The Club has decided to change its postal address to a location which is more accessible to the current Committee. With immediate effect, our new address is:
PO Box 500, Kew, VIC 3101
A redirection order is in place for the next 12 mths to ensure any mail inadvertently sent to our previous PO Box in Braeside, will still get through to the Club. But please start using our new Kew address from now on.
In 2016, the committee (and a quorum of members) made the decision to begin taking a small portion of the funds collected from members’ membership fees to make annual donations to notable charitable causes.
Each year, a charity is suggested and voted upon by members at monthly meetings in the led up to our rally in November. Subsequently, the colours chosen for each year’s rally badge often reflect the colours of the chosen charity.
Details of the charities we have supported are shown below.
If you have any suggestions of a charity you would like to see supported, please contact the Club at [email protected]
| Year | Charity name | Donation amount | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | National Breast Cancer Foundation | $500 |  |
| 2017 | Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia | $500 |  |
| 2018 | Kidney Health Australia | $500 |  |
| 2019 | MS Australia | $500 |  |
| 2020 | Bethanga CFA | $500 |  |
| 2021 | Karungkarni Art and Culture Centre | $500 |  |
| 2022 | Pancare Foundation | $1,000 |  |
| 2023 | Asylum Seeker Resource Centre | $1,000 |  |
| 2024 | Artritis Australia | $500 |  |
Happy New Year everyone! 🥳
We hope you can join us for our first monthly meeting of 2023, which will be on Tuesday, 31 January.
This month, we will be meeting at a different venue: The Palace Hotel, 505-507 City Rd, South Melbourne.
Situated on a corner, there is plenty of off-street parking on the wide footpath and grassed area at the front of the pub, AND for your convenience, there is a 7-Eleven petrol station right across the road, in case your motorcycle also requires sustenance!
The Palace offers a great range of food at reasonable prices, in a relaxed and casual setting. To view the current menu, please click here.
Feel free to meet us there from 6.30-7.00pm for a meal. The meeting proper usually commences at around 7.30pm.
After a three-year absence, it was so great to have a Rally back in Bethanga this year!
Despite poor weather and road conditions, attendance was good. 103 people signed in, which consisted of members of:
SR500 Club, Monarchs MC, VJMC, SCUM Tourers, Lemmings MC, BMW Touring Club NSW, British Two Stroke Club, Bendigo Historic MC, Ulysses Club, Albury Wodonga Motorcycle Enthusiasts Club, Veteran Vintage and Classic MC ACT, Shoalhaven Vintage MC, Townsville Restored MC, Cancer Research Advocate Bikers, and Redgate Classic MC.
Subsequently, there was a great selection of bikes to peruse!
Show ‘n’ Shine
At Saturday’s Show ‘n’ Shine, there were eight award categories. Congratulations to the following winners!
Saturday night raffle
A number of companies kindly donated items for Saturday night’s raffle, resulting in many lucky people winning some great prizes!
A big THANK YOU to the following companies who donated prizes:
Hospitality and entertainment
The Bethanga community provided delicious meals for us over the weekend – a wonderful assortment of curries on Friday night; a succulent selection of roast meats on Saturday night; decadent desserts; huge, cooked breakfasts, and hot and cold beverages.
Brett Gilbee and band, Back Porch Fridaze, provided Saturday night’s musical entertainment, who performed brilliantly despite inclement weather!
Annual General Meeting
At Sunday’s AGM, nominations for the Committee were heard, and the following elections were made:
Congratulations to Jeff, Paul, Craig, and Mike, who retain their positions for another 12 months.
Drew Jackson and Rick Carbis rode all the way from Warwick (QLD) to attend the 2022 Rally in Bethanga.
Here’s Drew’s account of the long ride down and back.
The Year of the Floods 2022
La Niña tried its hardest to stop us getting to Bethanga for the rally this year. With the pandemic intervening in previous years, and advancing age, it was worth the risk to head south and hope for the best. There had been heavy rain and storms in Central Queensland leading up to our departure, so we changed plans and rather than ride all the way from Townsville, we decided to take the bikes in the ute as far as Warwick and then ride the 1,510 km to Bethanga. Rick’s SR500E was a recent rebuild and it had only been on the road for a few weeks, and it was using a lot more fuel than normal, so it wasn’t fully sorted. With just days to go before departure, Rick was still building racks so he could mount his BMW’s Krauser panniers to the bike. While re-jetting his carburettor to fix the economy problem, he created a starting problem. He sorted that out after some advice from a friend. My bike had done the trip twice before, so I used the same old throw-overs and gear. The bikes were loaded into the ute with some modifications so that they’d fit with the tailgate partly closed, and a replica number plate attached. It was fully loaded.
