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Contents:From the Chair - a few words of wisdom from Chairman Tom. 5Tell Your Tale, Traveller - learn to write with Karina 6Letters to the Editor 7Murray River Ramblers Wanganella Muster 9Branch Defibrilators 9Notice of the 2015 Annual General Meeting 10Recipe from Pete’s Kitchen 10Tassie Travellers Taste of the Huon 11Yemmy’s Travel Tales - a book written by a motorhome! 112015 National Muster Registration 122015 National Muster Program 16Director Nomination Form - your Board needs You! 18A Crafty Idea - novel solution to a sewing problem 19Photo Competition 20Sydney City Slickers High Country Tagalong 21The Limestone Coasters vist Cape Jaffa 24Bushrangers Colac Muster 25What Makes a Friendly Caravan Park? 27Inaugural South Australian State Muster 30Fitting Gas Struts to Your Pop Top 34Club Shop - get your goodies here! 36Upcoming Branch Musters 38Branch Contacts - who ya gonna call? 39

From the Editor:G’Day All,

Thanks for your many contribu-tions over the past few weeks, so many have come in that it was im-possible to fit them all into this is-sue! This is a good thing because with this issue being the last in our current format, I now have materi-al on hand for the next issue, which should appear around mid August.

Over the years we have had a num-ber of members ask for tips on im-proving their writing, starting from this issue we will be publishing a se-ries of articles from Karina McRob-erts, a published author. She aims to take you form the very basics right up to publication. Her first install-ment is on page six.

A couple of öfficial”items are also in this issue - Notification of the AGM, which will be held at this

years National Muster at Beaudes-ert, and also a nomination form for this year’s Board Elections. As usu-al two Board positions will become vacant at the AGM - so if you, or someone you know, have an inter-est in the running of our club now is your chance to be involved.

For the technically minded we also have an article on page 34 describ-ing the technique used by one of our members in fitting new gas struts to his pop-top - plenty of detail, in-cluding pictures, should make this a snap for those experiencing diffi-culty in “lifting the lid

With the change in format there are sure to be a few hiccups! (Murphy lurks everywhere). In anticipation of same, could I ask that you bear with us while the change-over oc-currs? Thanks, in advance, for your understanding.

Cheers, Lazo.

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From the ChairSandra and I are looking forward to our first chairman’s muster in West-ern Australia at Kununurra. I have put on the website in the forum sec-tion some dates where we will be on our trip over to Kununurra, if mem-bers wish to join us at those places, be great to catch up.

Our chairman’s muster at Lake Cargelligo was extremely success-ful, with around 38 units attend-ing and enjoying the very friendly welcome from the local communi-ty. We all seemed to have plenty to do during the week and happy hour was good fun. A fair number of us attended a community break-fast celebrating the end of daylight saving, money raised was used to support locals suffering from can-cer. It was pleasing to see so many members attending an ACC event for the first time, along with others who have attended previous Chair-man’s Musters.

We are again doing a Survey this year and I encourage members to

take the time out to fill in the sur-vey. The last one we did was two years ago and provided the board and the policy team with some very useful information that helps us to represent the club and in our deci-sion-making. As chairman I find the information provided by members in the survey extremely important, so please take the time to fill in the survey.

In the last edition of the “Nomad”, I mentioned having signs made in-dicating caravan parks that provide member benefits. The board has de-cided to broaden this to include all businesses that are providing ACC member benefits. As we progress this more, information will be pro-vided to members so they can gain benefits from our program.

This edition of the “Nomad” will be the last in its current format. The new “Nomad” will include notes from the board and be delivered electronically where ever possi-ble. 95% of our membership have an email address, so by delivering the “Nomad” electronically we will save quite a lot of money.. Where I have informed members at Musters, of the new format of the “Nomad”, there has been positive support. If you still want to receive the “No-mad” in a hard copy please let us know, as we will be printing a hard copy for those that do not have an email address.

Remember lets be careful out there,

TomooOOoo

Want to Form a New Branch?

Many of our members have toyed with the idea of forming an ACC branch which would cater to their particular needs - it could be to sim-ply get together regularly with other local members, or to get a common interest group together (e.g. antique vans).

Sadly, oft times the idea is dropped as being “too hard”. Or we some-times just sit around waiting for “some one else” to do it!

While it is not compulsary to be-long to a branch, there can be lit-tle doubt that the branches are the real strength of the ACC! Mutual support and fellowship promote a healthy, supportive membership which in the end makes the ACC as a whole into a strong, unified, group.

The document “ACC Branch Guide-lines and Bye-Laws” contains all of the information required for form-ing and administrating a branch and can be downloaded from the club web-site from the Members / Documents area.

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Club Web-siteA simple log on gives access to a wealth of information about your club - coming events, news and so on.

The Branch Forums, in particular, keep branch members abreast of what’s happening and when.

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Cover Picture“Garden of Eden” Caravan Park, Eden, N.S.W. (Picture by Alan Lazarus.)

Deadline for Next Issueis August 10th, 2015.

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TELL YOUR TALE, TRAVELLER!

A Series of Articles to Help You Write Your Book! ©

Karina McRoberts, a writer from Western Australia, developed a de-bilitating illness and now spends hours in camp when her husband is away bird-watching. But turning a black cloud into a blue sky, she took up writing, and has since published three novels, with a fourth in pro-duction.

In this series for the Nomad, Karina will guide readers through the steps of writing a novel or novella. So, if you’ve ever been “stuck at home” on the road, whenever your partner is out fishing or what-have-you all day, this could be just the hobby to fill the long hours!

While you’re travelling around the country you can use your experi-ences to inspire your writing!

Writing is great exercise for the mind and soul. I’ve been teaching writing workshops for some time now, and one thing I’m sure of; once someone starts writing, their whole perspective changes. And, it’s fun! As Mari Linden, one of the charac-ters in my latest book, The Palace of the Stars, says:

The creak of ageing bonesYou really should not bemoan

For the mind can be ever-sharp.As they say, use it or lose it.

And writing, me dearsDoth so improve it! ©

So, let’s get started!

The very first thing you need to do, and this is an absolute must, is to adopt a positive attitude.

Unfortunately, many of us through-out our lives have been repeatedly told “You can’t do it.” “You’re not good enough.” “You don’t have the talent.” “You’ll never make it.” Or, that firm favourite of mine, “What?

At your stage of life!” Yikes! If any of this applies to you, you need to get rid of the negative messages that have accumulated in your mind! If NO or CAN’T are stamped on your forehead, rub them off now!

Some of you will be asking “But how can I do that?” You do it by believ-ing you can.

I have a science background, and I know that the mind is NOT set as hard as the rock of ages. You CAN indulge in a bit of re-programming, at any age. O.K., so wipe the slate clean for a moment. If you use a computer, picture pushing the de-lete button, and then insert the fol-lowing:

“Everyone has talent, even me. We may have forgotten about it. But we can get it back. I can get it back!”

Now, go back in there; yeah, pretty scary, huh? But go back in there and delete the message that says “But I’m not creative.” Because, everybody is creative!

All you need to do to convince yourself of this fact is look at the kids’ drawings you may have stuck to your fridge, or did have some time in the past. If you look at kids’ drawings, you will see just how cre-ative kids are. And you were a kid once.

Kids don’t worry about their talent or creativity. They just “let it all out there.” There’s so much energy and expression in kids’ drawings. It is only when they learn they’re “no good” (because an adult or an in-doctrinated older sibling has told them so) that they start to think they’re no good. And, as you think, so shall you be!

So, delete that programming! Feel free to be.

With this series of articles my aim is to help you re-program. I’ve met so many people in my travels who say they want to write. Many of us have

stories within!

You may even think that your writ-ing won’t be of value. Not true! I believe that everyone is unique and valuable. Now let’s get you writing about what you want to write about!In my writing, I’m working in two areas, fantasy and historical fiction.

You can write about whatever you want! Whether it’s one of these genres, or crime, romance, horror...anything! The important thing is to write what you want to write about, not what someone else tells you should write about. Have a think about that.

I’d just like to point out here that I’m talking about writing novels or no-vellas, but the ideas and advice giv-en in this series also works for short stories, even life stories. Memoirs, if you like.

This leads me to the first practical lesson, and that is: to start, you need to have an idea. If you don’t have one, think about it. You probably do, but you may not have focussed on it for a while. But now you can. Now you have time and space to do just that! Exciting stuff!

Next, start a writer’s diary. It can just be an exercise book, our something more elaborate. Even a computer version, but make sure you back it up. Writing things down can clarify our thoughts. So, you may ask, what do I put in it?

Try this little experiment: Real-ly look around you, wherever you happen to be. Take it all in from a writer’s perspective. The landscape, the sounds, sights, smells. And the people! You’re surrounded by po-tential characters!

By doing this, you’re beginning to train your brain to be a writer’s brain!

You can sit with a coffee, watching the world go by. And you really ARE watching, more intently than

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ever. You’re opening your mind towhat’s really going on around you!

If anyone comes up and says “Hey, what are you doing?” You can just tell them “I’m doing research for my novel.” Impressive! And, it’s fun! For my latest fantasy novel, I took a balloon ride at dawn. Got to get into the feel of things!

Next issue, I’ll show you how to crystallise your idea in your mind, and how to move on from there. In ensuing issues, we’ll cover every-thing from writer’s block to scene writing to publishing.

But don’t worry about any of that for now. Stay with Step One; feel good, have fun, and I’ll see you next time.

Karina’s books, Chelandra, Mas-ter of the World, and The Palace of the Stars, a Novel of York Western Australia, are available from www.equilibriumbooks.com , and also as e-books from Amazon Kindle.

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Letters to the EditorACC PET POLICY As caravanners we love travelling, we love our dogs and choose not to travel without them. Our dogs are walked multiple times a day and we have wire fencing on the entrance side of the caravan, about the size of a small annexe, so they are safely contained without being tied up all the time.

