The Australian Road Transport Heritage Centre (ARTHC) located in Gundagai is holding their annual dinner and road run event on 7 and June starting at the Gundagai Showgrounds.
The dinner on Saturday starts at 6:00pm, breakfast on Sunday at 7:00am for a 10:00am departure. They have marked this as the last road run over Sylvia’s Gap due to many factors including access to the land and biosecurity risks.
Saturday dinner must be pre-booked and paid for by 1st June, ARTHC said no late bookings will be taken. Seats are limited for the dinner.
Sunday is a pay on the day event and is also hosted down at the Gundagai Showgrounds. This is their 10th year of hosting the June run, but unfortunately it is also advertised as the last.
This road run is open to all registered vehicles (permit ones too). The convoy travels down Gundagai’s Main street as a display before heading for the highway then down to the gap road. Anyone that has not paid will not be permitted in to Sylvia’s Gap Road as there will be a label that must be displayed for entry.
Once the gap is finished many will take the Adelong to Tumut to Gundagai run to return to the showgrounds. Camping at the Showgrounds is free for non mains powered sites. Mains Powered sites are minimal and have a cost of $15.00 per night / per lead (paid to the Club).
Generators are not recommended, but are allowed within reason. Anyone using a generator must have a dry chemical fire extinguisher in reach for fire safety.
Daryl Weston of the June road run spoke to the Gundagai Times about the event.
“It’s a bit of a nostalgic trip for the old truck drivers and it’s a bit of an eye opener for the new guys to see how the road was so bad and never got bypassed until the early to mid eighties,” he said.
“It’s an experience if you are travelling on the Hume Highway now when you find out what the old Hume Highway looked like. We use it as a major fundraiser for our Museum. Now that we are shed owners we have a lot of costs and we don’t do it by door sales.”
He said that in spite of it, the ARTHC are doing well.
“A lot of the old people have passed on. This year alone we have lost a lot of regular old blokes that just came for the nostalgic weekend.
“We have a dinner on the Saturday night and a breakfast on Sunday morning and they do the run and then those that want to come back and mingle have a lunch with us at the Showground can.
“We’ve done it for many years in the past and due to biosecurity and all those things, we have got a bit of negotiating to do to if we want to run it again. I’m not sure if we will do it again. It may be time to look for something a bit different in the area for them to do. The world has changed since we started.”
Bookings can be online via the ARTHC website, or by calling 02 6067 2106.
-Jack Murray
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