Caravanning News

In another of his rash, impulsive and exciting, spur-of-the-moment decisions, our chairman made a last minute application to join the ACC Sunshine Nomads Tag-along Tour of outback Queensland which finishes at the Annual Muster at Casino.

Not content with travelling from Mornington, Victoria to Katherine in the Northern Territory via the Flinders Ranges, Oodnadatta Track and Alice Springs and then to Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria before heading across the North on the Savannah Way to reach the East Coast at Innisfail, he now intends to add another 800km to his trip to arrive in Roma in time to join about 20 other ACC members on what promises to be a fantastic trip.

Lionel is no stranger to Western Queensland as he, and wife Vi, were school photographers at one stage of their chequered careers, and many children, now grown to adulthood with families of their own, would have had their pictures taken by them in schools in places like Longreach, Tambo, Barcaldine and Blackall.

In many ways it will be a journey of remembrance – like the afternoon in Charleville when, after taking all the class photos, Lionel discovered there was no film in the camera and had to do them all again before they moved on to Augathella that same day. Yes - Murphy had already showed his hand back then.

“The itinerary looks fantastic.” says Lionel. “How could I resist the chance to travel to those wonderful outback towns again – this time with fellow ACC club members?”

I’m sure he won’t regret his decision and will have much to recount when they all arrive at the Muster.

The secretary of our ACC Family Firesiders Branch had a rather sobering experience last week.  His story and a very good link he provided follows.

"I blew a tyre on my van while coming back from the Snow last week, and apart from the surprise/shock I got when it happened, the van did sway a little on the uncontrollable side.  $900 damage to the van mudguard and 3 new tyres were bought.

By the code on my tyres, they were 10 years old before one blew and peeled itself off the rim at 80km per hour and in the time it took to pull over asap.

This is an 8-10 minute video so it may chop your usage about.  It is important you see it - you have a caravan!    It is quite an interesting article on the life expectancy of tyres and the need for replacement every 5 years or so regardless of how much tread you have."

 There is an ad to start but its definitely worth sitting through to see the video.

An update on our Club's Progress.

The Australian Caravan Club was launched in September 2006, when some forward thinking caravanners perceived a real need for a truly representative national organisation to meet the wide variety of interests and needs of caravanners and camper-trailer owners. Our objectives are clearly set out in our Constitution.

Existing caravan clubs and Associations do an excellent job running social and rallying activities for caravanners, but do not appear to be a single body able, or wishing, to speak up on National issues. We see ourselves, in part, as a lobby group - not as an organisation set up to attack the RV industry – but rather to work with existing organisations for the benefit of all caravanners and camper-trailer owners.

The Australian Caravan Club was set up using the model of the UK's ‘The Caravan Club’ - an organisation with huge benefits for members with a current membership of more than 300,000.

Dynamic Committees

We have appointed three dynamic committees to look after Independent Camping, Marketing and our annual National Muster and AGM. These committees are doing sterling work – the Independent Camping Committee is responsible for liaison and lobbying of Government bodies and other authorities to see that facilities for caravanners are not only maintained but improved.

Our Marketing Committee has successfully organised our participation in two major caravan shows – in Sydney and Brisbane - and has developed a healthy relationship with trade advertisers and sponsors to enhance our activities and provide more benefits for members.

ACC members receive a quarterly full colour magazine, The Nomad, with items of news, travel stories and technical information and we have our own dynamic website with an active members forum.

Local Branches

It was never intended that the ACC would be in competition with existing caravan and camper-trailer clubs - we believe there is room for both types of organisations and many caravanners hold dual memberships including our Chairman and another Director.

Nine local branches have been formed with Western Australia and Tasmania the only States still to establish branches. Our branches organise social weekends called ‘Musters’ and similar activities including our first ‘tag-along’ tour.

Strong Lobby Group

An informal alliance has recently been entered into with the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia (CMCA), the National Association of Caravan Clubs (NACC) and the Australasian Touring Caravan, Motorhome and Camping Club (ATCMCC) to form an organisation which will be known as ARVO (Australian Recreational Vehicle Owners Inc.) to provide a strong lobby group on issues affecting all RVers.

Registered Company

Unlike other clubs that are State-based incorporated bodies, the ACC is an Australian Registered Company that reflects our truly National identity.  Our club, which is owned by the members, is managed by a Board of six Directors elected by our club members at our Annual Meeting.  All directors are dedicated volunteers who receive no remuneration for their work.

Although our registered office is in Queensland, our club is a National body with members from every State plus the ACT and the Northern Territory.

Lionel Mussell
Chairman

As always, we are trying to improve our website access and provide more benefits and easy to find listings for members.

Today we have launched a new feature entitled “Traders Mart” where advertisers have the opportunity to list their products in easy to find section of our website.

With the launch, all the advertisements that are listed initially are those companies who have provided significant material sponsorship for the ACC National Muster 2008.

Your support of these traders will help to ensure that they continue to support the Club.