We also accept the ACC’s Pet Pol-icy as appropriate and reasonable. We accept that fellow caravanners s might not want our pets wandering around leash free or where food is being prepared or enjoyed. We are very conscious of hygiene whether at home or on the road and forever washing our hands after handling the dogs or their toys etc. On the road we also use antibacterial wipes when soap and water is not avail-able.

At Happy Hour our dogs are usual-ly tied up about 5 metres from the group, not able to touch anyone but happy and quiet as they can see us.

If we have to attend to the dogs for any reason we wash our hands again! If Happy Hour is nearby and the dogs can see us then they remain in the fenced area at the caravan. As dog lovers we do not like being bailed up by dogs not on leashes nor do we want dogs wandering in and around us at Happy Hour.

We accept that if pet owners do not do the right thing there will be more restrictions and more facilities will not be pet friendly. So it is up to all pet owners to be considerate of others and to abide by the regula-tions whether the ACC Pet Policy or those other facilities we use.

Happy travelling. (Lorraine & John with Lucy & Pickles )

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TRUTH OR FICTION?In our travels around Australia we were told to stay at the Kidman Camp in Bourke (which I might add is very good) and to avoid the Mitchell Caravan Park as it is run down.

We wished we had checked the Mitchell Caravan Park out first as it has been bought by a young cou-ple, Dan and Steph Gooch who have done wonders in the past couple of months. Lawns are green & well kept. Laundry & toilets are clean, On suites & camp kitchen have been painted & plans are in the shire for extensions to the kitchen & other upgrades.

They have free wi fi. The park is pet friendly. There is a camp fire with plans for theme nights & open air movies. They have a courtesy bus to the local clubs

This park is within walking distance to all facilities & shopping & an easy bike ride around town.

Rob & Gillian McCulloughSwan River Rovers.

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New Guide for Tasmania

A new Caravan and Camping guide for Tasmania has been released for those intending to travel to the “Ap-ple Isle”. Whether they be first time travellers or seasoned visitors, there is something in this guide for every-one.

It’s a handy A5 sized, bound guide that fits readilly into the glovebox, handbag or saddlebag. Chock full of information, covering caravan parks and free-camps, along with tourist attractions, National Parks, RV friendly towns, dump points, etc. It also has details of usefull web-sites and general information such as cellar door locations.

Also included are details of Vis-itor Information Centres across the state, and emergency medical contacts for both people and pets, along with the locations of caravan repairers and suppliers.

The guide has been compiled with the co-operation of the Tasmanian tourist visitor information cen-tre network, and local government councils.

For further details, including pur-chasing, visit the website:

www.tassietourist.info

or Email to:

tassietourist@gmail.com

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Why go solar?If you rely on petrol generators, your alternator or powered camp sites for your power when in the great out-doors then solar is another option to consider and is becoming more and more popular either as a prima-ry or backup power source.Going solar can bring numerous benefits including freedom, inde-pendence, peace of mind, environ-mental and a return on investment over time.

FreedomImagine having the freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want. A couple of solar panels and a 100AH battery can give you that freedom all for less than $1,000. In comparison generators are often re-stricted in camp sites or banned al-together.

IndependenceBeing independent of others, inde-pendent of generators, independent of powered sites gives you flexibility because you can plan a trip around where you want to go and not where you have to go for power access.

Peace of mindSolar panels are reliable generators of electricity because as long as the sun keeps rising each day you are able to generate current to replen-ish batteries. They are essentially maintenance free in that they have no moving parts that could fail and typically have 20+ year warranty on electrical output, so as long as you look after your panel, it will keep generating electricity each and ev-ery day.

Would you rely on a petrol genera-tor for 20+ years to meet your pow-er needs?

Return on investmentInvesting in a few solar panels, a charge controller, some cable and a deep cycle battery can be done for less than $1,000. It’s a one off cost that you begin receiving a return on almost straight away, because once you have the solar panels, light en-ergy from the sun is free and unlim-ited.

Savings in fuel, powered site fees, gas and maintenance costs all add up.

So it is quite feasible that through these savings you could pay for your solar system within 1 to 2 years.

Environment Burning fossil fuels to generate elec-tricity emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. On top of that pet-rol/diesel fuels are extremely flam-mable and dangerous to transport.Solar energy on the other hand is free, unlimited and available to ev-ery person. Solar panels do not emit any greenhouse gases and they are quiet and have no moving parts to maintain.

So the environment is a big winner when switching to solar to power your outdoor adventures.

Spencer SmithRV Solar Supplies4/57 Neumann Road, Capalaba, QLD 4157T: (07) 3390 3700 | M: 040 777 6907 |www.rvsolarsupplies.com spencer@rvsolarsupplies.com

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Murray River Ramblers

Wanganella Muster(Phil & Gloria Griffiths)

This Muster was held on the banks of the Billabong Creek in a fairly new C/Park with great amenities & we were the only ones there. 17 members attended plus guests from Numurkah. Irene & Rosalind.

The Muster started with the usual Happy Hour on the Friday evening.

Saturday morning saw a fishing comp held with prizes given to Ross for the longest catch & the most un-usual catch, being a turtle.

The casting comp was won by Irene & Henry. A game of Klopp was played after lunch with Henry de-clared the winner.

The evening meal was cooked by the C/Park helpers - David & Dot - cuts of duck & rabbit, along with vegeta-bles (supplied by branch members).It was great to sit around the camp fire on a wonderful night (one of the best nights, weather-wise, that we’ve had in quite a while).

Sunday was our usual cooked Break-fast & so ended a great muster ,in a superb setting, on the Billabong.

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BranchDefibrillators

Two of our Victorian branches now list an Automatic External Defrillo-ator in each of their muster kits.

The Southern Nomads were able to add the defrillator, and an extensive first aid kit, which were donated to the branch by members Geoff and Kendra Lawson.

Generous donors, Geoff & Kendra.

Not to be out-done, the Gippsland Gypsies were able to add a defrilla-tor to their holdings by purchasing it with funds resulting from various internal fund-raising events.

Naturally the presidents of both branches - Peter Eade and Ted Bur-ley, were effusive in their thanks to all concerned.

As well as being available at each of their branch musters, the defribril-lators will also be available at our National Musters as welll.

Both branches are to be commend-ed for their efforts, certainly a step in the right direction to providing speedy help and assistance to any cardiac arrest patients, whether they are ACC members or not.

Some briefings on the equipment has already taken place, with more to follow. Well done all!

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La Dolcie VitaWe’ve been informed that the La Dolcie Vita Wine & Food festival will be taking place in November of this year.

Celebrate the sweet life and the ar-rival of Spring with the wine-mak-ing families of Victoria’s King Valley, tasting the innovative wine styles that the region has become known for.

At the festival you may also indulge in a range of Italian inspired food, and enjoy live music, roving enter-tainers, kids activities, and more.

For more information contact the Valley View Caravan Park,

info@valleyviewcaravanpark.com.au

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Were You There?In the early part of 2007, the first get-together of the ACC member-ship was held at Forest Glen, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Queensland member, Ray Ward, has suggested that it would be good to have a meet up of those original attendees at the 2015 National Mus-ter at Beaudesert.

So - if you were there why not get in touch with Ray and see what can be arranged?

Ray’s Email address is: sorbent181@bigpond.com

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Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Australian Caravan Club Limited will be held at 3pm on Saturday 17, October 2015 at the Beaudesert Showgrounds, Cnr Albert and Tina Streets, Beaudesert, Queensland, 4285.

All members of the Australian Caravan Club Ltd are cordially invited to be present.

AGENDA1. Present—as per the Attendance Register.

2. Minutes from previous meeting.

3. Business arising—nil

4. To receive the Chairman’s Report.

5. Acceptance of the Director’s and Financial Statements.

6. To receive the Secretary’s Report.

7. Proposed Fees—no change is proposed.

8. To elect incoming Directors (2 of) – to be advised following the closure of nominations.

9. Proposed Special Resolutions. – The Board is recommending the following for addition to the Constitution:

(a) Addition to the OBJECTS section 4.2.6 inserting the word DONATING in the following"Purchasing selling, leasing, hiring, DONATING, or otherwise dealing in stock in trade or other such activities as the board determines will foster RVing"

Reason - on advice from Independent Accountants there needs to clear statement that the Board of Directors can make such donations to promote RVing from time to time.

10. Meeting Close.

Craig Humphrey

(Secretary)

Notice of Annual General Meeting

From Pete’s Kitchen(Peter Harding)

Grilled Fish, French Style

This is a very simple recipe and I have used this in a restaurant in des-perate times and of course charged patrons $25 for the pleasure of eat-ing this dish.

The preparation time is short as I am guessing that for all you great anglers out there, you have already caught your fish, scaled it and fil-leted it or if you are like me when I go fishing I can’t even catch a cold.

Preparation time: 5 minutes to get the ingredients sorted.Cooking time: as long as it takes to cook your fish without over cooking

Ingredients:Filleted fish,Flour,Salt,Pepper,Oil,Milk.

Method:With your salt and pepper season the flour.

Tip here, if you want you can add some lemon pepper or some chopped basil, chives, coriander, dill, there are others you may want to try but if you are going to use lemon pepper then I would suggest that you either cut back on or even not use straight pepper.

Heat your grill plate to a moderately high heat

Dip the fish fillet in the milk ensur-ing that the whole fillet is covered.

Then coat your fish with the sea-soned flour and place on the grill.

When the side of the fish that is on the grill forms a batter turn onto the other side and cook through.

When the fish is cooked through place the fish on a plate and service with a salad that has the dressing you like and again for me I like a thickened Balsamic dressing on my salad.

For this meal a light dressing is bet-ter but everyone to their own tastes.