The first overnight stop was in Eidsvold. We stayed at the Star Hotel that is currently undergoing extensive renovations. Our club [Townsville Restored Motorcycle Club] uses the Star regularly. The owner is friendly, and the prices are fair. We arrived in Warwick the following afternoon, unloaded the bikes, and set them up. Rick’s SR was very heavily loaded, and the side stand was struggling to cope. Eventually he shifted the tools to the opposite pannier to prevent it toppling over.
We did a side trip to Brisbane in the ute on Tuesday before arriving back in Warwick on Wednesday and getting on the way, south, at midday. We headed off on the New England Highway and stopped in Stanthorpe to check our fuel economy. Rick’s economy problem seemed to be solved. The hot start button was doing its job, almost. It wasn’t shutting off so the idle was staying high. We turned off the New England at Uralla and headed for Walcha down Thunderbolt’s Way. A very enjoyable ride. We stayed in the Commercial Hotel in Walcha where we were able to keep the bikes in a locked shed for the night.
The following morning, we repaired Rick’s cruise control and headed further south, towards Bathurst. This took us to Gloucester, Dungog and Singleton and then onto Denman, where we stopped for lunch and asked about a shortcut to the Bylong Valley Road and whether the road was open. We were told by a council worker that it was open to light vehicles. This is where we further practised the art of pothole dodging. This used to be a great ride, but the state of the road has deteriorated to the stage where it is only a good ride now. The tight, windy bits are still good. 30 kph posted corners are fun on an SR500. We stopped briefly in Sofala before arriving in Bathurst, and naturally we did a couple of laps of the track before finding our accommodation for the night in an Irish Pub that is under new management. We locked our bikes in the beer garden overnight. The Guinness was great and so was the food.
Friday morning, we headed off on the last leg. We turned off the main western highway and headed towards Crookwell via Trunkey Creek. The first time I rode this way there was still a section of dirt. Now it’s all bitumen with lots of corners and very little traffic. The posted advisory signs range from 15 kph to 55 kph. This road is a great way to travel south. We refuelled in Crookwell and headed for Gunning. We needed to get to Bethanga before dark, so we did the unthinkable and took the Hume Highway to Albury. We stopped in Gundagai for lunch. The Hume was boring, but it saved a bit of time. I told Rick that we’d do the more interesting route on the way home – Jingellic, Tumbarumba, Batlow and Tumut.
We arrived at the sports grounds to be met by Marcos who had kindly packed a couple of chairs for us. My odometer showed 1,510 km.
The rally was great, and it was good to catch up with people after all the lockdowns and restrictions. We’ve all aged that bit more.
On Saturday we rode to Dartmouth dam, and that was spectacular. We had lunch at Eskdale before returning to the rally through some light rain. Saturday night was good, with plenty of red grape juice and Rick taking home the Long Distance Award. I’m glad the trophy was easy to pack, as I don’t think his bike had room for much else.
The rain on Saturday night had managed to soak everything in my tent – sleeping bag, clothes, everything. I woke once the grape juice wore off and shivered and shook until morning.
Getting ready to leave meant putting on the least wet clothing we had and putting on our wet weather gear over the top to stop the wind chill. After breakfast we headed off home. It was raining and it was cold, especially around Batlow. Rick had gone numb. Once we came down off the high country to Gundagai, things improved. We headed to Jugiong for coffee, and then Harden and Bathurst and Rylstone. We stayed at the Globe Hotel in Rylstone. Highly recommended. The following morning it was off to Mudgee, Gunnedah, and eventually to Tamworth. Once we were back on the New England, it was an easy ride back to Warwick. I caught up with family over a Chinese takeaway meal after reloading the bikes into the ute for the trip back to Townsville.
The drive back north was uneventful. We stopped overnight in Dingo at the Motel before heading home via Emerald, Belyando Crossing and Charters Towers. The Holden returned 8.8 L/100 km for the 3000+ km trip, which is pretty good considering the load it was carrying.
Next year, Rick is determined to ride all the way – a 6,300 km round trip, depending on how many windy roads he takes.
Please note that there will be no monthly meeting on Tuesday, 29 November.
And as per normal, nor will there be a meeting on Tuesday, 27 December.
Our next meeting will therefore be in the New Year, on Tuesday, 31 January 2023.
We do plan to have a casual catch-up at a centrally-located Melbourne café before Christmas, sometime in December. Watch the website (and our Facebook) for further details.
