Club run to Ipswich & Harrisville

Our club run on 12 March 2017 included a trip to view a car collection of a member of the Ipswich Car Club, a quick stop to view a Camel diary and lunch at the Royal Hotel in Harrisville.

Ann and Ken arranged for us to visit Ipswich Car Club Members Peter and Judy who live at Raceview. We left Cameron Street East Ipswich at 9am and after a short drive we were welcomed to Peter and Judy’s place for a look at Peter’s collection of Ford cars. Peter has collected and restored to very high standard about 12 Falcons ranging from the early 1960s models to the early 2000s. In amongst these there are also a few Fairlanes and a Galaxy. The Galaxy has a 390 V8 and was once the transport for Qld MP Russell Hinze. Peter keeps all the cars in registered condition and all under cover. He is currently restoring a Mk 3 Zephyr. 

We had morning tea in the shade of some trees with Peter and Judy before moving off at about 11am. A nice easy drive via Ripley, Purga, and Mutdapilly had us at Harrisville just on midday. We did stop just before Harrisville though to have a look at a lot of camels a Camel dairy on Charles Chauvel Dr. This is Australia's first commercial scale camel dairy company, almost right on Brisbane and Ipswich’s doorstep. We only spent a few minutes here before driving the few remaining miles to the Royal Hotel at Harrisville for lunch.

Lunch was a choice of fish and chips, burger and chips or steak sandwich and chips. The hotel staff was pre warned of our arrival and Ann had phoned through our requirements. In no time at all we were all seated in a reserved section and our meals were placed before us.

So on the day we had eight Austins including Ken and Ann’s only just registered A55 which Ken has been working fairly intensively for last few months and the result is a credit to his perseverance and mechanical ability. The A55 certainly does look nice. We also saw for the first time our Editor’s new Shanghai built MG 6. It also looks a nice car, as it should as it is brand new. Bernie and Madonna came down from Toowoomba in their Devon which is running lovely. The other Austins were: A30, Somerset Coupe, Lancer, A40 Tourer, Freeway and Hereford. Thanks to Ann and Ken’s organising and also many thanks to Peter and Judy for opening up their property for our inspection.