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Tassie TravellersTaste of the Huon

(Bernie Barnwell)

Our second Muster of the year was at Rivers Edge Campsite, Lonna-vale, in the Huon Valley. We were here for the Taste of the Huon, sim-ilar to the Taste of Tasmania, but only for two days, though attended by 25,000 people.

One of our TT Members, Barry Parker is on the organising commit-tee, although he wasn’t at our Mus-ter, it was Barry’s post on the web last year, that prompted us to attend this year.

We only had three units booked in

for this muster, John & RIK, Deb & Mike Cohen and Bernie and Do-reen of Adelaide. The sites were big enough to fit three vans, this may-be an option should we wish to visit again. Very popular camp ground, beautifully laid out & well worth a visit if you’re in the South of the State.

Bernie took Doreen to visit Hobart for the Salamanca Market, Mt Wel-lington and anywhere in between. There is so much to see and do in Tasmania, Bernie and Doreen were

busy touring each day except on the Sunday when they took Deb & Mike to the Taste, and then into Huonville for Coffee at the Retro Café.

Big red café with 60’s style fittings and very busy staff. Great coffee as well and snacks. Not a good place if you need to knock off sugar pack-ets though, as they have Retro style Sugar Shakers.

Back at Rivers Edge Wilderness Campground we had log fires every night, with plenty of chatter about everything.

Doreen was with Bernie and was keen to learn a bit more about cara-vanning, she got a good insight into the industry and many good tips.

The post on the web from Ray Bock was most useful to her about buying second hand, she has gone home to think about it or maybe just trav-el with Bernie. It was good to see Bernie with company for a change instead of hanging out with us cou-ples all the time, not that we mind of course. He even brought plates of snacks, a great improvement! Please travel with him again Doreen.

If any visitors are thinking of com-ing to Hobart, and fancy a nice Ital-ian dinner, I can recommend Da

Angelos Italian Resturant in Battery Point, but you will need to book a few days prior, as they get very busy. Fantastic food and lovely people too!

Our Muster Cooordinator extraor-dinaire, Denis Pitt did a great job putting this muster together, he has lined up a full twelve month’s worth.

June 26-29 St Helens.

October 2-5 Stanley.

November AGM 27-30 Oatlands.

February 27-30 Arthur River.

So all you Mainlanders who come to Tassie to avoid the heat of home. put theses dates in your Diaries or IPhones.

We will be pleased to look after you in our piece of Paradise.

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Yemmy’s Travel TalesWe’ve all seen and read them, books written by intrepid travellers detail-ing their various caravan trips and adventures. Some are a good read, others not so much!

“Yemmy’s Travel Tales” is anoth-er such book, but has been written from a different perspective, that of the vehicle itself! For those that may not be aware, Yemmy is the con-verted Mercedes Sprinter that for four years accompanied our former Chairman, Lionel Mussell, on trips which covered all of mainland Aus-tralia.

Yemmy takes us on a journey that starts with his initial conversion from an ambulance, to a comfy motorhome for one, and ends with his eventual demise via a laden semi-trailer.

In between those two extremes Yemmy describes his lap of Austra-lia - all accompanied by some lovely pictures - and includes such

(Cont Page 35)

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DRAFT PROGRAMME (Note: Programme is subject to change.)Sun 11th Oct Location7.30am K.I.T. Pancake Breakfast8.00am - 12.00noon Markets at Racetrack Beaudesert Racetrack1.00pm Muster Information Session - all members to attend Hall2.00pm Guest Speaker TBA Hall5.00pm Happy Hour - First Timers have happy hour with Board7.30pm Music and Dance Night Hall

Mon 12th Oct Location7.30am - 8.30am Tai Chi Sports Area9.00am Opening Ceremony Hall

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9.40am Local Raffle Draw Hall10.00am Morning Tea Meet & Greet Hall10.45am Info Session - speakers from local attractions Hall1.00pm - 4.30pm ACC Development Sessions - have a break halfway through - Includes

K.I.T., RV Stay (FarmStay, Budget Camping, Caravan Park Auditing, etc), TAG, Marketing, Branches, Town Support, Insurance & Policy

Hall

5.00pm Happy Hour7.30pm Cards, Board Games, etc Hall

Tue 13th Oct Location7.30am - 8.30am Tai Chi Sports Area8.30am Marshalling for Games Day Hall9.00am - 12.00noon Games Round 1, also Indoor Games Outdoor Games Area + Hall1.30pm - 4.30pm Games - Round 2 to Finals Outdoor Games Area + Hall1.00pm - 5.00pm Golf Afternoon Golf Club5.00pm Happy Hour Golf Club or Grounds6.00pm Dinner at Golf Club Golf Club7.30pm Bush Poets Fun Night Hall

Wed 14th Oct Location7.30am - 8.30am Tai Chi Sports Area9.00am - 12.00pm Workshop: Stitch & Bitch Craft Meeting Room9.00am - 12.00noon Beaudesert Quilters Morning Tea Info Centre9.00am - 12.00noon Hourly Info Sessions TBA Hall12.00noon - 5.00pm Free Afternoon5.00pm - Late Outback Spectacular Trip Bus Tour5.00pm Happy Hour6.30pm For those not going on bus trip, good night to eat out

Thu 15th Oct Location7.30am - 8.30am Tai Chi Sports Area8.30am - 12.00noon Member’s Mini Market Hall2.00pm Charity Afternoon Tea5.00pm Branch Happy Hour7.15pm Trivia Night Hall

Fri 16th Oct Location7.30am - 8.30am Tai Chi Sports Area8.30am - 3.00pm Tagalong Tours, or spend the day exploring - includes a drive yourself trip

to Amberley Air Base Museum.5.00pm Happy Hour - with Ginger Beer Bar Bar Area6.00pm Communal Al Fresco Dinner - BYO or purchase from food stand.

Sat 17th Oct Location9.00am - 10.00am Major Raffle Draw Hall10.00am - 10.30am Morning Tea Break Hall10.30am Auction + Presentation of Prizes Hall1.00pm Branch Meeting, Presidents and Secretaries Meeting Room3.00pm Annual General Meeting3.45pm Closing Ceremony4.30pm Group Photos (ACC and Trade)5.00pm Happy Hour7.30pm Entertainment (Musical Show) BYO Drinks and Supper

Sun 18th Oct Location8.00am BBQ Breakfast

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Election of Directors to the Board of the Australian Caravan Club Limited

(ACN 121 300 856)

2015

The Annual General Meeting will be held at 3pm on Saturday 17 October 2015 at the Beaudesert Showgrounds, Cnr Albert and Tina Streets, Beaudesert, Queensland, 4285. I have been appointed Returning Officer for the election of Directors to the Board of the Australian Caravan Club Ltd. In accordance with the Club’s Constitution there are two Board positions to be elected this year (2015). The current incumbents are: Mr Thomas Smith (Chair) and Mr Craig Humphrey (Position No—DP1). Nominations are invited from eligible members (Financial Ordinary Member or Honorary Life Member) for the above positions. For a nomination to be valid it must be made in writing and signed by at least two financial members entitled to vote at a general meeting, and be accompanied by a written statement from the nominee confirming their acceptance of the nomination. A nomination form is included below. Nominations MUST include:

♦ Name ♦ Postal Address ♦ ACC Membership Number ♦ Signature of the nominee and all nominators ♦ Statement of acceptance by the nominee ♦ A brief (up to 100 words) CV or resume, accompanied by a recent photograph of the nominee, which will be inserted with ballot papers.

Nominations, acceptance and statements must be lodged by mail or hand delivered to the Returning Officer no later than 12 noon on Friday 17 July 2015. Nominations received after this date will not be accepted unless clearly postmarked not less than one day prior to the closing date. Nominations together with acceptance and other information must be sent to:

The Returning Officer 75 Green Street Bathurst NSW 2795

Should a ballot be necessary, a postal ballot shall be conducted. Please contact me by mail to the above address or email bkonemann@tpg.com.au should you have any questions related to the conduct of the election. Barry Konemann Returning Officer Nomination Form As eligible members of the Australian Caravan Club Limited we hereby nominate: _______________________________________ for the position of: ___________________ in the Company.

(Name of Nominee) (Position No) Nominator 1: Member Number: _____________ Nominator 2: Member Number: _______________ Name:__________________________________ Name: __________________________________ Signature: _______________________________ Signature: ________________________________ Statement of Acceptance I, _____________________________________Member Number:_____________being a financial member of the Australian Caravan Club

(Name of Nominee) Limited, accept nomination for the position of ________________________in the Company. Signed : ____________________________________________ Date: _____/ _____ / ___

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A Crafty Idea(David Beard)

WA member, Jan Beard, recent-ly purchased a new embroidery sewing machine, which, of course, needed a dust cover.

The following pictures are the end result of Jan’s workmanship - now that’s a dust cover!

Jan sure has proven her ability with the needle!

Anyone got any similar craft work that they would like to share? Send us a few photos and a brief descrip-tion of your project and we’ll see if we can’t spread it around to other members via the Nomad.

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The Ten Command-ments of Email

(Rev. Peter Stanhope)

1. Sticks and stones may break thy bones, but WORDS stay on thy Facebook forever.

2. When though dost write an email, thou shalt wait at least the time of a cup of tea before though clickest “SEND”

3. Thy dirty laundry belongeth IN the laundry, not on thy Facebook.

4. Thy dirty laundry shalt not be-gat more dirty laundry by sending hundreds of copies of it by thy email messenger.

5. When thou receivest a sniping, gossipy or nasty email, thou shalt click “DELETE”

6. Thou shalt not click on REPLY ALL except for information emails. For verily, I say unto you, that thy hand will go shaky and thy mem-

bership be in doubt.

7. When thou receivest a nasty email, then shalt thou turn the other cheek; or turn the computer off.

8. Thou shalt not put thine own precious feelings above those of thy neighbour, for thy neighbour has precious feelings as well.

