Our Touring Past

I have been contacted by Beth and Jody today in regard to the Museum of the long Weekend event that they are organising for the 18th to the 20th of October 2013 at the Grevillia Park in Canberra.

They have a few spots left, so if you are interested in attending this very unusual event have a look at the website http://www.longweekend.bighart.org/ where you can also register for the event.

A bit more info on the Museum of the Long Weekend from Beth Sometimes.

Hi MOTLW’ers!

I’ve been ringing around everyone who’s coming over the last week – it’s been really great catching up and if you haven’t heard from me yet you will soon. Been fielding questions from some people so here’s an FAQ answer sheet for everyones benefit!

1 There are no charges for staying at Grevillea Park in Canberra.

2 Yes, pets are allowed.

3 You will be able to leave the site anytime over the weekend as you wish however are strongly encouraged to be onsite and ‘open for business’ with your van during the open hours 10-12am and 2-4pm on Saturday and Sunday days. In addition you are encouraged to attend the evening events of 6:30-9pm Friday/Saturday nights. (More info on those forthcoming).

4 Power will be available for those who require it.

5 (Unfortunately) We are not allowed to park vehicles aside from caravans on the grass areas. Parking space has been allocated for hot rods etc very close to the caravan parking area.

6 Only vintage vans (or very near vintage or special in some other way) are allowed to camp at Grevillea Park by stipulation in our agreement with the land management agency.

7 If you have friends with vans who are accompanying you to Canberra they must contact and register with us directly to camp with us at Grevillea Park.

8 We’d love it if you could all to set up a table and chairs in front of your van so that during opening hours there’s somewhere for visitors to sit with you to chat about vans/holidays/ideas!

9 We arrive onsite on Thursday 17th October about midday from Cowra, except a few people who are coming in their own time. We can leave on Sunday evening or monday morning, as suits you.

10 There will be BBQ's and a catering tent set up onsite with plenty of extra tea bags for visitors etc. Bring your own food but feel free to use the communal facilities.

11 The postcards I sent most of you recently are for promotional purposes and to stick on your fridges etc. You can send them to Canberra based friends as invitations.

Expect more updates soon! There's a new blog post with more info on the website too: http://www.longweekend.bighart.org/latest-updates

This is big! And amazing! Looking forward to meeting you all. Beth and Jody.

Well Linda Joshua and I have just returned from a GREAT LONG WEEKEND at the Museum of the Long Weekend at Canberra.
I was held up with work and couldnt meet the rest of the convoy at Cowra on Thursday so we set off on Friday morning having to take the long way around to dodge the bush fires. ( To anyone in the bush fire affected areas our thoughts are with you. ) I suppose it turned out for the best not being in Canberra Thursday night as we were told it blew a gale and a very cold wind was coming off the lake.

Anyway Friday morning was beautiful, as was the rest of the weekend.

Here we are at a rest stop to let Josh stretch his legs.
Logo on the back of one of the vans.
The 40 odd caravans were set up in four groups that were organised by the girls.
This is a shot of group 4 camp site at dusk on Friday.
This is the magnificent view of Lake Burlie Griffin out the back window of our van.
A shot of PART of the group 1 camp site.
Heaps More photos to follow along with video when I get the chance.

DONT forget to get your order in for the 2014 ourtouringpast.com vintage caravan calendars.

Had a call from Beth today thanking us for attending and to help make such a great weekend. Also forgot to mention that it was discussed that the organisers at Big Hart may be going to organise a reunion sometime down the track in Tasmania. I was asked if we would be interested in attending, and even Linda said "where do we sign up".

Here are a few more photos of the weekend.
One of the very nice Viscounts that we were parked next to.
A 1940's van that was used as a projector screen.
One of the artists had modified this van to a Karaoke van.
A very nice hotrod and aluminium clad teardrop.
One of two Gracemurs that attended the weekend. This one was owned by Beth one of the organisers of the event.
Even More photos to come.

I forgot to mention that not only did we meet some great people with their vintage caravans, but we also met some great Canberraites that came to have a look at the caravans over the weekend.

One couple was Jenny and Trevor that kindly donated a mint condition 1960's Steelcraft pram to the ourtouringpast.com museum, which they even delivered to us.

Another couple, Sandy and Paul that were originally from America, visited on Saturday and came back on Sunday morning to give us this little treasure.
An original Mickey Mouse and his House Trailer jig saw puzzle.

Over the weekend we also were given a couple of leads to vintage caravans, which we ended up leaving at around lunch time on Sunday to go and have a look at. And it looks as though at least one will be coming back to the ourtouringpast.com museum, but more on that later.

What a great jig-saw, and a new van too, must have been a good weekend, look forward to hearing about the new find.

George

Hi Richard,

Lots of great looking vans at the MOTLW.

Thanks for the photos

Regards
Di

Hi there.
Just found a program of the events for the Spin Weekends on Wheels.
At first I thought it was an old magazine till I actually read it.
Also has a page about the Museum of the long weekend.

The latest issue of Australian Classic Cars, didn't check the month, with a red Gemini on the front, has some coverage of the event and several photos of cars and vans, no one I know.

George

Finally got around to finishing off the video from this event. Not bad just 8 months late. Anyway enjoy.