On behalf of the Great Lakes Historic Automobile Club, we trust you all had an enjoyable Christmas, and we wish all of our members and friends a safe and prosperous 2025.

There were prizes galore and delicious food provided by Sporties Tuncurry. Motoring related Christmas bon-bons were supplied by Super Cheap Auto, so everyone took home anything from 10mm spanners to LED torches.

Awards were presented to the owners of vehicles from each decade at our Club Viewing Day, with Hilton & Carol Tripp claiming the award for their 2018 Jaguar XKR, Peter Templeton won Best 1990’s Vehicle with his 1991 Holden Calais, Tommy Ryan won Best 1980’s Vehicle with his 1983 Holden WB, the best 1970’s Vehicle was awarded to Tony Brogan with his 1976 Triumph 2500, Des Moy stole the show in the 1960’s category with his 1966 Ford Galaxie, and last but not least, Mark Codling took out Best 1950’s vehicle with his plucky 1959 Ford Prefect – in spite of the inclement weather on the day, well done everyone!

John Amato once again hands out gifts to all the wonderful ladies in the Club, while sporting a very handsome Santa Clause outfit! Ho ho ho!

Of course there was the venerable Club Member of the Year Award, which was proudly presented to Hilton Tripp for all his hard work in the Club throughout the year in various roles including Events Director and of course our fearless Treasurer!

We can’t forget the Greatest Stuff Up Award, which was presented to Ron Pulling for designing this year’s Club Christmas Party tickets with next year’s date on them!! Nice one Ron!!

Please enjoy the pictures from our Club Christmas Party 🥳😀🎅🎄

The pictures are available on both the Club website gallery, and also our Facebook page.

Club website gallery
Facebook Page

It was a privilege to be invited to the Barrington Coast Airshow, November 2024. What a spectacular showcase of classic Warbirds including the iconic Supermarine Mk VIII Spitfire, Mustang P-51D, Hawker Sea Fury, Grumman Avenger, Vought F4U-1D Corsair, T-28 Trojan, Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk, and CAC Wirraway to name a few. The show’s owner Paul Bennett put on a breathtaking aerobatics display in his 400 horse-power Wolf Pitts Pro stunt plane.

Please enjoy the video

Get ready for the ultimate day out at the Barrington Coast Airshow!

Join us for a spectacular display of aerobatic planes and warbirds soaring through the skies. But that’s not all! Explore market stalls, indulge in delicious street food, enjoy thrilling amusement rides, and check out an incredible car show. 🚗🍔🎡✈️🛩️

📅 Date: 9 November 2024
📍 Location: Taree Airport

Bring your friends and family for an unforgettable day out. See you there!
Early bird tickets end July 31st 🎟️ https://www.barringtoncoastairshow.com.au

• Each driver will receive free entry (passengers will require a ticket)
• Each vehicle will be allocated a specific 3.5×7 meter space on the display ground which will prevent crowding around the cars and provide room for owners to sit with their vehicles and observed the show.
• Vehicles are to be in place by 8.30am and not unnecessarily moved
• Show cars will be checked in at the Lansdowne Rd “bump in gate” – only listed vehicles will have access to the display area. No other air field parking will be available.
• Each vehicle should be “dressed” in presentation mode that should include a car description so the public know what they are looking at.
• Club windscreen banners and flags are encouraged. “Do Not Touch” signs are highly recommended.

It looked like rain on the morning of the Old Bar Beach Festival this year, which seemed to keep people away. A lower number of classic cars on display this year, with Kombi’s accounting for nearly half of the classic cars on display. However, the weather stayed fine all day, the cars present attracted plenty of attention. An increased number of market stalls meant there was plenty for everyone to see and do. It would be nice to see our club represented by more than just three cars next year 😋

Although a vehicle-mounted 16mm motion picture camera was used as early as 1973, the technology was first developed in the late 1970s by the Seven Network in Australia, who introduced it for the 1979 Hardie-Ferodo 1000 endurance race at Mount Panorama in Bathurst, New South Wales with Sydney-based driver Peter Williamson able to give commentary from his Toyota Celica.

The most memorable thing about the 1979 Bathurst 1000 wasn’t Peter Brock’s six-lap victory. What captivated the record TV audience was a little-known driver in a class car.

Brock was the hero of the race, but the star of the show was Sydney car dealer Peter Williamson. His gift of the gab endeared him to viewers as he described the action from inside his screaming two-litre Toyota Celica.

Willo babbling, shouting and cursing from the cockpit in full vision was a revelation and a revolution. It was the debut of RaceCam, the world-first in-car live vision that changed the way we watched racing – and, ultimately, all sports.

Invented by Sydney TV station ATN 7 – the anchor of the national Seven Network – RaceCam revolutionised in-race broadcast coverage and profoundly influenced intimate camera coverage of every other sport.

Think cricket’s Stump Cam – and every other close-in vision and eavesdropping audio live feed. It all started with RaceCam.

In racing, the technology – refined, miniaturised and extended – has become the staple of Supercars, Formula 1, NASCAR, IndyCar and MotoGP. In fact, every kind of motorsport at every level.

RaceCam was the brainchild of then ATN 7 director of engineering, Geoff Healy. Legend has it that he was inspired by his son mounting a video camera on the dashboard on the way to school one morning.

The in-car vision got Healy thinking and he put his chief engineer John Porter onto the job of developing an in-car camera that could feed live pictures and sound via a microwave link from car to helicopter to outside broadcast truck and into the main feed.

Remarkably, it worked. RaceCam debuted at Bathurst in ’79 in Williamson’s Celica, which harried the V8s mercilessly in the run down the hill from Skyline to Forests Elbow.

At Bathurst in ’79, Williamson’s Celica was fitted with a large fixed camera to the left of the driver that looked straight out the windscreen. Willo was miked up with a one-way audio link and his entertaining running commentary was available throughout the race.

Although crude by today’s standard, the vivid – if sometimes static-impaired – pictures and scratchy sound were ground-breaking. Never before had viewers been taken inside a car live during a race. Racing coverage has never been the same since.