9. Honour thy father and thy moth-er, for they never had Facebook or email, and thus did keep a postie in a job.

10. If thy neighbour doth annoy thee, then go up to that neighbour and say, “Why dost thou hurt my precious feelings?” for verily I say unto you, that this neighbour will explain that he didn’t actually say that, and that another gentile with wickedness in his heart, did say this. And thou shalt shake the neigh-bour’s hand, and say “Sorry”. And this neighbour wilt forgive thee - Maybe.

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PhotographyCompetition

Fancy yourself as a bit of a “dab” hand with the camera? Why not en-ter the ACC Photography Competi-tion and show off your masterpieces to an appreciative audience!

To enter the competition you need to belong to the “Monthly Photo Competition” group, on the ACC Website. To join the group go to the “Campfire” / “Groups”/”All Groups” and select the “Monthly Photo Competition” group, and se-lect “Join Group”. You only have to do this once.

To post an image, go to the “Month-ly Photo Competition” group, select the current Competition Album (e.g. January Competition) and sim-ply upload your image.

All members have the chance to vote for the picture they think is the best, by clicking on the “like” or “don’t like” buttons that appear on each picture. At the end of the month the winner is the picture with the most “likes”.

As well as the monthly competition, there is also a quarterly competition.

The monthly winner gets to nom-inate the picture subject for the month after next (e.g. January’s winner nominates the subject for the March competition, and so on). Each month’s winner then goes into the quarterly competition, with the overall winner receiving a BEST wa-ter Filter—kindly donated by Colin Hopgood. Monthly winning entries will also be published in the Nomad.

Don’t be mistaken—this is no easy contest—just check out the

entries received so far, the quality of some would rival the works of many professional photographers!There are some really talented peo-ple out there in ACC-land.

Pictured is Rob Tudor’s winning en-try for March / April as nominated by you. (You did vote, didn’t you?)

So go to it! Get clicking away and show us what you, and your trusty camera are capable of. Might even be a good idea to dig out the hand-book that came with your camera to ensure that you are getting the best from the little beast.

When I worked for a living we had an acronym “RTFM” (Read the flaming’ manual!) You never know, you might learn a thing or two!

(Tip: You can vote for your own photo’s—how cool is that!)

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Rob Tudor really nailed it with this view from the Bogong/High Plains Road in the Victorian Alps.

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Sydney City SlickersHigh Country

Tagalong(Noel Bradford)

Yet again, the ACC Slickers have ventured out on what was sup-posedly going to be an easy going and relaxing caravan outing over a couple of weeks. Yet again, the en-joyment, camaraderie, excitement, wonderment and relaxation were all coupled together into a superb tagalong that provided some new experiences for all, coupled with some magnificent scenery. I refer of course to the High Country Tag-along that was conducted in the middle part of February 2015.

With nine caravans in attendance, the adventure offered something for everyone. Wrapped up in the outing were a couple of free camps (donation only), fishing, golf, relax-ation, wine tasting, star gazing and even some genuine 4WD that was set to test the young and the young at heart. The mountain scenery was simply magnificent (no other word does justice to describing some of the areas that we visited) and in-cluded some wonderful tracks to drive slowly along and gaze in won-derment at the magic of nature.

Neil and Chris did a wonderful job with their organising skills on this

one and are to be congratulated for their efforts. This event was planned and conducted so efficiently from start to finish that the end arrived before people realised that it had happened. Testament to that success is the fact that folks were NOT in a hurry to pack up and head home on Sunday (final morning): choosing instead to delay as much as possi-ble, settle back and enjoy a coffee or three after the communal breakfast, and continuing on with the overall strong community spirit.

But then I digress! The overall ad-venture included visiting: Jugiong (a very special free camp); Wan-garatta (with visits to some of the local areas such as Beechworth, Glenrowan, Rutherglen, and a visit to the Warby-Ovens National Park); on to Bright (with visits to areas that included Mt. Beauty, the Al-pine National Park to visit some of the venues such as Craig’s Hut, Mt. Hotham and the mighty Blue Rag Trigg Station); a short trip over the mountains to Omeo (to check out the Bogong High Plains, Falls Creek and the opportunity for a “relaxing” game of golf); then an overnight stop at Cann River with a commu-nal dinner at the local pub; and fi-nally to a free camp at Gundaroo Reserve.

Like every travel adventure, each has its moments of reflection and this tagalong was no exception. Everyone likes good fishing stories and this trip was no exception. One member chose to ‘wet the line’ at Jugiong and landed himself four magnificent specimens to reflect on. Whilst the fish in question were

quite large in size and provided a bit of a challenge to land, the proved to be carp and ultimately provided a bit of added fertilizer to the local environs. At a couple of other loca-tions, several tried their hand at the deft sport, catching and releasing several prized specimens.

At Wangaratta, the Caravan Park Managers went out of their way to provide comfort for our little com-munity. Unfortunately the Camp Kitchen faced due west with no pro-tection from the elements. No prob-lem for the management however. Given that the temperatures were invariably in the mid 30’s, they pro-vided misters on the edge of the fa-cility and even put some shade cloth up to ease the bite of the afternoon sun.

At Bright, management again came to the fore with an organised Olive tasting on one happy hour and a wine tasting at the next – with no cost (other than expenditure on the wonderful products) to those in attendance. But it was also in this location that we, as a group, experi-enced some of the real delights that the High Country had to offer.

Our first venture out was up into the Alpine National Park in search of some of those monuments that we had heard so much about (such as Craig’s Hut). Whilst the weather wasn’t exactly ‘playing the game’, we headed up the well-worn tracks and stopped at a small (potential free

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camp) area for smoko, and then it was on to find Craig’s Hut.

Approximately five Kms on and we were stopped by a vehicle proceed-ing back down the hill, informing us that the road was blocked by a fallen tree. Ever the explorers, we decided to proceed despite the warning and a little while later came on a small tree lying over the road. Assuming this to be the tree to which our er-rant traveller referred, we duly re-moved the ‘obstacle’ off the road and proceeded on our journey of explo-ration.

About 5 Kms further on and yet again we were stopped by another small obstacle. This one was a rath-er large tree with a base diameter in excess 1.5 meters, and that would require a significantly large chain saw and associated tooling (includ-ing a good number of workers) to remove the obstacle. Unfortunately we were forced to submit on this oc-casion and subsequently returned to camp at Bright for some soul easing refreshments.

The next day we headed out again and visited the Dargo Pub for lunch. To say the quality and size of the meals on offer were superb is very much an understatement but the group were quick to contribute to the local community by settling in an enjoying a wonderful lunch at this old Pub. But time waits for no one and we headed back to tackle the Blue Rag 4WD track.

This adventure was a real highlight of this trip with several who had never experienced any serious 4WD to date. Regardless, as an organised (well ….. semi organised) group,

the vehicles were appropriately pre-pared and we undertook the drive to the top. This was a wonderful ex-perience that was enjoyed by all.

Some of the more notable experienc-es on the climb included: a certain petite lady screaming her lungs out in fright at the “ridiculous nature of this experience”; the routine ‘death grip’ by the passengers on seats and any other protrusions that might of-fer them support whilst the vehicle was making the climb; the frequent looks of horror and terror as the road disappeared at frequent inter-vals (crest’s of the various climbs); and continuous death threats to the driver if he dared pick up the mike to answer an incoming call on the

radio from the co ordinators during execution of the climb.

To the wonderment and enjoyment of all, the top of the climb was even-tually reached and all parties were delivered safely to the Trigg Station located at the top of the Blue Rag mountain track. One particular pas-senger was so excited and exhilarat-ed by the climb that she bounced straight out of the ‘cruiser’, franti-cally pressing buttons on her mo-bile phone so that she could tell her daughter about the “breath-taking and mind-blowing” climb that she had just experienced and enjoyed. She was obviously thrilled and exu-berant in her praise of the climb and the stunning views as her daughter [apparently] thought she had either had a couple of small drinks or that she had been experimenting with other substances as she sounded so high and excited.

However, like all good experienc-es yet again it was time to move on as there was the awe-inspiring and humbling enjoyment of the return trip back to the bottom. Subsequent to safely reaching the bottom, it was then time to head back to camp to enjoy a couple of ‘light’ refresh-ments during happy hour and then dinner.

On to Omeo and yet again some re-markable vista’s to enjoy! There was

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also the opportunity for four of our deprived adventurers (….. I said de-prived, not depraved) to partake of a game of golf at the Tambo Valley Golf Course whilst the remainder ventured out to explore some of the many delights that the Bogong High Plains and Falls Creek regions had to offer.

Next it was on to Cann River for an overnight stay and a communal dinner at the local Pub. Again our members rallied to provide some financial support to the local com-munity and were rewarded with two prizes from the local raffle.

From there, it was back through Cooma and an overnight stop at the free camp (donation) at the Gund-aroo Reserve. On arrival, we were greeted with a game of cricket in progress and we were able to relax and enjoy some refreshments as we cheered on the contestants. Unfor-tunately, like all good things, it was now time to end this adventure and head for home.

Again, a special thank you to Neil and Chris for the planning and conduct of such a spectacular and enjoyable tagalong! This proved to be an awesome experience for all attendees and was readily com-plimented by the ever burgeoning community spirit that is so evident within our group. Your efforts are

truly appreciated by all those who attended, and I look forward with anticipation to your generous offer to conduct another visit to that re-gion in 2016.

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Limestone CoastersCape Jaffa Muster

(Deb Bott)

Members of the the ACC Limestone Coasters enjoyed a weekend at the tiny cray fishing port of Cape Jaffa in the South East of South Australia.

There were several new people who came, either new members attend-ing their first Muster or to join the group to see whether a club of this sort was to their taste. No one left thinking the ACC Musters are not for them !! We now have 25 Mem-

bers, not bad for a Branch that start-ed with 5 last May.

