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Club Mission and Objectives
The club was formed in 1994 when a group of enthusiasts who liked to collect and restore vintage machinery decided to get together to promote help and fellowship amongst restorers. Our objective is to encourage collectors of vintage machinery Australia wide to come together and demonstrate how their machines helped shape the modern world we live in. We have a new shed at the Macksville Showground which serves as our meeting place and workshop.
Club History
Extracts from the our Founding President and Life Member Mal Cameron’s speech at the Rally Dinner 2004: “Not many rallies were being held 10 years ago. A few local restorers and I attended a couple each year and as the ‘rusty iron’ disease progressed we talked about forming a club in our district. After publicising the idea of starting a club over the ABC radio, a meeting was held on the 15th May 1994 when about 80 interested people met at my home. We discussed forming a restorers club and it was all go from that day on! It has given me a great deal of satisfaction to see the club grow. Some may think that 10 years is not a long time, but we think those past 10 years are worth celebrating! I must say it is a great club to work with. Very few problems occur and if there are any, they are quickly sorted and resolved. No fist fights yet!”
The Club was officially formed on 19 June 1994, in July the club had 35 financial members and another 22 prospective members.
Our newsletter, the ‘Flywheel’, started in July 1994 and has been printed almost every month since. It has grown to an informative 10 pages.
The first meeting incorporating a Play Day was held on the 26th April 1998, this format is still followed and meetings are held on the third Sunday of each month.
Popular with the members, 25-35 usually attend working on club projects and/or helping each other with restoration projects.
In February 1995 plans were in motion to run our own rally. We set-up a display for Cassegrain Winery near Wauchope on 7th May 1995 and this only whetted our appetite but the rally didn’t eventuate until 1996.
At a meeting in January 1996 the name “The Rusty Iron Rally” was chosen and the first rally took place on 23 /24 March 1996 at “Timbertown”, Wauchope with pleasing results. Our second Rally was again held at “Timbertown” on 26 /27 April 1997 and was again a successful event. By this time we had 52 members.
The Rally has been held annually on the first weekend in September ever since being at Wauchope Showground from 1998 to 2001. Wauchope was proving too small in 2002 we moved to the bigger Macksville Showground with its better facilities and this is the Rally’s current home.
Our club ran the first TOMM (The Old Machinery Magazine) Tractor Trek in March 1998 and did it again in May 1999 these attracted in excess of 100 tractors, by this time we had 60 members.
Without loyal exhibitors and stallholders our rally would not be a success. A principal beneficiary is nominated for each Rally and this has resulted in many thousands of dollars being distributed to worthy causes.
The club carries both Public Liability and Transit (i.e. exhibit transport) insurance, both of these provide cover in excess of NHMA requirements. Anyone interested in joining the club or acquiring further information can contact us by email, by our postal address or by telephone.
The Secretary, MNCMRC Inc., PO Box 567, Macksville, NSW, 2447, Australia.
Telephone enquiries: 02 6562 6985 Overseas enquiries: +61 26562 6985
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February 2010
This site is under reconstruction. Please be patient with us as we learn to make this a great place to visit.
Comment by renglish — February 24, 2010 @ 6:55 am