways carriage which had a rounded window
at the rear for observing the scenery. It was a wonderful
trip up through the Pitchi Richi Gorge, across iron
lattice bridges, over hand built stone embankments to
the Willows Restaurant
for lunch. Judging by the level of noise
during lunch there was plenty of chatter going on.
After lunch, there
was a bit of a wait for the train, as it had some
problems building up steam. It was very pleasant sitting
in the sun and looking down the valley. Most people
ended up with soot in their hair as the footplates
proved to be popular
places to stand during the trip. |
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The
dinner that night saw far too many Indians and not
enough chiefs
to control the hilarity. The Indian Night was a
great success especially as the Standpipe is owned by Indians
so there were some wonderful curries on the
menu. There were
Indians ranging from Red Indians to Indians
from India, an Indian Call Centre as well as the Worlds
Fastest Indian and a couple of Indian bikers as well
as one maharaja. There was much laughter as costumes
were examined and Andrew McDougall (alias a
call centre) was trying to interest anyone who would
listen to his
great deals. At the end of the night there were
a number of prizes awarded: to Beni Hannam for being
delightfully traditional as the best dressed Indian
Lady, The best
dressed Indian male to Mike Osborne as a
North American Indian, the best dressed North American
Indian couple to Gayle & Derek Dixon, the best
dressed Indian Couple to Maritta & Dale Parsell as
an Indian Motorcycle
bikie couple, the most original outfit
to Andrew McDougall as an Indian Call Centre and to
Ian Parkinson for an Indian Outfit that was never meant
to be worn whilst driving an Alvis motor car. It was
a great night. |
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Monday was our
first day of driving on the rally and it was
a good run down the highway to Port Germein for morning
tea and a chance to see the longest jetty in Australia
at 1.7km. Some of the more energetic of us walked
to the end of the jetty and back. Before we left, the
boat launching vehicle was sporting an Alvis Red Triangle!
Then it was a lovely drive through the Germein Gorge
– a winding road through wonderful river red gums
and twisted rock formations just made for Alvis cars.
We continued up to Melrose and Mt Remarkable for
lunch. All the cars lined up on the oval for a photo
shoot. The trip
home took us through Horrocks Pass which
David & Elizabeth Horrocks were very interested
in seeing. This
was their first Alvis Rally in a lovely TE21. |
Tuesday
was the run up to Wipena Pound via the Wadlata
Exhibition and Quorn. The exhibition was an excellent
introduction to the history of the Flinders Ranges
both geological and human. It made you realize how
tough it was on the European settlers when they started
to move north and to try and farm in a semi desert
environment. Our lunch stop was at the Pichi Richi
Railway workshops – needless to say there was a lot
of wandering around steam engines in various stages
of repair and marveling at all the metal and wood
machining facilities
as well as the great selection of dried
timbers - a car restorers dream. The volunteer organisation
does a wonderful job of maintaining and restoring
the carriages and engines. After lunch it was onto
Wilpena via Hawker and the Kanayaka Ruins. Kanayaka
was one of the early homesteads in the region
from the 1850-60’s, supporting up to 70 families.
The fickle nature
of rainfall and high stocking rates led to
its demise. These days the properties are large and
run 1 sheep
to 10 acres rather than 10 sheep to 1 acre!
Everyone
arrived at Wilpena and settled into their rooms before
the welcome drinks and dinner in the resort’s dinning
room and a night of much laughter and talk plus Parky
on the piano. |
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Wednesday
and Friday were days when the various groups had the day
to explore the Pound, climb St Mary’s
Peak, take a scenic flight over the Pound or a 4
Wheel Drive
trip along some of the gorges and along the ridgeline and
wine tasting in the old Wilpena Station Woolshed.
It was wonderful to be able to look in more detail at the
environment of the Flinders Ranges.
Thursday
saw it raining and it was the first time since1989 that
it had rained all day! To break the drought all you
need to do is organise a rally!! Still it was a good run
up to Parachilna via Hawker for morning tea and the
chance to see
Jeff Morgan’s panorama painting of Wilpena Pound from St
Mary’s Peak. He spent 4,000 hours
on it using 60,000 photos. It was spectacular –you felt
as if you were on the top of the Peak. Bob &
Lesley Northey
could vouch for the accuracy of the painting as they had
climbed the peak the day before. Then
it was a wet run up to our lunch of "road kill"
– emu, kangaroo and camel. There was also Tommy Ruff
stuffed with
salmon. The food at the Prairie Hotel was excellent.
The trip home was a repeat of the journey out except
for the Blacket’s who decided to make life interesting
by returning through the Brachina Gorge – they
have some good photos of the 12/50 coming through
the creek crossing. After dinner we were entertained
by a local Australian country singer John O’Dea,
who had composed a new song called "Raining
in the Pound".
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The final dinner
was a great affair with bottles of wine for
each table provided by Brian & Joan Hemings as
their way of being
part of the rally – it was really appreciated
by all entrants. It was a wonderful meal served
by the friendly staff. If the noise level was anything
to go by then it was a very successful evening. The
various awards for the night were: Longest distance
driven in an Alvis
– Trevor & Judy Eastwood, Hard Luck
– Frank Corbett, Entrant who has come the greatest
distance with a car – John St Julian (NZ), Guts &
Determination to overcome adversity – Bev & Peter
Breise, Entrants
Choice: Equal 3rd
– Frank
Moore: 4.3litre
& David Horrocks: TE21 Drophead, 2nd
–
Norman Zylberberg:
Speed25 and 1st
– Peter
Scotney: TC21.
It was great to see some of the first time rally entrants
receiving acknowledgement for the restoration of
their cars. |
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So
the National Rally for 2007 came to end and we look
forward to seeing
everyone in Queensland in 2009. Congratulations
to Stuart & Claire McDonald, Duncan & Clover
Scott and their helpers for putting together a wonderful
rally. It was great to be able to be able to see
a very different
part of the country.
For
the statistically minded there were: 8 South Australians,
19 New South Welshmen, 14 Victorians, 9 Queenslanders,
2 West Australians, 1 Tasmanian and 4 New
Zealanders. Then the cars: 1 12/40, 13 12/50s, 1
14/75, 1 Silver
Eagle, 7 Speed 20s, 1 3.5 litre, 3 Speed 25s,
3 4.3 litres, 1 12/70, 4 TA14s, 10 TA/TC 21s, 1 TA
21 Graber, 2
TD 21s, 1 TE 21 and DB5 Aston Martin. It was
a wonderful array of the finest Alvis cars.
Frances
& Andrew McDougall
Photography
by the McDougalls & Geoffrey Farrence
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