The weekend had a variety of activ-ities happening with a jigsaw keep-ing a few people puzzled for a day or 2 trying to find that elusive piece that should go somewhere and the thrilling end when there was only one piece missing and finding a piece on the floor only to find it was from another jigsaw. Well done to Clem Thornton for finding the final piece on the floor as he went to walk away from it all.People formed into groups to tackle the quizzes that Marilyn and Linda put together to test knowledge of types of sharks (did you know that there at least 15 different ones out there).

People were able to have their dogs with them which several brought. People enjoyed walking on the beach as well as having a drive down the beach in their vehicles, some in-teresting tales of sandy adventures there with Don and Wal ! We were all glad when they finally arrived back to the park. We were starting to put a search party together.

Saturday night was the Coorong Mullet and Chips night which Ian Kennett cooked to perfection and then there was a great array of sal-ads from Marilyn’s culinary kitch-en. Many thanks to those who helped prepare. Marilyn was un-der the pump to say the least with

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Wes being admitted to hospital for the weekend. Gladly all is well now, but he gave us all some worrying moments. Wes was with us in spir-it! Sweets were provided by other members of the group. The quiz to test the knowledge of South Aus-tralia had many a member in deep thought thinking what the answer was.

With the weather being laid on for the weekend those” young at heart” even took off to have a go at squid-ding down on the Jetty later in the evening, as other campers had re-turned with wonderful catches.

With plenty of laughs and fish swimming around there was not much chance of getting a squid, one even commented she thought she thought learning to play Bridge would be easier than trying to catch a squid. Home to bed was the order of the night.

Other activities people participated in were a visit to Robe to check out the shops, a visit to the local winer-ies for some wine tasting and pur-chases - I can highly recommend the Wangolina Moscato. A coffee and cake at the Cape Jaffa Marina Old Sales office near the boats on the harbour. All in perfect weather.

Sunday saw the Finska competition have everyone having a try to knock the elusive numbers down with one player doing a first with his number doing a complete 360 and landing just a little further away still upright. Another person had to just get a one to win the game and pulled it off beautifully.

The teams for the weekend were the aptly named Pelicans, Crabs, Coorong Mullets and Crays. This created great interest and ‘fierce’ competition, with a draw being the eventual outcome. Well done to the Coorong Mullets and Pelicans on a drawn result.

Thank you to Kristy and the Cape

Jaffa Caravan Park people for a wonderful relaxing weekend.

We can highly recommend this love-ly little Caravan Park for a stay. They have a great camp kitchen which is completely enclosed and there is a lovely outside fire place under cov-er. Good cooking facilities and even cray cooking pots and fish cleaning areas. The jetty is within walking distance from the Caravan Park and there is a great little shop there that will meet your basic needs and has a nice selection of local wines avail-able to purchase. Oh, the TV and radio have difficulty working there but phone reception is available.

Many thanks to our hosts Marilyn and Wes Bates together with Linda and Ian Kennett for all their input to the Muster. A great time had by all!

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BushrangersColac Muster

(Dalton & Pauline)

Checking out Lake Colac from above (via Google Earth) shows a pretty large and shallow inland lake; and keying in Meredith Park put a Google arrow down onto a half-wooded part of the lake which, when zoomed down onto showed the roadway leading in and the number of vehicles and vans already ensconced around the shoreline.

The wooded area showed road/track and wheel marks running through-out and so, seeing as the tempera-ture had been up to forty degrees we naturally decided to make for that area when we got there in a few days time. Unlike the Victorian members

of the Branch, we had many hun-dreds of kilometres to travel (from near Merimbula) and we knew that we couldn’t just hitch-up and drive for a few hours to get there, so we planned to make a couple of over-night stops along the way.

First night’s stop would be one of the freecamps on the banks of the Snowy River, near Orbost – a small lay-by that we have used a couple of times before . . . and Orbost has a good bakery and an IGA where we could stock-up on the fruit and veg’ that we couldn’t bring across the border with us. So, as we didn’t hit the frog until nearly lunchtime on the 9th we were quite content to set-tle into rolling along at 90kph until we took a rest stop for a late home-packed lunch at the toileted and ta-bled RRA near Timbillica.

Quite a long stage for a small dog to endure, and much sniffing and pid-dling ensued when we lifted him out of the Cruiser.

Plenty of time to shop at Orbost and to refill with petrol and for a pastry and coffee at the bakery – and to visit the always-clean public convenienc-es (knowing that there’s none at the RRAs along The Snowy where we’d be spending the night.) We’d had a good tailwind along the road and by the time we arrived at the RRA it was really blowing hard enough to prevent us from stopping under any of the big trees. There was already another van that’d been there for a couple of days, and later on, two whizzbangs full of UK cheap-holi-dayers arrived for the night, too.

We had an early night and were rocked to sleep by the wind that

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persisted until late. Next morning we were up early and into the Info Stop’s restrooms before hitting The Princes Hwy again and looking for-ward to breakfast at Lakes Entrance. Bacon and egg rolls and coffee for us and a couple of chicken wings for Zac as we sat outside and enjoyed the view of the wharf, etc.

After LE it was the standard A-to-B mind-numbing leg through Bairns-dale, Sale, Stratford, Moe, Paken-ham, where we soon joined the M1 traffic to follow the signs towards the guts of Melbourne and onwards towards Geelong. We’d made such good time by Werribee that we de-cided we could reach Colac well be-fore dark and therefore save another night’s paid accommodation; and that, we did.

We arrived at Meredith Park to find over a dozen other vans, whizzbangs, traytop+vans, buses, cheapers and others all parked along what must have once been the lakeside’s lu-

nette dune. On talking to earlier arrivals we found that the wooded area was out of bounds, the toi-let’s holding tank was overflowing (for days), the tap produced t o w n - w a t e r , it was bloody windy . . . still; and apart from our expected 20+ vans, there was another group of 16+ said to be arriving for the weekend, too.

Other vans were parked at all an-gles to the oldest dune marking and so we de-cided to paral-lel park close enough to one of

the two lunch shelters to allow our group to swing an awning from us to the shelter’s roof, if needed, to provide cover and a windbreak.

That also meant we could have our van’s awning facing out over the lake – and the other vanners all shook their heads and muttered about cat-astrophic winds and doom. (So we double-pegged the awning and put a ratchet strap over it, lengthwise.) Cyclonic winds failed to eventuate that night and we slept easy after ringing and informing the other BushRangers of what we’d found.

Next morning, after a nice break-fast, sitting under the awning and

watching the raft of pelicans trying for food in the centimetres-deep water it wasn’t long before other BushRangers started to roll in. We all found spots to our liking BAN-JO!! and it wasn’t long before old friendships were re-made and trav-elling cellars were compared. The weather wasn’t cold enough, and the fire warnings were dire enough for us to forego open fires, so walking dogs, or sitting, yarning BANJO!! were the exercise programs – oh, and having a convivial glass or sev-eral, too.

We held the required number of meetings and planned the forth-coming menus for the weekend and BANJO!! the first Happy Hour sort-ed-out the niceties of that process for the next couple of days – ditto for meals. Threats of cooking over chooffers were made but only Rob’s smelly HeatBeads fire bucket got employed (as far as I know.)

The rest of us burned, heated, or otherwise prepared our dinner over either gas BBQs (even the dooms-day portable ones) or fired up gen-erators to kick microwaves into ac-tion.

Knots of people gathered after-wards for talks BANJO!! tales, jokes, and the usual bullsh. The pristine snowy-white and virginal marquee was erected (with its cathedral win-dows) and His Eminence, Bishop Farrington, and Mother Superior Tudy Judor swung into sermons and hymns, etc.

What can I say about the rest of the days? Fun, fun, BANJO!! shopping in Colac, fun, good company, good wine, good food, a stunning sunset, hilarity, trips to the ALDI store and to the Sunday Colac market, the best commercially-produced om-elette (from Farmer and Sons) un-beaten in my memory, and more of the same, repeated until BANJO!! it was Monday Morning and time for many of us to leave.

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Fond memories of: Ela challenging Wayne to a bionic-versus-battery powered race; Ela taking/being tak-en for a roll by BANJO!!; a fatal mis-take by a steely-grey brown snake that only wanted a shortcut through the camp; a lone pelican rolling a large rock out into the lake for a bet-ter place to perch; me wading 100M out into the lake before the water got deeper than the top of my foot; five little dogs swarming around, under, and through the vans at high speed until they crashed, exhausted; watching President Farrington don the specially-bought Presidential Pants – and then watching him take a tumble over nothing at all and requiring medical assistance from Cath and several other ladies (Boy! Didn’t he milk that one to the end?) Several Young-Farringtonians com-ing out to check on whether Rob really did go caravanning – and staying in swags for a night of pour-ing rain! Meetings, BANJO!! swel-tering under a sunny sky – except for those who took advantage of the shade from two large elm trees; a mohawked and budgie-smug-glered ex-German pastrycook who desperately wanted to belong to us; and all the while dodging the runoff from the overflowing khazi-block; all of us congregating under my awning to Oooh and Aaah at the magnificent sunset vista I organised for them – and either photograph-ing or imbibing until well past dark (at least the karaoke was better [and further away] on Night-2.)

Threats of holding more of the same were made and we dispersed to places different on the Monday morning.

Did I mention that Ray and Cath were minding BANJO!! He’s a love-ly dog!

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What Makes a Nomad Friendly

Caravan Park? - It’s Owners!

(Ralph Jordan)

The Trangie Caravan Park is quiet, green, peaceful, inexpensive, and has all the Nomad style require-ments, including really easy parking on whopping big sites. New own-ers, nearly an all new park since re-furbishment. So who runs a nomad friendly caravan park at Trangie? And why?

Andrew and Deb Cayzer lived in Bannockburn, in Victoria near Geelong. In November 2013, with the kids off their hands, they sold their house in Bannockburn and both took early retirement for a life on the road in their caravan. They joined the ACC and the next phase of their life was to be touring no-mads for a while, always intending to do something meaningful in a few years time.

