Page 11 - history_booklet

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PART 3

1999 - 2004

Written and Compiled by
Barbara Rutherford
st
1 February 2004

The year 1999 was a most significant one in the history of the Club – we celebrated our
th
50 birthday and what a time was had by all! Activities included a grand dinner
celebration at Crushers Leagues’ Club at the Grange in Brisbane, a picnic to Deception
Bay (the site of the very first rally in 1949) and to top it all off, a concert extravaganza
put on by members at Rosewood to which past members were invited. A special badge
marking 50 years of the Club was struck and presented to all members.

The dawning of a new century saw the Club continue to prosper, move along with the
times and, at the same time, maintain many of the long-standing traditions upon which
the club has been built over the years.

One of the most obvious changes in the Club is the fact that the membership has grown
older and, as a result, there are now no younger families with children in the Club. Even
new members that are coming along are either retired or nearing it. Children who once
formed an integral part of the Club with their own committee in earlier years are no longer
there to encourage us into that Saturday afternoon game of cricket on a country
showgrounds oval somewhere or bring that special excitement when Santa arrives at a
Christmas rally that only children can. However, all is not lost as some members
occasionally bring their grandchildren along with them now.

Another major change has been to the caravan itself. To have a toilet and shower in your
own van was unheard of not so many years ago - not so now with some vans even sporting
washing machines!

A bush rally used to mean just that - a shower was a bucket of water on a rope behind a
bit of blue tarp wrapped around a couple of trees with other members throwing cold water
over the top or nicking your towel that had been slung over the top. The Club members
used to build a huge fire and have a donkey boiler on the go all the time for members to
have instant hot water for tea and/or showers. Now we have our battery/solar power to
give us a nice hot shower indoors no matter where we are, and we boil the kettle on the
stove indoors. Has progress taken some of the fun out of caravanning?

The year 2000 saw a first for the Club - the appointment of its very first lady President –
Jacky Smith. This was quite an achievement for a Club where, in its early years, the male
was signed up as the member and the wife as an associate member!

At the end of 2000, several members made the trek across to Western Australia to attend
the National Rally. There has been movement afloat during the last few years to try to
change the date of National Rallies. As it stands now, National Rallies are held from
approx. 28 December through to about 4/5 January. It is felt in many quarters that,
because of the hot weather at this time of the year, the holiday traffic on the roads and