A newsletter for November 2022 has been emailed to all members of the Club.
Please find below a link which allows access to the newsletter via this website.
http://sr500club.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SR500-Nov2022.pdf
Also note, if you are coming to the Rally, due to the potentially damp conditions at the Bethanga Rec Reserve, please remember to bring a ‘foot’ for your motorcycle’s side stand!
Kind regards,
Committee
SR500 Club
With recent flooding having affected (and continuing to affect) many parts of the east states of the country, many roads have been damaged (or even closed) as a result.
In particular, we have been notified by Bethanga that the Murray River Road (which runs from Bellbridge to the Granya turn off, and beyond to Walwa) is badly deteriorated in places, and also the Riverina Highway to Albury, near the Lake Hume Resort.
Please take care when riding to and around Bethanga this month for our annual Rally, particularly when riding through low-lying areas, and along roads that run close to or beside rivers, lakes, and other waterways.
Be wary of flood debris that may be present on roads, and also speed restrictions (or even road closures/detours) that may exist on your chosen route to Bethanga.
We recommend that members check the VicTraffic website (or other state equivalent, if applicable) before leaving home, to check for any road warnings, closures, or detours.
https://traffic.vicroads.vic.gov.au
For those riding up from the eastern and south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, please note that MacIntyre Lane, Yering, and Melba Highway from there to Yarra Glen is currently closed. Two other sections of Melba Highway, north of Glenburn, are damaged and speed limits of 40 km/h and 80 km/h exist in those places.
We are very saddened to hear news from Bethanga that hotel publicans Gary Paxton and Kate Middleton have passed away.
In early 2019, Gary became the new owner of the Bethanga Hotel, and quickly endeared himself to the Bethanga community. He was also well known for his geniality with hotel patrons at the many other hotels he managed in Albury-Wodonga and Melbourne during his career. In late 2020, Gary and his partner, Bridget, purchased the Granya Hotel to operate as a hotel and farm stay, and Gary’s sister, Kate, became the new owner of the Bethanga Hotel.
Like her brother, Kate was equally well-liked as the new friendly face of the Bethanga Hotel, running the premises along with her son, Daniel, and daughter, Molly.
On 12 September 2022, Gary sadly passed away suddenly and peacefully at home in Granya.
Tragically, only two weeks later, on 28 September 2022, Kate also passed away suddenly.
The SR500 Club committee wishes to express our sincere condolences to Bridget, Daniel, Molly, and the Paxton and Middleton families at this very sad time.
Please note that the Bethanga Hotel is now closed indefinitely.
VicRoads has updated a number of Club Permit forms to improve the vehicle data collected by VicRoads, and to ensure that the correct permit types and club permit plates are issued to eligible vehicles.
What do we need to do?
Updated forms are now available. Please use these current forms rather than previous versions:
Why have these changes been made?
These forms now have an updated layout and align with the Road Safety (Vehicles) Regulations 2021.
Club Permit application form
Vehicle eligibility and standards declaration form
Club Permit logbook
The Club Permit logbook has been updated to align with regulation changes.
New requirement: Classic and collectible vehicles imported from 1 July 2021 will be issued a VIN that must be stamped on the vehicle
Vehicles imported from 1 July 2021 that do not already have a 17-digit Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) stamped into the vehicle will be issued a VIN, which needs to be stamped on the vehicle.
Club members who are considering importing a vehicle should familiarise themselves with the new requirements as explained below.
Most classic and collectible vehicles are issued a chassis number by the vehicle manufacturer. Under the Commonwealth Road Vehicle Standards Act 2018 and Road Vehicle Standards Rules 2019, these types of vehicles are now imported under the concessional entry pathway and recorded on the Register of Approved Vehicles (RAV).
As these vehicles do not have a 17-character VIN that meets the ISO standards, the Commonwealth Department of Transport Infrastructure Regional Development and Communications (DITRDC) will issue a VIN with the condition that the VIN must be stamped on the vehicle. It is an offence under the Commonwealth legislation if this condition is not complied with. A plate attached to the vehicle displaying the VIN is not acceptable.
The VIN provided by the Commonwealth via the RAV process is the identifier by which the vehicle must be known throughout Australia for registration and club permit purposes and is how the vehicle’s origin will be determined for the purpose of registration/CPS permit eligibility.
Further information
To find out more about the Club Permit Scheme obligations, speak to one of the Club Scrutineers, or search ‘Club Permit Scheme’ at vicroads.vic.gov.au