First they went to Tasmania for four months, then back to Geelong to see

their daughters. Then in May 2014 the real ‘round the block’ trip com-menced, slow and easy. Christmas with their son in WA was planned, after a leisurely exploration of Queensland. Not yet ready for full retirement, they started thinking about operating a caravan park, and Andrew took out a subscription to a business for sale site, so investi-gations of available caravan parks began.

Then Deb had a fall and broke her ankle. Andrew denies all respon-sibility, but Deb is adamant that she was pushed! A very slow trip from Queensland towards WA be-gan, as Deb couldn’t handle long days in the car, when an interesting email came through about a closed down caravan park, with its licence cancelled, for sale in Trangie. The park seemed like a possibility, and a good price, but they didn’t know anything about Trangie, so they jumped onto the internet, located Trangie, and decided to detour via

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Warren to have a look at the closed down Trangie Caravan Park.

They found a bedraggled and aban-doned establishment, a real mess everywhere, with run down and vandalised old cabins. The ameni-ties block was a shambles, there was no real camp kitchen, there were is-sues with the power and water pro-visions, and the caravan sites were a jumble. About all that was in good order was the nicely sealed and ker-bed road and some nice trees. The rest was mostly about 20 truckloads of rubbish for removal. In what must have been a mighty leap of faith, they haggled over price and bought the caravan park!

It was mid November 2014. Hadn’t made it to WA for Christmas, yet, Deb was hobbling, and Andrew and Deb were living in their caravan in the abandoned park, overseeing rebuilding of the amenities block, re-designing and locating all the caravan sites, installation of new

water lines and all new power heads for every site on the park. The park was reopened for business in mid February 2015. No camp kitchen! What could they do? Build a new one of course. Done. The place looked really bare. Ship in truck-loads of grass, and water everything. Build new planter boxes, plant trees and shrubs. Done. No cabins! Four new cabins were ordered and will be operative by April 20th.

Prior to Andrew and Deb taking over and rejuvenating the park, it had little to commend it to travel-lers, so no positive word of mouth publicity existed, and the buildup of clients was slow. There are 27

powered and watered caravan sites now, and April saw six caravans in the park for the first time in many years. One overnighter decided to stay for over a week, followed by another booking in for three weeks. More cabins will be available short-ly. Trangie Caravan Park is back, and running!

Being very Community mind-ed folk, the Cayzers have joined a number of local organisations, and have settled in to become part of the Trangie community. Townspeople have commended them for their ef-forts and vision in creating a much better caravan park than it ever was in the past. The energy which these two have put into rejuvenating and running the park has intrigued the townsfolk, who often seem to be looking at the park rather than the road as they drive past.

So, what does Trangie Caravan Park have to offer? For a start, every visi-tor gets a friendly greeting.

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If free, either Deb or Andrew comes out of the office to say G’day before you get to enter Reception – such a nice change to someone squatting behind a counter and grumping at you. Andrew claims it is not just to try and stop you get-ting away before booking in.

All sites are drivethrough. How good is that? And level, and now nicely grassed and mown. You don’t even have to unhook if you are just overnighting and want to get away early. Most sites already have good shade trees for the warmer months. Every site can accommodate a big rig, and in fact it looks like most sites could easily fit a couple of vans with their awnings out, if they are good friends. Don’t like the sun on your van door side? Drive in from the other side. So easy!

TV reception is good if you have a decent aerial, mobile phone and internet is excellent, and in fact res-idents are offered free wifi connec-tion. Talking about free, Thursday nights are special, because that is when Deb serves up the best home-made pizzas identified in Australia, FREE. Boy, they are really good. This is a great stopover for travel-lers, and there are no permanent residents. Pet friendly, with the usu-al provisions (dogs under control, pick up after them, no pets near food areas, etc.) expected at any pet friendly park. The owners observe their own provisions too, which is top stuff. Their little Zoe is only a small dog, which loves to sit with campers between meal times.

Happy Hour is dear to the hearts of most caravanners. At Trangie Car-

avan Park you are invited by Deb or Andrew, every afternoon, to join the group over in the Camp Kitchen, or around the fire in the cooler times. Sure, you are expected to BYO, but you might find some extras there as well.

The washing machines and dryer are the expected pay for use units, but new and a good size. One little bonus not usually seen elsewhere. Baskets and pegs are provided for your use, free of charge, as are iron-ing board and iron.

The amenities block is spotless and there is plenty of hot water. Adjust-able height shower heads are great whether you are tall or short. The new Camp Kitchen has a BBQ, piz-za oven and sink, with a fridge and microwave coming soon. The park is quiet and there seems to be no negatives, except that there are no on park distractions for kids. Not as bad as it might seem, for families, because within fifty metres or so is

the Council swimming pool, open from 12 til 7 each day in season. Tennis courts, sports fields, and a bicycle and/or skateboard area are all next door to the park.

What is there to do around Trang-ie? Well, Trangie is a great place for bird watchers. Andrew can arrange for dedicated twitchers to spend a day at a premiere area only three km form the park, and the Goan Waterhole is only a short walk from the park. It was an old aboriginal watering hole, and is frequented by

many birds. The Goan Waterhole has a BBQ and toilets, and an infor-mation board on the history of the area.

The Gin Gin weir (that is a hard G, like in Gun, not Jin Jin) is about 17 km from the park on a good sealed road, where you can fish, or swim, and the fishing is reported to be good. The weir is on the Macquarie River and was used for irrigation up till the early 1900s. Trangie was part of the Cobb and Co route and some of the old staging post can still be seen. Information on the Cobb and Co routes is available. If you are a fire truck buff there is a small mu-seum in town housing the old town fire truck, a 1918 Garford fire en-gine.

If you are interested in how cotton is grown then a visit to a local cot-ton farm can be arranged. Two gins (back to the ‘soft’ G) operate during the cotton picking season, and the local gin is open for tours late April

to mid June. If golf is your game then the 18 hole course will test your skill. It is a sand scrape ‘green’ course and currently only $2 for 18 holes. Women’s comp is on Tues-days and men’s on Saturdays, and visitors are made most welcome. Trangie also has a first class bowls club and again visitors can join in weekly comps or fun days. Twilight bowls run in the summer months.

For a day trip you can travel the back road following the Macquarie River to Narromine, or head out

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to the Bogan River in the opposite direction. A lunchtime trip to the Rabbit Trap Hotel at Albert, 40 km from Trangie, will let you try what is claimed to be one of the best burg-ers in NSW. If you like a punt, or just enjoy the horses, Trangie has two race days each year, on the first Monday after Christmas and the 14th March. Each weekend during footy season there is a local game on in town.

Trangie has three hotels, two of which serve meals six days a week. Sunday is their day of rest. The bowls club has a popular Chinese restaurant and takeaway, open 7 days a week. There are two coffee shops, with one being at the local bakery. Word is their cakes are to die for. While that is unlikely to be a worry, Trangie also has a very good hospital.

In case this looks a bit like a paid commercial, the author had paid the park site fees before writing the article. The only discount received

was the 10% off, available to every ACC Member. No peak period rates apply at Trangie Caravan Park, and the standard rate is $25 per night for a powered site. With the 10% dis-count every day for ACC members, it is $22.50 a night. A weekly rate for members is an additional discount of pay for six stay for seven. That is just over $19 a night.

At that rate it is really worth consid-ering spending a week at the Trang-ie Caravan Park, but if you have to move on earlier at least try to make sure you stop over on Thursday night - Deb’s pizzas are the best!

The Trangie Caravan Park is located at 38 Goan St.

To book a stay, contact Andrew and Deb Cayzer 02 6888 7511 or enquiries@trangiecaravanpark.com.au

Their website is: www.trangiecaravanpark.com.au

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Inaugural S.A. State Muster

Lake Albert Caravan Park Meningie SA

(Therese Gregory)

ACC Southern Cross Overland-ers, ACC Sundowners and ACC Limestone Coasters branches, ACC members and visitors attended the event, thirty two RVer’s in all.Wednesday afternoon Dennis and I arrived at the park to take an early rest leading up to the weekend that we were hosting. Thursday morn-ing we located on to our weekend site, set up the annexe with all the comforts for an enjoyable stay and by this time more members were ar-riving.

Friday morning the view of Lake Al-bert from our vans was spectacular.Late morning a willing group of vol-unteers erected two Marquees near the barbeque and camp kitchen area.

As it was an opportunity that the

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three SA branch committee mem-bers were together, a short meeting was held prior to Happy Hour.

The atmosphere of great friend-ship was circulating as time for the start of the official happy hour was to begin. As South Australian State Representative and Branch Support Committee I welcomed all and in-troduced everyone as they were giv-en a Name Tag for the event. Chat-ter, nibbles and drinks continued on till it was time to move to the Meningie Bowling Club for dinner, a lovely two course meal was served.Well done to the volunteers at the Bowling Club.

Early Saturday morning the view of the Lake was very clear, but a real surprise, even to the locals, a fog came over and so the organised Tag a Long start was held off till the fog lifted. A contingent of vehicles left for a drive around Meningie and Narrung.

The Guest speaker for the after-noon, Executive Director of the South Australian Road Transport Association, Steve Shearer present-ed very well received information to all those that attended. At the con-clusion, Chris Acton gave a vote of thanks to Steve for his time and in

terest in our group and it was great to see people took the opportunity to chat with Steve about our roads and incidents. Steve could see RV-er’s and the trucking industry have many common concerns and per-haps the two groups can work more closely in the future. (Report below.)Prior to another Happy Hour, the group photo was taken. Good to see some accomplished photographers amongst us!

Saturday evening was a Barbeque with shared salads and desserts. Then it was time for the Raffle draw being conducted by torch light in the marquees. A Fun Ticket Draw with 24 prizes followed. The Clock and Small Quilt changed hands a couple of times with lots of fun and laughter.

Sunday morning it didn’t take long for the aroma of Bacon, Eggs and Ian’s Tomato special to bring the multitude out from their camp sites.Breakfast was served in good time - Well done to all cooks/helpers. As they say “many hands make light work”!

Finska filled in the rest of the morn-ing and saw many games played with the 3 sets on hand. A great time to mix with much fun and laughter and as players had three non-event

scores a booby prize was there to collect.

Early afternoon a Tour of The Meningie Museum, formally the building of the local Cheese facto-ry was very interesting and brought back many childhood memories. Extra volunteers were present to help start some great old engines and give interesting local history. Certainly a lovely display.

Those who didn’t have to depart for home couldn’t resist a final happy hour and was a great time to rem-inisce the weekend and continued past sunset. Alan Morley, President Southern Cross Overlanders, took the opportunity to express thanks and gratitude to the organising team of the Inaugural SA State Muster. In response I expressed my appre-ciation of those that attended and wished them all a safe journey to their next destination.

Monday morning, before many left, an important Happy Birthday choir sang to Heather Langdon. I am sure Heather thought she had got away without any attention to her Birth-day. Well done Heather!

Report from Chris Acton:

We were fortunate at the inaugural state muster to secure the services of a very good guest speaker.

Steve Shearer is the Executive Di-rector of the South Australian Road Transport Association. He is from Adelaide but spent 15 years in se-nior roles in the Canberra public service.

From there he went to work in the

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retail industry for several years be-fore taking on his present role.

Initially he worked in a public rela-tions role in the trucking industry but he was recognised for his exten-sive knowledge of government and moved into an executive role. Apart from that he has an honours degree in Biology but his true passion after all of his previous experience is the trucking industry.

Because of his extensive career as a public servant he has gained a real understanding of how the beurocra-cy works and now works on several national committees. The truck-ing industry is highly regulated and some 80% of freight is moved around Australia on trucks. As he described the trucking industry he made us very aware of the nature of his industry and the challenges they face.

Trucking in Australia is run from a federal government department lo-cated in Queensland. Information about any trucking incident that occurs in Australia is sent to this department and if necessary inves-tigated.

He emphasised that if anybody wanted to report a trucking incident that all details have to be provided before any investigation can take place.

The regulations on truck drivers is onerous but for all of the right rea-sons. Steve mentioned the way the drivers are required to rest up in truck stops every few hours and if they failed to do so the fines they faced were huge. Consequently that lead to a discussion on caravanners using truck stops where there was limited room available and how this caused angst for the drivers. He asked that we as caravanners be aware of the driver’s needs and responsibilities and where parking space was tight to consider what the truck drivers face. It is a real prob-lem for the driver if he has to move

on because a caravan is in their space.

Police and trucking companies are aware of the “cowboys” and watch for them. South Australia at this time is the only state with legislation in place where a driver detected by police for drug use can be reported immediately to his employer and cautioned or dismissed. It seems in some states privacy legislation means that the police cannot inform an employer for low range drug use.

His association is very keen for car-avanners to work with the trucking industry. He mentioned the “mo-ron” factor that existed for both truck drivers and caravanners and put the figure at about 5% for each group. In the trucking industry the “morons” are watched and coun-selled if they are reported. If several reports are made about a driver’s be-haviour then they are encouraged to leave the industry. That isn’t the case for the 5% of caravanners as our “morons” continue to tootle along oblivious to the potential mayhem they can cause. One other group that Steve touched on were the “mo-rons” within the political and beu-rocratic area. He mentioned that he has some difficulty at times with this particular group.

Truck drivers see caravans as a real challenge. They are nervous about vans and would like more coopera-tion when out on the open highway. They welcome a quick call on the two way radio letting them know

that you are aware of their presence and any action you will take to let them pass safely. If it’s safe to “go around” then let them know or if you happen to be in a passing lane let them know if you are going to ease up and once past you flash your lights to let them know it’s safe to drop back in front of you.

From a time line perspective the trucking industry is pushed to meet unrealistic deadlines on a continu-ous basis. If a company advises that they cannot meet those deadlines most times they are replaced by an-other company who will endeavour to do the job. Sometimes the truck-ing companies who take on meeting these unrealistic deadlines are the ones least equipped to do so. As an association they continually make representation to large organisa-tions exploring ways to keep things realistic for the drivers. This is where “safety cam” comes into play and these are strictly monitored however some companies find ways to go around these points and this is causing a lot of conjecture with-in the various state associations in Australia.

When speaking about safety Steve mentioned the impact of a B Dou-ble or any large rig that has to take evasive action. A slight swerve on the front wheels can mean a very large “fish tailing” affect that in a lot of cases cannot be recovered and result in an accident. He mentioned the impact of tragic accidents on drivers and how a lot of these people just have to get out of the trucking industry as they cannot handle the trauma that goes with a severe im-pact with another vehicle. Anoth-er aspect that affects drivers is that they are presumed guilty in an acci-dent and have to prove their inno-cence. It’s the same for the trucking companies so that means that they do not have the same protection as we as caravanners do where we are presumed to be innocent in a tragic

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situation and the prosecution has to prove negligence etc.

One statistic that was mentioned were the numbers of trucks that came down the Southern Express-way down the N00661 Adelaide hills. It was mentioned that this was one of the most dangerous expressways in Australia as it was all downhill and if a rig got out of control then the only option was the arrester beds lo-cated at strategic spots.

There are 630,000 trucks coming down that expressway each year. Last year there 6 fatal accidents on that descent so from a percentage viewpoint it’s minimal. But one fa-tal accident is one too many so his association is working with the SA government to get an additional arrester bed in place plus there are very heavy speed restrictions on all trucks coming down.

Once Steve finished his presentation it was question time and there was a lot of interaction from the 70 odd people who attended his lecture.

Steve was a very interesting per-son. He delivered his presentation interspersed with some amusing incidents but he delivered a strong message which we all should take heed of.

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Fitting Gas Struts to Your Pop-Top

(Words & Pictures Geoff Robertson)

A few years ago I bought a 1992 model pop-top. I quickly discov-ered that the top was very heavy to lift. This was my first pop-top, and I thought this was normal – man’s work, perhaps? But my wife had no chance, so I did some investigating and figured that the gas struts were dead. Rather than handing it over to a caravan workshop, I took the proj-ect on as a challenge.

The first thing was to take the struts

off. The over-centre braces inside the van held the top aloft while the struts were removed, but a few props would work too. The first problem was getting the little spring circlip out of the socket. As can be seen from the photo,

it needs to be twisted off the shaft and then extracted out of the tiny hole in the socket. Only then will the socket come away from the ball, freeing the strut from the mounting bracket. On my van, the clip faced to the back on two of the struts – too close to get long-nose pliers onto it.

Then I discovered to my horror that some of the sockets were almost rusted to their ball. And the pres-sure had gone completely from all but one strut, and that one was only about 20% effective. No wonder I was busting a gut trying to lift the top!

On close inspection, the shaft of each strut was badly pitted, mean-ing that not only were they letting the gas escape, but were chewing up the seals every time they were oper-ated.

Next, I looked for a pressure rating on the strut. Usually this is a stick-er like the one shown. Mine were so old that the sticker had long gone, so I had to ring the caravan maker and

ask. Because of the age of the van, they weren’t sure, but said all their current vans used 400N (equals 40 kg thrust) and said Breha Industries (03) 9562 6277, would know exactly what I wanted.

Breha posted them to me with an invoice, and they arrived a few days later. Great service. The struts are not cheap, but are high quality and come with the end ball-sockets and the ball-brackets. Unfortunately, my van had different shaped ball brackets so I was forced to keep the old ones in-situ - a bo-nus, because I didn’t have to drill new holes and reseal the brackets.

Next challenge - I found that there was no way by hand that I could compress and hold the struts on the van to fit them. They were only 40 or 50 mm too long, when extended, but were at such an angle, and in such a confined space, that an old guy like me had little hope – especially while wobbling on a ladder.

So I devised a brace to hold the struts in compression while I fitted the ball sockets to the balls. I mea-sured the ball-centres on the van, then few modifications before I had the brace right, and then I discov-ered that the front struts needed to be compressed more than the rear ones, so I had to make the brace ex-tendable. Even so, it still needed a bit of grunting and the occasional

35

expletive to get the sockets to mate with the balls. The ball-socket has a spring inside the socket itself which acts to retain the ball in a loose grip, once the socket is forced onto the ball. I made sure I greased the balls well before fitting the new struts, and will keep an eye on them from here on in.

My extendable brace is made from a strip of aluminium, but I would have preferred steel. Anyway it worked fine. The aluminium strip is 3mm thick, 25mm wide, and just under 800 mm long finished (plus the extended length). The end with the slot for the strut barrel was 26 mm wide, bent in a vice, and the slot was 10 mm wide and 15 mm deep.

The length measurements were for struts on my van, so will vary with other makes. The other end of the brace was bent and then had to be trimmed into a vee shape to fit close to the ball-brackets as mounted on the van. Finally, a dimple to take the round head of the ball-socket was made with a drill.

Don’t drill right through – the sock-et must be able to easily slip off the brace. Too deep, and the ball-socket will jam in the hole you made.

Now, getting the strut to compress is not rocket science. As can be seen,

I hooked the end of a slab of timber under my work-bench, stuck the strut under it, with the ball socket at the shaft end located in the dimple and with the advantage of the lever, pushed it down until the slotted end slid over the end of the barrel at the exact ball-socket to ball-socket length that you need to match the balls on the van bracket mounts.

Make sure you align the openings in the sockets facing outwards – i.e. facing the balls when fitting to the van. This is easily a one-person job. And on the van there is only room for one pair of hands anyway.

After mating each strut in turn to the van, (9) I had to fit the small turning circlip.

One end is relatively easy as you can see the tiny hole into which the clip slides. The other end is a real chal-

lenge as you have to try to locate the clip and the hole without being able to see anything – they are facing away from you, against the van. Eventually the clips were in and turned onto the shaft. All done. I was impressed with the ease my top now pops. Even the wife can do it! I would have liked a bit more pressure – perhaps 450N – but I will have to wait another decade or so before they need replacing.

After getting my new struts in my hands, it took me a full day to make the brace and fit the struts. I don’t know how much I saved, but the satisfaction I gained was well worth the effort. I recommend it to anyone (and I’m no rocket scientist).

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(From page 11)

snippets as the Nulabour Cross-ing, coastal routes in WA and Queensland, favorite campspots, people met, and experiences shared.

As with any publication that in-volves Lionell Mussell, Murphy (Lionel’s constant companion) also gets a few mentions, as do the min-istrations some bush mechanics.

Whether you are a seasoned trav-eller wanting to relive some past experiences, or a “Newbie” looking for some tips on doing the “big one”, there is something in Yemmy’’s trav-el Tales for you.

The best part of Yemmy”s Travel Tales is that it won’t put a huge dent in your wallet!

For $6.00 you can download it from

https://payhip.com/b/Cacn

Or for the princely sum of $7.50 a copy on CD can be obtained from:

lionel@caravanning-oz.com

Whilst Yemmy met an untimely end in 2015, his successor, Yemmy II, is now on the road, and ready to roll!

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Upcoming Branch MustersCheck the Events Calendar and the Branch Forums on the website for more information.

Date Branch State Venue Contact PhoneJune 10th Country Cruisers QLD Woodford Muster Robyn Ward 0417 780 201June 12th Border Hoppers NSW Benalla (Vic) Muster Les. Gaskin 0418 479 855June 12th Wide Bay Burnett QLD Sunshine Coast Muster Di Braddock 0402 977 340June 13th Sunset Coast Travellers WA Dalwalinu Muster Monika Schatz 0418 911 159June 14th Sydney City Slickers NSW Branch Picnic Lor. Theodorus 0417 486 017June 17th Bushtrekkers QLD Austinville Muster Kaye Hawkins 0411 143 648June 18th Moreton Bay Drifters QLD Kenilworth Muster Gordan Wills 0481 041 150June 18th Sunshine Nomads QLD Pomona Muster Den. Mulholland 0412 274 154June 18th Brisbane Roustabouits QLD Crows Nest Muster Brian Gill 0417 710 002June 19th Family Firesiders QLD Kilkivan Muster Peter Snook 0419 688 853June 19th Sundowners SA Kingston on Murray Albert Kramer 0407 609 396June 19th Sthn Cross Overlanders SA Wellington Muster Alan Morley 0497 658 883June 19th Hunter Ramblers NSW Wauchope Muster Di Stubbs 02 4982 3815June 20th Brisbane Roustabouts QLD Bronco’s Lunch Brian Gill 0417 710 002June 24th Chairman’s Muster NT Kununarra Muster Tom Smith EmailJune 26th Tassie Travellers TAS St Helens Muster Rod Barwick 0427 674 780June 27th Limestone Coasters SA Mt Gambier Muster Deb Bott 0408 840 769July 2nd Lakeside Drifters NSW Aberdeen Muster Bill Walker 0412 424 972July 8th Country Cruisers QLD Maleny Muster Robyn Ward 0417 780 201July 17th Western Wallabies WA Gillingarra Muster Kathy Caddie 08 9386 8478July 17th Family Firesiders QLD Gympie Muster Peter Snook 0419 688 853July 18th Sunshine Nomads QLD Tara Muster Den. Mulholland 0412 274 154July 23rd Gold Coast Gadabouts QLD Brooms Head Muster Shirley Carey 0408 451 206July 24th Murray River Ramblers NSW Yarrawonga Muster Gloria Griffiths 0428 236 158July 24th Border Hoppers NSW Yarrawonga Muster Les. Gaskin 0418 479 855July 24th Swan River Rovers WA Arrowsmith Muster Maxine Gill 0419 928 827July 27th Cooloola Coasters QLD Lightning Ridge Tag Joan Smith 0438 387 948July 28th Brisbane Roustabouts QLD Tara Music Fest Tag Brian Gill 0417 710 002July 28th Sunshine Nomads QLD Tara Muster Den. Mulholland 0412 274 154July 31st Sunset Coast Travellers WA Bruce Rock Muster Monika Schatz 0418 911 159July 31st Sthn Cross Overlanders SA Port Wakefield Muster Alan Morley 0497 658 883Aug 3rd Sydney City Slickers NSW Nambucca Hds Muster Lor. Theodorus 0417 486 017Aug 6th Moreton Bay Drifters QLD Kilkivan Muster Gordan Wills 0481 041 150Aug 7th Hunter Ramblers NSW Broke Muster Di Stubbs 02 4982 3815Aug 7th Sundowners SA Kapunda Muster Albert Kramer 0407 609 396Aug 7th Lakeside Drifters NSW Muswellbrook Muster Bill Walker 0412 424 972Aug 8th Capricornia Tourers QLD Boynedale Muster Mary Benney 0409 475 030Aug 10th Lakeside Drifters NSW Lake Liddell Muster Bill Walker 0412 424 972Aug 12th Country Cruisers QLD Rathdowne Muster Robyn Ward 0417 780 201Aug 14th Gippsland Gypsies VIC Swan Hill Muster Joan Brumby 0409 419 539Aug 14th Family Firesiders QLD Imbil Muster Peter Snook 0419 688 853Aug 14th Brisbane Roustabouts QLD Jacobs Well Muster Brian Gill 0417 710 002Aug 17th Golden Westerners NSW Wooli Muster Gra. Humphreys 0409 126 308

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Branch Name & State Contact Phone EmailBayside Wanderers VIC Ray Flynn 0419 590 884 baysidewanderers@australiancaravanclub.com.auBorder Hoppers NSW/VIC Leslie Gaskin 0418 479 855 borderhoppers@australiancaravanclub.com.auBrisbane Roustabouts QLD Brian Gill 0417 710 002 brisbaneroustabouts@australiancaravanclub.com.auBush Rangers VIC Judy Tudor 0422 007 809 bushrangers@australiancaravanclub.com.auBushtrekkers QLD Kaye Hawkins 0411 143 648 bushtrekkers@australiancaravanclub.com.auCapricornia Tourers QLD Mary Benney 0409 475 030 capricorniatourers@australiancaravanclub.com.auCooloola Coasters QLD Joan Smith 0438 387 948 cooloolacoasters@australiancaravanclub.com.auCountry Cruisers QLD Robyn Ward 0417 780 201 countrycruisers@australiancaravanclub.com.auFamily Firesiders QLD Peter Snook 0419 688 853 familyfiresiders@australiancaravanclub.com.auGippsland Gypsies VIC Joan Brumby 0409 419 539 gippslandgypsies@australiancaravanclub.com.auGold Coast Gadabouts QLD Shirley Carey 0408 451 206 goldcoastgadabouts@australiancaravanclub.com.auGolden Westerners NSW Graham Humphreys 0409 126 308 goldenwesterners@australiancaravanclub.com.auHunter Ramblers NSW Di Stubbs 02 4982 3815 hunterramblers@australiancaravanclub.com.auLakeside Drifters NSW Bill Walker 0412 424 972 lakesidedrifters@australiancaravanclub.com.auLimestone Coasters SA Deb Bott 0408 840 769 limestonecoasters@australiancaravanclub.com.auMoreton Bay Drifters QLD Gordan Wills 0481 041 150 moretonbaydrifters@australiancaravanclub.com.auMurray River Ramblers NSW Gloria Griffiths 0428 236 158 murrayriverramblers@australiancaravanclub.com.auNorthern Bushwhackers NSW Sue Fletcher 02 6733 2003 northernbushwhackers@australiancaravanclub.com.auRiver Runners NSW Brian Lancey 0401 233 363 riverrunners@australiancaravanclub.com.auSoutherly Busters NSW Aleks Lichacz 0402 054 587 southerlybusters@australiancaravanclub.com.auSouthern Cross Overlanders SA Alan Morley 0497 658 883 southerncrossoverlanders@australiancaravanclub.com.auSouthern Highlanders NSW Ellen Wightman 0447 001 370 southernhighlanders@australiancaravanclub.com.auSouthern Nomads VIC Des Graham 0417 017 259 southernnomads@australiancaravanclub.com.auSundowners SA Albert Kramer 0407 609 396 sundowners@australiancaravanclub.com.auSunset Coast Travellers WA Monika Schatz 0418 911 159 sunsetcoasttravellers@australiancaravanclub.com.auSunshine Nomads QLD Den. Mulholland 0412 274 154 sunshinenomads@australiancaravanclub.com.auSwan River Rovers WA Maxine Gill 0419 928 827 swanriverrovers@australiancaravanclub.com.auSydney City Slickers NSW Lorraine Theodorus 0417 486 017 sydneycityslickers@australiancaravanclub.com.auSydney Explorers NSW Linda Amour 02 9624 6036 sydneyexplorers@australiancaravanclub.com.auTassie Travellers TAS Rod Barwick 0427 674 780 tassietravellers@australiancaravanclub.com.auWestern Wallabies WA Kathy Caddie 08 9386 8478 westernwallabies@australiancaravanclub.com.auWide Bay Burnett Nomads QLD Di Braddock 0402 977 340 widebayburnettnomads@australiancaravanclub.com.au

ACC Branch Contacts

Just Not Fair!Apparently pensioners in Germany are up in arms over the recent economic downturn.

It seems that they no lon-ger can afford holidays in luxury hotels, and are now forced to go camping!

Thanks to Chris Vernon, via Monika Schatz, for this informative piece of photo journalism.

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